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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15182-h.zip b/15182-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c58189 --- /dev/null +++ b/15182-h.zip diff --git a/15182-h/15182-h.htm b/15182-h/15182-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a8a5a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/15182-h/15182-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3323 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Marion Arleigh's Penance, by Charlotte M. Braeme. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; left: 12%; text-align: left;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Marion Arleigh's Penance, by Charlotte M. Braeme + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Marion Arleigh's Penance + Everyday Life Library No. 5 + +Author: Charlotte M. Braeme + +Release Date: February 26, 2005 [EBook #15182] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARION ARLEIGH'S PENANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h3>EVERYDAY LIFE LIBRARY No. 5</h3> +<h4>Published by EVERYDAY LIFE, Chicago</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 501px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="501" height="600" alt="cover image" title="cover image" /> +</div> + +<h1>Marion Arleigh's Penance</h1> + +<h2>BY CHARLOTTE M. BRAEME.</h2> + +<blockquote><p><i>Author of "Dora Thorne," "Madolin's Lover," "Lord Elesmere's Wife," "A +Rose in Thorns," "The Belle of Lynn," Etc.</i></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />CHAPTER I.</h3> + + +<p>Three o'clock on a warm June afternoon. The great heat has caused +something like a purple haze to cloud over the deep blue of the sapphire +sky. There is not one breath of wind to stir the leaves or cool the +flushed faces of those whose duties call them out on this sultry June +day. Away in the deep green heart of the broad land broad streams are +flowing; in the very heart of the green woods there is cool, silent +shade; by the borders of the sea, where the waves break with a low, +musical murmur, there is a cooling breeze; but here in London on this +bright June afternoon there is nothing to lessen the white, intense +heat, and even the flowers exposed for sale in the streets are drooping, +the crimson roses look thirsting for dew, the white lilies are fading, +the bunches of mignonette give forth a fragrance sweet as the "song of +the swan in dying," and the golden sun pours down its flood of rich, +warm light over all.</p> + +<p>Three o'clock, and the express leaves Euston Square for Scotland at a +quarter past. The heat in the station is very great, the noise almost +deafening; huge engines are pouring out volumes of steam, the shrill +whistle sounds, porters are hurrying to and fro. The quarter-past three +train is a great favorite—more people travel by that than by any +other—and the platform is crowded by ladies, children, tourists, +commercial gentlemen. There are very few of the humbler class. Ten +minutes past three. The passengers are taking their places. The goddess +of discord and noise reigns supreme, when from one of the smaller doors +there glides, with soft, almost noiseless step, the figure of a woman.</p> + +<p>She wore a long gray cloak that entirely shrouded her figure; a black +veil hid her face so completely that not one feature could be seen. When +she entered the station the change from the blinding glare outside to +the shade within seemed to bewilder her. She stood for a few moments +perfectly motionless; then she looked around her in a cautious, furtive +manner, as though she would fain see if there was any one she +recognized.</p> + +<p>But in that busy crowd every one was intent on his or her business; no +one had any attention to spare for her. She went with the same noiseless +step to the booking office. Most of the passengers had taken their +tickets; she was one of the very last. She looked at the clerk in a +vague, helpless way.</p> + +<p>"Where to, ma'am?" he asked, for she had only said, "I want a ticket."</p> + +<p>"Where to?" she repeated. "Where does the train stop?"</p> + +<p>"It will stop at Chester and Crewe."</p> + +<p>"Then give me a ticket for Crewe," she said, and, with a smile on his +face, the clerk complied. She took the ticket and he gave her the +change. She swept it into her purse with an absent, preoccupied manner, +and he turned with a smile to one of his fellow-clerks, touching his +forehead significantly.</p> + +<p>"She is evidently on the road for Colney Hatch," he observed. "If I had +said the train would stop at Liliput, in my opinion she would have said, +'Give me a ticket for there.'"</p> + +<p>But the object of his remarks, all unconscious of them, had gone on to +the platform. With the same appearance of not wishing to be seen, she +looked into the carriages.</p> + +<p>There was one almost empty; she entered it, took her seat in the corner, +drew her veil still more closely over her face, and never raised her +eyes.</p> + +<p>A quarter past three; the bell rings loudly. There is a shrill whistle, +and then, slowly at first, the train moves out of the station. A few +minutes more, and the long walls, the numerous arches, are all left +behind, and they are out in the blinding sunlight, hurrying through the +clear, golden day as though life and death depended upon its speed. On, +on, past the green meadows, where the hedgerows were filled with +woodbines and wild roses, and the clover filled the air with fragrance; +past gray old churches whose tapering spires pointed to heaven; past +quiet homesteads sleeping in the sunshine; past silent, quaint villages +and towns; past broad rivers and dark woods. Yet never once did the +silent woman raise her eyes, never once did she look from the windows at +the glowing landscape that lay on either side. Once, and once only, she +caught a glimpse of the golden sunlight, and she turned away with a +faint, sick, shuddering sigh.</p> + +<p>Her fellow-passengers looked wonderingly at her. She never moved; her +hands were tightly clasped, as one whose thoughts were all despairing: +Once a lady addressed her, but she never heard the words. Silent, mute, +and motionless, she might have been a marble statute, only that every +now and then a quick, faint shiver came over her.</p> + +<p>On through the fair, English counties, and the heat of the sun grew +less. The birds came from their shelter in the leafy trees and began to +sing; the flowers yielded their loveliest perfumes, and the sweet summer +wind that blew in at the carriage windows was like the breath of +Paradise.</p> + +<p>Still she had neither spoken nor moved. Then the train stopped, and the +sudden cessation from all sound made her start up suddenly, as though +roused from painful dreams.</p> + +<p>"Have we—have we passed Crewe?" she asked.</p> + +<p>And then her fellow-passengers looked wonderingly at her, for the voice +was like no other sound—no human sound; it was a faint gasp, as of one +who had escaped a deadly peril, and was still faint with the remembrance +of it.</p> + +<p>"No," replied a gentleman; "we have not reached Crewe yet. They are +stopping for water, I should imagine. This is supposed to be one of the +most out-of-the-way villages in England. It is called Redcliffe."</p> + +<p>She gave one look through the open windows. There, behind the woods, a +little village lay stretched and half hidden by the thick green foliage.</p> + +<p>"I want to get out here," she said, in the same faint voice.</p> + +<p>Her fellow-travelers looked at each other, and their glances said +plainly, "There is something strange about her; let her go." A gentleman +called the guard, and the woman, whose face was so carefully veiled, put +something in his hand that shone like gold.</p> + +<p>"Let me get out here," she said, and without a word he unlocked the +door, and she left the carriage. Those who remained behind breathed more +freely after she had gone. That strange, mute presence had had a +depressing effect on them all.</p> + +<p>She looked neither to the right nor to the left, but made her way +quickly to the green fields, where the golden silence of summer reigned. +She walked there with hasty steps, looking behind her to see if she were +pursued.</p> + +<p>She opened the white gates and went into a field where the tall trees +threw a deep shade. She sat down then, or, rather, flung herself on the +ground with a vehement cry, like one who had suffered from a deadly pain +without daring to murmur—one loud cry, and, from the sound of it, it +was easy to tell that it came from a broken heart. She bowed her head +against the rugged bark of a tree, and then fell into a deep slumber. +The wearied limbs seemed to relax. To sleep as she did she must have +been watching long.</p> + +<p>When she opened her eyes again the afternoon had gone and the shadows of +evening were falling. It was still bright and warm, but she shivered +like one seized with mortal cold.</p> + +<p>She rose and made her way to the quiet little village. It was almost out +of the world, so completely was it hidden by the trees and hills. She +reached the quiet little street at last. She looked at the windows of +the houses, but the notice she wanted to see was not in any of them. At +the end of the street she came to a narrow lane that led to the woods; +half-way down the lane was a small cottage half buried in elder trees.</p> + +<p>In the window hung a small placard—"Rooms to let." She knocked at the +door, which was opened by a kindly-looking elderly woman.</p> + +<p>"You have rooms to let?" said the faint, low voice. "I want two."</p> + +<p>Then followed a few words as to terms, etc., and the transaction was +concluded.</p> + +<p>"Shall my son fetch your luggage?" asked the landlady, Mrs. Hirste.</p> + +<p>"I have no luggage," she replied; then seeing something like a doubtful +expression on the kindly face, she added; "I will pay you a month's +money in advance."</p> + +<p>That was quite satisfactory. Mrs. Hirste led the way to a pretty little +parlor, which she showed with no little pride.</p> + +<p>"This is the other room," she said, throwing open the door of a pretty +white chamber. "And now, is there anything I can get for you?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied the strange, weak voice. "I will ask when I want anything; +for the present I only desire to be alone."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hirste withdrew, and her lodger immediately locked the door. Then +she threw off the gray cloak and thick veil.</p> + +<p>"I am alone," she said—"alone and safe. Oh, if my wretched life be +worth gratitude, thank God! thank God!"</p> + +<p>She repeated the words with a burst of hysterical weeping. She knelt by +the little white bed and buried her face in her hands. Deep, bitter sobs +shook her whole frame; from her white lips came a low moan that +betokened anguish too great for words. Then, when the passion of grief +had subsided and she was exhausted, she rose and stood erect. Then one +saw how superbly beautiful she was, although her face was stained with +tears.</p> + +<p>She was still young, not more than three-and-twenty; her figure was of +rarest symmetry; when the great world knew her it had been accustomed to +say that her figure resembled that of the celebrated Diana for the +Louvre; there was the marvelous, free-spirited grace and matchless +perfection.</p> + +<p>She had the face and head of a young queen, a face of peerless beauty; a +white, broad brow that might have worn a crown; eyes of the dark hue of +the violets, with long fringes that rested on a cheek perfect in shape +and color; brows straight, like those of a Greek goddess; lips sweet and +proud—they were white now, and quivering, but the beauty of the mouth +was unchanged.</p> + +<p>So she stood in all the splendor of her grand loveliness. There is over +her whole figure and face that indescribable something which tells that +she is wife and mother both, that look of completed life.</p> + +<p>The hands, so tightly clasped, are white and slender. There is no +attribute of womanly loveliness that does not belong to her.</p> + +<p>After a time she went to the window. Great crimson roses, wet with dew, +and odorous woodbine peeped in as she opened it. The night-wind was +heavy with the perfume of the sleeping flowers, the golden stars were +shining in the sky, and she raised her pale, lovely face to the radiant +heavens.</p> + +<p>"My God!" she prayed, "take pity on me, and before I realize what has +happened, let me die!"</p> + +<p>"Let me die!" No other prayer went from her lips, although she sat +there from sunset until the early dawn of the new day flushed in the +glorious eastern skies.</p> + +<p>While she sits there, with that despairing prayer rising from the depths +of her despairing heart, we will tell the story of Marian Arleigh's +penance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II.</h3> + + +<p>"You cannot be cruel. You cannot think it is wrong to meet me. My whole +life, with everything in it, belongs to you. If you told me to lie down +here and die at your feet, I should do so and smile. Why do you say it +is wrong, Marion?"</p> + +<p>A lovely, child-like face was raised to the speaker.</p> + +<p>"I do not know. I have a vague idea that anything requiring secrecy must +be wrong. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"No, sweet. What would the great diplomatists of the world say to such a +theory? Rather try to believe that what is stolen is sweet."</p> + +<p>She smiled, but the anxious expression still lingered on her lovely +young face. He noticed it.</p> + +<p>"As a rule, Marion, you are quite right. Concealments are odious. But +there are exceptions—this is one—I love you; but I am only a poor +artist, struggling to make a name. You, sweet, are rich and beautiful. +From your high estate you smile upon me as a queen might smile on a +subject. You are a true heroine. You are content 'to lose the world for +love.'"