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diff --git a/old/69569-0.txt b/old/69569-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index bff1611..0000000 --- a/old/69569-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4285 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The wooing of Leola, 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: The wooing of Leola - -Author: Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller - -Release Date: December 18, 2022 [eBook #69569] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Demian Katz 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 THE WOOING OF LEOLA *** - - - - - - Price, THE LEISURE HOUR LIBRARY. No. 67 -Five Cents. - -F. M. LUPTON, Publisher, 23-37 City Hall Place, New York. - -Copyright, 1905 and 1906, by F. M. Lupton. - -THE WOOING OF LEOLA. - -BY MRS. ALEX. M’VEIGH MILLER. - -[Illustration: “ALL THE WHILE HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS OF LEOLA, LYING THERE -LIKE A DEAD GIRL ON THE GROUND.”] - - - - -THE WOOING OF LEOLA. - -BY MRS. ALEX. M’VEIGH MILLER. - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER I. SOME PRETTY PICTURES. -CHAPTER II. ALL FOR LOVE. -CHAPTER III. ARE YOU AN ANGEL? -CHAPTER IV. BEWARE OF JEALOUSY. -CHAPTER V. A HONEY BEE AND A HONEY FLOWER. -CHAPTER VI. LOVE’S ENTANGLEMENTS. -CHAPTER VII. BOAST NOT THYSELF OF TO-MORROW. -CHAPTER VIII. WINDING A WEB. -CHAPTER IX. WHAT THE ROBINS HEARD. -CHAPTER X. CHESTER OLYPHANT’S CURSE. -CHAPTER XI. A TERRIBLE DEED. -CHAPTER XII. A WAYSIDE FLOWER. -CHAPTER XIII. IN THE SPIDER’S WEB. -CHAPTER XIV. A LITTLE CONSPIRACY. -CHAPTER XV. SURPRISES ALL AROUND. -CHAPTER XVI. WIDOW GRAY AND THE YOUNG CAVE-HUNTERS. -CHAPTER XVII. “TIME DOES NOT STOP FOR TEARS.” -CHAPTER XVIII. “IF HATE COULD KILL.” -CHAPTER XIX. LIKE A STAR IN THE NIGHT OF HER DESPAIR. -CHAPTER XX. “ALL THE WORLD AND WE TWO, AND HEAVEN BE OUR STAY.” - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -SOME PRETTY PICTURES. - - -“Oh, mamma, I have had a lovely time at Mrs. Van Bibber’s! I would not -have missed her reception for the world!” - -The blonde beauty threw herself, with a silken frou-frou of rich -attire, back into a luxurious chair, clasped her white, jeweled hands, -and rolled her large, bluebell eyes heavenward, practising the seraphic -expression she found so effective with the men. - -She repeated, rapturously: - -“I would not have missed it for the world! Everything was on the -grandest scale, and went off beautifully. I felt that it was worth -all our scheming and planning for my lovely gown;” and she smiled, -complacently, at her rich blue silk robe loaded with fine lace -trimmings that set off so well her blue eyes and fluffy flaxen hair. - -“But, mamma,” she continued, “how sober you look. Is your rheumatism -worse, poor dear?” - -The faded, elderly woman, with the careworn face and fretful mouth, -clasped her thin, white hands nervously over her knee and answered, -wearily: - -“My rheumatism is bad enough, but what worries me most is that I made -such a mistake--pawning my diamonds for that splendid gown when you -might have done better remaining at home without it!” - -“Mamma, what can you mean?” and Jessie Stirling frowned, impatiently, -tearing a white rose to pieces with excited fingers. - -“I mean that, after all my sacrifices to get you ready for Mrs. Van -Bibber’s reception, hoping you might meet Chester Olyphant there and -make up your quarrel, he came here to call on you in your absence.” - -“And I missed him like that! Oh, what a shame! But who could have -dreamed he would miss the reception? Still, mamma, you should have kept -him till I returned. Oh, why did you let him get away?” queried the -girl, angrily. - -“How could I help it, my dear? You know very well I would have been -willing to chain him to his chair to keep him here till you came! I -did my best--made talk, and tried to hold him, but after an hour he -pleaded an engagement and hurried away.” - -“But he will come again. Surely he will! Of course you asked--made him -promise?” cried Jessie, wildly. - -“Yes, oh yes, but he did not say he would. He only came, he said, to -return some negatives you loaned him to make pictures from--the ones -you took with your own camera in the mountains last summer.” - -“Oh, yes, I remember--Uncle Hermann’s picturesque old stone mansion, -and some mountains and river views taken from the bridge at Alderson.” - -“Yes, and some pictures, too, of that hoidenish girl, Leola. I wish you -had left those out, Jessie.” - -“Why, really, mamma, I forgot they were in the negative book, for I -didn’t mean to show them to Chester. Not that I could be jealous of a -wild thing like Leola Mead, but because I promised her no one should -see them. There was that one of her wading in the creek, you know, and -another in bloomers sitting astride her white pony Rex, and another in -hunting costume, rifle on her shoulder. Really, she wasn’t pretty in -any of the negatives, except her white evening gown with the lilies on -her shoulder.” - -“Yes, he said that was lovely, and the others, too, and he asked no end -of questions about her, and where she lived. He pretended to be anxious -to see the scenery, but I guess it was Leola more than anything else. -Men are so sly!” - -“And you, mamma, what did you tell him?” Jessie asked, anxiously. - -“Oh, I told him we should be glad to have him visit Wheatlands some -time when we were there with my half brother, but I made up my mind he -should never go there till you were safely his wife.” - -“Good, mamma, though, really, I cannot look upon Leola Mead seriously -as a rival. Why, she is only a simple country girl, with no style or -good clothes at all.” - -“But dangerously pretty, Jessie, don’t forget that!--and as for style, -well, she is graceful and dashing as any girl I ever saw, and there’s -no telling what might happen if they met. Anyhow, he just plied me -with eager questions about the girl, and I could see he was almost -fascinated by her pictures. Of course I did not encourage him any. I -said she was my half brother’s ward, and presumably of low origin, as -he was reticent about her birth, and said she had not a friend in the -world but himself. I enlarged on her rude manners and hoidenish ways, -and said she was not nearly as pretty as the pictures.” - -“When in reality she is ten times prettier,” laughed Jessie. “So -you are right. He must never see Leola Mead until I am his wife. I -shall write him a sweet little note pretending he has lost one of the -negatives, and ask him to call again.” - -“I do not believe he will, for he evaded the question when I urged him -to do so. Indeed, I even hinted how sorry you were over the quarrel, -and he said, quite amiably, that it was all past now and he hoped you -and he might be good friends again.” - -“Friends, bah, he shall be my husband yet! I will win him back again; -his millions shall not slip through my fingers this time, I promise -you, mamma, and woe to any girl that dares try to rival me! But, -really, I am not jealous of anybody, for I think I see his little game. -He wants to make up, or he would not have come. It was easy enough -to return the pictures by mail, now, wasn’t it? But he probably came -because he wanted to see me, and that chat about Leola was only to make -me uneasy and jealous, don’t you see?” - -“I hope so, dear, but really I was quite frightened the way he talked -of the lovely pictures he had made from the negatives.” - -“Lovely nonsense!” Jessie cried, sharply, with an angry gleam of her -blue eyes, and a vicious snap of her white teeth as she added: “I -believe I would try to murder Leola if she came between us, for I -cannot believe his love for me is dead so soon. If it is, I’ll soon -warm over the old coals again. I’ll write him a note right away, saying -how sorry I am that I was out this afternoon, and asking him to come -this evening or to-morrow.” - -“Pray do so,” cried the scheming mother, whose small means were -dwindling away so fast in the effort to keep afloat in fashionable -society till her daughter’s beauty won a rich husband. - -Jessie wrote and dispatched her pleading note before she removed the -dainty hat from her fluffy blonde hair, and when evening came she -was waiting for him, gowned in dainty white, befitting the warm June -weather. - -To her amazement and anger there was no reply, and the next morning -she read, in the society columns of her favorite daily, that Chester -Olyphant had left New York the previous evening on a yachting trip with -several other young men, and would be absent two weeks. - -“Well, thank Heaven, there are only men in the party, so he will not -be exposed to any other girl’s fascinations on the trip, and I’ll be -waiting for him when he comes back,” cried Jessie, swallowing her -chagrin the best she could. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -ALL FOR LOVE. - - -Leola Mead sprang to the back of her mettlesome pony and almost flew -down the mountain road, her great, dark eyes flashing with anger, her -cheeks glowing crimson, her wealth of golden locks streaming like a -ruddy banner on the breeze. Against the tight bodice of her riding -habit her young bosom heaved tumultuously with the angry throbs of -her heart, for Leola had just had a bitter quarrel with her guardian, -and now gave vent to her excitement by giving free rein to Rex in a -breakneck ride. - -It was a lovely June morning in the mountains of West Virginia, all -Nature at her sweetest and fairest, and Leola had been planning such a -happy, happy day; but when she came out from breakfast ready for her -morning canter, there stood her saturnine old guardian asking her to -step into the library for a moment before she rode away. - -Leola obeyed him, pouting, for she hated to lose time indoors this -gladsome, golden day. - -There was no love lost between her and her grim guardian, anyway, for -he was a stern old man, reticent and mysterious, spending most of his -time in a horrid laboratory up in the tower chamber of the rough old -stone house, where the country folk said he was working either to wrest -from Nature the secret of making gold, or the still greater mystery -of distilling a magic elixir of life. About the neighborhood he got -the sobriquet Wizard Hermann, and looked the character with his lean, -stooping form, long black hair floating over his coat collar, strongly -marked features and cunning mouth, while his keen, gray eyes, under -bushy brows, seemed to pierce one through with their questioning gaze. - -His ancestors had been pioneer Indian fighters, and the large house -built of rough stone, just as taken from the quarry, dated back to the -time when the red man roamed the almost unbroken forest. - -In all the years while Leola had lived here with her governess in the -lonely old house, she could not remember a caress from the mysterious, -self-absorbed old man, who seemed to have no human interests or -passions, and to care for no one but the dwarfish servitor who helped -him in his laboratory, the only person he ever admitted within its -precincts. - -It was no wonder, then, that Leola followed Wizard Hermann unwillingly -into the musty-smelling library, with its high walnut wainscot, -dingy, green-stenciled walls, and side shelves lined with old leather -volumes, while the bare oaken floor on which she trod was worn with the -footsteps of successive generations who had passed from earth in the -fullness of time and been gathered to their fathers. - -In the somber room with its closed shutters Leola stood facing her grim -guardian with the impatient air of some beautiful young princess giving -audience to a vassal. - -As he stood hesitating where to begin, with an unwonted diffidence, she -said, coldly: - -“Speak; tell me your wish at once, sir, for I must hurry. I have an -engagement in town with my dressmaker.” - -At those words Wizard Hermann’s gloomy brow cleared as if by magic, -and quickly striking his lean, scarred hands together, he retorted, -maliciously: - -“An engagement with your dressmaker, eh, my proud lady? Very well, -while you are there you may give the woman an order for your wedding -gown.” - -“Sir,” she uttered, in amazement, her cheeks reddening. - -Wizard Hermann retorted, with a hoarse, sardonic laugh: - -“I said give the woman an order for your wedding gown, Leola Mead, for -you are to be married soon.” - -Leola stared, speechlessly, a moment, wondering if the old man was -losing his mind, and, taking advantage of her silence, he continued, -with forced bravado: - -“You look surprised, my haughty young lady, so I will explain. I have -accepted a desirable proposal for your hand, and as you are plenty old -enough to marry--nineteen your last birthday--I have named the wedding -for a month from to-day.” - -Leola, recovering her speech, cried, indignantly: - -“Quite a cool proceeding on your part, sir, I must say, but I wish you -to understand that I am not ready to marry yet.” - -“That makes no difference to me, for you will have to obey me, Leola -Mead, understand that,” he replied, with rising anger. “You are my -ward, and in pursuance of my duty to you, I have accepted a man for -your husband who worships the ground you walk upon and will spend money -on you like water.” - -Leola’s dark eyes blazed with indignation. - -“You must surely be mad,” she cried, passionately. “The man I would -choose for my husband must ask me for my hand, not you, sir. This -is free America, you must remember, not France, where marriages are -arranged by old people who have forgotten love and youth. I refuse the -suitor you have chosen for me without even hearing his name!” - -The old man muttered, sullenly. - -“Marriage is the destiny of all young girls. You would not wish to grow -into a sour old maid?” - -“No, I do not intend to be an old maid, sir, but,” with a proud toss of -her lovely head, “when I marry I shall choose the man myself, and it -shall be for love, not money!” - -“Money is the only thing worth having--money and long life,” he -muttered, but Leola, with a contemptuous laugh, turned to go. - -He sprang between her and the door, putting his back against it. - -“I have not done telling you all about this matter yet,” he exclaimed, -but Leola stamped her little foot in a fury, replying: - -“I will not hear another word, I tell you, and you may as well let me -go, and give up your foolish plans!” - -“By Heaven, miss, you shall marry the man of my choice--I swear it!” -cried the wizard, violently, but she answered, coldly: - -“Pray let me hear no more such nonsense, Uncle Hermann. Granted you -are my guardian, the law does not give you the power of marrying me to -anyone against my will. No, not another word, or I shall think you are -going insane, if not so already. Get away from that door, and let me -out, or I shall scream for assistance or jump out of the window!” - -“You would not dare do either!” he said. - -Leola ran like a flash to the window, pushing back the creaking -shutters, letting in a flood of June sunshine. The next moment she -sprang to the high sill, crying, defiantly: - -“Now, get away from that door or I will jump out!” - -The old man muttered, incredulously: “You would break your neck!” - -Leola answered, recklessly: - -“I shall risk that unless you let me out of the door. Come, now, I -will count ten. If you do not move before then I am gone,” and drawing -her dainty little feet up into the window, and dangling them on the -outside, she began counting in a clear, high voice: - -“One--two--three--four--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten!” - -Wizard Hermann remained standing with his back toward the door, -regarding her with an incredulous leer, never dreaming she would make -the foolhardy leap, for from the window sill it was twenty feet to the -ground. - -But Leola was as good as her word. - -While she counted she kept her flashing dark eyes full upon his -stubborn face, and seeing that he did not move as the last word left -her lips, she deliberately turned and sprang out upon the ground. - -A cry of alarm shrilled over the old man’s lips, and he stood like one -rooted to the spot, listening for the cry of pain that must announce -the dread result of the perilous leap. Visions of Leola crippled or -dead floated before his mind’s eye, and he muttered, savagely: - -“Little vixen, if you have broken your neck it is your own fault! But -if you live you shall marry the man of my choice one month from to-day, -I swear it!” - -The sound of her voice floated to him indistinctly--was it a laugh or a -groan? - -He hurried to the window, shaking with excitement. - -There was Leola standing upright on the greensward, brushing her blue -skirt, and humming a little song to herself. - -“Are you hurt?” he quavered, anxiously, and she looked up, laughing -maliciously: - -“Hurt? Oh, no, not a bit!” she called back, gayly. “I just let myself -go limply, and I came down like a cat on all fours in the grass and -clover. I have fallen higher than that from trees many a time without -hurting myself. It’s easy enough when you learn to go limp and not -stiffen yourself; ha, ha!” - -As he glared in amazement she waved her hand, audaciously, adding: - -“You ought to try it yourself some time, Uncle Hermann! Well, good-bye, -sir, and mind you don’t let me hear any more of this match-making -business, unless you go and get married yourself!” and with that -parting shot, the merry girl ran across the grass, a vision of youth -and health and beauty, to where her pony was waiting, ready saddled, -beneath a tree. Vaulting lightly to his back, without even waiting to -fasten the loosened tresses of her ruddy hair, the wild young thing -was off and away down the mountain road, her young bosom throbbing -tumultuously, half with anger, half with mirth, at the rencontre with -her guardian. - -“The old silly, to think of marrying me off, without so much as by your -leave! The idea!” she exclaimed aloud, adding, more soberly, “Not that -I’d mind having a rich husband if he was handsome and winning, too, but -how often I have heard it said that good looks and riches seldom go -together, so if that’s the case I’d marry for love and let money go!” - -Her fit of anger dissolving in the sunshine of sweet good nature, she -hummed, as she galloped on, a fragment of a tender little love-song, -sweet as it was sad: - - “Honey flowers for the honey-comb, - And the honey-bees from home. - - “A honey-comb and a honey-flower - And the bee shall have his hour. - - “A honeyed heart for the honey-comb. - And the humming bee flies home. - - “A heavy heart in the honey-flower. - And the bee has had his hour.” - -Suddenly the low song died on her lips, changing to a cry of alarm. - -At a curve in the road she came suddenly upon a startling sight. - -Rex just swerved aside from a runaway horse that was dragging behind -it a shattered little runabout, in which stood upright a white-faced -man, straining desperately upon the reins, trying to stop the maddened -animal’s wild career. - -Even in that terrible moment, with the black horse plunging madly -forward to the imminent peril of the driver’s life, Leola saw, as by a -flash, that the man was young and very, very handsome, and her heart -throbbed with wild pain at his danger, for on one side the road sloped, -precipitously, downward to a dangerous stream of water, and a plunge -over that steep incline meant death in horrible form. - -But what could avert the catastrophe, for it seemed as if nothing could -restrain the plunging brute or turn aside his maddened course toward -the crumbling edge of the yawning precipice that would instantly engulf -both in ruin and death! - -A cry of agony, “Oh, God, save him!” shrilled over her rosy lips. - -Surely the listening angels heard the prayer, for suddenly she saw -that there was one chance in a thousand to avert the threatening -disaster--one chance, though with deadly peril to herself. - -With a high heart of hope, and a courage that defied all the deadly -risk, she dared the consequences, spurring Rex forward in front of the -black horse with a clarion call on her lips that wrought what seemed -like a miracle. - -For at her voice, conjoined with a startled whinny from Rex, the -terrified animal, plunging and rearing but an instant before, with -upraised hoofs nearing the verge of the dangerous precipice, now -stopped as if shot, trembling all over, while Leola, throwing out her -arms, caught his neck and clung, clung, clung, with the energy of -despair. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -ARE YOU AN ANGEL? - - -What subtle influence wrought the miracle, for it could not have been -the strength of Leola’s slender hands? - -But there stood the satanic black animal, its fury abated, its flight -arrested, its huge form trembling, shuddering, while the foamy sweat -dropped in streams to the ground. As for the driver, he had been hurled -violently backward into the road by the impetus of the sudden stop, and -now lay there without sound or motion, like a dead man. - -Leola, waiting only a moment to pat the black horse gently on his -heaving neck, slipped from her saddle and ran to the young man, -leaving, oh, wonder of wonders! the excited creature standing stock -still, and rubbing noses with Rex quite as if they had been old friends. - -“Oh, heaven, he is dead!” the girl moaned in anguish. - -Her heart sank like lead to see him lying there so still, with a little -stream of blood trickling from his temple, where it had struck against -a jagged rock. - -“Oh, if I only had some water,” she sighed, and just then the trickle -of a little spring by the side of the road caught her ears. She ran and -filled her riding cap with the clear fluid, and dashed it in his face. - -Oh, joy! he gasped once or twice, and opened on her anxious face a pair -of the bonniest dark blue eyes she had ever met--eyes that seemed to go -exactly with the glossy curls of thick brown hair. - -When his gaze met hers he smiled, faintly, and sighed: - -“I--I--where am I? Oh, I remember now. I was in an accident; my horse -ran away, and I was thrown out of the runabout. Was I killed? Is this -heaven, and are you an angel?” - -Leola laughed a happy, rippling laugh, sweet as music to his ears. - -“An angel? No, indeed,” she cried; “and this is not heaven, either, -only a rough, rocky road, where you fell when you pitched out of your -trap. Oh! are you hurt very bad? Does your poor head pain you very -much?” - -Their faces were very close together, for she had pillowed his head on -her tender arm, and he could feel the quick throbs of her excited heart -as she waited for his answer. - -“I--I--do not feel very bad,” he began, then suddenly lapsed into -unconsciousness again, and this time it seemed to her that he was -surely gone forever. - -Tears started in her eyes and fell in a burning shower upon his pallid, -handsome face, mingling with the crimson rain that ran down his cheek. - -Again he revived, and, looking up, met that tender, tearful glance of -Leola’s lovely eyes, that made the blood leap through his veins with -rapture. - -He said faintly: - -“Do not say you are not an angel, for I shall always think of you as -one, sweet girl! Ah, I remember all, now! My runaway horse was going -straight over the declivity when you spurred yours between and caught -his neck in your arms. It was a magnificent thing to do, but a perilous -one, too, to risk your life for an utter stranger!” - -Leola smiled brightly, and answered: - -“It certainly looked like taking a terrible risk, and would scarcely -have succeeded so well but for one fact quite unknown to you.” - -“And that?” he queried, eagerly; and she replied: - -“You see, I recognized in your satanic steed a favorite of mine--a -spirited creature that I loved dearly when it belonged to my guardian, -who sold it to the livery stable in town only a week ago. Black Hawk, -as we called him, was an elder brother to my pony Rex, and they were -fond of each other; so, you see, it was really our acquaintance with -Black Hawk that made him so easy to subdue. Just turn your head now, -sir, and you will see the pair biting at each other in the most -affectionate manner.” - -“It is wonderful,” he murmured; “but, all the same, I owe you my life, -for you ran a terrible risk trusting to Black Hawk’s possible obedience -to you. What if, in his fury of fear and rage--for he had taken -desperate fright at a well-digging machine in a field--he had proved -unmanageable? You and I must have gone down to death together, all in -one tragic moment.” - -“It is true, but let us not think of it, since the danger is past,” -said Leola, making light of it, and adding: - -“What troubles me now is how to get assistance for you. I don’t like to -leave you alone, but--Ah! I hear wheels. Some one is coming!” - -Sure enough, an old top buggy, drawn by an old gray mare, came -clattering around the curve of the road, and in it sat the one person -most welcome of any one in the world just now--the village doctor. - -“Oh, Doctor Barnes, how glad I am to see you! You see, there’s been -an accident,” Leola cried, eagerly, as he drew rein and began to jump -nimbly out. - -“Yes, my dear girl; I saw the accident from up on the hill, just as I -was coming out from a patient’s house, and I got to you as fast as old -Dolly would travel. Really, it was a splendid deed of daring!” cried -the middle-aged doctor, patting her bright head in a fatherly way as he -stooped over the young man. - -“Ah, a stranger!” he continued. “Well, how much is he hurt? Cut on the -temple, eh? Needs some stitches. Any bones broken, do you think? Wait -till I stanch and bind the wound, and then we will see.” - -This accomplished, he tendered the use of his arm, and the young -fellow got upon his feet without much difficulty. - -“Ah, you’re all right--unless there’s some internal hurt. Come, I will -put you into my buggy. Your arm on the other side. Leola and I must -take you to the nearest house, which happens to be the Widow Gray’s -cottage, below here. There I can sew up your wound and leave you in -safe hands till we can find out if there’s any internal injuries. All -right. Put your head back against the lap-robe. You will come with us, -Leola; I may need your help.” - -Stranger as the young man was, they could not have taken him to -a better place, for Widow Gray was the dearest old woman in the -neighborhood. She lived quite alone in a tidy cottage back among a -grove of maples, or a “sugar camp,” as the country people called it; -for here in the early spring was always produced that toothsome dainty, -maple sugar, so dear to the hearts of school children. The widow had -a neat spare room that she often let to a summer boarder, and to this -white-hung chamber she quickly led Doctor Barnes with his patient, her -round face beaming with good-nature as she promised to do all she could -for the unfortunate young stranger. - -“He will need your best nursing, I fear,” exclaimed Doctor Barnes; for, -on getting his patient down upon the bed, he immediately fainted again, -and the swoon was so deep that it was difficult to revive him. - -“Oh, he is dead!” sobbed Leola; and the thought carried with it such -agony that it changed and darkened the whole world to her young heart, -so dear had the handsome stranger grown already. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -BEWARE OF JEALOUSY. - - -How glad she was when he opened his eyes again, and faltered: - -“I am quite ashamed of myself, fainting away like a weak woman. I will -promise not to do so again, doctor.” - -Doctor Barnes quickly made him as easy as possible, and left him to the -widow’s care, promising to call again that evening to see how he fared, -and also to send word to the livery stable about the horse and trap. - -Leola felt she had no further excuse for staying, although, somehow, -she could not bear to go. - -She went into the room to say farewell, and he entreated her to stay, -in a weak voice, reinforced by pleading eyes. - -She smiled, and shook her head. - -“It is better I should go now, for the doctor says you must have -absolute rest and quiet to-day, and I am a sad chatterbox, but I will -come to-morrow and bring you some flowers,” she promised. - -She pressed his hand in mute farewell, and the contact thrilled her -with rapturous emotion, for even with his pallor and his bandaged head -he appeared to her a king among men--a veritable Prince Charming. - -A great change had come to her heart since she rode out so blithely -that morning, and the words of her simple song were coming true: - - “A honey-comb and a honey-flower. - And the bee shall have his hour.” - -She forgot all about her errand to town, and, remounting Rex, went for -a long ride, miles away, to a beautiful Blue Sulphur Spring, where she -lingered for hours upon the green lawn, dreaming over and over the -startling event of the day, and gazing anon into the sparkling depths -of the water, as if she might read in its pellucid depths the secret of -her future. - -And she recalled, with a sudden thrill, the gypsy who had told her -fortune last year, saying: - -“You will have a handsome, blue-eyed husband, and you will adore each -other; but beware of jealousy, or it will part you forever.” - -Leola had laughed at the gypsy then, but now she recalled her prophecy -with a prophetic thrill. - -“A handsome, blue-eyed husband! He has blue eyes!” she said--which -showed that her thoughts already reached forward to the unknown future. - - “Our feelings and our thoughts - Tend ever on and rest not in the present.” - -When she returned home she had temporarily forgotten all about her -little tiff with Wizard Hermann that morning, and as she saw him -nowhere about, it did not occur to her mind. She avoided every one, -which was not hard to do, the household consisting of only five -members--her guardian and self, her former governess, who now combined -teaching and housekeeping by way of economy, a fat black cook, and a -man of all work, a misshapen, dwarfish creature of tremendous strength. - -The day and night seemed interminably long to Leola, who lay awake many -hours through pure joy of this blissful something that had come so -suddenly into the placid current of her young life. Heaven forefend her -from ever knowing the wakefulness of sorrow! - -Bright and early the next morning she was out in the old-fashioned -garden, gathering roses, dewy sweet and lovely, and it was not -difficult to coax black Betsy for a bit of early breakfast before the -others appeared. - -Then, because she did not want to seem too anxious, Leola walked the -two miles to Widow Gray’s cottage. - -When Wizard Hermann asked at breakfast after the truant, Betsy, who was -bringing in the toast, answered that “young miss” had gone to carry -some flowers to a sick friend. - -“Humph!” was his careless rejoinder, little dreaming that the sick -friend was a charming young man who had already carried Leola’s heart -by storm. - -Meanwhile the young girl went blithely on her way, glad at heart with -a strange, new emotion, yet not realizing why the world seemed so much -sweeter than yesterday, the flowers fairer, the skies brighter, and all -nature attuned to a diviner melody. Even her own rare beauty had gained -another indefinable charm from the vibrations of love, pulsing joyfully -through all her frame. She knew that she was drawn by invisible cords -to the handsome stranger, but she imputed it to keen interest in one -she had saved from death. - -Widow Gray welcomed her with beaming smiles. - -“Oh, Miss Mead, such a rapid improvement you never saw in your life! -Why, after he had rested all day and night, he was like another man, -and the doctor let him dress this morning and lie on the lounge in his -room. He says he has no internal trouble at all, and need only stay in -a few days till his head gets well. Wasn’t he lucky? for the doctor -says the tumble might have killed him, and that it was a miracle it -didn’t. But, laws, he’s as right as a trivet, and has taken a poached -egg and bit of toast this morning. What sweet, sweet flowers! Come -right in, do, and see him; he’s expecting you.” - -How his blue eyes beamed as she entered with the flowers! Leola would -never forget that look to her dying day. - -“You are come at last!” he cried, happily. “I have been hoping and -watching for you more than an hour! I should have been in a fever of -impatience if you had stayed away much longer!” - -“And yet it is quite early. See, the dew is not yet dry on the roses I -brought you,” smiled Leola, as she drew a chair close to his side. - -“Are you not glad I escaped with so slight injury?” he exclaimed, -joyously. “And only to think that I owe my life to you! How can I repay -you but by devoting it to your service?” - -This was very rapid love-making, indeed. Leola, with her very limited -experience that way, felt it was so, yet somehow she could not chide -him. Her heart beat very fast, her cheeks flamed crimson, and when she -tried to look away from him she could not help his gaze from holding -hers in a long look into her soul that was trying to hide from him -beneath her dark, curling lashes. In that moment of pure rapture Sir -Cupid transfixed both their hearts with his cunning arrow. They were -no more strangers; they seemed to have known each other in some past -incarnation. - -Leola thought, thrillingly: - -“Surely this is love that makes my heart beat so fast and my cheeks -burn under his glance, that holds my own so that I cannot look away! He -is my fate!” - -The young stranger was saying to himself, quite as romantically: - -“Before I saw this exquisite creature I was madly in love with her -shadow, and now that we have met, my heart is in her keeping forever. I -owe her my very life, and I will be her true knight--and swear eternal -fealty to my liege lady!” - -He reached out and caught her hand, saying, deeply and tenderly: - -“Forgive me if I seem too hasty, but something urges me on to confess -my love before some unknown fate comes between us. Leola, am I too -hasty, or may I hope to win your heart?” - -The lashes fell against her blushing cheeks as she murmured: - -“I--I--how strange that you have learned to love me--like that--since -only yesterday!” - -“I loved you weeks before I ever met you,” was his startling reply; and -as she cried out in wonder over that, he continued, fondly: - -“A few weeks ago, in New York, a young lady loaned me some negatives -to copy. She had made them with her camera while out in the mountains -last summer, she said. Among these negatives were such charming views -of a young girl, that I fell in love with the pictures as soon as I -made them. I did not rest until I found out where the girl lived, her -name, and, in short, all there was to learn about her. Then I took the -train for West Virginia, and on arriving at Alderson I started out the -same morning to find you, Leola; for, of course, you have guessed it -was yourself! Directly my horse took fright; and only fancy my feelings -when I saw you coming toward me on your white pony, a perfect vision -of youth and joy and beauty, and realized that a horrible death might -thrust us apart in another fatal moment. You saved my life, and can you -wonder I look upon you as my fate--the fairest fate that ever life gave -to a man?” - -He paused, pressed the hand he held again ardently, and added, musingly: - -“How strangely everything has come about! I thought I should have -to get acquainted with you in a very proper way, and go through a -ceremonious courtship before I proposed, but fate took it all out of my -hands. Now, what have you to say to this, my dear girl? Will you let me -hope to win your love?” - -“It is yours already,” Leola confessed, with exquisite frankness; then, -as he rapturously kissed her trembling hand, she exclaimed, in wonder -at herself: - -“Oh, perhaps you think I am too lightly won when I do not even know -your name!” - -“That can be remedied very soon. Call me Ray Chester, an artist, who -wishes he were richer for your sweet sake.” - -“Then you are poor?” Leola questioned, gravely. - -“Do you regret it?” he asked, sadly. - -“I--I--don’t know. Cousin Jessie always advised me never to marry poor. -It is Jessie Stirling, I mean. She loaned you the negatives, did she -not?” - -“Yes; but I am sorry she put such notions in your pretty head. Perhaps -you will take back your promise, learning I am poor.” - -“Oh, no, no, no! Never! I could not marry any one without love, but -Jessie says she would take a fright if he had a million dollars. -However, she has ‘hooked,’ so she says, a big fish, rich, and young, -and handsome, too, and she wants, when she is married, for me to visit -her so she can make a grand match for me.” - -“I will save her the trouble,” said Ray Chester. “Love in a cottage -will be our portion, my darling, but you are so lovely that I shall -paint a picture of you that will perhaps make my fortune!” - -Suddenly a shadow clouded her lovely eyes. She had remembered for the -first time her guardian’s threat of yesterday. - -“You look sad, Leola. Are you repenting your promise already?” her -lover cried, anxiously. - -“I shall never repent. I believe you are my fate!” the girl exclaimed, -earnestly, and to herself she thought: - -“I will not tell him of my guardian’s foolish plans for wedding me to a -rich man yet, for perhaps he will give it up after my frank refusal to -obey him. No; I will not even think of it again; he cannot coerce me, -for I will tell him I have already chosen my husband.” - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -A HONEY BEE AND A HONEY FLOWER. - - -The Widow Gray had a very romantic turn of mind, and she had not -forgotten her young days yet, so it was easy enough for her to find out -that the two young folks were already deeply in love. - -“And no wonder, either,” she said to herself, sagely, “for the two -beautiful young things seem to be made for each other.” - -Accordingly, she helped out the romance all she could by insisting on -the girl’s coming every day to help while away the invalid’s lonely -hours, saying, cheerfully: - -“For you know that just as soon as Mr. Chester gets well enough to be -going about he will be right up at Wheatlands, paying back your visits -two to one.” - -Thus encouraged, Leola came and went daily, making long visits without -exciting any suspicion at home, for she was used to having her own way, -and no one interfered with her liberty. - -It was quite a week that Ray Chester was detained at the cottage, for -although he made light of his injuries, he was very much bruised, and -felt stiff and sore, and the little gash on his temple was deep enough -to take some time in healing, and even then it would leave a scar under -his thick, brown curls that would always remain to remind him of lovely -Leola’s bravery in saving his life at the risk of her own. - -But that week went away so quickly, so happily, in that golden June -weather, that when it was over they could not realize the lapse of days. - -“It seemed like one exquisite day,” they said to each other. - -The programme of their days had been something like this: - -Leola called every morning on Rex, and remained until the midday meal -at Wheatlands. After appearing at this hour she slipped away again, -returning to the cottage and staying till she had to go home to supper. -Her regularity at these meals warded off any suspicion that she spent -the intervening hours in the company of a very charming young man, -who would render all Wizard Hermann’s schemes to marry her off to her -unknown suitor quite null and void. - -After supper, then, came the lonely time, for Leola had to remain at -home and play to the governess on the piano in the dingy parlor, whose -faded hangings had not been renovated for years. As this had been a -yearly practice, she could not omit it without exciting wonder on the -part of the spinster lady who had acted as her governess and companion -since early childhood, and, now that school days were over, looked -after the housekeeping, staying on indefinitely, not seeming to have -either friends or suitors. - -Yet, although she was over forty now, Miss Tuttle had not given over a -scarcely-concealed hope of marrying. - -As she was very thin and tall, her secret choice had fallen on her -exact opposite, a neighboring widower about fifty, who was rather short -and very stout, and had recently come into a fortune by selling some -valuable coal-lands in Greenbrier county. - -Miss Tuttle having been in love with neighbor Bennett when he was in -moderate circumstances, only loved him the harder when he became so -rich that he did not know how to spend his money. - -Some neighborly kindnesses he had certainly shown her, but not as many -as she wished, and no amount of scheming had sufficed to bring him to -the point of proposing. - -Thus absorbed in her own love-affair, it was no wonder that Miss Tuttle -paid small attention to Leola’s comings and goings, regarding her still -as a pretty child who had heretofore laughed at love and lovers. - -So there were none to molest the lovers and make them afraid, for -Wizard Hermann, though he did not give over his scheme, held his peace -and went his way in cunning silence, giving Leola time to get over her -fright. - -Even Doctor Barnes, who had not found it necessary to pay but three -visits to his patient, did not know of the romance going on at the -cottage, and being very busy with the measles, just then epidemic in -Alderson and the country round about, he had no time to gossip about -the stranger whose life Leola Mead had saved. As there were none who -knew Ray Chester, so there were none to worry over him; and beneath the -matronly chaperonage of kind Widow Gray their secret love bloomed into -a splendid flower whose strong roots only death could tear away. - - “I love you, sweet: how can you ever learn - How much I love you?” “You I love even so, - And so I learn it.” “Sweet, you cannot know - How fair you are.” “If fair enough to earn - Your love, so much is all my hour’s concern.” - “My love grows hourly, sweet!” “Mine, too, doth grow, - Yet love seemed full so many hours ago.” - The lovers speak till kisses claim their turn. - -“It cannot surely be a whole week; was it not only yesterday?” cried -the doting lover. - -But Leola counted off the days to him on her rosy fingers. - -“It was Tuesday when first we met--Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, -Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and now it is Tuesday again! And I -have been to see you twice every day, Ray! But to-morrow I cannot come -at all, for there is a horrid picnic to which Miss Tuttle insists on -taking me, and I cannot refuse lest she find me out.” - -“Why, then, I shall go to the picnic, too. I adore picnics!” cried Ray -Chester. - -“But you are not invited. It’s a Sunday school picnic, you see, Ray, -and you are not acquainted with anybody.” - -“I’ll invite myself, and get acquainted with everybody there in less -than an hour,” he answered, gayly; and calling to Mrs. Gray, who was -watering her geraniums in the yard, he said: - -“Aren’t you going to the picnic to-morrow?” - -“Perhaps so--only I shall have to leave you a cold dinner,” she said, -hesitatingly, coming up to the vine-wreathed porch in whose shadow the -lovers were sitting. - -“I’ll go with you if you let me!” cried Ray; “and you will introduce me -to everybody there as your new boarder.” - -“And to Miss Tuttle in particular; and mind you show her much -attention, Ray, for then she will ask you to Wheatlands,” laughed -Leola, falling into the spirit of the thing, for it came to her -suddenly that by this means she and Ray could go on courting under her -guardian’s very nose without being suspected. - -“Miss Tuttle is so vain she will easily think Ray is in love with her,” -she thought, merrily, and so they all laid their plans for to-morrow. - -The picnic came off in a beautiful grove, and Widow Gray’s new boarder -kept his word, and got acquainted with everybody there inside of an -hour. - -He was specially gracious to the smiling Miss Tuttle, who herself -presented him to Leola, saying: - -“Miss Mead, the little girl to whom I have been governess over ten -years.” - -The little girl bowed demurely, and said she was glad to meet Miss -Tuttle’s friend, and then she turned carelessly away, and was -particular not to interrupt his chat with the spinster until by his -assiduity he got the coveted invitation to call. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -LOVE’S ENTANGLEMENTS. - - -“Isn’t he perfectly charming, Leola? As handsome as a picture, and -the prettiest manners I ever saw--so courteous, so kind, altogether -different from some of the country bumpkins about here, who don’t seem -to appreciate ladies as they ought. But really, for the life of me, I -cannot tell which one of us he is courting, for he is so nice to us -both. Sometimes I think it’s you, and then, again, I may be the object -of his affection. I cannot deny there may be a little disparity in our -years, but I do not believe he would mind that, do you, dear?” - -This was two weeks later than the picnic, from which it may be inferred -that Ray Chester’s courtship was progressing finely, without let or -hindrance from Wizard Hermann. - -Fortune had favored our daring hero, for Leola’s guardian had been -absent from home nearly two weeks, and on returning he had resumed his -laboratory work with such zeal that he remained quite in ignorance of -the fact that a handsome young man, a stranger from the city, was a -daily and welcome caller on the ladies of his family. - -His first news of the fact came from Mr. Bennett, his rich and rotund -neighbor, who, perhaps growing jealous over Miss Tuttle, desired to -know if Mr. Hermann had any knowledge of the stranger’s intentions. - -“In a word, sir, is the fellow sparking Miss Tuttle or Leola?” he said, -brusquely. - -Mr. Hermann, startled, denied any knowledge of the young man. - -“I’ve been up to New York for some precious chemicals I required, and I -was nearly ten days absent. Since I returned I’ve been almost too busy -to take time to eat or sleep, and I have not seen or heard of any young -man,” he declared. - -The sleek Bennett soon made him acquainted with the facts as he knew -them himself. - -“The fellow’s from the city, somewhere away off, good-looking and -dandyfied, an artist, he claims to be. He’s boarding down to Widow -Gray’s, and showed himself first at a picnic, where he came with her -and got introduced to the whole country-side. I’m not saying he isn’t -as pleasant a young chap as I ever met, but I don’t like it, seeing him -in and out at Wheatlands all the time without knowing for sure who he’s -after, Hermann,” he concluded, uneasily. - -“I’ll look into the matter this very day and find out what’s in the -wind,” was the reassuring reply. - -Bennett’s little ferret eyes looked sharply at him, and he muttered: - -“I won’t have any fooling over this here bargain. The mortgage falls -due pretty soon now, and if you fail to keep your word, I’ll foreclose -at once, I swear.” - -“I’ll keep it to the letter: don’t you be uneasy,” soothed Wizard -Hermann, adding: - -“Have you done anything to help along your own cause, eh?” - -“I’ve called several times and fetched the geerls presents of fruit and -candy, and took ’em riding in my fine new turnout, but that dad-blame -dandy was always along, and I couldn’t hardly get in a word edgeways -to the geerl, and Miss Tuttle, she done all the talking to me, so’s I -hadn’t any show at all with Leola,” Bennett muttered, morosely. - -“Let’s see; suppose you write a letter and propose formally for her -hand. Tell her how rich you are, and that you’ll give her anything her -heart craves. If she refuses, then I shall have to use my influence,” -Wizard Hermann said, consolingly, wishing he were well out of all this -bother and back in his laboratory at work with his beloved chemicals. - -His house and lands were all mortgaged to his rich neighbor, and he -had not a dollar to pay him to prevent foreclosure. It seemed like a -providence when the rich widower cast his covetous eyes on lovely -Leola, and offered, if Hermann could get her to marry him, to release -the debt. - -It was fifteen thousand dollars, but Wheatlands, with its -wide-spreading acres, was worth twice as much, and it was terrible to -thus sacrifice the home of his forefathers; so Hermann, who had burned -up all that money in his foolish and mysterious experiments, decided -that Leola must be sacrificed to pay the debt, since there was no other -way. - -But how to obtain her consent he did not know, and, since the morning -when she had so angrily repulsed him, the subject had tacitly dropped -between them, Hermann realizing that his end could only be gained by -force and cunning. - -Bennett’s story about a possible rival put a new element of trouble -into the affair, so he set himself to investigate matters by calling -the governess to account. - -When he summoned her to the library she thought he only wanted to go -over some housekeeping accounts with her, or possibly to pay some -arrears of her salary long overdue. - -Visions of a new gown and bonnet floated joyfully before her mind’s -eye, but she was soon undeceived. - -“Who and what of this young dandy who is making so free of my house -these two weeks?” he demanded. - -Miss Tuttle bridled, and tried to blush like an eighteen-year-old girl. - -“Oh, Mr. Hermann, the most charming young man--he’s a boarder at Widow -Gray’s, and is most attentive,” she simpered. - -“So I have heard, but who is he after--Leola?” he demanded. - -“Oh, sir, no, indeed--that is, I cannot really be sure of his -intentions toward either; he’s so very charming to both of us we cannot -decide between us which he prefers yet--but he does not seem like a -flirt!” - -“Amanda Tuttle, don’t be an old fool! How do you suppose any young man -could hesitate between an old woman like you and pretty Leola?” he -replied, brusquely. - -“Sir!” Miss Tuttle bridled, and tears came into her eyes. - -“Well, well, I spoke roughly, but you should not be so silly,” returned -her employer. “Remember you were not very pretty when you first came -here, and fifteen years has changed you into a faded old maid.” - -“I--I--hate you!” she sobbed, pitifully. - -“Hard words break no bones,” he said, carelessly. - -“If you will pay me my salary I’ll leave Wheatlands forever!” she -sobbed, bitterly, in her humiliation; but he went on, coolly: - -“No, I don’t want you to leave; I really need your services, Miss -Tuttle. But as to whether you ever get that money I owe you depends on -your own exertions. I’ve lost everything, and unless Leola makes a rich -marriage I’ve planned for her, I will not have a roof over my head this -day month.” - -Miss Tuttle mopped her wet eyes with a little lace-edged handkerchief, -and straightened up, full of breathless curiosity. - -“Oh, who is he?” she exclaimed; and thereupon he suddenly confided his -difficulties freely to her, hopeful of her ready co-operation, but, -being totally unversed in the intricacies of a woman’s heart, he made -the mistake of his life. - -On learning that the rotund widower, Bennett, whom she secretly -loved, was a suitor for Leola’s hand, the spinster promptly went into -hysterics that she could not have helped to save her life. - -She shrieked furiously: - -“Oh, the fat villain, the vile deceiver! After all his attentions to me -since his poor wife died, to turn around and fall in love with a chit -of a girl like Leola! Oh, I could tear him limb from limb, the wretch! -And as to marrying him, she shall not--never, never!” - -“Oh, really, really!” soothed her employer, but all to no purpose, for, -her heart being touched, she could not restrain her excitable feelings, -but raved on angrily and tearfully for some time, until her emotion -spent itself, the old man having bided his time to this end. - -He now observed, sarcastically: - -“If you have done making a fool of yourself now, Amanda Tuttle, perhaps -you will tell me what you are going to do about it. You cannot marry -Bennett if he will not have you.” - -“No,” she moaned, tearfully; and he continued, coolly: - -“Perhaps you will bring suit for breach of promise.” - -Miss Tuttle fairly tore her hair in her humiliation. - -“Will you, now?” he repeated. - -“No,” she sobbed, suddenly realizing that she really had no grounds to -base a legal action upon. She had built her hopes on a baseless fabric -of neighborly politeness, nothing more, and her house of cards had -tumbled to the ground. - -The revulsion from long hope to sudden despair was so bitter that it -awakened an intense and jealous hatred for Leola, superseding the -devotion of years. - -Hermann realized that he had made a mistake in taking her into his -confidence, and made a masterly retreat, exclaiming: - -“Oh, well, well, don’t take it so hard, Amanda Tuttle; you’re too -old to behave like a love-sick chit! It isn’t likely that Leola will -want to marry him, anyhow, and if she refuses, of course I must let -old Bennett take the house and everything, and we can all go to the -almshouse together!” - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -BOAST NOT THYSELF OF TO-MORROW. - - -It was the bitterest hour of her life to poor Miss Tuttle. - -While she was talking to old Hermann she heard merry voices out of -doors, and knew that Ray Chester had arrived and was sitting out in the -rose arbor laughing and talking with beautiful Leola, who had turned -out to be her rival when she thought her only a merry-hearted young -girl. - -She wondered if it could be true, as her employer said, that no one -would look at her twice when his lovely ward was by, and now she sadly -remembered several little things that made her sure that his words were -true. - -Sometimes, when the three went for long walks together, the younger -pair would quite tire her out, but they would insist on going still -further, leaving her waiting under some shady tree with a novel for an -hour sometimes, while they hunted wild flowers or bird’s nests, and -their happy laughter would come ringing back as if they did not miss -her in the least, as now she suddenly realized they did not; they only -wanted her for an elderly chaperon. - -But somehow this did not hurt her as much as the seeming perfidy of -Widower Bennett, whom she loved with all her warm heart and at whom she -had been making tender eyes ever since his wife died a year or so ago. -She had persuaded herself she would be the most proper wife he could -find anywhere, and to find Leola preferred before herself was like the -bitterness of death. - -She could not help envying and hating the lovely girl with the weakness -of a shallow nature suddenly roused to bitter jealousy, and when she -hurried away from Wizard Hermann’s presence to her own room, she -was half resolved to pack her trunk and go away forever to hide her -humiliation and grief. - -But while she bathed her stained face and smoothed her rather pretty -brown hair, she reflected that she had nowhere to go, for all her -relatives were dead, and she had no friends of any consequence. - -Poor soul, how she longed for a home and husband of her own! But the -realization of her dream seemed further off than ever now, and as she -stood at her window gulping down her piteous sobs, she heard again, -from the rose arbor, the gay laughter of the lovers, and curiosity made -her descend to them, wondering what had caused their mirth. - -Leola, as pretty as a flower in her white gown, had a letter in her -hand, and she and Ray, with their heads very close, were laughing over -it together. - -“Oh, Miss Tuttle, this is so ridiculous I have laughed till I cried,” -said Leola. “Only think, I have a lover, and he has made me a proposal -of marriage.” - -“And,” added Ray, laughingly, “it is such a brilliant and desirable -match that she is almost sorry she had promised to marry me before she -received it!” - -“So you two are engaged?” cried Miss Tuttle, feeling the ground sink -beneath her feet. - -“Oh, yes, Miss Tuttle, and I know you are not surprised. Won’t you -congratulate us?” cried Leola’s handsome lover. - -“But please, please, don’t tell Uncle Hermann, for I think I begin to -see through his plans now, and he will never consent for me to marry -a poor artist when I could marry his rich neighbor, old Mr. Bennett,” -laughed Leola. - -Poor Miss Tuttle gasped for breath, and sank helplessly on a garden -chair, wishing she were dead and buried, so keen was her pain and -humiliation. - -“You may read the old man’s letter if you like,” added the girl, -thrusting it into her hand. - -The sorrowful spinster, who would have given all she possessed for such -a letter, was forced to read the gushing and awkward love letter of -the rich old widower to the merry girl, who laughed over it with her -handsome young lover, and gayly passed around the fine box of bonbons -that accompanied the epistle. - -“The dear old silly! I thought he looked on me still as a little girl,” -she cried. “Now if he had only been sensible and asked you, Miss -Tuttle, it would have been a charming arrangement in point of age and -all that, you know.” - -Miss Tuttle winced at the innocent thrust of the happy girl, but she -was so miserable that her pride fell from her like a garment, and she -frankly assented, saying: - -“Yes, for I always admired Mr. Bennett, and if he had asked me I would -have accepted him.” - -The young people instantly felt very sorry and sympathetic, and Leola -proposed that when she gave him her answer she should give him a hint -that he would be more successful with the governess than with the pupil. - -Miss Tuttle was so moved by this offer that she felt all her anger and -jealousy give way, and took Leola into her heart again. - -“Oh, if you could only manage it I would be grateful forever,” she -exclaimed. “You know I cannot stay on at Wheatlands when you are gone, -Leola, for people would talk, and besides the fact that he is in -arrears for my salary, we have had a bitter quarrel this morning,” and -then, between tears and sobs, she blurted out all Wizard Hermann’s -plans to the astonished lovers. - -Then Leola recalled the morning, three weeks ago, when her guardian had -bidden her prepare to be married in a month to the man of his choice. - -“So this is my rich suitor--old Bennett!” she burst out, laughing, -for she could not regard it seriously at all, not realizing Wizard -Hermann’s grim determination. - -“Why do you call him old? He is only about fifty or so, and a fine, -handsome man!” complained the tearful governess. - -She could hardly understand why the volatile Leola burst into spasms -of the merriest laughter, in which Ray Chester could not help joining. -Alas, they were so gay and happy, they were full of joy and laughter, -little dreaming of the tragic moment near at hand when tears would come -more readily than smiles, and the dull ache at the heart would be like -a piercing thorn. - -“If I were you, Leola, I would not feel so gay, for your guardian -swears he will enforce his authority and have you marry Mr. Bennett, -willy-nilly!” reproved Miss Tuttle, anxiously. - -The girl looked gayly at her lover, and he caught her little hand in -his, saying, tenderly: - -“We aren’t afraid of him, are we, my precious Leola? And if the worst -comes to the worst, we will elope to Washington and get married before -old Bennett knows what we are up to.” - -“If you were only rich there needn’t be any trouble. You could pay off -the mortgage for Mr. Hermann, and then he would be willing enough for -you to have Leola!” suggested Miss Tuttle, inquiringly. - -Ray’s dark blue eyes looked questioningly into those of his bonny -sweetheart. - -“Are you sorry I’m not rich? Would you rather have your old suitor?” he -asked, gently. - -“Nonsense; I’d take you without a coat to your back before I would have -that old Falstaff, with all his money,” she answered, laughingly, and -they dismissed the thought of danger, for how could anyone force a girl -to marry against her will? - -“But perhaps, after all, I had better see your guardian, and ask him -for his consent to our marriage?” questioned Ray. - -The governess shook her head. - -“No, do not anger him now, for he is really in such a rage he might set -the dogs on you, who knows?” - -“Oh, very well, we need not hurry. It will all blow over by-and-by,” -cried Leola, in her happy-go-lucky way, and presently, when Ray had -taken leave, she went up to her room and penned an amiable but decided -refusal of Mr. Bennett’s offer, saying she would prefer to marry a -younger man, and frankly advising him to turn his attention to Miss -Tuttle, who admired him immensely, and would make him the best wife in -the world. - -When she showed this effort to the governess, that lady promptly hugged -and kissed her, and declared she was the dearest girl on earth. - -A special messenger carried the missive over to the Bennett place, and -Leola congratulated herself that the episode was closed. - -But who can tell what a day may bring forth? - -Leola’s whole life had been carelessly happy, for she was blessed with -one of those sweet, sunshiny natures that always look on the bright -side, and find pleasure in the simple joys of even a quiet life. She -made her own sunshine as she went. - -For more than three weeks now she had been blissfully happy--so happy -that in all her future she will look back in wonder that such perfect -happiness could be, for, alas, this was the end of those golden days of -love’s sweet dream. - -That night, at supper, Wizard Hermann said, casually, as if it were a -matter of small moment: - -“Mrs. Stirling and Jessie will arrive on the early train to-morrow.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -WINDING A WEB. - - -When Miss Tuttle and Leola were alone together they talked over the -news, and neither one was very well pleased, the girl, since their -coming would break up her happy days with Ray, and the governess, -because the Stirlings were always supercilious with her, and naturally -made more work for the household. - -“I do not see why I should put myself out to wait on pretentious fine -ladies this warm weather, especially when my employer has not paid a -dollar of my salary for five months,” she complained, and Leola added: - -“There will be no more good times with Ray, for like as not they will -join hands with Uncle Hermann in persecuting him, and try to have me -marry old Bennett because he is rich. Oh, dear! I’m sorry Ray isn’t -coming back to-night, so I could tell him not to come to-morrow.” - -“You might send word to him in the morning before they come,” suggested -Miss Tuttle, and Leola agreed to the plan, which would have worked -itself out all right had not fate decreed that Leola’s little black -messenger should lose the note and Widower Bennett find it. - -He was riding briskly toward Wheatlands when his fine bay mare shied, -wildly, at a square white envelope blowing about in the dusty road, and -an impulse of curiosity made him dismount and pick it up. - -When he saw Leola’s familiar writing on the sealed envelope, he was -seized with such poignant wrath and jealousy that no scruple of honor -prevailed to prevent his becoming master of the contents. - -“To Ray Chester, the young dandy--wonder if she’s giving him the -mitten as she did me yesterday!” he muttered, wrathfully, and broke the -pretty seal of blue wax with a ruthless hand. - -The blood bounded hotly through his veins as he read: - - “My Own Darling Ray: - - “You must not come in the morning as usual, because the Stirlings are - coming, Uncle Hermann says, and I do not want them to know of our - engagement yet, for they both are very mercenary, and would take sides - against you, and want me to marry old Bennett, because he is rich, - while you are poor! As if I would have that dumpy old fright on any - terms--no, not even if he were President of the United States! Oh, - why didn’t the old silly lose his heart to dear Miss Tuttle instead - of me, when she loves the very ground he walks on, and would make him - such a suitable wife? Fate seems to play at cross purposes with us, my - darling Ray, but we will outwit our enemies and be happy yet. - - “You had better not come to Wheatlands to-day, but if you will stay in - all afternoon, I will try to make an errand to Widow Gray’s, and we - can talk things over and make plans for the future. - - “Oh, isn’t it just hateful the way things seem to work against our - happiness? Just think, if only Jessie Stirling hadn’t got engaged to a - fortune already, we might get my rotund suitor in love with her, and - she could have all the money she craves. - - “Be sure to stay in until I come this afternoon. Your own loving - “Leola.” - -Widower Bennett stamped upon the ground in a fury, hissing out the -epithets she had used in writing of him in the bitterest voice ever -heard: - -“‘Old Bennett!’ ‘Dumpy old fright!’ ‘Old silly!’ ‘My rotund suitor!’ -She would not marry me if I were President of the United States! -Why, now, I swear I will marry the little spitfire if it costs me my -fortune!” - -In this rage he remounted his mare and galloped on to Wheatlands, -between whose master and himself there ensued an excited interview. - -Leola’s letter refusing Bennett’s hand was exhibited in furious anger -by the slighted recipient. - -“She would prefer to marry a younger man than me, and she recommends me -to take Miss Tuttle--that skinny, homely old maid, almost as old as I -am!” he blustered, wrathfully, adding: - -“You promised faithfully she should marry me, Hermann, but instead of -watching her as you ought, you go poking among your old chemicals, -as blind as a bat, and let her get engaged to a pretty-faced young -jackanapes from the city--a pauper without a dollar to support his -wife on, sir, and yet it lacks only a few days of the time set for my -marriage to that saucy girl, and, mind you, if the ceremony is not -pulled off in due time, I’ll lose not a day, I swear, in foreclosing -the mortgage.” - -It was in vain that Wizard Hermann tried to pacify him, saying that he -would certainly keep his promise, and that he was sure that there was -some mistake about Leola’s engagement to young Chester, who was almost -a stranger. - -But at this point Bennett produced his proof in the shape of Leola’s -letter to Ray. - -“This is worse than I thought, but it does not alter the fact that the -girl shall be your wife, Bennett, for I have sworn to keep my promise, -and I will not fail you, by Heaven!” vowed Hermann, continuing: - -“As for neglecting to get matters into shape, that is false, for I -have been quietly working to the promised end all these weeks, but, -having encountered such determined opposition from the girl, I thought -it expedient not to press her too hard, but to depend on force and -cunning, since fair means failed. In fact, one of my objects in going -to New York was to enlist the aid of my clever half-sister, Mrs. -Stirling, in accomplishing the end in view. She will arrive with -her daughter this morning, and although I admit that the case looks -unpromising now, I believe we will soon wind a web around Leola from -which she cannot escape. Go home, Bennett, and rest easy in the thought -that before the end of a week she will be your charming bride.” - -The prospective bridegroom beamed with joy and assured Hermann that he -was ready to co-operate in any plan proposed for Leola’s subjugation. - -“I will go to any length now to punish her for her contempt, and for -advising me to marry a skinny old maid like Amanda Tuttle when I’m rich -enough to buy a lovely young girl for a bride!” he vowed, coarsely, and -took leave with renewed hope. - -In the hall, as he was going out, he encountered Miss Tuttle, and -fancied she might have been eavesdropping from her air of confusion, -but he stalked past her with a curt nod that cut to her tender heart -like a knife. - -“Oh, what has come over him when he used to be so friendly? Can it be -that he is angry at Leola’s suggestion that he should court me?” sighed -the poor thing, deprecatingly. - -It would have been well indeed if she had been listening, as Bennett -suspected, for then she might have been able to inform Leola of the -perils that threatened her in the joining of forces of Wizard Hermann -and his worldly-wise sister, but she had only been loitering about the -hall in hopes of a little interview when he came out, and tears of -disappointment brimmed over in her kind gray eyes, when he passed her -with so indifferent a greeting. - -As she followed to the door and watched him galloping away toward home, -she saw the carriage coming with the Stirlings, and ran to tell Leola -the news. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -WHAT THE ROBINS HEARD. - - -By-and-by, when Jessie removed the dust of travel, and freshened -herself up with a dainty blue gown that just matched her sky-blue eyes, -the two girls strolled out upon the lawn, and presently found seats in -the favorite rose-arbor, where the robins, nesting overhead, made a -mighty twittering in vain protest against their unwelcome intrusion. - -“It is because you are a stranger, Jessie,” laughed Leola. “It is quite -different when Ray and I come here together--they treat us quite as if -we belonged to the Robin family.” - -“Who is Ray?” asked Jessie, curiously. - -Leola could not help blushing furiously, but she said, as carelessly as -she could: - -“Oh, only one of our neighbors!” - -She was inwardly furious with herself at this slip of the tongue that -was destined to lead her into self-betrayal. Ah, how true it is that a -name that is close to the heart must often rise to the lips. - -To distract Jessie’s attention she asked, all in a breath: - -“When are you going to marry your grand, rich lover, Jessie?” - -“My wedding will be in October,” fibbed Miss Stirling, who had no mind -to confess that she had lost the prize, and she continued: - -“Mr. Olyphant has gone on a yachting tour with some friends now, and I -do not know exactly when they will return. It was expected they would -only be gone two weeks, but they extended the trip. I miss him very -much, and I shall be quite frantic if he stays much longer!” - -“Then you love him very much?” queried Leola, with shining eyes. - -“Love him! I should say so!” cried Jessie, eagerly. “Why, Leola, he is -as handsome as a picture, tall, with an elegant figure, fine features, -brown, curly hair, and beautiful, laughing blue eyes!” - -“So has Ray!” cried Leola, then bit her lips in confusion, sighing to -herself: - -“What a lovesick little goose I am, giving away my dangerous secret in -spite of myself!” - -“Ray again!” cried Jessie, suspiciously. “Come, now, tell me all about -him, Leola. A neighbor, you said, but I knew no one of that name about -here last summer. You say he has laughing blue eyes like Chester -Olyphant, so you must be fond of him, this neighbor! Confess now, is he -your lover?” - -“Oh, nonsense, Jessie, we were talking of your lover!” cried Leola. “Go -on, please, tell me more of him, and of your love for each other.” - -“We are perfectly devoted to each other,” declared Jessie, -unblushingly. “How could I help loving him--with all that money!” - -“But, Jessie, if Mr. Olyphant were poor, would you not love him just -the same?” - -Jessie had a red rose in her hand, and she tore it to pieces with -absent-minded fingers as she replied, bluntly: - -“Bah. I wouldn’t permit myself to love a poor man if he were a perfect -Adonis!” - -But artless Leola, with rosy cheeks and glowing eyes, retorted: - -“Then you do not know how to love, Jessie--not even the meaning of that -sacred word, for I would adore Ray Chester if he had not a second coat -to his back!” - -“Ray Chester! There you go again!” cried Miss Stirling, with a violent -start. “Oh, come now, you are madly in love with some man, Leola, and -you have got to tell me all about it this minute!” - -“Oh, you are mistaken!” cried poor Leola, trying to flounder out of her -difficulty. - -“I am not mistaken! Oh, no! I know all the signs of love, and you -cannot even keep his name off your lips!” cried Miss Stirling, -triumphantly: - -It was true: Leola realized it, and felt how impossible it was to keep -hidden the happy secret of her love. Indeed, she fairly ached to tell -it to some sweet, sympathetic girl friend, and why not Jessie, whom -she had known from childhood, and who had always been fairly friendly? -True; the young lady was twenty-three, four years older than herself, -but as each was madly in love with a splendid young man, there was a -bond of sympathy between their hearts that might bring good results if -they fairly understood each other. - -She suddenly made up her artless mind to confide in beautiful, -blue-eyed Jessie, and beg her to intercede with her guardian to consent -to her happiness, but because tears were very close to her own dark -eyes, she put Ray aside for a moment to recover herself, saying, -laughingly: - -“Only think, Jessie, I have a rich lover, too. Our neighbor, Giles -Bennett, who has gotten rich by coal since his wife died, wants to -marry me, the little girl he used to dandle on his knee! Now, what do -you think of that?” - -“A splendid match for you, Leola, and I hope you will accept him,” -declared Jessie, frankly. - -“Oh, no, no, no!” Leola cried out, quickly, and Jessie retorted: - -“More fool you, then, to let such a chance slip through your fingers! -If I weren’t going to marry Chester Olyphant I’d take old Fatty off -your hands myself. But it seems, from what you let slip just now, that -there’s a poor young man in the case--Ray Chester, you said, and if you -do not tell me the whole story instantly I shall die of curiosity!” - -Leola, with her beautiful face glowing like a rose, exclaimed: - -“I don’t want you to die, Jessie, so I am going to ‘’fess,’ as the -children say, and, after all, I think I ought to confide in you, for it -is through you all this happiness has come to me.” - -“Through me,” gasped Jessie, and her lips went white, while a cold hand -seemed to press all the life from her heart with a swift, horrible -suspicion that centered around that name “Chester,” breathed so sweetly -just now from Leola’s lovely lips. - -But Leola did not observe these signs of emotion. She was looking down, -bashfully, and playing with a bunch of red roses in the belt of her -simple white gown. Her beauty was glorified by the love that thrilled -at her heart. - -“I will begin at the beginning first of all, and tell you how I saved -Ray Chester’s life,” she said, softly, and, as before, her voice seemed -to linger over that name like a caress. - -Miss Stirling did not answer a word. She sat still and pale, listening, -with a horrible presentiment of what was coming, and a hatred for -innocent Leola, a jealous hatred that was more bitter than death. - -Leola, still playing with her roses, in bashful confusion, looked down -with the curly lashes sweeping her rosy cheeks, and told her story -briefly, sweetly, and with the simplicity of strong emotion, dwelling -but lightly on her own heroism in saving Ray Chester’s life, and -touching, reservedly, on their love-story, but bringing into prominence -his confession that he had fallen so desperately in love with her -pictures that he had come to seek her and offer his love. - -She concluded, gently: - -“And although Ray has never once mentioned your name, he did not -deny it when I said that I was sure it was you from whom he got the -pictures; and, Jessie, dear, I am so glad you took those little -snap-shots of me, for through them has come the happiness of my life, -and I shall always be glad Ray saw them and loved me!” - -The musical voice ceased speaking, but as Jessie made no answer, Leola -added, ardently: - -“He is only a poor artist, my darling Ray, but I am glad, after all, -that he is poor, for he knows I love him for himself alone, for ‘his -own true worth,’ as the poem says, you know, Jessie.” - -She gave a violent start when Miss Stirling answered, in a hoarse, -concentrated voice of hatred and bitterness: - -“You are a silly little fool, Leola Mead!” - -“Oh, Jessie!” and Leola’s voice trembled with wounded feeling. - -She looked up and saw that her companion was deadly pale and trembling. - -“Oh, what is the matter? Are you ill, Jessie? Have I wearied you with -my story?” - -Miss Stirling was very cunning, or very brave. She had got a heart -wound, but she would not cry out against the hand that struck the blow; -after that one passionate outburst she struggled for calmness. - -With a hollow laugh, she answered: - -“I am very, very tired, after my long journey from New York, and the -sun is very hot, but--I shall be better presently.” - -“Shall I go and bring you a little sip of wine?” urged Leola, and -Jessie assented. - -She was glad to be alone for one moment, to cry out aloud at the fate -that had parted her from the man she loved. - -“Mamma was right, and I was wrong. He was in love with her, after all, -and he came here, instead of going yachting, as he intended--came here -to woo this simple rustic, won by her wondrous beauty, that was more -dangerous than I dreamed! But he shall never marry Leola Mead--never! -Why, I think I would murder her first! And what will he say when he -finds me here? Above all, why is he masquerading under a false name, -and pretending to be a poor artist? Ah, I have it! He means to deceive -the silly girl; his intentions are dishonorable, but I will unmask him, -I will break up the affair, I swear it!” clenching her white hands -desperately. - -Leola came back with the wine and a biscuit, and Jessie accepted, -eagerly. - -“Wine always clears my brain, somehow, and I have got a lot of scheming -and planning to do,” she thought, as she drained the last drop and -munched the sweet biscuit. - -“Ah, you look better now. I am afraid it quite unnerved you, hearing -all about that accident to Ray,” exclaimed Leola, tenderly. - -“Yes, yes, it was dreadful; it made my flesh creep. Besides, I was very -tired, you know, and that made it worse; but I am ever so much better -now, thanks to the wine! Really, Leola, you were quite a heroine, and -I cannot wonder that my artist friend fell in love with you, though I -cannot, for the life of me, remember any man by that name, Ray Chester. -I know I loaned your pictures to my lover, Chester Olyphant, but it -cannot be that he came here to deceive a poor innocent country girl -because of her pretty face--oh no! I cannot believe that of my lover. -It is a good thing I came in time to thwart his evil designs, if he -really is my Chester, but--ah!” She looked up, wildly, for a man’s -step crunched on the ground, and the next moment he stepped into the -arbor--Ray Chester, or Ray Olyphant, cool, handsome, smiling, like the -villain in the play. - -Miss Stirling sprang to her feet with a thrilling cry. The next moment -she flung herself on his broad breast, her arms about his neck, crying -joyously: - -“Chester Olyphant, my own darling, naughty, runaway boy!” - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -CHESTER OLYPHANT’S CURSE. - - -Had an earthquake rent the solid ground beneath Leola’s feet she could -not have been more terribly shocked. - -She had listened in horror, with a wildly palpitating heart, to the -words that slipped from Miss Stirling’s cruel lips--listened, with -the blood leaping like fire through her veins, to the suspicions -suggested so coolly; but at the sudden and startling finale, when her -rival sprang joyously to the breast of her lover--at this shocking -finale, Leola’s blood, from coursing like liquid fire through her -veins, swiftly congealed to ice, her face went white as snow, her heart -stopped its wild pulsations, and she sank upon the ground, limply, like -one dead. - -And overhead the sun shone on in the clear blue sky, and the merry -robins sang among the roses as if love and life had not seemingly come -to an end together for stricken Leola. - -But if that terrible swoon had not overtaken her at that crucial -moment, Leola would have seen her lover recoil in anger from Jessie’s -embrace, and push her gently but decisively away, saying, rebukingly: - -“Miss Stirling, pray remember that our brief engagement ended long ago, -and that this advance on your part is in the worst possible taste.” - -If she had been conscious, instead of lying like a dead girl on the -ground amid the ruins of her happiness, she would have seen Jessie -Stirling sink down and clasp Chester’s knees, and with burning tears -beseech him to love her again because she could not endure life without -him. - -She would have heard these passionate prayers repulsed; she would have -heard Chester Olyphant saying, coldly: - -“Words are useless, Miss Stirling, for, after all, I never really loved -you, and you entrapped me somehow into an engagement that my heart -never sanctioned. The glamour of passion quickly faded, and when your -own folly gave me an excuse to gain an honorable release from fetters -that began to gall, I was glad to retreat with honor. I have to tell -you things thus frankly, because it is the only way out of your efforts -at a reconciliation that can never be effected, since my whole heart is -given to another.” - -All the while he was unconscious of Leola, lying there like a dead girl -on the ground, and he continued, impatiently: - -“Pray get up, Miss Stirling; it is embarrassing to have you kneel to -me. Be seated, I beg you, and calm yourself. This is certainly a very -unexpected rencontre. I did not know you were at Wheatlands. Has not -Leola, then, told you she is my promised wife?” - -Sinking, sullenly, to the arbor bench as he raised her to her feet, she -hissed, furiously: - -“The silly little rustic told me she was in love with a man named Ray -Chester, but how was I to guess that her poor artist lover was the -millionaire society man, Chester Olyphant, masquerading under a false -name and guise, perhaps to deceive a pretty, ignorant country girl, -with more beauty than brains?” - -He recoiled in horror from her bold accusation, his handsome face went -white, his blue eyes flashed lightning. - -“How dare you?” he thundered, clenching his fist; then it fell -helplessly to his side. “You are a woman; I cannot strike you. I can -only reason and explain.” - -“Yes, explain, if you can, for your conduct certainly appears very -suspicious,” Jessie Stirling answered, with a bitter, taunting laugh -that nearly drove him wild. - -And yet, in all his anger, he knew she was right; it did look bad, this -masquerade; and, although he despised the girl, he knew he must explain -for Leola’s sake. - -Still unconscious that his bonny sweetheart lay upon the ground, so -close that if he stepped backward he must stumble over her senseless -form, he glanced out of the arbor to see if she were coming, and then -turned back to Jessie, saying, hoarsely: - -“It looks suspicious, I grant you, but when a man is cursed with -immense wealth, and knows himself constantly the prey of designing -women wanting to marry him for his money, is it not excusable that, by -a little harmless deception, he may win a girl’s heart by love alone, -and thus ensure his future happiness?” - -“Bah! a slim excuse!” she sneered; but, restraining his resentment, he -continued, earnestly: - -“This, I swear to you, Miss Stirling, was my only reason for the little -deception I practised on Leola, and my plan succeeded well. I have -won for my own the sweetest, truest heart that ever beat, and I had -decided last night to come here to-day to confess all to Leola and her -guardian, and to press for an immediate marriage, in order to save her -from the persecutions of a rich old man, who has Mr. Hermann in his -power, by reason of a mortgage on his property. It was my design to -relieve his embarrassment by advancing the amount myself to pay off the -mortgage. I hope you will accept this truthful explanation, and forego -the gratification of your unwise spite by any persecution of my dear -little love, Leola, whom I must now seek.” - -“You will not have far to seek. Look behind you on the ground!” Miss -Stirling answered, with a bitter laugh. - -Then for the first time he became aware of Leola’s presence--Leola -lying like a dead girl on the ground at his feet. - -In the one moment that he stood gazing down like a statue of despair, -Miss Stirling cried, with triumphant malice: - -“Just before you came in Leola and I had had a very satisfactory -explanation, for I recognized you in her description, and I soon made -her understand your villainy. Yes, I told her you were betrothed to me, -and that you were deceiving her. She believed me, and despised you, and -just at the moment of her outcry against you, when you entered and I -sprang to your breast, claiming you for my own, she dropped like one -with a bullet in her heart, and there she has been lying ever since, -and more than likely the poor, deceived girl is really dead of the -shock.” - -“Fiend!” he hurled at her, bitterly, and sank on his knees by Leola, -frantically searching for signs of life, kissing her cold, white face, -calling on her in love’s holy name to waken for his sake, and speak to -him again. - -Jessie Stirling, listening with outward cold indifference, prayed that -Leola would never answer those vows of love, never open her sweet dark -eyes again, prayed that death might indeed claim her for his own. - -And she smiled when all his efforts and all caresses proved vain to -bring life back to the stricken girl--smiled even when he turned to her -with accusing eyes and cried in bitter agony: - -“Your false words have broken my little love’s heart, and slain her as -surely as if you had struck a dagger into her breast! You have murdered -an innocent girl who never wronged you, Jessie Stirling, yet you sit -there and smile like the fiend you are! Do you think you can ever know -any happiness after this? No, for my hate will follow you through life, -and my curse will darken your days and make sleepless your nights till -you pray for death’s release!” - -He ceased and turned back to Leola, kissing her cold face and hands -with burning lips, then lifting the inert form in his arms, he bore -her toward the house, Jessie Stirling following in a sort of awe, -mixed with rage and revolt against the curse he had pronounced against -her, wondering if there could be any fateful occult power to cause its -fulfillment. - -With a heart as heavy as lead, Chester Olyphant bore his burden up the -steps to the hall, where Miss Tuttle met him, shrieking: - -“Oh, Heaven have mercy, what has happened to