</p> + +<p>"I am content," said the girl, with a little sigh of supreme happiness; +"but I wish it were all open and straightforward. I wish you would go to +my guardian and tell him you love me. Then tell Miss Carleton. Indeed, +she would not be angry."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what would happen if I did as you advise, Marion?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing would happen," she replied; "and they would be pleased to see +me happy."</p> + +<p>"You have to learn some of the world's lessons yet," he said. "If I were +to go to Lord Ridsdale and say to him, 'My Lord, I love your ward and +she loves me,' do you know what he would do?"</p> + +<p>"No," she replied, slowly.</p> + +<p>"He would send for you at once, and take such measures as would prevent +me from ever seeing you again. If I were to tell him, Marion, we should +be parted forever. Could you bear that, darling?"</p> + +<p>"No," she replied, "I could not, Allan. If you think so, we—we will +keep our secret a little longer."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he said, gratefully, kissing the little white hand clasped +in his. "I knew you would not be cruel, Marion. You are so heroic and +grand—so unlike other girls; you would not darken my solitary life for +an absurd scruple—you would not refuse to see me, when the sight of you +is the only sunbeam that cheers my life."</p> + +<p>The beautiful face brightened at his words.</p> + +<p>"You will write to me, Marion—and, darling, my heart lives on your +words—they are ever present with me. When I read one of your letters it +seems to me your voice is whispering, and that whisper makes the only +music that cheers my day. Tell me in your letters once, and once again, +that you will be my wife, that you will love me, and never care for any +one else."</p> + +<p>"I have told you so," she said; "but if the words please you, I will +tell you over and over again, as you say. You know I love you, Allan."</p> + +<p>"I know you are an angel!" cried the young man. "In all the wide world +there is none like you."</p> + +<p>Then he clasped the little white hands more tightly in his own, and +whispered sweet words to her that brought a bright flush to her face and +a love light to her eyes. She drooped her head with the coy, pretty +shyness of a bird, listening to words that seemed to her all poetry and +music.</p> + +<p>It was a pretty love scene. The lovers stood at the end of an +old-fashioned orchard; the fruit hung ripe on the trees—golden-brown +pears and purple plums, the grass under foot was thick and soft, the sun +had set, the dew was falling, and the birds had gone to rest.</p> + +<p>The girl, standing under the trees, with downcast, blushing face and +bright, clear eyes, was lovely as a poet's dream. She was not more than +seventeen, and looked both young and childlike for that age. She had a +face fair as a summer's morning, radiant with youth and happiness. +Greuze might have painted her and immortalized her. She had a delicate +color that was like the faint flush one sees inside a rose. She had eyes +of the same beautiful blue as the purple heartsease, and great masses of +golden-brown hair that fell in rich waves on her neck and shoulders.</p> + +<p>She was patrician from the crown of her dainty head to the little feet; +the slender, girlish figure was full of grace and symmetry, the white, +rounded throat and beautiful shoulders were fit models for a sculptor. +She had pretty white hands, with a soft, rose-leaf flush on the fingers. +She was a lovely girl, fair, high-bred and elegant, and she gave promise +of a most superb and magnificent womanhood. Such was Marion Arleigh on +this June evening. The young man by her side was handsome after a +certain style; the impression his face left upon every one was that he +was not to be trusted; his dark eyes were not frank and clear, the thin +lips were shrewd, with lines about them that betokened cruelty; it was a +face from which children shrank instinctively, and women as a rule did +not love. They stood side by side under the shade of an elder tree. +Plainly as patrician was written on her beautiful face and figure, +plebeian was imprinted on his. He was tall, but there was no high-bred +grace, no ease of manner, no courteous dignity such as distinguishes the +true English gentleman. His face expressed passion, but half a dozen +meaner emotions were there as well. None were perceptible to the girl by +his side. She thought him perfection and nothing else.</p> + +<p>How comes Marion Arleigh, the heiress of Hanton, ward of Lord Ridsdale, +one of the proudest men in England, and pupil of Miss Carleton, to be +alone in the sweet, soft eveningtide with Allan Lyster, whose name was +not of the fairest repute among men?</p> + +<p>If Lord Ridsdale had known it, his anger would have been without bounds; +if Miss Carleton had guessed it, she would have been too shocked ever +to have admitted Miss Arleigh in her doors again. How came she there? It +was the old story of girlish imprudence, of girlish romance and folly, +of a vivid imagination and bright, warm poetical fancy wrongly +influenced and led astray. Much may be forgiven her, for lovely Marion +Arleigh, one of the richest heiresses in England, was an orphan. No +mother's love had taught her wisdom. She had no memory of a mother's +gentle warning, or sweet and tender wisdom. Her mother died when she was +born, and her father, John Arleigh, of Hanton, did not long survive his +wife. He left his child to the care of Lady Ridsdale—his sister—but +she died when Marion was four years old, and Lord Ridsdale, not knowing +what better to do, sent his little ward to school. He thought first of +having a governess at home for her; that would have necessitated a +chaperon, and for that he was not inclined.</p> + +<p>"Send her to school," was the advice given him by all his lady friends, +and Lord Ridsdale followed it, as being the safest and wisest plan yet +suggested to him. She was sent first to a lady's school at Brighton, +then to Paris, with Lady Livingstone's daughters, then to Miss +Carleton's, and Miss Carleton was by universal consent considered the +most efficient finishing governess in England.</p> + +<p>Marion was very clever; she was romantic to a fault; she idealized +everything and every one with whom she came into contact. She had a +poet's soul, loving most dearly all things bright and beautiful; she was +very affectionate, very impressionable, able, generous with a queenly +lavishness, truthful, noble. Had she been trained by a careful mother, +Marion Arleigh would have been one of the noblest of women; but the best +of school training cannot compensate for the wise and loving discipline +of home. She grew up a most accomplished and lovely girl; the greatest +fault that could be found with her was that she was terribly unreal. She +knew nothing of the practical part of life. She idealized every one so +completely that she never really understood any one.</p> + +<p>Lord Ridsdale wondered often what he was to do with this beautiful and +gifted girl when her school days were ended.</p> + +<p>"She must be introduced to the world then," he thought; "and I fervently +hope she'll soon be married."</p> + +<p>But as her coming to Ridsdale House would cause so great an alteration +in his way of life, he deferred that event as long as it was possible to +do so.</p> + +<p>When Adelaide Lyster came as a governess-pupil to Miss Carleton's school +Marion Arleigh was just sixteen. Miss Lyster was not long before she +knew the rank and social importance of her beautiful young pupil.</p> + +<p>"When you have the world at your feet," she would say to her sometimes, +"I shall ask you a favor."</p> + +<p>"Ask me now!" said Marion, and then Miss Lyster told her how she had a +brother—a genius—an artist—whose talent equaled that of Raphael, but +that he was unknown to the world and had no one to take an interest in +his fortunes.</p> + +<p>"One word from you when you are a great lady will be of more value to my +brother than even the praise of critics," she would say; and Miss +Arleigh, flattered by the speech, would promise that word should be +spoken. Adelaide Lyster spent long hours in talking of her brother—of +his genius, his struggles, his thirst for appreciation; the portrait she +drew of him was so beautiful that Marion Arleigh longed to know him. Her +wish was gratified at last. The drawing master who for many years had +attended the school died, and Adelaide besought Miss Carleton to engage +her brother. The astute lady was at first unwilling. Allan Lyster was +young, and she did not think a young master at all suitable. But +Adelaide represented to her that, although young, he was highly +gifted—he could teach well, and his terms were lower than most masters.</p> + +<p>"There could be no danger," she said, "Miss Carleton's pupils were all +rich and well born—the young artist poor and unknown. They were all +educated with one idea, namely, that the end and aim of their existence +was to marry well, was to secure a title, if possible—diamonds, an +opera box, a country house and town mansion. With that idea engraven so +firmly on heart, soul and mind, it was not possible that there could be +any danger in receiving a few drawing lessons from a penniless, unknown +artist like Allan Lyster."</p> + +<p>So Miss Carleton, for once laying aside her usual caution, engaged him, +and Adelaide Lyster told her favorite pupil as soon as the engagement +was made. The governess-pupil had laid her plans well. On her first +entrance into that high school where every girl had either riches, +beauty or high birth, Adelaide Lyster had sworn to herself to make the +best use of her opportunities, and to secure wealth at least for this +her beloved brother. Allan should marry one of the girls, and then his +fortune in life would be made. After passing them all in review she +decided on Marion Arleigh. Not only was she the wealthiest heiress, but +in her case there were no parents to interfere—no father with stern +refusal, no mother with tearful pleadings. When she was of age she could +please herself—marry Allan, if he would persuade her to do so, and then +he would be master of all her wealth. She began her management of the +somewhat difficult business with tact and diplomacy worthy of a +gray-headed diplomatist. She spoke so incessantly of her +brother—praising his genius, his great gifts—that Marion could not +help thinking of him. She studied the character of this young heiress, +and played so adroitly upon her weakness that Marion Arleigh, in her +sweet girlish simplicity, had no chance against her.</p> + +<p>When Allan Lyster came, to all outward appearances no one could have +been more reserved; he rarely addressed his pupils, never except on +matters connected with the lesson. He never looked at them. Miss +Carleton flattered herself that she had found a treasure. Allan was not +only the cheapest master she had ever had, but he was also a model of +discretion. Yet none the less had he adopted his sister's ideas and made +up his mind to woo and win Marion Arleigh.</p> + +<p>"It is well worth your while to try," said his sister. "There are no +parents to interfere; she will be her own mistress the very day she is +of age."</p> + +<p>"But she is only about seventeen now," said Allan; "there will be so +long to wait."</p> + +<p>"The prize is well worth waiting for. Half the peers in England would be +proud and thankful to win it. If you play your cards well, Allan, in one +way or another you must succeed. Let me tell you the most important +thing to do."</p> + +<p>"What is that?" he asked, looking admiringly into his sister's face.</p> + +<p>"Persuade her to write to you, and mind that her letters to you contain +a promise of marriage. Do you see the importance of that?"</p> + +<p>"You are a clever woman, Adelaide; with you to help me I cannot fail."</p> + +<p>And he did not fail. Adelaide had arranged her plans too skillfully for +that. She began by saying how much Allan admired Marion; then, seeing +the idea was not displeasing to the young heiress, she gradually told +her how he was certain to die of love for her.</p> + +<p>If a wise mother had trained the girl, she would have been less +susceptible; as it was, the notion of a handsome young artist dying for +her was not at all unpleasant. She was seventeen, and had never had a +lover. Other girls had talked about their flirtations; nothing of the +kind had ever occurred to her. True, whenever she went out she could not +help noticing how men's eyes lingered on her face; but that one should +love her—love her so dearly as to die for her, was to her romantic +imagination strange as it was beautiful. Adelaide Lyster could play upon +her feelings and emotions skilfully as she played upon the chords of a +piano.</p> + +<p>"I was saying to Allan yesterday how sorry I am that he ever came to +Miss Carleton's. What do you think he said?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell," replied Miss Arleigh, her beautiful young face flushing +as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"He said, ah! that he would rather love you unhappily than be blessed +with the love of a queen; he would rather look upon your face once than +gaze for years on the loveliest of all created women. How he worships +you! Are all men of genius destined to love unhappily, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Is he so very unhappy?" asked the young lady, sadly.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I do not believe he knows what peace or rest is. He never sleeps +or enjoys himself as other people do."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked the girl, to whom this flattery was most sweet and +pleasant.</p> + +<p>"His life is one long thought of you. If you were poor, he would not +mind; there would be some hope of winning you; he would not let any +other barrier than riches stand before him—that is one that honorable +men cannot climb."</p> + +<p>"I do not see it," said Miss Arleigh.</p> + +<p>"Because you do not know the world. You are so noble in mind yourself, +you do not even understand want of nobility in others. Do you not know +that there are many people who would pretend to love you for the sake of +your fortune?"</p> + +<p>"I wish I had no fortune," said the young girl, wistfully. "How shall I +know, Adelaide, when any one loves me for myself?"</p> + +<p>"When they are, like Allan, willing to die rather than to own their +love; willing to suffer everything and anything rather than be +suspected of fortune-hunting."</p> + +<p>"No one could suspect your brother Allan of that."</p> + +<p>"No one who knows him. But, Miss Arleigh, what would your guardian, Lord +Ridsdale, say—what would Miss Carleton say—if Allan went to them, as I +know he wants to do, and asked permission to work for you, to try and +win you? Listen to me—I am telling you the truth. They would not be +content with insult, with dismissing him ignominiously, but they would +mar his future. You do not know the power vested in the hands of the +rich and mighty. An artist must court public opinion, and if one in the +position of Lord Ridsdale was his determined enemy and foe, he could +expect nothing but ruin."</p> + +<p>"That is not fair," said the heiress, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Then again, if you were to tell Miss Carleton, she would dismiss my +brother, she would complain of him, she would ruin him as completely as +it was in human power to do so. The world is not generous; it is only +noble souls that believe in noble souls. Such people as those would +always persist in considering Allan a fortune-hunter and nothing more."</p> + +<p>All of which arguments Miss Lyster intended to impress upon her pupil's +mind, for this one great object of keeping Allan's wooing a secret. If +that could be until Miss Arleigh was twenty-one, and then she could be +persuaded into marrying him, their fortunes were made.</p> + +<p>That was her chief object. She knew Miss Arleigh was naturally frank, +open and candid; that she had an instinctive dislike of all underhand +behavior; that she could never be induced to look with favor on anything +mean; but if the romance and generous truth of her character could be +played upon, they were safe.</p> + +<p>She had the gift of eloquence, this woman who so cruelly betrayed her +trust. She talked well, and the most subtle and clever of arguments came +to her naturally. Her words had with them a charm and force that the +young could not resist. Let those who misuse such talents remember they +must answer to the Most High God for them. Adelaide Lyster used hers to +betray a trust, that ought to have been held most sacred. She cared +little how she influenced Marion's mind. She cared little what false +notions, what false philosophy, what wrong ideas, she taught her, +provided only she could win her interests, her liking and love for +Allan.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Carleton had been with her young ladies for a promenade—people +less elegant would have said for a walk—Miss Carleton rejoiced in long +words. "Young ladies, prepare for a promenade," was her daily formula. +They had just returned, and Miss Arleigh missed Adelaide Lyster.</p> + +<p>"Why did not Miss Lyster go out with us today?" she asked of another +governess.</p> + +<p>"She complained of headache, and seemed quite out of spirits," was the +reply.</p> + +<p>Marion hastened to her; she was of a most loving disposition, this +motherless girl—tender and kind of heart, and there was no one for her +to love—no father, mother, sister or brother; she was very rich, but +quite alone in the world. She hastened to Miss Lyster's room, and found +that young lady completely prostrated by what she called a nervous +headache.</p> + +<p>"You have been crying, Adelaide," said Marion. "It's no use either +denying it or turning your head so that I cannot see you. What is the +matter?"</p> + +<p>"I wish you had not come here, Marion. I did not want you to know my +trouble."</p> + +<p>"But I must know it," and the girl's arms were clasped around her. She +stooped down and kissed the treacherous face. "I must know it," she +continued, impetuously; "when I say must, Adelaide, I mean it."</p> + +<p>"I dare not tell you—I cannot tell you, Miss Arleigh. It would have +been well for my brother had he never seen your face."</p> + +<p>"You have heard from him, then—it is about him?" and the fair face +flushed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is about him. I have had a letter from him this morning. He +says that he must give up his appointment here and go abroad—that he +cannot bear the torture of seeing you; and if he does go abroad, I shall +never see him again."</p> + +<p>The lips that had been caressing her quivered slightly.</p> + +<p>"He is all I have in the world," continued the governess; "the only +gleam of light or love in my troubled life. Oh, Marion! if he goes from +me—goes to hide his sorrow and his love where I shall never see him +again—what will become of me? I am in despair. The very thought of it +breaks my heart."</p> + +<p>And Miss Lyster sobbed as though she meant every word of it. The heiress +bent over her.</p> + +<p>"What can I do to help you? I am so sorry, Adelaide."</p> + +<p>"There is only one thing you could do," replied the other, "and I dare +not even mention it. My brother must die. Oh, fatal hour in which he +ever saw the beauty of that face!"</p> + +<p>"Tell me what the one thing is, Adelaide. If it is possible, I will do +it."</p> + +<p>"I dare not mention it. It is useless to name it. Men like my brother +throw their genius, their life and love, under the feet of girls like +you; but they meet with no return."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what it is," repeated the other, her generous heart touched by +the thought of receiving so much and giving so little.</p> + +<p>"If you would but consent to see him—I know you will not, but it is the +only means of saving him—if you expressed but the faintest shadow of a +wish, he would stay; I know he would."</p> + +<p>Marion hesitated.</p> + +<p>"How can I interfere?" she said. "How can I express any such wish to +him?"</p> + +<p>"I knew you would not. That is why I did not care to tell you my +trouble. Why should you—so rich, so happy, so beautiful—why should you +interest yourself in the fate of people like us? My brother is a genius, +not a lord."</p> + +<p>"I wish," cried the girl, impatiently, "that you would not be always +talking to me about my riches. I cannot help them. You make me wretched. +It is not because I am rich that I hesitate—how absurd you are, +Adelaide!—but because your brother is a stranger to me, and I have no +right to interfere in his life."</p> + +<p>"Is that all? I fancied you considered him so far beneath you. Genius +is Godlike, but it is not money. Ah, Marion, if that be all, save him! +Save him! He is all I have in the world! He is so young, so sensitive, +so clever, so proud, you could influence him with half a word. If you +said to him, 'Stay,' he would remain, though kings and emperors should +summon him. Will you see him, and say that one word, Marion, for my +sake?"</p> + +<p>It was very pleasant to know that one word from her could influence the +life of this great unknown genius; very pleasant to believe that she was +loved so dearly, so entirely, that even an emperor could not take the +man who worshiped her from her side. It seems weak that she should so +easily believe. Insight gives one a false estimate of her character; but +there are many things to be considered before judging her. She was +romantic in the highest degree; she was all idealty and poetry. She had +no idea of the realities of life; she had the vaguest possible idea that +there was wickedness in the world, but that ever deceit or treachery +should come near her was an idea that never entered her romantic mind. +She was too old to be at school; had her mother been living, she would +have been removed from there. She would have had friends and admirers, +her love and affection would have found proper objects, and the great +calamity of her life would have been averted. Heaven help and guide any +foolish, romantic girl left without the guidance of mother or friend!</p> + +<p>She thought nothing of the impropriety of meeting the young artist +unknown to any one. She remembered only the romance of it—a genius, a +handsome young genius was dying for love of her, for her sake; he was +going away, to leave home, friends and country, going to die in exile, +simply for love of her; to lay down all the brilliant hopes of his life, +to give up all his dreams, all his plans, because he found her so fair +he could no longer live in her presence. Before she made any further +remark she began to think whether any of her favorite heroines had ever +been in this delightful situation, and how it was best to behave with a +genius dying for her. She could not remember, but she knew there were +innumerable instances of queens having loved their subjects—to wit, the +stately Elizabeth and Essex. She, in the eyes of this poor artist and +his sister, was a queen—it would not hurt her to stoop from her high +estate. She turned her fair, troubled face to the astute woman by her +side.</p> + +<p>"Even if I could do him any good by seeing him," she said, "how could it +be managed?"</p> + +<p>Miss Lyster's stare of admiration was something wonderful to see. "Would +you be so noble, so generous? Oh, Miss Arleigh, you will save my life +and his! Would you really see him, and tell him he had better stay? How +good you are! Do you know, I could kneel here at your feet to thank you. +If you are willing, I can make all arrangements—I only needed your +consent."</p> + +<p>The excitement was a pleasant break in the monotony of school life. How +little did Marion understand those with whom she had to deal! She had +promised to grant this interview as something of a condescension. Miss +Lyster managed her so skilfully that before it took place she had +learned to long for it.</p> + +<p>The farce of Allan's illness was kept up. For two days the pupils were +deprived of their lessons through the indisposition of their master.</p> + +<p>"I do not know that your kindness will be needed after all," said +Adelaide, sadly. "My brother is very ill; he may not recover. Oh, what a +fatal day it was when he first saw you, Miss Arleigh!"</p> + +<p>Now, Marion had often rehearsed this interview. She had pictured herself +as taking the part of a very dignified queen; of saying to this +interesting subject who was dying for love of her, "Stay." She imagined +his delight at her condescension, his sister's gratitude for her +kindness; and now, behold, nothing of the kind was wanting—the pretty +role she had sketched out for herself required no playing.</p> + +<p>"I do not think I need make any arrangement for the little interview you +promised my brother," said Miss Lyster to the simple girl. "I have had a +note from him this morning. He is in better health, but he is in +despair, and he cannot hide it. He absolutely refuses to believe that +you have consented to see him. Unless you tell him so yourself, he will +never believe it."</p> + +<p>"But how can I tell him?" asked the girl.</p> + +<p>"Write on a piece of paper, 'Come at the hour and place your sister +appoints. I wish to see you.' Then he will come. I am writing tonight, +and will enclose the note."</p> + +<p>It would rather take from her queenlike attitude, she thought; but as +she had promised the kindness, it would not be graceful to dispute as to +how it should be granted; so, under the guidance of the woman to whom +her innocent youth was entrusted, she sealed her fate with her own +hands.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V.</h3> + + +<p>"How am I to thank you?" said Adelaide Lyster to the girl she had +betrayed. "I have a letter from Allan, and he says the very thought of +seeing you has given him a fresh life—fresh energy. I have never read +anything so rapturous in my life. Do you wish to see the letter?"</p> + +<p>As Marion Arleigh read the passionate, poetical words that had been +written expressly for her, her face flushed. How wonderful it was to +hold a man's life in her hands—to sway a genius so that her nod meant +stay or go, her least words meant happiness or misery! She looked around +with something of pity for other girls who had not this new and +wonderful sensation.</p> + +<p>"A life in her hands!" There came to her, young as she was, a vague idea +of woman's power for good or for evil. A cruel or cold word from her, +and the artist would go in his misery only to seek death in some far-off +land. A kind word, and he would remain—his genius would have its sway, +and he would paint pictures that the world should glory in.</p> + +<p>"I have arranged it all," said Miss Lyster. "Miss Carleton is going +to-day to that grand dinner-party at Macdonald's. She has given orders +that the young ladies shall go over to Herrington, and take some +refreshments with them—it will be a picnic on a small scale. You can +excuse yourself from going. I will volunteer to remain with you, and +toward sunset, we will walk through the old orchard. Allan will await us +there."</p> + +<p>The girl's heart beat; it was a romantic dream after all—that strange, +wonderful reality; the interview she had so often imagined was to take +place at last.</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell an untruth," she said to Miss Lyster; "I could not if I +tried. How could I excuse myself from going?"</p> + +<p>Adelaide looked slightly shocked.</p> + +<p>"I would not ask you to speak untruthfully, not even to save Allan's +life, dearly as I love him," she said. "There is no need. Say you are +not inclined to go. Miss Carleton will not interfere with the whims of +an heiress."</p> + +<p>So it was arranged, and everything fell out just as Adelaide Lyster had +foreseen. Miss Carleton did not care to interfere with the whims of a +great heiress like Marion Arleigh.</p> + +<p>"By all means, stay at home, my love, if you wish, and Miss Lyster, too. +She is an admirable young person; so prudent, so discreet. I could not +leave you in better hands."