Leola?” - -She was appalled when he groaned in anguish: - -“Alas, I found her dead in the arbor. Lead the way to her room.” - -“Not dead, oh, no, it cannot be! Surely it is only a faint! Come this -way,” sobbed the governess, and in a few moments Leola was placed on -her little white bed among the dainty pillows, no whiter than her face. - -Miss Tuttle felt for her heart, but there was no faintest throb to give -hope of life. - -“Oh, bring a doctor, do bring a doctor, Mr. Chester! I cannot surely -believe she is dead. Once I saw her lie like this half an hour when she -had fallen from a horse, and she may revive this time, too. Oh, please, -please bring Doctor Barnes at once!” she exclaimed, excitedly, and, as -he flew to do her bidding, she fell to undressing the girl, tenderly, -but swiftly, saying to Jessie, who stood near, looking on, stupidly: - -“Run, run to the kitchen and tell Betsy I must have some warm water for -a bath for Leola. She may be in a sort of spasm.” - -Jessie Stirling ran out of the room, but she did not carry the message -to the kitchen. - -Instead she sought her uncle, to whom she said, with an injured air: - -“Oh, Uncle Hermann. I’m so glad I came this morning, for I have -detected a villain in a plot to ruin poor Leola! You remember how I -told you I was betrothed to Chester Olyphant, a millionaire of New -York, and that he was gone on a yachting tour for a few weeks. Well, -this morning I found that, instead of going yachting, as he pretended, -the unprincipled villain, who knew of Leola from me, had come down here -masquerading as Ray Chester, an artist, making love to poor, innocent -Leola. This morning he came upon us in the arbor, and when I exposed -him to the girl, she fell in a swoon so deep that it looks like death.” - -A bitter oath shrilled over Wizard Hermann’s lips, and he cried: - -“Where is he, the villain? Let me get my hands on his throat!” - -“He is gone to bring Doctor Barnes, uncle, but he will be back with him -presently, and were I you, dear uncle, I should wreak vengeance on the -wretch for his double treachery--to me, his betrothed, and to poor, -innocent Leola, whom he has deceived with his false protestations of -love. You need not fear to anger me, for I will never marry him now; -I hate him for his treachery,” raged the artful girl, and her uncle -responded: - -“I’ll throw him down the steps and break every bone in his body, if he -ventures back here. But Leola is lying unconscious, you say. Have they -brought her into the house?” - -“Yes, she is in her room, and her governess with her. I daresay she -will revive presently, and as I cannot do anything more for her I’ll -go help mamma to unpack our trunks, while you watch for the doctor and -that wretch, Chester Olyphant.” - -And hoping in the bottom of her heart that not a bone would be left -unbroken in the young man’s body, hating him because he knew her for -what she was, and because she could never win him back again, she flew -to her mother to relate all that had occurred. - -“I told you so. I knew that day that Chester Olyphant was struck with -the girl, and wanted to find her out, but you would not listen to me, -and now you have lost him forever,” was her comment. - -“Oh, I knew you’d have to go over all that, but even if I had known it, -how could I have helped it?” was the ungracious reply. - -“Then, what do you want me to do?” asked the querulous mother, and she -quailed when Jessie whispered in her ear: - -“I want you to go and help Miss Tuttle to revive Leola--that is, to -pretend to, but really to see that she stays dead, for it would be joy -to me to see Chester Olyphant bereaved of his love.” - -“Jessie, you are mad, girl! I cannot aid you in such a nefarious -design,” cried the poor, nervous mother, trembling as with a chill. - -“Then I will manage it myself!” Jessie hissed, rushing madly from the -room to Leola’s bedside. - -But Miss Tuttle gently barred her from the door. - -“Doctor Barnes is here, and he will not permit anyone in the room but -myself, not even her betrothed,” she said, curtly, shutting the door -calmly in Jessie’s very face. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -A TERRIBLE DEED. - - -Wizard Hermann turned about, half-stunned from his interview with -Jessie Stirling, and went back to his laboratory, where he had -been reading a new treatise on one of his favorite hobbies--the -transmutation of the baser metals into gold. The man had no more heart -or conscience than a clam, and his interest in chemistry was greater -than his love for humanity. - -The greatest aim he had in life was to prosecute to a successful issue -the two hobbies that had been the ruling passion of his life, to -invent a magic elixir of life, and to create fabulous riches to sustain -a life so lengthened in luxury. - -He was mad for gold wherewith to purchase the smallest specimen of a -newly discovered mineral called radium, to which was ascribed the most -remarkable properties ever heard of, but the price of this treasure was -fabulous to a man in his situation, impoverished by a lifetime spent in -this costly and vain pursuit of the unattainable. - -His great plan and hope had been to pay off the mortgage on the place, -and to immediately place another upon it, so as to invest a portion -in the new mineral, from which so much was hoped and predicted in the -scientific world. - -His rage at the failure of his plan was deep and bitter. With Leola -dead, all his plans would come to naught. Old Bennett would foreclose -the mortgage and ruin him. In his old age he must go forth a beggar -into the world, friendless, and without a place to lay his head. - -Through this terrible trick of fate all his plans and aspirations must -be wrecked, and science lose, perhaps, the magnificent discoveries to -which he had devoted his life. - -No wonder he was filled with a blind fury against Chester Olyphant, -through whose treachery Leola’s death had come to pass, thus thwarting -all his plans for future gain. - -He shut the treatise, whose reading had been so fatefully interrupted, -and went out to watch for Chester Olyphant with murder in his heart. - -But while he had been talking with Jessie, and putting away his -precious treatise, time had slipped faster than he knew. Olyphant, who -had met the doctor close by in the road, had quickly returned with him, -and he had gone up to Leola’s room. - -The young man, himself a prey to the bitterest anxiety, with hope and -fear commingled, was waiting in the wide, sunny hall for news, when he -came face to face with the grim master of the house, like a ravening -lion seeking for prey. - -He forced a smile upon his pallid lips, and exclaimed, eagerly: - -“Ah. Mr. Hermann, I have been wishing to see you, sir. I”-- - -He got no further, for Wizard Hermann, temporarily mad with baffled -hope and bitter resentment, suddenly raised his hand, in whose clenched -fingers gleamed a heavy iron instrument, and in an access of fury -struck unerringly at the brown, curly head bent courteously before him. - -It was a blow that might have felled an ox. - -Chester Olyphant, taken off guard, ignorant of the fact that he was in -the presence of one temporarily or morally insane, received the blow -full, and went down before it without a struggle, yielding up life in -one short, choking gasp, that was like a thunder-clap in the ears of -his foe. - -For, all in a moment, there came over the frenzied murderer a wild -realization of his deadly crime, and bending down to peer at the still, -white face of the fallen man, he groaned in horror of his sin and its -consequences: - -“Dead! dead! Why, I did not mean to strike so hard! I--I--never thought -one blow could kill! What shall I do? No one must find me here. I must -fly”-- - -At this incoherent moment, while he was rising from the body of his -victim, there came slouching through the wide, sunny hall the figure -of his man of all work, Joslyn, a strange, hideous, taciturn man, yet -devoted to his master’s service through many thankless years. - -Joslyn stopped and stared in bewilderment, glaring at the uncanny scene. - -Wizard Hermann, peering up at him in consternation, whimpered like a -beaten hound: - -“I didn’t mean to hit so hard. He--he--was too easy to kill! If they -find me here they’ll hang me for murder! Save me! save me! Joslyn!” - -The hideous servitor, conscious of but one thing--his master’s -peril--was quick to hear and heed. - -At any moment some one might come in at the open door, and one glance -meant detection of the hideous crime his master had wrought. - -Joslyn looked stupid, but his master knew it was only in looks. His -brain was keen and alert, as he had proved many a time before. - -Just one moment he paused, hesitated; then his dull eyes gleamed -beneath the bushy brows, and he was prepared for action. - -They were just in front of the library door, and, swooping down like -an eagle on his prey, he caught up Chester Olyphant’s limp body in his -long, wiry arms, and dragged him inside the room. Hermann staggered -after him with quaking limbs and a ghastly face; then Joslyn softly -shut and locked the door. - -The two old men, who had grown gray in each other’s confidence and -service--grim old men, who had outgrown pity or interest in youth and -love and all that was sweetest in the world, now stood face to face, -and between them, on the floor, that limp body that, now cold and -senseless, had been but a little while ago a picture of manly strength -and splendor, with a heart throbbing fast with the passion of youth. - -“Who saw you do it?” Joslyn demanded, gruffly. - -“Not a soul!” whimpered the craven wretch. “You see, I did it in a -passion before I thought, because he”-- - -But Joslyn’s coarse, hairy hand, upraised, commanded silence. - -“Don’t waste time now to tell why ’twas done. The thing is that you did -it, and that you must hide it or swing for it,” he said, with rough -emphasis that made his master cower again like a beaten hound. - -The servant knelt down and examined the silent victim. - -“Dead as a door-nail, an’ gittin’ cold a’ready! You hit him a turrible -whack, sir, on his head! Must have fractured his skull, the way it -feels.” - -“I didn’t know I had such strength. I hit harder than I meant. -I--I”--began Hermann, weakly, but the man shut him off. - -“No use cryin’ over spilt milk. What’s done is done, an’ now we got to -hide the corp, an’ let it go as one of the myster’ous disappearances we -read about every week in the newspapers!” - -“Joslyn, how clever you are! Oh, if we can only manage it! But I cannot -think clearly. My brain’s on fire ever since Jessie came with her -terrible story, and tempted me to kill him because of the hearts he -had broken--hers and Leola’s, too, so that she wanted vengeance on him -for their wrongs. So I seized that iron wedge and went to watch for -him, and the minute he spoke to me I struck, and he fell. He’s dead, -and he deserved it. I am not sorry, only I don’t want to be found out,” -Hermann mumbled on, unheeded by the other, who stood with his brows -wrinkled in profound thought. - -He chuckled, suddenly, and Hermann muttered: - -“You have a thought, clever Joslyn; you will save me!” - -“Perhaps so, sir, if I can work out my plan.” - -“Yes, yes?” - -“You know what’s under this floor, sir?” - -“The underground passage where my ancestors used to hide from the -Indians--yes, yes. Can we drop him through?” - -“Sure, if I can get the tools in here to rip up some flooring and put -it back. Will you stay here, locked in, while I push them into the -window, for I daren’t bring them into the hall.” - -“Yes, go, quickly,” and he let him out and closed and locked the door -again, waiting, with a chill of horror at his heart, of that white and -silent thing lying at his feet. - -Presently there was a noise outside the window, and he went and took in -the tools that Joslyn reached up to him. Then he admitted him, and they -went at their grewsome work of hiding the mute witness of that terrible -crime. - -In the midst of their task came a light rap on the door. - -“Uncle Hermann, I want you!” Jessie said, excitedly. - -“I am engaged--excuse me,” he bawled, hoarsely, through the keyhole. - -“All right,” she answered, after a moment’s hesitation; “I only wanted -to tell you about Leola. Doctor Barnes says she is not dead, after all, -and he is bringing her around; do you hear?” - -“Yes, I hear, Jessie. Now go away, like a good girl; I cannot be -disturbed,” he assured her, turning back to Joslyn in time to see him -lift Chester Olyphant’s body and let it fall through the opening in the -floor. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -A WAYSIDE FLOWER. - - - “Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; - I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell.” - -Leola sat up in bed among the white covers, scarcely whiter than her -face, and smiled wanly into Miss Tuttle’s anxious eyes. - -“I am sorry that I am better. I wish I had died,” she said, bitterly. - -For twenty-four hours she had been threatened with brain fever, but now -the crisis had passed, and she was improving. - -Doctor Barnes, who had been very uneasy all this time, had said just -now she would soon be well--that her youth and fine constitution had -tided her safely over the danger point. - -These two days Miss Tuttle had nursed her most carefully, admitting, by -the doctor’s orders, no one but himself. - -In vain Jessie Stirling pleaded to come in and help nurse the patient; -Miss Tuttle sent her ruthlessly away. - -“Doctor Barnes exacts perfect quiet, and trusts her only to me,” she -said, proudly. - -Jessie retired, baffled and angry, to cogitate over the mystery of -Chester Olyphant’s disappearance. - -For since he had gone to bring the doctor to Leola, no one had seen his -face. - -Jessie had by no means expected him to retreat from the field of -battle. Instead, she had looked for him to march off with victory on -his banners, the battle gained, the prize won. She knew that if Chester -could get an opportunity to tell her uncle that he was rich and would -pay off the mortgage on Wheatlands, he could easily gain his ends and -marry Leola. - -It was in dread of this that she had incited him to anger against -Chester, hoping to prevent their coming to an understanding. - -But Chester’s unexplained disappearance had startled and surprised -everyone, for only this morning Mrs. Gray, the widow at whose cottage -home he boarded, had come to Wheatlands to seek him, saying he had not -been back for two days. - -Diligent inquiry revealed the fact that Doctor Barnes was the last -person who had seen him at all, having left him alone in the hall the -day he had brought him to see Leola. - -Widow Gray was quite alarmed, and did not know what to think. - -“He certainly expected to return, for he did not take his trunk away,” -she said, but Mr. Hermann made light of the matter. - -“Go home, and don’t worry--he has perhaps been called away by a -telegram, and will be back in due time,” he said. - -“Indeed, I hope so, sir. He was a very fine young man, and I hope he -has come to no harm,” she protested. - -And again the wizard laughed: - -“How could he come to harm in broad daylight in my house?” - -“That’s so, sir; I don’t see how he could indeed, but I hope I shall -hear from him soon, for I had bad dreams last night, and my mind -misgives me,” she sighed. - -Then she asked if she might see the sick girl, but was told she was too -ill. Thereupon she went away, sighing, with a very long face, saying to -herself: - -“If I had told that horrid old man he would not have believed me, but -last night I heard spirit voices sobbing in the pine tree outside my -window, and whenever I hear that, it’s a sure sign of trouble.” - -While she went slowly out of the gate Miss Tuttle was watching her -from the window, and she said to the pale girl sitting back among the -pillows: - -“There goes Mrs. Gray. I suppose she has been to inquire about you.” - -Leola’s wistful eyes looked at her with a mute question, and she -answered, gently: - -“You’re thinking of Mr. Chester Olyphant, I know, dearie, and I had -better tell you and get it off your mind. He has gone away.” - -“Gone away!” Leola repeated, trembling, her lips white, her eyes somber -with misery. - -“Yes, gone away, and a good riddance, I say, for how could he face you -again after all that has happened? He has nearly broken Miss Stirling’s -heart as well as yours, and she vows she will never speak to him again -for your sake! Only think of the great monster, engaged to her, and -coming off down here to make love to you, because you were so pretty -and so innocent. There was not a word he could say in his own defence, -nothing but to sneak away like a hound beaten for stealing! Yes, he is -gone, and I hope that is the last of him!” - -Leola’s white, trembling hands hid her face, but presently she spoke -wearily through her fingers: - -“I have just one favor to ask you, dear Miss Tuttle. Never mention his -name to me again, so that I may find it easier to forget.” - -Alas, would she find oblivion of pain so easily? - - “When vain desire at last and vain regret - Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, - What shall assuage the unforgotten pain - And teach the unforgetful to forget?” - -To her own heart the unhappy girl was saying: - -“Oh, why did I not die when I found that he was false, and my dream of -love over? Why linger on when the charm is gone from life, and I must -live on, shamed, humiliated, by the thought that Jessie Stirling’s -proud, rich lover stooped from the height where he should dwell to -pluck a wayside flower, then trample it beneath his feet? Oh, it is -torture to think he held me so lightly!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -IN THE SPIDER’S WEB. - - -She wondered that she did not die of her shame and despair, so keen -was her pain and humiliation, but the day wore to sunset and she was -still alive, although the face of the whole world had changed to her -in twenty-four hours, so that the blue of the sky and the gold of the -sun no longer seemed fair, and the birdsongs in the trees outside had -changed to notes of sadness that fell coldly on her heart. - -There came to her a sharp memory of the little song she had once loved, -the one that had lingered on her lips the day she rode so blithely away -on Rex to meet her fate in the beautiful dark blue eyes that had been -so false and fair: - - “Honey-flowers to the honey-comb, - And the honey-bees from home. - - “A honey-comb and a honey-flower - And the bee shall have his hour. - - “A honeyed heart for the honey-comb - And the honey-bee flies home. - - “A heavy heart in the honey-flower - And the bee has had his hour.” - -“I am going to let you sit in this easy-chair by the window to watch -the beautiful July sunset, and Mr. Hermann wants to come in and see -you,” Miss Tuttle said, placing the chair ready and dressing her -patient in a soft white wrapper. - -But it was Jessie Stirling who pushed open the door and tripped in, -first taking advantage of its being unlocked. - -“Poor dear, how changed you look, how pale, how ill! It was a terrible -shock to you to find out how Chester Olyphant had deceived you, was it -not?” she twittered, loquaciously, coolly taking a chair in front of -Leola, and adding: - -“You may well fancy it was a shock to me, too, to find him down here -flirting with you when I thought him safe on a yacht thousands of -miles away. Did Miss Tuttle tell you he has gone away in a huff at -being found out, and without leaving any word for me? Yes, he has gone, -and at first I vowed I never would forgive him his flirtation with you, -but--well, when I go back to New York perhaps I will relent, after he -has coaxed long enough. We really are very fond of each other, you -know, though Chester cannot help flirting any more than he can help -breathing. I shall never let him know how hard you took it, for that -would flatter his vanity too much!” - -His vanity, dear heaven! and she had believed he loved her, thought -Leola, with silent shame and despair. - -She could not bear to look at Jessie, his jubilant betrothed, sitting -there in her pretty fashionable gown and fluffy flaxen locks in a wavy -aureole over her white brow. She wished secretly that the girl would go -away and leave her alone with her wounded heart. - -But Jessie went on, eagerly: - -“When I consent to forgive him for this I shall scold him roundly, -you may be sure, Leola, and I shall pretend to him that after that -little fainting fit you came around all right, and despised him for his -duplicity, and vowed you would never see him again. He shall not think, -the vain creature, that you wore the willow an hour for his sake. I -will pretend you had other lovers to take his place. That will be true, -for there is Mr. Bennett, who adores you, although you have flouted him -so badly. As for me, if I were in your place I’d marry Bennett out of -hand, to show Chester Olyphant how little I cared about him! That would -take the conceit out of him quicker than anything you could do!” - -So she twittered on artfully until Leola’s lovely face grew crimson -with shame at her own weakness in caring so much for one so unworthy. - -Without saying one word, her somber eyes turned to the setting sun; she -writhed with secret shame that Jessie could think she cared so much -for her frivolous lover. Oh, if she could only tear this pain from -her heart; only smile again as before this cruel blow that had nearly -struck her dead with its agony. - -As Jessie chattered on, she began to feel a passionate contempt for the -man as the pretty blonde depicted