</p> + +<p>Marion Arleigh lived afterward to be presented at Court, but she never +again felt the same diffidence, the same trepidation, as when, with her +false friend by her side, she went down the steps that led to the +orchard. The hedge was high and thick, tall trees formed a complete +barrier between the grounds and the high road, no strangers or passersby +could be seen. Miss Lyster had chosen her time well. She knew that in +the lady superintendent's absence the servants would hold high revels; +there was no fear of interruption.</p> + +<p>In after life Marion Arleigh remembered every detail of that evening. It +was May then, and the hedge was white with hawthorn; there was a gleam +of gold from the laburnums, and the scent of the lilacs filled the air; +the apple trees were all in blossom, the birds were singing, the sun +shining, warmth and fragrance and beauty lay all around her.</p> + +<p>Far down the orchard, standing sketching a picturesque old tree, was the +artist, Allan Lyster. He looked up as the sound of light footsteps +rustled in the grass. When he saw who was coming he flung down his +pencils and advanced, hat in hand.</p> + +<p>There was something graceful and poetical, after all, in the way in +which he went up to Miss Arleigh and knelt lightly on one knee.</p> + +<p>"I would kiss the hem of your robe if I dared," he said. "How am I to +thank you?"</p> + +<p>Then he sprang up and took his sister's hand in his. He allowed no time +for confusion and embarrassment—he was too clever for that.</p> + +<p>"How am I to thank you, Miss Arleigh?" he said. "If the sun had fallen +from the heavens, I could not have felt, more surprise than your +kindness has caused me. My sister tells me you are good enough not to be +angry at my presumption."</p> + +<p>Miss Lyster laughed.</p> + +<p>"I think, Allan," she said, "that I shall leave you to listen to Miss +Arleigh's lecture alone. She will be able to say harder words to you if +I am not by to listen. I will see if I can finish your picture."</p> + +<p>She walked over to the tree where paper and pencils lay, leaving them +alone, and though she was a woman, and young—though she knew that she +was most foully betraying a girl whose youth and innocence might have +pleaded for her, she had not even a passing thought of pity. "Let Allan +win the fortune if he can. He will make better use of it than she +could."</p> + +<p>"You are so good to me," murmured the young artist, his dark eyes +flashing keenly for one-half a minute over that beautiful face. "I am at +a loss for words."</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster was gifted with a most musical voice, and he understood +perfectly well how to make the most use of it. The pathos with which he +said those words was wonderful to hear.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you," she said. "Your sister tells me you think of +going abroad."</p> + +<p>"Has she told you why?" he asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>Marion's face grew crimson. The beautiful eyes dropped from his. She +drew back ever so little, but another keen, sharp glance told him she +was not angry; only shy and timid.</p> + +<p>"You are so good to me," he continued, with passionate eagerness, "that +I am not afraid to tell you. I must go; life here is torture to me; it +is torture to see you, to hear you speak, to worship you with a heart +full of fire, and yet to know that the sun is not farther from me than +you, to know that if I laid my life at your feet you would only laugh at +me and think me mad. It is torture so great that exile and death seem +preferable."</p> + +<p>He saw her lips quiver, and her eyes, half raised, had in them no angry +light.</p> + +<p>"You are a great lady," he said, "rich, noble, powerful. I am a poor +artist. I have but one gift—that is genius. And I have dared, fired by +such a beauty as woman never had before, to raise my eyes to you. They +are dazzled, blinded, and I must suffer for my rashness; and yet—"</p> + +<p>He paused, gave another keen glance, felt perfectly satisfied that what +he was saying was well received, then went on:</p> + +<p>"Artists before now have loved great ladies, and by their genius have +immortalized them. But I am mad to say such things. This is the age of +money-worship, and art is no longer valued as in those times."</p> + +<p>"I do not value money," she said, in a clear, sweet voice. "I value many +things a thousand times more highly."</p> + +<p>"You are an angel!" he cried. "Even though my love tortures me, I would +not change it for the highest pleasures other men enjoy. The poets learn +by suffering what they teach in song; so it will be with me. Sorrow will +make me a great artist; whereas, if I had been a happy man, I might +never, perhaps, have risen much above the common level. I am resigned to +suffer all my life."</p> + +<p>"I do not like to hear you speak so," she said. "Life will not be all +suffering."</p> + +<p>"I have raised my eyes, looked at the sun, and it has dazzled me," he +said. "Ah, lady, I have had such dreams, of love that overleaped all +barriers, as Art has rendered loveliness immortal for all time. I have +dreamed of loves such as Petrarch had for Laura, Dante for Beatrice, and +I wake to call myself mad for indulging in such dreams."</p> + +<p>She was deeply interested. This was exactly as heros spoke in novels; +they always had a lofty contempt for money, and talked as though love +was the only and universal good. She looked half shyly at him; he was +very handsome, this young artist who loved her so, and very sad. How +dearly he loved her, and how strange it was! In all this wide world +there was not one who cared for her as he did; the thought seemed to +bring her nearer to him. No one had ever talked of loving her before. +Perhaps the beauty of the May evening softened her and inclined her +heart to him; for after a few minutes' silence she said to him:</p> + +<p>"We are forgetting the very object for which I consented to see you."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI.</h3> + + +<p>"It is no wonder," replied Allan Lyster. "I forget everything in +speaking to you. You do well, lady, in making me remember myself."</p> + +<p>"Do not mistake me," she said gently. "I only thought time is flying, +and I have not said yet what I promised your sister I would say."</p> + +<p>They had walked down the orchard, and they stood now under the spreading +boughs of a large apple tree—the pink and white blossoms made the +loveliest frame for that most fair face. She was lovely as the blossoms +themselves.</p> + +<p>"I feel like a criminal," said Allan Lyster; "and as though you were my +judge. I tremble to know what you have to say."</p> + +<p>"Yet it is not very terrible, Mr. Lyster. Your sister is my dearest +friend, and she tells me that you are thinking of going abroad. She is +very miserable over it. She fancies she should never see you again. I +promised her that I would persuade you to stay."</p> + +<p>His face flushed—his eyes flashed—he bent over her.</p> + +<p>"See what little white hands yours are," he said; "yet they hold a +life—a strong man's life. If you bade me stay, I would remain though +death were the penalty. If you bade me go, I would go and never look +upon a familiar face again."</p> + +<p>"I do not like to say go, or stay," she replied, hesitatingly. "It is a +serious thing to interfere with a man's life."</p> + +<p>"I have dared already more than I ever dreamed of daring. I have told +how rashly I have ventured to raise my eyes to the sun—you know my +presumption. I have dared to kneel at your feet, and tell you that you +are the star of my idolatry, the source of all my inspiration. You know +that, yet you will not punish my presumption by telling me to go?"</p> + +<p>"I will not," she replied, gently.</p> + +<p>"Then you are not angry with me? I did not know life held such happiness +as that. You know I love you? You are not angry?"</p> + +<p>A sudden breeze stirred the apple blossoms, and they fell like a shower +on her fair head.</p> + +<p>"You must pardon me if I am beside myself with joy. Looking on your +face, I grow intoxicated with your beauty, as men do with rare wines. +Ah, lady! in the years to come and in the great world people may love +you; but you shall look, and look in vain, for a love so true, so deep, +so devoted as mine."</p> + +<p>"I believe it," she replied.</p> + +<p>"You believe it, yet you are not angry with me? You hold my life in your +hands yet will not bid me go?"</p> + +<p>He bent over her, his handsome face was glowing, his dark eyes flashing +fire.</p> + +<p>"I could fancy myself in a dream," he said; "it is too strange, too +sweet to be true. There must be some intoxication in these apple +blossoms. Dare I ask you one more grace?"</p> + +<p>"I have not been very unkind," she said.</p> + +<p>"Will you let me sometimes see you? I will not presume upon your +kindness. Your face is to me what sunshine is to flowers. Do not turn +its light from me."</p> + +<p>"You see me at the lessons," she said.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, I do not. I never dare to look at you; if I did, Miss +Carleton would soon know my secret. I am an artist, practiced to admire. +I may say what in others would be simple impertinence. You look so +beautiful, Miss Arleigh, with the sunlight falling on you through the +apple blossoms. Will you let me make a picture of you, just as you are +now? I could paint it well, for my whole heart would be in the work."</p> + +<p>"I am willing," she said.</p> + +<p>"And you will let me keep the picture when it is finished, and once or +twice before the lovely summer fades you will come out here and see me +again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, "I will come again."</p> + +<p>"I shall keep those few penciled words you sent me until I die," he +said, "and then they shall be buried with me."</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster was a wise general; he knew exactly when it was time to +retreat. He would fain have lingered by her side talking to her, looking +in her lovely face, but prudence told him that he had said enough. He +looked across at the trees and signed to his sister, unseen and unknown +to Miss Arleigh. Adelaide, quick to take the hint, joined them at once.</p> + +<p>"I shall not show you my sketch, Allan," she said laughingly; "it will +not show well by the side of yours. Marion, we must go. Have you +accomplished my heart's desire—persuaded my brother to stay?"</p> + +<p>"He did not want much persuasion," she replied, suddenly remembering +with surprise how little had been said about the matter.</p> + +<p>"I hope Allan has made no blunder," thought the sister; aloud she said, +"I know it. I knew that one look from you would do all that my prayers +failed to accomplish. We must go, Marion; it is time to re-enter the +house."</p> + +<p>"Miss Arleigh," said Allan Lyster, "when I wake to-morrow, I shall fancy +all this but a dream. Will you give me something to make me remember +that it is indeed a happy reality?"</p> + +<p>"What shall I give you?" asked the girl.</p> + +<p>"You have held that spray of apple blossoms in your hand all the +evening," he said, "give me that."</p> + +<p>She laughed and held it out to him.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he said; "now that you have touched it it ought not to +die."</p> + +<p>"Do all artists talk like you, Mr. Lyster?"</p> + +<p>"When the same subject inspires them," he replied, and then Adelaide +reminded them again that time was flying, and they must be gone.</p> + +<p>A few more minutes and the handsome young artist was walking quickly +down the high road. He had succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. He +felt as sure of winning the beautiful young heiress as though he had +placed already a wedding ring upon her finger. He laughed to himself to +think how easy the task was; so easy, in fact, that he felt a touch of +contempt for that which was so easily won.</p> + +<p>"It will be a good thing for me," he said to himself. "If I succeed, +painting may go. I shall not trouble myself about anything but spending +money. If I succeed, Adelaide shall have her reward." And he pleased +himself by thinking how, out of his forty thousands, he would give her a +fortune.</p> + +<p>"She deserves it. She has worked hard for me, and she shall not be +forgotten."</p> + +<p>It did not occur to him that there would arise any serious difficulty. +Of course, no steps could be taken until she was twenty-one. He could +not marry her without the consent of her guardian, and to ask for it +was, of course, nonsense. He would bind her to himself with the most +solemn of promises, and the very day she was of age they would be +married. As he walked toward his humble lodgings he amused himself by +thinking what he should do when he became master of Hanton Hall. No +sentiment troubled Allan Lyster; he could make love in any style he +liked to anyone who suited him. As to any remorse over the girl his +sister had betrayed and they had both deceived, he felt none.</p> + +<p>"How do you like him, Marion?" asked Adelaide Lyster, as the two walked +home.</p> + +<p>"He is very handsome and very clever," was the grave reply.</p> + +<p>"Add to that—he is more deeply in love than any man ever was yet," said +Miss Lyster, laughingly. "Marion, he worships you—his love is something +that frightens me."</p> + +<p>Miss Arleigh avowed that it was true.</p> + +<p>"He will go home," continued Adelaide, "and instead of going to sleep +like a sensible man, he will walk about all night, composing grand poems +about you."</p> + +<p>"Does he write poetry?" asked Marion, with increased admiration.</p> + +<p>"He is a poet and artist both," said his sister, with a little touch of +pride that amused the heiress.</p> + +<p>That was Miss Arleigh's first interview with her admirer, the second +was, he assured her, for the sake of the picture—the third, that he +might see how the picture was going on—the fourth, that she might see +it completed—the fifth, because she found the flattery of his love so +irresistible she could no longer do without it—the sixth, because she +began to fall in love with him herself—and then she lost all count, she +lived for those interviews, and nothing else.</p> + +<p>"I want to impress one thing upon you," said Adelaide to her brother; +"bear it always in mind. When you think you have made sufficient +advances in her favor to ask her to marry you, do not rest satisfied +with her spoken word, make her write it. It will be of no use to you +unless you do that."</p> + +<p>"Explain a little further, my wisest of sisters," said Allan.</p> + +<p>"A written promise of marriage is the only security a man has. Women +change like the wind, without rhyme or reason. But if you have her own +word pledged to you, her promise of marriage written so that there shall +be no mistake, then it will be worth a fortune to you."</p> + +<p>"Even if she should refuse to fulfil"—</p> + +<p>"You are not very worldly wise, Allan," said his sister with the +slightest tinge of contempt in her voice. "If she fulfils it, all well +and good. The very fact of having written it keeps a girl true when she +should otherwise be false. But if she refuses to keep it, the remedy +then is in your own hands."</p> + +<p>"And that remedy is"—he began, but she interrupted him quickly.</p> + +<p>"The remedy is, of course, an action at law; or what would be far more +efficacious in her case, holding her letters as a means of getting money +from her. A proud woman will sacrifice any amount of wealth rather than +have such a thing known."</p> + +<p>Marion Arleigh fell easily into the plot laid by those she considered +her best friends.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII.</h3> + + +<p>It is not pleasant to trace the steps by which the simple credulous girl +fell into the snare laid for her. She had sense and reason, but they +were both overbalanced by romance—she saw only the ideal side of +everything. The romance of this hidden love was delightful to her; she +compared herself to every heroine in fiction, and found none of them in +a more charming position that herself.</p> + +<p>Allan's profession had something to do with romance; had he been a mere +commonplace doctor or lawyer it would have been a different matter, but +an artist—the halo of his art transfigured him in her eyes—thus to be +capable of a deep and passionate love such as he felt for her!</p> + +<p>It was altogether like one of those romances that charmed her; and after +a time she gave herself up entirely to her love.</p> + +<p>By the skilful mamnagement of Adelaide Lyster their meetings became very +frequent, and before long he had won from her a promise that she would +love him all her life, and would consent to marry him. Even at that +time, when she was most ecstatic, most carried away by the novelty and +the romance, even then, if any sensible person had spoken to her, she +would have understood more her position than she did now.</p> + +<p>If anyone had said to her: "That man is not a hero, he is only a fortune +hunter; he is not even an honorable man, or he would not seek to decoy +you from your duty to bind you to an underhand agreement; instead of +being honorable and a hero he is dishonorable and a rogue"—she had +sense enough to have seen that. She understood enough of the laws of +honor to know when they were broken. But this side of the question +never occured to her. He was young, handsome, and an artist; he loved +her so dearly that for love of her he was almost dying. She was rich and +powerful; he had nothing but genius; he loved her so that her smile gave +him life, her frown was death. It was pleasant, too, and most romantic, +to escape from the thraldom of school to wander with him in the gray +twilight through the old orchard and the green lanes; it was pleasant to +feel in the depth of her heart a love that no one knew anything of—no +one even understood. The scenery, viewed from its romantic side, charmed +her.</p> + +<p>They told her continually how great and noble, how generous she was, and +she delighted in hearing it.</p> + +<p>"You value genius more than money," Allan would say to her, "and you are +right. God gives genius, men make money. You have the power of +discriminating between them."</p> + +<p>She began to look upon herself as something very superior +indeed—something far excelling the ordinary run of girls. They +flattered her until she hardly knew what was false and what was true.</p> + +<p>She delighted in making pictures of the future; how she was to stoop +from the height of her grandeur to raise him; how her wealth was, as it +were, to crown his genius. They told her that the whole world would +praise her for her noble generosity. That the rich heiress who forgot +her wealth and became the artist's wife, would be honored wherever her +name was known. They intoxicated her with romance, they bewildered her +with flattery. And she was only seventeen, with no mother to speak one +warning word to her.</p> + +<p>She pledged herself to be Allan Lyster's wife when she came of age. He +told her he would rather forego all claim to her wealth, marry her at +once, and leave her guardian to act as he thought best; but she, though +delighted to find him free from the least taint of anything mercenary, +refused to run the risk of losing her fortune.</p> + +<p>"Would you really," she said to him one day, "love me as much if I were +quite poor, as you do now?"</p> + +<p>"Would I! Oh, Marion, what a question to ask me! The only drawback to my +love is that hateful fortune; if it were not for that I would marry you +at once. Ah, you should find out what I loved you for, sweet. I would +work for you night and day. I would move the whole world to find for my +darling that which she would require."</p> + +<p>And the girl in her simplicity believed him, and thought herself the +most fortunate among woman to have won a love for herself that had in it +no taint of this world.</p> + +<p>So they flung the glamor of love and flattery around her, until she lost +the keen perception of right and wrong that would have saved her.</p> + +<p>She promised to be Allan Lyster's wife. When he had won that promise +from her, he pretended to think better of it.</p> + +<p>"I am wrong to ask you, Marion; I am selfish, I ought not even wish you +to share my lot."</p> + +<p>She asked him why, raising her sweet eyes to his face.</p> + +<p>"Why, because when you go out into the great world peers and princes +will woo you, my darling; the noblest in the land will sue for your +favor, and you, who might have been a duchess, will repent loving and +caring for one so poor and obscure as I am. I can give you no title."</p> + +<p>"You can give me what I value more," she said. "You can give me true and +disinterested love."</p> + +<p>He did not forget his sister's advice, that he should have that promise +in writing. One evening—it was August then, when the fruit hung ripe on +the trees—he told her, with many sighs, that he should not see her +again for some days.</p> + +<p>"How am I to live through them, Marion, I do not know; now when I wake, +my first thought is that I shall see you; all the world seems so fair +and life so bright, because I shall see you. What will happen to me when +the morning sun brings no such delight?"</p> + +<p>She was young and simple enough to feel very much touched with his +words; the old idea of having his life in her hands never left her.</p> + +<p>"Grant me a favor," he said. "I shall have no energy for work unless you +promise it: Write to me every night and in your letters tell me, sweet, +that which I love best to hear, that you will marry me."</p> + +<p>So to make him happy, to give him life and energy for his work, she +wrote to him every evening, and, remembering his request, in each one of +those letters she repeated her promise to marry him.</p> + +<p>This is no overstrained story, it is no exaggeration; hundreds of men +have acted as Allan Lyster did, and hundreds will act so in the future. +When girls have once mastered the grand lesson that all secrecy—all +concealment is wrong, they will have taken the only precaution possible +to save themselves.</p> + +<p>So matters went on until the continued secrecy began to prey upon +Marion's mind; then she made an appeal to Allan with which our story +opens. He did his best to argue with her, and he sent a note to his +sister, telling her the bright, bonnie bird they had ensnared was +growing restive under constraint.</p> + +<p>No doubts ever came to her. Youth is the age of romance; youth +imperatively demands love and poetry. She had found both and was +perfectly satisfied. She believed honestly that she loved him very +dearly; it never occurred to her that the greatest charm really was the +excitement of having to plan interviews and arrange her letters so as to +escape detection; it never occured to her that if she had been like +other girls of her age in society, and so enabled to judge of people, so +far from loving him and making a hero of him, he would have been +distasteful to her. She had had no opportunities of being able to judge. +Lord Ridsdale's only idea was to keep her at school as long as possible, +in order to escape further trouble. She had never been in the society of +gentlemen, and her head was full of romance and poetry.</p> + +<p>Therefore she fell an easy victim to the artist and his sister. She was +ready to believe he was a great hero, because he was handsome; that he +was all that could be noble and generous, because he talked poetry. +True, she began to dislike the concealment, but it never struck her that +she disliked it because the whole affair was growing tiresome to her.</p> + +<p>She had talked it over and over again with him—how they must wait until +she was twenty-one, then they would be married and go to live at Hanton.</p> + +<p>"You will like Hanton," she said. "It is old, gray and picturesque; the +woods are beautiful, there is a river running through them."</p> + +<p>"I shall like any place that I could share with you," he replied. "When +shall you leave this place, Marion?"</p> + +<p>"At Christmas, I expect. But, Allan, shall we never see each other until +I am twenty-one?"</p> + +<p>"I hope so," he replied. "You do not know where you will live?"</p> + +<p>"No, that is not decided. Lord Ridsdale says I cannot go to Hanton +alone, and I know that I cannot live at his house."</p> + +<p>"But go where you will, Marion, you will write to me and see me +sometimes?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I shall. If I remain in London it will be comparatively easy, +and if I go into the country you will be obliged to follow me."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could disguise myself as a page and go with you," he said. "I +do not see how I am to live without you."</p> + +<p>He did another thing which touched her generous heart—he painted a +picture, and with the proceeds of the sale of it he purchased a ring for +her. It was his sister who told her how the ring was procured.</p> + +<p>"It is my belief," said Miss Lyster, "that if he could change his whole +heart into one great ruby, he would do so, and offer it to you."</p> + +<p>She placed the ring on her finger, and he made her promise never to take +it off. It was made of rubies and opals set in pure gold.</p> + +<p>"Do not remove that, Marion," he said, "until I can find a plain gold +ring and that shall bind you to me for as long as we both shall live."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + + +<p>A change came at last—one for which none of the three had been +prepared: Lord Ridsdale married.</p> + +<p>The first thing the new Lady Ridsdale did was to insist on the removal +of Miss Arleigh from school.</p> + +<p>"Nearly eighteen," she said, "and still at school! My dear William, the +only wonder is that the poor girl has not fallen into some dreadful +mischief. She ought to have been presented last year. We must have her +home at once."</p> + +<p>Lady Ridsdale was a woman of the world; she knew exactly how much eclat +and importance would accrue to her from the fact of being chaperone to a +wealthy heiress like Miss Arleigh.</p> + +<p>"Is the girl pretty?" she asked her husband; and to do him justice, he +looked much confused.</p> + +<p>"I hardly know what to answer you, Laura. I must confess the truth; I +have not seen her for two years and more. When my wife died I was quite +at a loss what to do with her, so I sent her to school. Miss Carleton +promised to take complete charge of her, and I have not seen her, as I +say, for more than two years."</p> + +<p>"Was she a pretty girl then?" persisted Lady Ridsdale.</p> + +<p>"I think so. Miss Carleton said she was beautiful. She had been crying +when I saw her, so that I could hardly judge."</p> + +<p>"A beauty, and a wealthy heiress! We must have her at home at once, +William. We will fetch her without any delay."</p> + +<p>Lord Ridsdale thought some of the servants might go, that it was hardly +necessary for him to make the journey. His wife laughed at him.</p> + +<p>"You do not know the social importance of your ward," she said. "Before +long Miss Arleigh will be one of the queens of society, heiress of +Hanton, and of the large fortune left by her father; we shall have some +of the first men in England wooing her. She may be a duchess if she +likes." At which intelligence Lord Ridsdale opened his eyes.</p> + +<p>He had thought of his ward as of a tiresome responsibility, a child of +whom the charge would be very troublesome. He had taken good care of her +money, because he was an honorable man, but he had not thought much of +what his wife called her social position. As a probable duchess he felt +a great amount of respect for her.</p> + +<p>So Lord and Lady Ridsdale went together to bring their beautiful young +ward home. Miss Carleton was grieved to lose her.</p> + +<p>"She has been a docile pupil, and she is a beautiful, lovable girl. +Though I am sorry indeed to part with her, for her own sake I am glad +she is going; it is high time she saw something of the world."