him, shallow, vain, unscrupulous. - - “Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a mouldering string: - I am shamed through all my nature to have loved so slight a thing!” - -With sudden angry passion, her dark eyes flashing, she turned upon the -artful girl: - -“Please speak no more to me on that subject, Jessie. You weary me. -I despise the man. I wish never to hear his name again!” she cried, -bitterly, and her weakness seemed to fall from her, in passionate -contempt. - -“Poor Leola, I cannot blame you,” cried the triumphant blonde, -cheerfully, just as the door opened again, and Wizard Hermann glided -softly into the room. - -“Ah, Leola, you are better. I am very glad,” he said, in a smooth, oily -voice, taking the chair Jessie vacated, saying she must go to mamma. - -She nodded, wearily, without speaking, wishing they would all leave -her alone, for every human face seemed hateful to her now. - -She would not meet his eyes, or she would have seen that he looked ill -and nervous, too, and that his always furtive, unpleasant manner had -grown more marked and repellent still. - -“Miss Tuttle,” he added, “you may leave the room. I have private -affairs to talk of with my ward.” - -When they were quite alone he turned back to her, saying, earnestly: - -“I have come, Leola, to explain my private affairs to you, and to make -one more appeal to you to help me out of my trouble.” - -She listened without replying, the deep somber eyes fixed on the fading -sunset beyond the distant hills, and Wizard Hermann continued: - -“For years I have been heavily in debt, and had to borrow money from my -rich neighbor, Mr. Bennett, to meet my living expenses and take care -of you, Leola, in proper style for a pretty young girl. You have had -your governess, your horse, your clothing, without a care on your young -mind, but I, in order to meet your expenses, and keep this roof over -your head, have been obliged to place a mortgage of fifteen thousand -dollars on Wheatlands, and to-morrow the mortgage falls due. If Bennett -forecloses, as he swears he will, we shall all be turned out homeless.” - -It was on her lips to say that she did not care, that nothing really -mattered to her now, but she bit her lips and held back the words, -waiting silently to the end. - -“I have no means of paying my debt; I cannot possibly raise the money, -but neighbor Bennett has been very generous; he has offered to forego -his pay, to destroy the mortgage, on one condition. Are you listening, -Leola?” - -She nodded, without turning her gaze from the sunset hills, and he -continued, eagerly: - -“I think you know what is coming, Leola. Bennett has fallen madly in -love with you, and wants you for his wife. If you consent he will -settle a hundred thousand dollars on you, and forego the debt I owe. -As for the rest, when you are once his wife, you can wind the foolish -old man around your fingers like a ribbon, and have your own way in -everything. If you refuse he swears he will turn us all out of doors in -twenty-four hours.” - -He paused and waited, but she did not speak, and realizing how futile -would be the attempted exercise of authority, he fell to pleading: - -“Can you let this terrible calamity befall us, Leola--me in my old age, -you in your youth and beauty? Why, we would not have whereon to lay our -heads if we anger Giles Bennett.” - -The somber dark eyes turned to him, questioningly: - -“I--I--have always supposed that you held money in trust for me, sir. -I did not dream that I was an expense to you, as you say,” exclaimed -Leola. “Have I then no friends who can help us in our need?” - -“Not one, Leola, for I know nothing of your relations. To be plain, I -took you, a pauper child, from the almshouse, for pity’s sake, and have -reared you as well as though you had been my own daughter. The secret -of your birth I kept, and it shall never pass my lips. But in the hour -of my misfortune I appeal to you to pay the debt of gratitude you owe -me--a debt that you can only pay by marrying Giles Bennett to-morrow.” - -An icy shudder shook her weak frame; she felt that death were sweeter -than such a fate. - -But the man who had befriended her young life was waiting with haggard -eyes for her answer--waiting for her to save him from despair. - -And she, the pauper, nameless, homeless, save for Wizard Hermann’s -charity--would it not be monstrous ingratitude to refuse his prayer? - -She faltered, recklessly: - -“I will marry the man!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -A LITTLE CONSPIRACY. - - -When the rash words had passed Leola’s lips a great trembling seized -upon her, a horror of life she had never felt before, and she longed to -scream out aloud to him that she must take back her promise--that she -could not bind her beautiful, throbbing young life to oily, unctuous -Giles Bennett, the man more than twice her age, and who in no way could -be her fitting mate, not if he paid a million dollars instead of what -he offered. - -But when she saw Wizard Hermann’s radiant face, she dared not utter her -passionate protest against being sold in the market like a beautiful -Circassian slave to the highest bidder. She feared a fit of violence, -or that he might fall down dead at her feet of the revulsion of feeling -from relief to disappointment. - -She restrained the words that ached in her throat, and leaned back, -helplessly, in her chair, her eyes half shut, her face death-white, her -senses reeling, and heard, half-consciously only, the profuse thanks he -was pouring out, and the dazzling picture he was painting of her future -as a rich man’s wife, even adding, consolingly, that the fat old man -might drop off any day from apoplexy, and leave her a rich and happy -young widow. - -“Go, leave me,” she sighed, faintly, and he hurried out, nothing loath, -to spread the good news. - -The next thing Leola knew she was in bed again, and Miss Tuttle was -reviving her with cold water on her face mixed with hot tears that fell -from her own eyes. - -“Oh, Miss Tuttle, what are you crying about?” she sighed, curiously. -“Is it true, then, that he made me--promise to--to”-- - -“To marry Giles Bennett; is that what you mean? Yes, he says you -promised to marry that wretch to-morrow. Oh, oh, oh, this will break my -heart!” and poor Miss Tuttle and Leola, clasped in each other’s arms, -mixed their tears together. - -When they grew a little calmer Leola explained how the promise had been -extorted from her by appeals to her gratitude. - -“Oh, do you think it can be true? Am I only a pauper, taken from the -almshouse, for charity’s sake--perhaps nameless, too?” she sobbed, -bitterly. - -Miss Tuttle could give her no comfort, for although she had been -Leola’s governess from the age of three, she had never fathomed the -mystery about her charge. But she tried to reassure her, saying: - -“Do not brood over it, dear girl, it is possibly one of old Hermann’s -false tales to coerce you into obedience. I should sooner believe that -he has appropriated to his own use money that belonged to you, and -thinks he can make it up to you this way.” - -“To live with Giles Bennett as his wife--that old Falstaff of a man!--I -loathe the prospect!” sobbed Leola. - -“While I envy you with all my heart!” exclaimed the governess. “Oh, -Leola, how strangely fate plays at cross purposes with human beings! -How gladly I would change places with you and become his wife!” - -“Oh, that you could, dear soul!” Leola answered, and neither one slept -that night for the tumult of their thoughts--Leola’s all grief and -repugnance, Miss Tuttle’s all envy and wounded love--and when the -sunshine of the July morning peeped into the windows their faces were -haggard and pain-drawn, and both felt as if the day of execution had -dawned, for Hermann had told the governess to prepare Leola to be -married at sundown that evening, when the carriage would be waiting to -convey her at once to her new home. - -With heavy eyes they looked into each other’s faces, wondering how they -could escape their doom, and Leola cried, desperately: - -“There is one chance left, and I shall take it. When I have paid my -debt of gratitude to my guardian by marrying Giles Bennett, I--I--shall -not be among the living to-morrow!” - -“Do you mean it, Leola?” - -“I swear it,” answered the girl, recklessly, and Miss Tuttle knew, -by the somber gaze of the beautiful dark eyes, that it was true. -Life, that had flowed along like a silvery rippling stream between -flower-fringed banks, had suddenly become a muddy torrent rushing -onward to destruction, and naught could stay its onward course. -Desperate, reckless, she was ready to rush unbidden into the Great -Beyond, daring the unknown future in terror of the awful present. - -“Oh, Leola, you must not! It would be a terrible sin! Promise me you -will not!” cried the poor soul, timorously. - -But Leola’s shut lips kept a deadly silence, and Miss Tuttle continued, -conciliatory: - -“If you could escape this marriage, Leola, would you then be willing to -live?” - -The sudden gleam of hope in the dark eyes assured her that Leola might -yet find something to live for in her shadowed life, and she continued: - -“Dearie, I have a plan that might help you. I’ve been turning it over -and over in my mind, but I never should have broached it had it not -been for your dreadful threat.” - -“Tell it to me,” implored the girl, and glancing cautiously around, -that none might overhear, Miss Tuttle bent and whispered some rapid -words into Leola’s ear. - -A light began to dance in the dark eyes, the pale lips smiled a little, -and Leola cried: - -“It will be a terrible risk to run, but if you can manage it and are -not afraid, I will help all I can, for I long to punish Giles Bennett -for his meanness!” - -“I’ll take all the responsibility for everything,” smiled Miss Tuttle, -glowing with eagerness. “Don’t you worry one bit, Leola; it will all -come right in the end. But, oh, dear, I’ve got to put in a busy day -getting the bride ready.” - -“Make her as pretty as you can, and let the veil be very thick,” -laughed Leola, with renewed good humor. “And, by-the-way, Miss Tuttle, -you are to tell my guardian that before the ceremony begins Giles -Bennett must destroy the mortgage in my presence, or I will not marry -him at all.” - -So the busy day began, for the whole household was in a state of -excitement over the sudden wedding. - -Mrs. Stirling and her daughter entered heartily into the spirit of the -affair, and set the servants to work transforming the dingy parlor into -a floral bower, with wildflowers and evergreens. - -The scheming pair were delighted to think of getting rid of Leola so -easily, hoping that some fortunate turn of fortune’s fickle wheel might -yet bring back Chester Olyphant into Jessie’s power. - -While they worked downstairs on the parlor, Miss Tuttle reported -herself as very busy upstairs, getting ready the simple outfit of the -bride, and packing her trunk for the flitting. Leola would not admit -anybody else inside the door. She said she was too busy and too nervous. - -Inside that locked door there were strange doings, to be sure. - -You would have thought them a pair of amateur actresses, from the way -they went on. - -The governess had dragged down from the garret a little old trunk -containing some stage properties that had once upon a time belonged to -an actress who had died while on a visit to Wizard Hermann’s mother. -Her relatives had never taken away the box, and many a time Leola had -amused herself looking over the queer things on rainy days when she -could not go out. - -She and Miss Tuttle were amusing themselves again, brushing and combing -over the old wigs, Leola trying on the sedate brown front, and Miss -Tuttle the curly golden one, that certainly took fifteen years off her -age, after Leola made up her sallow face with rouge and powder. - -Then Miss Tuttle tried on Leola’s best gown, the dark brown cloth -with the silk waist and loose jacket. The pretty brown toque was not -unbecoming, with the double veil of white dotted malines, and Leola, -who had never expected to smile again, had to giggle like a little -school girl at the tout ensemble. - -“Oh, Miss Tuttle, you will make a lovely bride! I am sorry I shall not -have a handsome gift for you!” she cried. - -“You will have given me the desire of my heart!” cried the governess, -so seriously and gratefully that Leola laughed harder than ever, -thinking she was certainly very easy to please, since portly Giles -Bennett could fill the measure of her happiness. It made her think -of the old adage Betsy, the cook, had repeated to her the other day: -“Ever’buddy to deir taste, missie, as de ole ’oman said when she kissed -de cow.” - -However, it was very lucky for Leola that Miss Tuttle was so infatuated -with the rotund widower that she was willing to win him by hook or -crook, so her laughter grew more and more joyous as she added, merrily: - -“Be sure that you put a little water in all the kerosene lamps about -the house, so that they will flicker and grow dim.” - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -SURPRISES ALL AROUND. - - -Very dimly, indeed, burned the lamps among the floral decorations -as the family at Wheatlands gathered in the parlor for the wedding -ceremony, Jessie and her mother in full evening dress, though Leola had -sent word down that she would be married simply in her traveling dress. - -Outside the gates waited the brand new carriage, with prancing white -horses, that had brought Giles Bennett and the Methodist preacher who -was to perform the ceremony, and in the parlor the bridegroom waited, -spick and span in his new black suit, for his bonny bride. Jessie -Stirling, at the piano, had already begun the first low notes of the -wedding march, and to that sound came Leola slowly down the stairs on -the arm of Miss Tuttle, having peremptorily declined her guardian’s -escort. - -Mrs. Stirling thought it rather ridiculous, as they came in sight, -that that silly old maid, Miss Tuttle, had chosen to wear a hat and -veil like the bride at the ceremony, but she did not give the poor, -drab-faced creature a second look, she was so intent on watching the -proceedings. - -Wizard Hermann met the pair at the door, and taking the golden-haired -girl by the arm, led her to the rotund bridegroom waiting nervously for -his happiness. - -The minister cleared his throat ready to proceed, but the bride stood -still for a moment, facing Giles Bennett, and her low voice said, -distinctly: - -“The mortgage on Wheatlands--the prize for which I am sold, sir--have -you brought it as agreed upon?” - -He produced a folded paper, and she beckoned to her guardian. - -“Examine this paper. Is it bona fide?” - -He answered, huskily: - -“Yes.” - -She looked at Giles Bennett. - -“You are willing that I destroy this paper, on condition that I marry -you immediately afterward?” - -“I agree to your conditions,” he said, and directly the fragments of -the mortgage fluttered, like a miniature snowstorm, from the bride’s -white-gloved hands to the floor. - -Then she took his arm, and they moved across to the waiting minister, -who began to pray. - -In the excitement no one noticed a rapping on the open hall door, nor -that poor Miss Tuttle, instead of attending the bride as maid of honor, -had sunk into a low seat near the door with her handkerchief hiding her -veiled face. - -The music played on softly, like a sigh, the dim lights flickered -forlornly among the fragrant flowers, and the short marriage ceremony -of the Methodist Church in less than ten minutes made Leola Mead the -bride of Giles Bennett, who had bought her for her beauty like a slave -in the Circassian market. - -And just as he pronounced the pair man and wife the man who had been -knocking unheard at the hall door strode impatiently to the parlor and -looked within at the unexpected sight of a wedding party. - -He was a middle-aged man of distinguished appearance, with dark eyes, -grizzled auburn hair and a face bronzed as from travel. No one saw him -as he waited at the door, while the witnesses crowded forward with -eager congratulations to the smirking bridegroom and the veiled bride. - -Last of all came the one who had been sitting yonder sobbing in her -little lace handkerchief, and taking first the hand of Giles Bennett, -she exclaimed, earnestly: - -“I congratulate you, sir, on winning this rare prize. She will make you -very happy, I know.” - -Then, with a soft laugh that startled everyone, she threw her arms -about the bride, half-sobbing: - -“Dear, dear governess, I hate to give you up, even to our kind -neighbor, Mr. Bennett, for you have loved him so well, I know it is for -your best happiness to leave me!” - -With a dexterous movement of her hand she flung off her veil, hat and -wig in one gesture, and stood revealed, beautiful, golden-haired Leola, -masquerading in Miss Tuttle’s worn and threadbare black silk gown, a -skimpy thing, too short and too tight, and likely to burst with the -peal of laughter that shrilled over her rosy lips at their amazed looks. - -They all began talking wildly at once, and staring in wonder at the -veiled bride, who suddenly followed Leola’s example, and threw off hat, -veil and golden wig together, showing Miss Tuttle’s pretty brown waves -of hair, and her pale, rather frightened face that turned piteously to -her new made husband as she faltered, weakly: - -“I planned this deception to save my dear Leola, because she vowed that -rather than live with you, after she had paid her guardian’s debt, she -would kill herself this very night. I couldn’t let her do that, the -poor girl, who hasn’t a friend on earth but me, and whom I love as if -she were my own child, so, to save her, I carried out this trick, and -I am your wife, sir, whether you own me or not. But though I am not as -young and pretty as Leola, I will be a better companion for you, Giles, -than she would ever be, for she fears and hates you, while I have -always respected you highly ever since I knew you, and will try to make -you a good wife if you will overlook the little ruse by which I won -you.” - -They were all so dazed that no one had tried to interrupt her, but now -Giles Bennett, turning furiously on Hermann, cried: - -“You hound, you let me be tricked into this fraud, but it shall avail -you nothing! I repudiate this marriage and the whole transaction. The -destruction of that paper shall not prevent me from getting back my -money from you. The law will protect me in my rights.” - -“I protest I had no hand in this deception. I meant honestly by you, -and to prove my word I will have nothing more to do with those women, -who have united in this effort to make you a laughing stock, and to get -me into trouble. They shall both leave my roof to-night and forever, -Giles, but I beg you will be patient with me and grant me a little -more time before you bring suit to recover your money,” began Hermann, -abjectly, when a ringing voice cried, “Hold!” and the unobserved -stranger at the door strode, uninvited, into the room, adding: - -“Ah, Henry Hermann, you know me. I have come at last for my daughter, -Leola, and it seems I have unearthed some villainy on your part. Will -some one tell me the meaning of all this excitement?” - -Leola flew to him with a cry of joy. - -“My father, oh, my father! You have come at last!” - -The bronzed stranger clasped her to his heart and kissed her beautiful -lips again and again, exclaiming: - -“Sweet image of your lovely mother, now an angel in heaven, we shall -never be parted again! But now tell me the meaning of this strange -scene.” - -Clinging fondly to his arm the girl answered, spiritedly: - -“That old Falstaff there held a mortgage on my guardian’s estate for -fifteen thousand dollars, and offered to cancel it if I would become -his wife. So I was persecuted into giving him my promise, and to save -me from despair and suicide my dear governess planned to deceive them -and put herself in my place.” - -“But it won’t do any good,” blustered the angry Bennett, “I won’t take -the old girl on any terms, and I’ll have my money out of Hermann all -right, and that soon!” - -He recoiled in surprise at the stranger’s contemptuous laugh. - -“Your mortgage is not worth the paper it was written on, for I hold -a prior one that Hermann executed to me over thirty years ago, for -thirty thousand dollars, as much as the full value of his estate. This -money he had from me before my Leola was born, because I admired his -scientific attainment and wished to make him independent, so that he -could prosecute his experiments in chemistry. At my dear wife’s death -I went abroad with an exploring party to drown my grief. As Hermann’s -mother was a kinswoman of mine, I left Leola with him, giving him ten -thousand dollars for taking care of her, but it seems that he has -betrayed his trust, and but for this noble governess here my poor girl -would have been betrayed into a wretched marriage. I have no more use -for so unworthy a guardian, but I shall not take revenge by foreclosing -my mortgage on his home. I shall leave him in peaceable possession the -term of his life; then Wheatlands will revert to my daughter, Leola. -For the rest, as soon as Leola can pack up to leave I shall take my -dear girl away with me to New York, and if Mr. Bennett repudiates his -pretty bride, she may accompany us. I am rich, and for her love and -care of Leola she shall be well repaid.” - -The bride and groom looked at each other, she pitifully humble and -entreating, he angry and resentful, yet on a sudden inclined to make -the best of what seemed to him a bad bargain, so that he muttered, -ungraciously: “You may come home with me, Amanda.