</p> + +<p>"You have had no trouble with her, I hope?" said Lord Ridsdale. "At +seventeen most young girls have begun to think of love and lovers."</p> + +<p>Miss Carleton prided herself on the fact that in her establishment such +matters were entirely avoided.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing of the kind," she replied, earnestly. "I do not +believe that Miss Arleigh has even begun to think of such things."</p> + +<p>"So much the worse when she does begin," thought Lady Ridsdale.</p> + +<p>When the preliminaries had all been discussed, and Miss Arleigh was +requested to meet her guardian, Lady Ridsdale could not control her +surprise at the sight of the girl's beauty.</p> + +<p>"You could not tell whether she was pretty or not?" she said afterwards +to her husband. "William you must be blind."</p> + +<p>She welcomed the young girl warmly. She kissed the fresh blooming face +that had all a woman's beauty with the innocence of a child. She clasped +her arms round the slender, girlish figure.</p> + +<p>"You must learn to love me," she said, "to look on me in the place of +the mother you have lost."</p> + +<p>And Marion Arleigh for the first time in her life imagined to herself +what a mother's love would be like.</p> + +<p>"What a strange idea to keep you so long at school!" said Lady Ridsdale. +"We must do our best to atone for it."</p> + +<p>"I should imagine that my guardian did not know what to do with me," she +replied, with a smile so bright and sweet that Lord Ridsdale at once +fell in love with her, as his wife had done before him.</p> + +<p>"Where am I going to live?" asked Marion, after they had been talking +for some time.</p> + +<p>"We are going to Thorpe Castle," replied Lady Ridsdale, "and I thought +you would enjoy being there with us."</p> + +<p>"I shall enjoy anything and everything" said Marion. "I have all my life +before me, and it will be full of glorious possibilities."</p> + +<p>Suddenly she paused, remembering that her life was settled and arranged; +it held no more possibilities; they were all at an end. For the first +time she felt the weight of the chain that bound her. Lady Ridsdale +wondered why the beautiful face suddenly grew pale and grave.</p> + +<p>Half an hour afterwards Marion came timidly to her side.</p> + +<p>"Lady Ridsdale," she began, in a half-hesitating manner, "of course I +never thought such happiness as the marriage of my guardian was in store +for me."</p> + +<p>"I suppose not," was the smiling reply.</p> + +<p>"I used to think that I should go away from here and be so lonely, so +sad. I have made a promise and I do not see how I can keep it."</p> + +<p>Lady Ridsdale was touched and flattered by the girl's confidence.</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it, Marion; you shall keep the promise, if it be +possible."</p> + +<p>"There is a governess here, one of the assistants; her name is +Lyster—Adelaide Lyster. She has always been very kind to me; indeed I +should have been most lonely but for her, and I—I am very much attached +to her."</p> + +<p>"Quite natural and quite right," said Lady Ridsdale. "You wish, of +course, to make her a very handsome present?"</p> + +<p>"No, not quite that," said Marion, looking very uncomfortable; "it is +much worse than that. I thought I should be all alone, and I promised +that when I left Miss Carleton's she should go with me as my companion, +and should live with me."</p> + +<p>Lady Ridsdale looked very grave.</p> + +<p>"I do not think it possible, my dear," she replied. "Lord Ridsdale has +the greatest objection to that kind of thing. Will you not try if you +shall like me as a companion?"</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure to do that," she said; "but I made the promise. What +shall I do?"</p> + +<p>"You made it under a certain set of circumstances," said Lady Ridsdale +"and they no longer exist. You may, I think, in all honor, defer the +keeping of it, until you have a house of your own."</p> + +<p>But Marion still looked as she felt—uncomfortable. Lord Ridsdale had +gone to superintend some arrangements for their departure, leaving the +two ladies alone.</p> + +<p>"You think the young person will be disappointed?" said Lady Ridsdale, +kindly.</p> + +<p>"I am sure she will," replied Marion wincing at the words "young +person."</p> + +<p>"Let me see her; ask her to come here, and I will speak to her. After +all, my dear, you are not in the least to blame if you cannot keep your +promise—you must remember that."</p> + +<p>A few more minutes and Miss Lyster, dressed in her most becoming +costume, stood before Lady Ridsdale.</p> + +<p>A few words passed, and then Lady Ridsdale began;</p> + +<p>"My ward is in some distress, Miss Lyster. I find that she has promised +you that you shall live with her as companion."</p> + +<p>"She certainly did so, and I have made all arrangements for that +purpose."</p> + +<p>"We will hope you have not made many arrangements," said Lady Ridsdale, +suavely, "as Miss Arleigh's movements have been so very uncertain. Of +course, when Miss Arleigh is of age, and makes her own +arrangements—forms her own household—she will do as she likes. It will +be utterly impossible for her to carry out her promise in Lord +Ridsdale's house, as I am sure you will have the good sense to +perceive."</p> + +<p>Now, Miss Lyster was not wanting in good sense. She was taken by +surprise, as was every one else, by this sudden movement. She had had no +time to think what was best under the circumstances; the only idea that +occurred to her was how more than useless it would be to offend Lady +Ridsdale. Unless she managed to secure her good opinions there would be +no invitations to Ridsdale house. These ideas flashed through her mind +with the rapidity of lightning; then Miss Lyster, with an expression on +her face that was a most perfect mixture of reverence and humility, +said:</p> + +<p>"I hope Miss Arleigh will study herself and your ladyship, not me."</p> + +<p>"You must not look at it in that light. Miss Arleigh studies every one +most kindly, I am sure. It is simply this: that there would never be the +least objection to Miss Arleigh following out any wish or any idea that +should occur to her, but that in this case it would be impossible to +carry out her wish. Miss Arleigh will soon be surrounded by friends and +companions of her own age, and then she will not feel lonely."</p> + +<p>Miss Lyster's reply was a deep, silent bow. To herself she said:</p> + +<p>"If she thinks to take Marion from me, she is mistaken. I will never +lose my hold on her."</p> + +<p>Lady Ridsdale was touched by the companion's resignation to +circumstances.</p> + +<p>"We shall be very pleased to see you at Thorpe Castle during the +vacation, Miss Lyster," said Lady Ridsdale, "and we owe you a deep debt +of gratitude for your unfailing kindness to Miss Arleigh."</p> + +<p>Then the interview ended.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyster, after a few more words, quitted the room.</p> + +<p>"My dear Marion," said Lady Ridsdale, "I am almost glad that +circumstances do prevent you from carrying out this arrangement."</p> + +<p>"Why?" she asked simply.</p> + +<p>"Because I have lived in the world long enough to be a judge of +character, and your friend's face does not please me. Do not trust her +too far."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX.</h3> + + +<p>Life at Miss Carleton's and life at Thorpe Castle were very different. +Marion had not been there very long before she began to feel most +perfectly happy, and to wonder how she endured the monotonous routine of +school.</p> + +<p>The parting from Allan had really been terrible to her, his love had +for so long been her chief comfort and her only pleasure. She said to +herself that she should miss him most terribly; yet, if she had looked +into her own heart, she would have seen it was not so much him she +should miss as it was the novelty of his letters, his plotting, his +poetry, the stolen interviews, the hidden romance that she thought so +beautiful.</p> + +<p>"You will not forget me, darling?" he said, pleadingly. "You will write +to me, and you will let me sometimes see you?" She promised faithfully. +She wept over leaving him, yet in some unaccountable way her spirits +rose when she came away; she felt more free, more at ease than she had +done for a long time.</p> + +<p>"You must make the best use of the sunny days," said Lady Ridsdale. +"There is one advantage in having been so long at school—you will be +perfectly fresh to the world, and that is always a charm in itself. You +must give yourself up entirely to my guidance for a time."</p> + +<p>Marion did so most willingly. Lady Ridsdale engaged a pretty, quick +Parisian as lady's maid; she invited young ladies of her own rank and +position to stay at the castle; she obtained every possible enjoyment +and pleasure for the girl.</p> + +<p>This was something like. The hours seemed to fly like golden moments, +the very atmosphere was different. Here all was refinement, grace, +courtesy and kindness. Lady Ridsdale knew some delightful people, and +nothing pleased her so much as filling Thorpe Castle with visitors.</p> + +<p>One and all were delighted with the young heiress. Her beauty, her +brilliant accomplishments, her simplicity, her frankness of character +and sweetness of temper made her a general favorite. She soon made up +for lost time. She learned to drive, to ride, to row, to do all the +hundred and one pretty things that mark the young lady of the world.</p> + +<p>The gentlemen admired her exceedingly, she was so lovely, so candid. She +was never left alone. If she entered the drawing-room she was instantly +surrounded with a little court of admirers. When she wished to ride or +walk there was always some little contention as to who should accompany +her. It was very pleasant. Before she had been at Thorpe Castle long +Marion Arleigh was queen of the new world. In the midst of all her +happiness the first letter from Allan Lyster came like a thunderbolt. +She was naturally so frank, so candid, that the keeping of a secret was +most difficult to her. Her first impulse was to go to Lady Ridsdale and +tell her everything. Then she remembered that she had given a solemn +pledge of secrecy, and that she must not say one word.</p> + +<p>It made her very unhappy. She did not like the sense of concealment. She +did not like having a secret of so much importance that she could share +with no one. Then it struck her, too, that the tone of the letter was +not quite what she liked; it was in some vague way different from the +tone of the people she was living with. She did not like that reiterated +petition, for secrecy was weighing heavily on her heart and soul. She +waited two days before answering that letter. She said to herself that +she ought to be very pleased to receive it, and that she was pleased; +yet something weighed on her mind and shadowed the perfect happiness she +had expected to feel.</p> + +<p>Then she answered him, and again, for the first time in her life, she +sat with her pen in her hand, hardly knowing what to say. She had been +accustomed to writing page after page and never pausing. Since then +something seemed to have arisen in her life and to stand between them. +She did not care to tell him of the luxury of Thorpe Castle, the number +of visitors, the splendor of the entertainments.</p> + +<p>"That will not interest him," she said; "his life is so different." A +strange sensation of uneasiness came over her as she remembered how +different it was. So she wrote a letter full of commonplaces, and when +Allan Lyster read it he bit his lips in fierce, hot anger.</p> + +<p>"She is learning not to care for me already," he said. "She has never +written so coldly to me before."</p> + +<p>Adelaide bade him to be of good cheer.</p> + +<p>"I shall go to the castle at Christmas," she said, "and, rely upon it, +Allan, I will find an opportunity of sending for you. You need not be +anxious; there is no possible plea on which she can escape you now. If +you will take my advice you will not draw the chain too tightly; let her +feel that she is free."</p> + +<p>Allan took her advice. He did not persecute her with letters; he wrote, +and filled his pages with love and flattery so sweet it could not tease +her.</p> + +<p>And then when Christmas came around Adelaide filled the grand purpose of +her life—she went to Thorpe Castle. Her behavior there might have been +taken as a model. She was quite sure of Marion's affection, so she +devoted herself entirely to Lady Ridsdale; she waited upon her, she +solicited her advice, she administered to her the most delicate doses of +flattery. In short, she set herself to work to win Lady Ridsdale's +heart; but she did not succeed.</p> + +<p>The mistress of Thorpe Castle did not like Miss Lyster; she merely +tolerated her, and that was for Marion's sake. With Lord Ridsdale she +succeeded better. Her subtle flattery and constant attentions made some +impression on him. He told his wife that Miss Lyster was a very amiable +girl, and he hoped she would often pass her vacation at Thorpe Castle. +My lady smiled suavely, and made no reply.</p> + +<p>Adelaide wrote to her brother that he had no cause for fear.</p> + +<p>"The first morning of my arrival," she said, "Marion took me to her +room, and we had a long talk about you. Have no fear; she is quite true +to you, and I have a scheme in my mind for getting you invited to the +castle."</p> + +<p>One morning when Lady Ridsdale and Miss Arleigh were engaged with +visitors Adelaide asked if she might go through the picture-gallery. +Lord Ridsdale, flattered by the request, offered to go with her and show +her some of his especial favorites.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyster was all enthusiasm, and she was tolerably well acquainted +with the first principles of art. She made some remarks that pleased and +interested his lordship. Then she was quite silent for some minutes, +and afterward sighed deeply. Lord Ridsdale looked at her. The sigh had +been such a profound one that he could not help taking some notice of +it.</p> + +<p>"Are you tired?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No," she replied. "You are so kind, Lord Ridsdale, that I may tell you +of what I was thinking. I was wishing that this great privilege I now +enjoy could be given to my brother instead of me."</p> + +<p>Lord Ridsdale looked benevolently interested, and she continued:</p> + +<p>"I have but one relative in the world, an only brother, and he is an +artist. He lives on his art, and I was thinking what a privilege he +would consider it of what benefit it would be to him, if he could see +those pictures."</p> + +<p>"Your brother is an artist! I see no reason why he should not profit by +this really beautiful collection of pictures. Would he like to visit +Thorpe Castle, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"You are too kind, Lord Ridsdale. I should say it would be a glimpse of +paradise to him."</p> + +<p>"Then by all means. Miss Lyster, write and ask him. I cannot extend the +invitation for any lengthened period, as we have so many visitors, but +if he will come for a week I shall be delighted to see him."</p> + +<p>She thanked him until his lordship was in a perfect glow of benevolence +to think what a kind and generous action he had performed. His wife did +not look quite so pleased when he told her; but then, my Lord Ridsdale +was not a man of great observation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X.</h3> + + +<p>As a result of the conversation in the picture-gallery the young artist, +in compliance with an invitation of Lord Ridsdale, came over to Thorpe +Castle. Long before he came Marion had grown sick of the deception and +weary of the chains that bound her.</p> + +<p>She was naturally so frank, so open, that the need for concealment +troubled her greatly. She had the warmest affection for Lady Ridsdale. +She would have liked above all things to have trusted and confided in +her. It was torture to the girl to think that she was helping others to +keep secret from her that which she ought to know. She shrank from Miss +Lyster. She no longer cared to be beguiled by long walks in the +shrubbery, to hear nothing but praises of "my brother," and the oft-told +tale of his love for her. Association with refined, honorable, +high-minded people was doing its work with her; anything approaching +deceit, falsehood or meanness revolted her.</p> + +<p>Those were not the best possible dispositions in which Allan could find +her. He had not reckoned upon these better influences; he had not +thought that when she came to contrast his behavior with that of others +she would see how deficient in all honor and manliness it had been; he +trusted to the glamor of love, and behold! there had been no love on her +part; nothing but gratified vanity.</p> + +<p>He was very pleased to go to Thorpe Castle—he thought nothing would +advance his cause more than for her to meet him among her own class, +meet him as her equal in some respects, if not in all.</p> + +<p>"I am so happy," said Adelaide Lyster to her on the morning of the day +on which he was expected. "I am so very happy, Marion, and you"—</p> + +<p>But no answering enthusiasm shone in Miss Arleigh's face, and Adelaide +noticed it.</p> + +<p>"Allan will enjoy himself so much here," she continued. "Ah! Marion, the +sight of you will be like sunshine to flowers to him."</p> + +<p>But Miss Arleigh did not look delighted; she was thinking more of how +she could keep such a secret from her good, kind guardians than of any +pleasure in meeting her lover.</p> + +<p>He came; she lingered by Lady Ridsdale's side during his reception. The +thought did certainly pass through Lord Ridsdale's mind that Allan +Lyster was very young and very handsome to be drawing-master of a young +ladies' school; but not for the world would he have breathed such a +thought to any one living, lest it should injure him. Lord Ridsdale was +courtesy itself to his young guest. He pointed out to him the finest +pictures; he took him over the woods to show him where the most +picturesque scenery lay; he took him to the library and introduced to +his notice some of the finest works of art.</p> + +<p>When they came to compare notes Lord and Lady Ridsdale quite disagreed +over Allan. The gentleman liked him, he thought him clever, gifted and +intellectual; Lady Ridsdale, with the keener sense belonging to women, +read his character more clearly.</p> + +<p>"He is not true," she said. "His eyes have never once met mine with a +frank, clear look; either he has something to conceal, or his natural +disposition is anything but candid."</p> + +<p>Lady Ridsdale did not like him, but with some of the visitors at Thorpe +Castle he was very popular. His talents were appreciated and admired. +One gentleman, Sir Thomas Ashburnham, ordered a picture from him; +another purchased a series of sketches; and a third invited him to a +grand old castle in the North where he could make himself familiar with +some of the finest rugged scenery in Scotland.</p> + +<p>So that in one sense his visit was a complete success. He increased his +social importance; he made friends who would be of great value to him; +but, so far as Marion was concerned, it was a complete, dead failure. He +had expected long interviews with her; he had thought of long and +pleasant hours in the grounds; he had pictured to himself how she would +renew her vows of fidelity to him; how she would listen, as she had done +before, to his love-making, and perhaps even seem fonder to him than she +had ever done before.</p> + +<p>Instead of which she certainly shrank from him. Never once during the +whole of his stay at Thorpe Castle did he contrive to get one +tete-a-tete with her. If he wrote a little note asking her to meet him +in the shrubbery or the grounds, or to give him five minutes in the +conservatory, her answer was always that she was engaged. If he rose +earlier than usual, hoping to meet her in the breakfast-room, she +invariably remained later than usual upstairs. He could not, contrive as +he would, obtain five minutes with her. In vain he asked his sister to +manage an interview for him; Marion seemed instinctively aware of what +she wanted. When Miss Lyster suggested a walk in the garden, Marion, +knowing that her brother would be sure to appear, declined it. Her only +safeguard lay in continually seeking Lady Ridsdale's society.</p> + +<p>"The dear child is so warmly attached to me!" said the mistress of +Thorpe Castle to her husband. "It is really wonderful."</p> + +<p>While Allan and his sister began to feel, with something of baffled +rage, that their power over her was growing less.</p> + +<p>"Why do you never consent to see my brother?" asked Adelaide one day, +when Allan had complained most bitterly to her.</p> + +<p>"Because I have such great respect for my guardians," she answered. "I +cannot bear anything clandestine or underhand beneath their roof."</p> + +<p>A reply that, strange to say, silenced Miss Lyster. Brother and sister +held a council of war, and it was decided that all deference must be +paid to her humor.</p> + +<p>"Content yourself, brother, with reminding her of her promise to marry +you when she comes of age, but do no more. Do not seek an interview with +her; let her imagine herself quite free."</p> + +<p>But the finishing stroke was given one day during lunch, when the +conversation turned upon the elopement of a young lady in the +neighborhood. Lady Ridsdale expressed great fears for her future.</p> + +<p>"He is not a gentleman," she said. "No true gentleman would ever try to +persuade any girl to a clandestine engagement."</p> + +<p>She saw Marion open her eyes and look at her in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I am quite right, my dear," she said. "You may depend upon it, a man +who would persuade any girl to engage herself to him unknown to her +friends is not only no gentleman, but he is not even an honest man."</p> + +<p>Marion Arleigh's beautiful face flushed, then grew deadly pale; almost +involuntarily she looked at Allan, but he did not raise his eyes to meet +hers.</p> + +<p>Those words were the death-blow to her love, or what she called her +love—"Not even an honest man." This hero of her romance, this artist +whom she was to ennoble by her love, was not even an honest man. She +shuddered and grew faint at the thought.</p> + +<p>Again she was present when Lady Ridsdale was talking of the Lysters to +her husband. She praised Allan's artistic qualities, she admired his +talents, but she owned frankly that she did not like him, that she did +not think him true.</p> + +<p>Marion Arleigh was very much struck with this remark. Then she began to +think over all she knew of the Lysters. She saw all in the clear light +of reason, not in the glamor of love, and her judgment condemned them +both. The sister had been false to her trust; she had betrayed the youth +and innocence of the pupil entrusted to her, and he—she summed up the +evil he had done her in these few words—he was not true.</p> + +<p>She decided upon what to do. She would never be false to them; all her +life long she would do her best to advance Allan's interest; but she +must release herself from the tie that became unbearable to her.</p> + +<p>He, at this difficult juncture of affairs, behaved with great tact. He +took his sister's advice, and would not intrude upon her. He sought no +more interviews; he wrote no more notes.</p> + +<p>"He sees," thought Marion, "that my eyes are open, and he wisely intends +to let me go free. He sees that I understand he has acted dishonorably +in taking advantage of my youth, and he is, perhaps, sorry for it."</p> + +<p>So, in proportion as he ceased to importune her, she grew kinder to him. +She talked to him about his pictures, and the progress he was making. He +showed her sketches of pictures that he intended to paint, but the word +love was never mentioned.</p> + +<p>The time came now for Miss Lyster to return to her school duties. She +was not affected, but she felt the deepest sorrow. It was not pleasant +to leave such a home as Thorpe Castle for the drudgery of a school. But +she could see plainly if that visit was to be renewed she must go, and +make no sign.</p> + +<p>Brother and sister were profuse in their thanks; they expressed the +deepest gratitude to Lord and Lady Ridsdale; they professed themselves +overcome with benefits. Lord Ridsdale received all these thanks with +great complacency, feeling that he deserved them. Lady Ridsdale's +impression was:</p> + +<p>"I am glad they are gone, though I do not like to interfere in Marion's +affairs. I shall certainly advise her to drop that acquaintance as soon +as she can."</p> + +<p>Allan bade Marion "good-bye." His last words to her were:</p> + +<p>"I shall not seek to correspond with you clandestinely—nothing but the +fervor of my love can possibly excuse my having met you as I did. I +loved you, so I forgot prudence, ceremony, etiquette, and all. But, +Marion, you will remember that you are my promised wife."</p> + +<p>She shrank back at the words. It was the greatest relief to her when +they went; it was as though some dark, brooding presence was removed +from the castle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI.</h3> + + +<p>More than once was Marion Arleigh tempted to break that solemn promise, +and tell all to Lady Ridsdale. She longed to do so—the fact of being +blamed would not prevent her, she felt that she deserved it—but she was +one of those who are most scrupulous in keeping a promise once given. Of +one thing she was quite resolved—she would write to Allan and tell him +this clandestine engagement must come to an end. She could not bear the +burden of the secret any longer, neither could she possibly fulfil the +contract. She found on examining her own heart that she did not love +him, and a marriage without love was absurd.</p> + +<p>She told him she would always be his friend, that she should look upon +his advancement in life as her especial care; she should always remember +him, with the most grateful affection; but as for love, all notion of +it must be considered at an end. And, she wrote still further, she could +not blame herself for this, because she felt that her youth and +inexperience excused her. She should always remember the claim that +Adelaide and himself had upon her, and she was always his sincerely +affectionate friend, Marion Arleigh.</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster was not altogether surprised at the receipt of this letter; +he had anticipated some such blow. He went with it at once to his friend +and counsellor, his sister.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," he said, "that there is an end of the whole +business—a dead failure."</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind," she replied. "Now you see the value of my advice +over documentary evidence; these letters of yours are a fortune in +themselves."</p> + +<p>"I do not see it," he replied, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"Men are not gifted with much foresight," said Adelaide Lyster. "Let us +consider. She has pledged her word, over and over again in those +letters, to marry you."</p> + +<p>"She has done so," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Then you hold a position from which nothing can dislodge you. If you +were to go over and insist on her promise being carried out, it would be +useless; not only would she refuse, but Lord and Lady Ridsdale would +take her part against you, and all would be lost. Evidently that plan +would be quite useless."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there could result nothing save evil from such an attempt," he +replied.</p> + +<p>"Take my advice, Allan. Now answer me honestly, what is it that you hope +to make out of this? Do you care very much for the girl herself?"</p> + +<p>"I like her," was the hesitating answer; "but I must confess I care more +for money than anything else."