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -WIDOW GRAY AND THE YOUNG CAVE-HUNTERS. - - -The tender-hearted Mrs. Gray returned to her cottage after her repulse -at Wheatlands in a very sad state of mind over Chester Olyphant’s -strange disappearance. - -In the month that he had boarded with her she had grown to appreciate -him very highly for his true manliness and noble character, and, on his -part, her esteem had been returned by a frank, out-spoken regard. - -Toward the last he had made her his confidant, telling her his true -name and position, and explaining why he had wooed Leola under a mask -for the sake of romance, wishing to be loved for himself alone. - -“My life has been sad in many ways in spite of great wealth,” he said. -“My parents died in my early childhood, and I was brought up by an -uncle and aunt who are all now dead, so that I have really no near -relatives, having been an only child. But now I shall arrange to marry -Leola very soon, and my beautiful home on the Hudson, Bonnie View, will -have a fitting mistress in my lovely bride. As for you, my dear friend, -in return for all your kindness, I want you to come to us when we are -married and make your home at Bonnie View as Leola’s companion.” - -He was disappointed when she declined, gently but decidedly, to accept -his offer, and when he pressed for a reason the good woman said, simply: - -“I cannot leave the little cottage where I came a bride, for the -sweetest memories of life cluster around this humble spot. Here my -two sweet children, my boy and girl, were born, and here they and my -husband passed away from me to the Better Land. Here they return in -spirit to brood over my lonely life in love and sympathy, and if I -went away perhaps they could not find me easily, or perhaps they would -not be as well pleased as here, where we were all so happy together. -When my earthly life is ended they will come to soothe my last hours -and bear me company to my heavenly home, so I must wait for them here, -where they watch over me daily, and I am happier so than anywhere else.” - -Her words sounded strange to Chester Olyphant in the glow of his love -and youth, loving the world and its gay companionship, but he read on -her placid features a peace and resignation he could not understand, -and ceased to urge her to change her home, only stipulating that he and -Leola should at least have a long visit from her at Bonnie View, to -which she cheerfully assented. - -So now, at his strange absence, her heart sank with dread, for last -night at her window the wind in the pine tree had sobbed like ghastly -voices, and she remembered that it had sounded just so before each -calamity that had darkened her life, vaguely foretelling sorrow. - -“Something bad has surely happened to the poor young man, for he would -never have gone away like this with no explanation,” she sighed, as she -went, restlessly, about her household duties, with a heart as heavy as -lead. - -On the next afternoon she took her knitting out on the front porch -watching, eagerly, up and down the road, for a sight of the absentee, -but all in vain. - -Suddenly she heard childish voices, and saw four little lads coming in -at her front gate--little fair-haired, blue-eyed boys, “stairsteps,” -she called them--their ages ranging from eight to twelve. - -Widow Gray knew all these neighbor boys very well, and had often -entertained them on her front door-step with apples and ginger-bread -cookies, for they were adventurous little fellows, brothers and -cousins, who often stole away from their homes to explore little caves -roundabout, leaving their doting mammas in wild panics over their -absence. - -The good woman knew that another expedition was on foot, for each boy -carried a new tallow candle in hand, and wore his worst clothes, as if -on purpose, while their pretty faces looked up at her, engagingly, as -George, the youngest and boldest, acting as spokesman, asked: - -“Mis’ Gray, please, ma’am, may we explore the cave that opens from the -hill in your back lot?” - -Smiling cheerily at them, she answered, kindly: - -“Bless your little hearts, there ain’t no cave there, children. My -husband always told me ’twas the end of an underground passage from -Wheatlands, where the Hermanns used to hide in Indian raids.” - -“We’d like to see it, all the same, ma’am, please,” said the blue-eyed -boy with the little pug nose, in that sweet coaxing voice that always -won its way with every one. - -At that she frankly gave consent, since she could see no possible -danger in the adventure, but as she handed them out some currant buns -for lunch she shook her head at them slyly, saying: - -“I wonder if your mas know you are out on this raid?” - -“Oh, they don’t care!” fibbed Willie, with a jaunty air, and then they -all went around the house, disappearing presently in the hole under the -hill, with their lighted candles, the four dearest and happiest little -chaps in Christendom. - -“Bless their little hearts,” she sighed, wiping the quick tears from -her eyes as she thought of her own two darlings at rest in the little -green mounds over in the Presbyterian graveyard, under the grass and -flowers, and as she knit and rocked the summer wind seemed like tender -childish fingers playing with the locks of white hair on her wrinkled -brow. - -So time slipped away for an hour or so, as she sat there in the summer -stillness, lulled by the hum of bees and the song of birds, and the low -breeze sighing in the pine trees, and then she started up at the sound -of excited voices coming around the house. - -The four cave-hunters were returning helter-skelter, their faces pale, -their eyes like saucers, all shouting at once: - -“Oh, Mis’ Gray, we have found a dead man!” - -“A dead man!” - -“A dead man!” - -“If you don’t believe us, come on, and we will show you!” - -It was no boyish joke, she could see from their pale, earnest little -faces, so she said: - -“Oh, my, how dreadful! Some Indian bones, perhaps, my dears?” - -The boys, who had got in a close group together, now began to talk in -loud whispers, one saying. “Oh, tell her!” another, “Oh, don’t,” while -the something unexplainable in their faces made her tremble with a -strange dread. - -She said as calmly as she could for the wild beating of her heart: - -“Out with it, boys; tell me all you know at once!” - -Thereupon Georgie shouted, glibly: - -“We went about five miles in the cave with our candles, an’ then we -found”-- - -She held up a remonstrating hand, saying: - -“Not five miles, oh, no; I have often heard that the underground road -isn’t more than a mile.” - -“Well, a mile, then,” continued George, unabashed, “an’ then we thought -we heard an nawful grunt, an’ we all jumped so that our candles most -went out, an’ the skin creeped on our bones, ’cause we thought it might -be an Indian ghost, you see, an’ we might get tommy-hawked, an’ our -mammas wouldn’t never know where we was, ’cause we sneaked away,” he -broke down, with a stifled whimper, and nudged the next boy to go on. - -Alex took up the story, adding: - -“The little boys was scared, but we wasn’t, an’ we marched right on, -an’ d’reckly we come on a dead man--not Indian bones, no, but a white -man with his head all bloody, an’--an’--then we thought we better come -back for you, ’cause you know him.” - -With a groan she cried: - -“You don’t mean my boarder--Mr. Chester!” - -Perhaps the little fellows had already decided to break the news to -her gently, for they nudged each other, and the oldest one said, -sorrowfully: - -“It looked like him, but maybe ’tain’t. Please come with us and see!” - -“I will come,” she said, “but wait; you said he groaned.” - -“Before we got to him it sounded like groans, but when we found him he -was dead.” - -“Dead as a door nail!” sobbed little Laurie, awesomely, while the eyes -of the smallest one brimmed over with tears. - -It needed no more to make the excited woman follow their guidance back -to the cave, as they persisted in calling it, taking with her some -water and a bottle of wine. - -She soon found that the little boys had told her the truth. - -The body of Chester Olyphant lay seemingly lifeless on the ground, the -brown curls matted with blood from a wound on the side of the head. - -“Oh, who has done this awful murder?” she moaned, as she listened at -his heart for a throb of life. - -It seemed to her there was a faint, irregular beat, and she hastened to -apply her restoratives, eliciting a low sound like a gasp or sigh. - -“Oh, boys, we’ll have to carry him out to the air,” she exclaimed, -and by their valiant efforts they got him out of the passage just as -twilight darkened the world. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -“TIME DOES NOT STOP FOR TEARS.” - - -While the wedding was going on at Wheatlands that evening, Doctor -Barnes, hastily summoned to the cottage, was sewing up a ghastly cut -on Chester Olyphant’s head, and explaining to Widow Gray that it had -barely escaped being a fracture of the skull. Even now he could not -tell what the outcome would be, for, though life still lingered, there -was no return to consciousness. - -He made the four little heroes very proud and happy by telling them -that God himself must have prompted their expedition that day in order -to save the young man’s life, and they scampered off home in great -excitement, to spread the news of their wonderful adventure. - -Meanwhile the doctor sent for the best nurse in town, and installed her -at the cottage to aid Mrs. Gray in caring for the patient. - -But when Leola Mead and her father were driven down to the station -that night, to take the midnight train for New York, no hint of the -truth reached them, and Leola’s heartache over her lover’s falsity was -destined to last long, for from that hour, when she had fallen like -one dead in the arbor, no news of him transpired for many months. Too -proud to confess her heart wound to her father, she never called that -once loved name in his hearing; she only sought refuge from her pain in -change of scene, saying to him eagerly: - -“Papa, darling, I have been buried in the country so long that I am -wild to see the world. If you are able to gratify my desires, I prefer -travel to anything else on earth.” - -“I live only to gratify your wishes now, my precious daughter,” -answered Alston Mead, eager to atone for having neglected her so long -in his passionate grief over the loss of his lovely young wife. - -He had planned to come back and settle down in a quiet home with his -lovely daughter, but he found it no hardship to gratify her desire for -travel, since wandering had become a second nature with him. - -So in their leisurely wanderings through the United States, and -afterward abroad, the past became almost like a dream to Leola, who -told herself, bitterly, that doubtless Jessie Stirling and Olyphant -were married long ago, and that she did not care, for she hated him now -as much as she had once loved him. - -Alston Mead, in all ignorance of the tragic love story of his fair -daughter, wondered a little that she remained so indifferent to the -suitors she attracted wherever she went, for to him it seemed very -natural for a young girl to fall in love; still he rejoiced that she -did not appear to be susceptible, saying to himself that he could keep -her all the longer to himself. - -But all the time Leola was thinking with bitter pique and pain of -Jessie and Chester reconciled and happy, perhaps long ago wedded, his -love affair of that golden summer an almost forgotten episode. - -It was bitter, for Leola knew in her heart that she had given the best -and truest love of her life, and that she could never know again the -bliss of those fleeting days, when she had loved and trusted as she -never could again, because her tenderness had been betrayed, her heart -trampled on like a withered flower thrown into the dust. - - “Like the wild hyacinth flower, which on the hills is found, - Which the passing feet of the triflers forever tear and wound, - Until the purple blossom is trodden in the ground.” - -So strangely and completely had Leola’s life changed that sometimes she -felt as if she had died and come to life again in some new world--a -kaleidoscopic world of change, in which every face and scene was -new--if only, she said to herself, bitterly, she had not brought with -her into this new life the cruel memories of the past, that seemed -always crying aloud to her heart: - - “Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; - I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell. - Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell. - Cast up thy Life’s foam-fretted feet between; - Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen - Which had Life’s form and Love, but by my spell - Is now a shaken shadow intolerable.” - -But “time does not stop for tears,” and the days and months rolled -away and brought round golden June again, so that it was a year since -Leola had ridden out so joyfully on Rex to meet her fate in Chester -Olyphant’s dark blue eyes. - -They were in Paris now, and everyone knows how charming Paris is in -June, but somehow Leola’s thoughts turned backward to the West Virginia -hills that she had vowed she never cared to see again--turned back with -a strange homesickness to the wild and picturesque scenes where her -joyous youth had been nurtured, to the old faces, the old pleasures, -and she thought that she should like to get on Rex’s back again for -a breezy canter into the country town, or on to the old Blue Sulphur -Spring for a draught of its cold, clear, sparkling water. - -She could close her eyes and see just how it was looking, after the -long, cold winter, in its new summer gown of green, trimmed with -violets, blue and white--that dear old hillside back of the house; and -the orchard would be decked in pink and white, and the birds would be -singing like mad in the branches, and the sky would be blue and sunny, -and the sweet air seem like an elixir of life. - -She opened her eyes, and she was in Paris again, and she had in her -hand a memorandum for the shopping she was going to do that week--gowns -and laces and jewels, to deck that wonderful beauty, to set off, like -a splendid frame, the peerless form, the flowerlike face, with its -somber dark eyes and thick waves of ruddy golden hair--the Titian shade -artists raved over. - -Her father had had her portrait painted--full length, and all in -white--and all Paris had raved over it when the artist had it on -exhibition those few days before it was boxed to be shipped to America. -She had made many friends, been entertained at the homes of the rich -and great, had refused dazzling offers to the wonder of all, and here -she was, all at once, with a fit of nostalgia for the simple home and -kindly faces that were gone out of her life forever--or so she thought. - -She had often thought of the new Mrs. Bennett, wondering if her simple -devotion had ever won her rotund husband’s heart, but she had never -written her a line in her eagerness to forget the grief over those last -days, and put them behind her forever. - -Now she thought, tenderly, of the good woman, murmuring: - -“How strange it seems I have never heard one word from all I left -behind! Some of them may be dead, some married--Jessie and Chester, -of course, long ago--but there are few I care for save my dear old -governess and Mrs. Gray!” - -Putting all these thoughts behind her with a passing wonder why they -had come like ghosts from a dead past to disturb her present peace, she -rang for her maid and got ready for her shopping tour. - -An hour later she knew why those subtle memories had overwhelmed her -this morning. It was the influence of telepathy. - -Turning over some rare silks at the Arcade, her heart leaped, and her -blood turned cold in her veins at the sound of a familiar voice: - -“Leola Mead, am I dreaming, or is it really you? What a charming -surprise! Why, only this morning I was thinking of you, wondering where -you were; and to find you here so soon, it’s like a dream!” - - “My foe undreamed of by my side - Stood suddenly like fate-- - To those who love, the world is wide, - But not to those who hate!” - -Leola felt a small, gloved hand pressing hers very hard, looked into -bluebell eyes under flaxen waves of hair, and turned cold with dislike -and repulsion, dreading every moment to see over the blonde’s shoulder -her husband’s face, handsome and winning, with the laughing blue eyes -that had smiled her heart away. - -With a strong effort she pulled herself together, calling her -passionate pride to her aid. They should not see her wince; she would -show them she had forgotten him. She said, coldly: - -“So it is you, Jessie Stirling? How long have you been over?” - -“Oh, since early spring shopping for my trousseau, you know,” twittered -Jessie, gayly. - -“Then you are not married yet?” Leola cried, eagerly. - -“No; but I shall be soon--in late July. Chester was ill so long, -you know,” she twittered on; then, at the startled look in Leola’s -dark eyes, “Oh, I forgot you went away so abruptly that night before -everything happened--the explosion and all! Tell me, haven’t you ever -heard from home? from any of them? Not a word, you say? How very -strange! Leola, is your carriage waiting? Yes? Then I will go for a -drive with you, and tell you everything. We can come back for our -shopping later”--dragging her out. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -“IF HATE COULD KILL.” - - -The two fair young girls stepped into the elegant equipage, and as it -rolled down the glittering boulevard in the glorious sunshine, they -were the cynosure of all eyes. - -Jessie Stirling began excitedly: - -“And so you have never heard a word from West Virginia since the night -you left so suddenly! Then I have much to tell you. But first, have you -not heard from Chester Olyphant in all this time?” - -There was an anxious tone in her voice, but Leola did not heed it, she -answered so spiritedly: - -“That is a strange question, Jessie. I have not heard, or ever wished -to hear, from him.” - -Jessie’s little tinkling laugh rang out in shallow ripples on the air, -as she exclaimed: - -“Still angry! But, poor dear, I do not blame you. It was hard for me to -forgive him for trifling with your tender heart. It was his illness and -suffering that melted my heart.” - -Leola listened in blank silence. She would not have asked one word -about Chester Olyphant if Jessie had said that he was dead. - -“You care nothing for him now--that is plain to be seen. I am glad you -have gotten so bravely over it,” said Jessie, smiling at the fair, -proud face, with the somber dark eyes gazing straight ahead, though -seeing nothing of the gay streets with throngs of happy people going up -and down as they drove on behind the liveried coachmen. - -Then she added: - -“You remember, we thought that Chester Olyphant had run away after I -betrayed him? That was wrong.” - -She knew that Leola was listening, though she did not answer a word. - -“To tell the truth, I may have been a little to blame, Leola, for, in -anger at Chester’s duplicity, I ran to Uncle Hermann with my story, -and he was angry--fearfully angry--at the wrong done to me and to -you. At first he swore he would horse-whip him, but mamma begged him -not to create a public sensation, for she said it was best to let it -blow over. Uncle Hermann did not say yea or nay, and we thought he was -pacified.” - -She drew a long breath, and continued: - -“Well, you remember how everything happened that night--the wedding, -your father’s return to take you away, and everything? When the -Bennetts were gone, also you and your father, Uncle Hermann was -desperate. We sat up late talking over matters, holding, as it were, a -council of war; for, though your father had mercifully permitted him a -life-time use of Wheatlands, he was so involved in debt that he could -not see a dollar in sight anywhere.” - -Leola made no comment, and the speaker went on: - -“Uncle Hermann wanted to borrow of mamma, saying he was prosecuting an -experiment that must, if it succeeded, make him fabulously rich, and -revolutionize the whole world. But chemical ingredients were costly, -and he could not go on a week longer without money. He had borrowed, -begged, got all he could, and was desperate for more funds. He said he -could almost steal, if he knew where to lay his hands on the money, for -the sake of his great experiment. He even went on his knees to mamma, -but alas! it was ‘like going to the goat’s house for wool.’ Mamma had -pawned her diamonds long before to keep afloat in society, and was -desperate for means herself. So she could not help him at all, and she -said she would go home next day so as not to bother him any longer in -his trouble. We retired, and at breakfast next morning he said he and -Joslyn would be busy in the laboratory until afternoon; that he had a -few chemicals to work on yet; and that, before we left, we might have -to congratulate him on the success of his experiment.” - -Leola began to look more interested. She could not help being sorry for -Wizard Hermann and the failure of his pet hobbies--the ambitions of a -toilsome lifetime. - -Jessie Stirling continued: - -“Mamma and I went upstairs and packed our trunks, and telephoned to -town for a man to take them down to the station. When they were gone -we walked out to the arbor, waiting for luncheon, and to bid good-bye -to my uncle, when--oh, Leola, with a shock!--suddenly there was the -sound of a terrific explosion from the tower, and we fell back almost -stunned in our seats. It almost seemed as if the world were coming to -an end, for one loud report followed another, and the tower was blown -away, with all of the chimneys. Then suddenly all grew still, and fire -shot out of the windows and doors, caused by an explosion of gasoline -Uncle Hermann had been using in his experiments.” - -“Oh, how terrible!” cried Leola, finding voice at last. - -“Yes, was it not?” cried Jessie, growing excited at the memory, and -adding: “For not only was the house burned to the ground, but Joslyn, -uncle’s servant, was killed; while as for himself, he fought his way -bravely from the burning building, saving his life at the expense of -all that made it worth living--his eyesight destroyed, his arms burned -off to the elbows.” - -“Oh, how horrible! how horrible!” groaned Leola, and her lovely face -went deathly white with the shock of the story. - -“I knew you would be shocked,” exclaimed Jessie. “Oh, wasn’t it -fortunate for us that we had gotten out of the house just before! And -saved our trunks, too! The cook was out in the garden getting peas -for dinner, luckily for her! Joslyn was burned in the house; and as -for Uncle Hermann, we thought he must die, too. Indeed, he thought so -himself, for he was in horrible agony, so he sent for a priest--he was -a Catholic, you know--and confessed his sins.” - -“And he lived, after all? What became of him? Who took care of the poor -man?” cried Leola, with tears in her eyes, forgetting her own wrongs in -exquisite sympathy. - -“Why, the Bennetts took him to their house and cared for him till he -recovered; and he lives there yet, having a man attend to him all the -time. I must say Mrs. Bennett acted beautifully to Uncle Hermann, and -has befriended him all this time in spite of the fact that he hadn’t -been as good as he might to her when she was a lone old maid.” - -“It was just like dear Miss Tuttle to return good for evil! She had -a noble heart!” cried Leola. “Dear soul, she was too good for Giles -Bennett!” - -“Mamma says she has made a better man of him, and he has become really -fond of the kind soul. You see, mamma made a trip there this spring as -Mrs. Bennett’s guest, while I came over to Europe with a friend,” added -Jessie, who would have bitten her tongue off before she would have -owned to Leola that, having exhausted all their means and failed to -catch a rich husband, she had been forced to become the paid companion -of a rich woman, while her mother eked out an existence “visiting -around.” - -She would fool Leola, and keep her and Chester Olyphant apart as long -as she could; but she had an unerring conviction that Fate in the long -run would bring them together. - -After a moment’s hesitation she began again: - -“I told you that Uncle Hermann confessed his sins the day he thought -he was going to die, but you do not seem curious over it, so I’ll tell -you all about it anyway. Uncle Hermann was so furious over Chester -Olyphant’s trifling with you and me that on the day when you lay -unconscious upstairs he met Chester in the hall and struck him on the -head with a blunt iron instrument, so that he fell like one dead.” - -“Dead!” cried Leola, and she shook with emotion. - -“Uncle Hermann did not mean to kill him, but he and Joslyn, who -happened along at the moment, both thought he was dead, and, to hide -the crime, they dragged him into the library, took up the flooring, and -dropped him down into an underground passage the family had used in -Indian times. So on his disappearance we naturally concluded he had run -away to avoid my reproaches, don’t you see?” - -Leola could only gasp, without speaking, so great was her emotion; and -Jessie, enjoying the sensation she was creating, again took up the -thread of her story: - -“So that was what Uncle Hermann had to confess when he thought he was -dying. It was the only really wicked thing he ever did, and he wanted -to get God’s forgiveness before he died; likewise, he wanted Chester -Olyphant to have a Christian burial. Poor Leola, you are faint! All -this has been too much for you.” - -Leola faltered, through stiff, white lips: - -“No, no; go on, if there is any more to tell.” - -Jessie laughed, and resumed: - -“I have kept the best for the last. Just as the men were going to hunt -for Chester’s body in the underground passage, Doctor Barnes came along -and told them that some little boys had found him alive in the cave, as -they called it, and they had taken him to Mrs. Gray’s cottage. Well, -to make a long story short, Chester had an awful wound on his head, -and a piece of the skull pressed on the brain, and he never recovered -health or consciousness till he was taken North for an operation that -made him all right again. Mrs. Gray was like a mother to him through it -all, and, next to mamma and me, I suppose he considers her his dearest -friend. Now, as to our love affair, we made it all up some time ago, -and are to be married in July; but I suppose there’s no use asking you -to be my bridesmaid, dear Leola?” - -“No,” the girl answered, curtly, adding: - -“Jessie, I promised papa to meet him at luncheon, and I shall hardly -get back in time if we do not return now. May I invite you to join us?” - -“Not to-day, thank you, Leola, but I will call on you soon, for I am -anxious to see you again, and also to meet your papa. Now if you will -be so kind as to drive by Lady De Vere’s, where I am staying with my -New York friend, I will be very grateful.” - -Leola assented, and presently Jessie was set down at the place she -wished, and blew Leola a deceitful kiss from her finger tips as she -went in, muttering to herself as she watched her drive away: - -“It was a gratuitous fib I told her about marrying Chester Olyphant, -but I couldn’t resist stabbing her once more to see the light grow dim -in the beautiful eyes that stole his heart from me. All my maneuvering -has failed to win him back, and her turn will soon come, for he is here -in Paris, although she does not know it, and at any minute they may -meet, and everything be explained. Oh, how I wish hate could kill!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -LIKE A STAR IN THE NIGHT OF HER DESPAIR. - - -At the luncheon, which was served in their private dining-room, Leola -could scarcely touch a morsel, she was so eager to tell her father all -that she had heard that morning, barring, of course, the facts about -Chester Olyphant, whose name she vowed should never pass her lips. - -But she had scarcely begun her story when he smiled and interrupted: - -“It seems quite a coincidence that we have both met people from the -United States this morning--ghosts, as it were, out of your past life.” - -“Why, papa?” - -“Yes, people from West Virginia, dear--old neighbors of yours--and from -them I have heard already all you were going to tell me.” - -“Neighbors of mine! Why, papa, dear, you cannot mean--the Bennetts?” - -“Why not, my dear?” - -“Why not, indeed? They are rich enough to travel, and I remember now -that my governess used to hanker after foreign travel. So she is here? -You have seen her? Dear soul, I must call at once.” - -“She will be here herself by-and-by, so you have only to wait and rest -till she comes.” - -“I shall be very impatient,” declared Leola, and then she laughed: - -“I suppose Giles Bennett has forgiven me the trick I played him by now?” - -“Oh, yes, he said so with very hearty emphasis, and I believed him. -Indeed, the man appeared proud of his wife, who seems to dote on him. -They have been touring the continent for several months, and I met them -in an art gallery this morning. I confess I should hardly have known -them again, they were both so improved since that night, but Mrs. -Bennett recognized my face, and ran joyfully to me to ask about you. -So we talked for an hour, and I invited them to call at our hotel this -afternoon.” - -“I can hardly wait for them to come, I am so anxious,” declared the -girl, joyfully. “Are you sure that you have told me everything, papa?” - -“Did I mention that Wizard Hermann was dead?” - -“No, papa.” - -“Well, that is one of the things they told me. It happened quite -suddenly, the cause being heart failure, so after that they decided on -this tour. They have with them also some one else that you know--a Mrs. -Gray, who had a present made her of this tour by a gentleman whom she -had nursed through an illness. How strange you look, Leola! You have -grown pale, and you tremble. Are you ill?” - -“Oh, no, papa--perhaps just a little nervous. Go on, papa, have you -anything more to tell?” - -“Not just now, my dear daughter--not till you take your luncheon. No? A -drop of this wine, perhaps, to set you up. There, the color is coming -back to your cheeks. Shall I ring to have the things taken away?” - -She nodded, and they adjourned to their private parlor. - -Then Alston Mead said, gently: - -“My dear daughter, I have been hearing surprising things about you -to-day. While I have been wondering at your indifference to men, it -seems you already had a lover.” - -Her cheeks paled, then flamed. - -“Who has dared betray that unhappy episode of my past? Who has called -his despicable name?” she half-sobbed. - -Alston Mead put his arm about her tenderly, like a woman, with a -soothing caress. - -“Gently, dear; perhaps he does not deserve your scorn,” he said. - -“Then you do not know all the story, papa.” - -“Perhaps I know it better than you do, my darling girl, and, strange -to say, Chester Olyphant has been known to me for years. His father -and mother were dear friends of mine, and I knew their boy when he was -a little curly-headed chap in kilts. Naturally, I lost sight of him -afterward in my exile.” - -Leola cried, bitterly: - -“You lost sight of him, so you did not know he grew up to be an -unworthy scion of a good family--a heartless trifler with women’s -hearts.” - -“Grave charges, my daughter!” - -“You said that you knew all, dear papa.” - -“Yes, I have heard both sides of the story, and you know only one, -Leola.” - -“Papa!” - -“You know only one,” he repeated. - -Leola cried, passionately: - -“That was all there was to know! And I am sorry, I am indignant, that -my friends, in mistaken kindness, have betrayed this to you. I--I--was -forgetting it in this new life with you--only it came back bitterly -this morning when Jessie told me--that--she--will be married to him--in -July!” - -“And you, Leola, did you hear that news without a pang? Has your heart -grown callous?” - -“Spare me, papa!” and the golden head was buried on his breast, while -heaving sobs shook his daughter’s form from head to feet--sobs that -seemed to burst her very heart in twain. - -Had her heart grown callous? Oh, no, the pity of it, that she could not -deny she had given her love, irrevocably, to another woman’s lover--to -one unworthy her lightest thought. - - “A honeyed heart for the honeycomb, - And the humming bee flies home. - - “A heavy heart in the honey-flower, - And the bee has had his hour.” - -Alston Mead let her head rest in his arms until the storm of tears -spent itself naturally; then, as she began to grow calmer, he -exclaimed, angrily: - -“Curses on the woman whose malice has culminated in this past year of -sorrow; whose memory must always darken your life, even when the shadow -shall be removed.” - -“Removed, papa? Alas, alas!” moaned the girl, who could see in the -future no surcease of sorrow. - -She started when her father laughed aloud: - -“My dearest, how little faith you had in your lover, to believe all -that little cat told you out of spite!” - -“Oh, papa, you do not understand. Indeed, he was her lover. Jessie -spoke the truth. He--only--sought--to amuse himself with me. I--I--know -that it is true, for--I--saw--her--in--his arms!” - -He could hardly bear the anguish in the great, dark eyes, the shame, -the self-pity in the quivering voice: he must tell her the truth; he -could not see her suffer any more, poor, proud Leola! - -So he answered, quickly: - -“You saw her spring to his arms, my dear; and if you had not fainted at -the sight, you would have seen her the next moment repulsed with scorn -by the man who despised the shallow little deceiver.” - -A wild cry of incredulous hope shrilled over her lips, and his words -came like a star in the night of her despair. - -He continued, tenderly: - -“You were tricked and deceived, my poor Leola, by two designing women. -Granted that Chester Olyphant had once been engaged to marry Jessie -Stirling, he had found her out and broken with her before he came to -the mountains to seek you. The girl lied to you, deceived you wickedly, -scheming to separate you and win him back herself. You fainted, and -then Fate stepped in and aided Miss Stirling to keep you deceived for -a whole year, but that was all, for he continued to repulse all her -efforts to get him back. His only fault toward you, darling, was his -hiding his name and position, in the natural, romantic desire to be -loved for himself alone!” - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -“ALL THE WORLD AND WE TWO, AND HEAVEN BE OUR STAY.” - - -Alston Mead had never fully recognized before all the rare beauty of -Leola, for until now it had been shadowed by her secret sorrow--the -thorn that was always piercing her heart. - -When the girl looked up at him now her eyes were like stars, sudden -roses had bloomed on her cheeks, and her lips were trembling with -smiles of joy. - -“Oh, it is like some sweet dream!” she cried, half fearfully, her white -hands clasped above her wildly throbbing heart. - -“It is no dream, my darling; it is a blissful reality,” her father -cried. “Your lover has always been true and noble, and worthy of your -deepest devotion. For months he has been seeking for you everywhere, -and our fortunate rencontre this morning has filled his heart with joy.” - -“Oh, papa! you have then seen Ray--Chester, I mean!” she began, in wild -agitation, but he interrupted her, smilingly: - -“Call him Ray if you choose, dear--his name is Raphael Chester -Olyphant, you see. Yes, your true lover is in Paris to-day. He crossed -with your friends to seek for you. He will be here by-and-by to see -you, but I promised to tell you everything first, for he does not know -whether you will forgive him for deceiving you under the guise of the -poor artist.” - -She cried, radiantly: - -“I am glad of it now, for he knows I loved him for himself alone, -and he can never doubt my devotion. Oh, I can scarcely realize my -happiness! It seems like some beautiful dream.” - -They were interrupted by the entrance of the Bennetts with Mrs. Gray, -and such happy greetings were never seen before. - -Mrs. Bennett, grown matronly and stylish, hugged and kissed her dear -pupil until she was quite out of breath. - -Mrs. Gray followed suit when she got a chance, and Giles Bennett -squeezed her little hand until her fingers ached. - -Then every one told Leola she was lovelier than ever, and it was easy -for her to return the compliment, for prosperity and happiness had -worked a vast improvement in all three. - -A great chattering ensued, all trying to talk at once; for, said Mrs. -Bennett, roguishly: - -“We must talk as fast as we can, for some one else is coming presently, -and he warned us that when he appeared he wanted to have the field all -to himself.” - -How Leola’s heart beat! how her cheeks burned! She stole a glance at -herself in the long, gilded mirror, wondering if he would think her as -pretty, in her costly silk gown and fine laces, as in the simple cotton -gown of the rustic maiden. The mirror assured her she was even more -charming now, for it is not to be disputed that “fine feathers make -fine birds.” - -They told her all over again the story Jessie had related that morning, -adding some that she had preferred not to tell. - -The Stirlings had done their best to lure Chester Olyphant back, -but all in vain; and losing their last dollar, the girl had found -employment as companion to a rich old woman going abroad, and the -mother eked out existence visiting around among friends of her better -days. Jessie had sent a last appeal to Chester the day before, and he -had answered it with silent scorn. - -Suddenly their talk was interrupted by the entrance of a servant -carrying a card to Mr. Mead. - -He glanced at it, and then passed it, with a smile, to his daughter. - -The visitors took the hint, and rose precipitately. - -“We must all try to meet again to-morrow,” Mrs. Bennett said, as they -all filed out, escorted by Mr. Mead, leaving a clear field for Leola’s -lover. - -The happy girl sank back in her chair, feeling as if her heart would -burst with its wild throbbing. - -People had died from shock of joy as well as of grief. Could she -survive it? - -Her face went pale for a moment--pale as a snowdrift, and she closed -her lovely eyes with a gasp. - -There was a quick step in the room, a hurried breath, and some one -knelt at her feet, and caught her two hands in a rapturous clasp that -sent the warm blood bounding through her heart again, crimsoning her -cheeks and lighting her eyes like stars as she opened them to meet -those dark-blue orbs that in the long ago had lured the girlish heart -from her breast, and taught her the most exquisite lesson of life, with -its blended joy and pain. - - “And all the wondrous things of love - That sing so sweet in song - Were in the look that met in their eyes, - And the look was deep and long.” - -For a long time that mute yet speaking gaze was enough without words, -but at last Chester rose and drew her to his heart. - -“Sweetheart!” he cried, and their lips met after that long year of -silence and sorrow and pain--Jessie Stirling’s year of revenge for all -she had lost by her own unworthiness. - -“I could die now!” Leola murmured, faintly, as she clung to his breast. - -“No, you must live for me, my bonny bride!” he answered, and presently -they were seated, hand in hand, going over the past. - -When she told him of her meeting with Jessie that morning, and of all -she had said, Chester turned coaxingly to his lovely sweetheart. - -“So she will have me married in July, willy-nilly!” he said. “Well, -then, why disappoint her plans, my darling? We can be married just as -well as not in July, if you will only consent.” - -“Why, July is only two weeks off, Ray!” - -“Well, we can make it the last of July, you know, dear--it is so easy -to get a trousseau here in Paris, don’t you know? Say yes, Leola, do,” -he pleaded. - -“We must ask papa first, you know,” she said. - -“Papa will never stand in the way of our happiness,” he cried, eagerly. - -“But, Ray, he will be so lonely.” - -“No, dear, for he must come to Bonnie View and live with us, so he will -only gain a son instead of losing a daughter.” - -Alston Mead was easily brought to take Chester’s view of the case, the -more easily because he had in his heart a secret he would never confide -to any. - -In the last few years an incurable disease of the heart had fastened -upon him, and the most eminent physicians had told him he had not much -longer to live, even if he settled down to quiet days for the rest of -his life. - -It had pained him to think of leaving beautiful Leola alone in the -world, heiress to his wealth, perhaps to become the prey of designing -fortune-hunters. - -Now all that tangle would be straightened out by her speedy marriage. - -He gave consent gladly to all that Chester Olyphant proposed, and he -said to himself: - -“Now, whether I die in a few months or live long enough to name my -first grandchild, I shall pass away in peace, knowing that Leola’s -heart can rest safely in her husband’s love.” - -So Chester had his way, to the delight of all, and the invitations went -out soon for the wedding at the grand cathedral, for Chester wanted all -the world to see his peerless bride. - -Most especially did he wish Jessie Stirling to be present, so in the -invitation that went to her was a note from the happy groom-to-be: - -“My Dear Miss Stirling: As you saved me the trouble of setting my -wedding day by naming it for July, Leola and I will insure your -reputation as a prophet by accepting the date.” - -When Jessie read that note, with Chester Olyphant’s name signed to -it, she tore it to tatters in her fury, but that did not prevent her -from showing the elegant invitation to her employer, and saying, -hesitatingly: - -“I was once engaged to young Olyphant myself, but his love grew cold -when my fortunes failed, and I willingly released him.” - -Lady De Vere only smiled, for she had heard from one of Jessie’s former -friends the story of Jessie’s engagement, broken through her own fault -long before she was reduced to poverty, so she only thought: “That girl -is the most consummate liar I ever knew.” - -A bitter curiosity carried Jessie to the wedding, but she wore a thick -veil, for she did not want to be recognized. When she wrote to her -mother afterward about it, she confessed that Chester and Leola made -the handsomest bridal couple she ever saw, but that in her humiliation -she had one comfort left--though she could not win him back, she had -succeeded in separating him from his sweetheart for one terrible year, -whose pain and anguish neither could ever forget. - - -[THE END.] - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - - -The Table of Contents was created by the transcriber and placed in the -public domain. - -Punctuation has been made consistent. - -Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in -the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have -been corrected. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOOING OF LEOLA *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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