</p> + +<p>"Then I will teach you how to make money of this affair. Write tomorrow, +tell her you have received her letter, but that you must always love +her, and that you shall hold her to her promise of being your wife. The +chances are that she will not answer that letter, and that for a time +there will be silence between you. Then," she continued, "my advice to +you is this: wait until she marries. You cannot marry her now, she will +never be willing, but you can make a very decent fortune out of her when +she is married."</p> + +<p>"In what way?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Hold those letters as a rod over her, threaten to bring an action +against her—she will never know that such an action cannot stand; or if +that does not do, threaten to show them to her husband. Rather than let +him know, rather than let Lord and Lady Ridsdale know, she will give you +thousands of pounds."</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster for one-half moment shrank from his sister.</p> + +<p>"It seems so very bad," he said.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. She will have more money than she can count; you have a +right to some of it. Of course, you will never really tell, but why not +make what you can out of it? She would not even miss a thousand a year +and see what one thousand alone would do for you."</p> + +<p>So it was settled—the fiendish plan that was to torture an innocent +woman until she was driven to shame and almost death. He wrote the +letter. Marion received it with silent disdain; she had told him that it +must all be at an end, and it should be so.</p> + +<p>Then, as Adelaide had wisely forseen, there fell silence between them. +Adelaide wrote at intervals; in one letter she said:</p> + +<p>"Allan has told me what passed between you." She made no further +comment; after a time she ceased even to mention his name in her +letters, and then Marion believed herself, in all honesty, free. She did +not forget her promise; she interested herself greatly in procuring +commissions for Allan Lyster; she persuaded Lord Ridsdale to order +several pictures from him; she sent very handsome presents to Adelaide, +and thanked Heaven that never again while she lived would she have a +secret.</p> + +<p>How relieved, how happy she felt! Life was not the same to her, now that +this terrible burden was removed. She asked herself how she ever could +have been so blind and mad as to believe the feeling she entertained for +Allan Lyster was love.</p> + +<p>A year passed, and, except for the favors she conferred upon him, the +orders that she had obtained for him, no news came to Marion of the man +who had been her lover. How was she to know that the web was weaving +slowly around her? It was silence like that of a tiger falling back for +a spring.</p> + +<p>Then the great event of her life came to Marion Arleigh. She fell in +love, and this time it was real, genuine and true. Lady Ridsdale +insisted on her going to London for the season.</p> + +<p>It was high time, she said, that Miss Arleigh, the heiress of Hanton, +was presented at court, and made her debut in the great world.</p> + +<p>So they went to London, and Marion, by her wonderful beauty and grace, +created a great sensation there; Heiress of Hanton, one of the prettiest +estates in England, she had plenty of lovers; her appearance was the +most decided success, just as Lady Ridsdale had foreseen that it would +be.</p> + +<p>Then came my Lord Atherton, one of the proudest and handsomest men in +England, the owner of an immense property and most noble name. He had +been abroad for some years, but returned to London, and was considered +one of the most eligible and accomplished men of the day. Many were the +speculations as to whom he would marry—as to who would win the great +matrimonial prize.</p> + +<p>The wonder and speculations were soon at an end. Lord Atherton saw Miss +Arleigh and fell in love with her at once. Not for her money—he was +rich enough to dispense with wealth in a wife; not for money, but for +her wonderful beauty and simple, unaffected grace.</p> + +<p>He was charmed with her; the candor, the purity, the brightness of her +disposition enchanted him.</p> + +<p>"Her lips seemed to be doubly lovely," he said one day to Lady Ridsdale, +"because they have not, in my opinion, ever uttered one false word."</p> + +<p>Marion was equally enchanted; there was no one so great or so good as +Lord Atherton. The heroes she had read of faded into insignificance +before him. He was so generous, so noble, so loyal, so truthful in every +way, such a perfect gentleman, and no mean scholar. It was something to +win the love of such a man, it was something to love him.</p> + +<p>Now she understood this was true love, the very remembrance of her +infatuation over Allan Lyster dyed her beautiful faca crimson. Ah, how +she thanked Heaven that she was free, how utterly wretched she would +have been for her whole life long had she been beguiled into marrying +him!</p> + +<p>She loved Lord Atherton with her whole heart, her womanly nature did him +full homage. She appreciated his noble qualities, she was happy in his +love as it was possible for a woman to be.</p> + +<p>Yet, after he had asked her to be his wife, there came over her a great +longing to tell him the story of her engagement to Allan Lyster.</p> + +<p>"He ought to know it," she said, "though all is at end now; he ought to +know it, there should be no secrets between us."</p> + +<p>But she dare not tell him. One thing that restrained her was the promise +she had given never to mention it, but the reason above all others was +she knew his fastidious sense of honor so well that she was afraid he +would not love her when he knew how lightly she had once before given +her love.</p> + +<p>So she committed that greatest of all errors, she engaged herself to +marry Lord Atherton without telling him of her acquaintance with the +young artist. Then she was so happy for a time that she forgot the whole +matter; she was so happy that she ceased to remember there had ever been +anything deserving blame in her life.</p> + +<p>The season over, they returned to Thorpe Castle, and Lord Atherton soon +followed to pay them a long visit. He told them quite frankly that it +was perfectly useless to delay the wedding, that he could not live out +of Marion's presence, therefore the sooner the arrangements were made +the better.</p> + +<p>That was perhaps the happiest time in Marion's life. Lady Ridsdale, +delighted at the excellent match she was about to make, was in the +highest spirits. Preparations were begun for the trousseau. Lord +Atherton ordered that his mansion, Leigh Hall, should be entirely +refurnished. Every luxury, every splendor, every magnificence, was +prepared for the bride; presents were lavished upon her from all sides; +congratulations and good wishes were showered on her.</p> + +<p>She was perhaps at that time the happiest girl in the world. She had +almost forgotten that buried romance of her school days. When she +remembered Allan, it was only with an earnest desire to help him. To +Adelaide Lyster she sent some very superb presents, telling her frankly +of her approaching marriage, and telling her she would always be most +welcome at Leigh Hall.</p> + +<p>If she had been more worldly-wise, poor child, she would have known that +Adelaide's silence meant mischief; but she was not married with any +presentiment of the sorrow that was to fall so heavily upon her and when +she was married she declared herself to be happier than any one had ever +been in this world yet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII.</h3> + + +<p>An agreement had been made between them that some little time should +elapse before Allan put his long-cherished scheme into execution. +Nothing, Adelaide assured him, could have answered his purpose better +than Marion's marriage with the wealthy Lord Atherton.</p> + +<p>"You will be able to get what you like from her, Allan. I am told she +worships her husband. Those letters will be worth a fortune, after all. +Now see what it is to have a clever sister."</p> + +<p>They allowed her, poor child, some short dream of happiness; she was +lulled into perfect security when the blow fell. As Lady Atherton of +Leigh her position was second to none. Her husband owned half the +county; she was queen of the whole of it. She was beloved, popular and +admired; her husband worshiped her; her friends held her in highest +honor and esteem. To Lord and Lady Ridsdale she had grown dear as a +child of their own. She was at the height of human felicity; there was +nothing on earth left for her to desire. Sometimes, when she heard of +the misery resulting from very unequal or loveless marriages, she would +raise her beautiful face to heaven and thank God that she had been +preserved from the snares of her youth. She heard quite accidentally +from some one, who had been purchasing a picture, that Allan Lyster was +abroad, and she decided, in her own most generous mind, that when he +returned he should have an order that would please him. But he did not +return, and from her old friend, Adelaide, she had heard no single word +since her marriage.</p> + +<p>There were great rejoicings when her little son and heir was born; the +only fear was lest the child should be absolutely killed by the great +amount of affection and caresses heaped upon it. Lord Atherton's +happiness was complete, Lord and Lady Ridsdale were delighted with the +beautiful princely boy, and his mother absolutely worshiped him.</p> + +<p>It was when the little heir of Leigh was about a year old that the blow +fell on his beautiful mother. She was seated one morning in her +luxurious dressing-room, a scene of splendid confusion and brilliant +coloring that would have enchanted an artist, herself more lovely than +ever, for the promise of her girlhood had developed into magnificent +womanhood. Jewels of great value lay on the toilet-table, costly dresses +were lying about. The nurse had just been in with baby, and nothing +would please baby but playing with his mamma's beautiful golden-brown +hair. Of course his wish must be gratified. The diamond arrow that +fastened the heavy coils was withdrawn, and the glorious wealth of hair, +in all its shining abundance, fell in picturesque disorder. Then Lord +Atherton entered to ask his wife some question about the day's +proceedings, and he told her she looked so lovely he would not let the +beautiful hair be touched. My lord withdrew, leaving his wife's face +flushed with pleasure at his praises. Then came the maid, and she +brought in her hands some letters that had just arrived. Lady Atherton +laid them down carelessly; there was nothing, she thought, that could +possibly interest her.</p> + +<p>Presently she took up the letters, and then all her indifference +vanished, the love light died from her eyes, the smile from her lips. +She knew the handwriting. One of those notes was from Allan Lyster.</p> + +<p>She hastily opened it, and, as she read, all the color faded from her +sweet face. The folly and sin of her ignorant girlhood were finding her +out.</p> + +<p>"I have but just returned from abroad," he wrote, "where I have been for +more than two years, and I am completely overwhelmed by the intelligence +that awaited me. You are married, Marion! You, who promised so +faithfully to be my wife. You, whose letters to me contain that promise +given over and over again. It is too late to ask what this treachery +means. I have by me the letter you wrote, asking for your freedom, and I +have the copy of mine absolutely refusing it. I told you then that I +should hold you to your promise, and you have disregarded my words.</p> + +<p>"Marion, I must have compensation. It is useless talking to one like you +of love. You throw aside the poor artist for the rich lord. You must pay +me in your own coin, in what you value most—money. You have wronged me +as your promised husband. I had some right to your fortune, as your +duped and deserted lover. That right still remains. I claim some portion +of what ought to have been all mine.</p> + +<p>"I am in immediate and urgent want of a thousand pounds. That is very +little for one who ought, as your husband, to be at this moment the +master of Hanton Hall and its rich domain. However, for a time, that +will content me; when I want another I will come to you for it. I will +not call at your house; you can send me a check, bank note, or what you +will.</p> + +<p>"I do not wish to seem harsh, but it is better to tell you at once that +if you refuse any money request of mine at any time I shall immediately +commence proceedings against you. I shall bring an action for breach of +promise of marriage, and all England will cry shame on the false, +mercenary woman who abandoned a poor lover, to whom her troth was +plighted, in order to marry a rich lord. All England shall despise you. +For your child's sake, I counsel you to avoid an exposure."</p> + +<p>She read those terrible words over and over again. Suddenly the whole +plot grew clear to her. It was for this they had schemed and plotted. +Not for love of her, but to make money out of her, to trade upon her +weakness and folly, stain her character, her fair name, her happiness, +the love of her husband and child, the esteem of her friends. All lay in +their hands. They could, if they would, make her name, that noble name +which her husband bore so proudly, a subject of jest all over the world.</p> + +<p>She could fancy the papers, their paragraphs, their remarks, their +comments. She could almost see the heading:</p> + +<p>"Action for Breach of Promise against Lady Atherton." How the Radicals, +who hated her husband for his politics, would rejoice! Even in the years +to come, when her child grew to man's estate, it would be as a black +mark against him that his mother had been the subject of such vulgar +jest. Her husband would never bear it. He would leave her, she was sure. +Ah! better pay a thousand pounds over and over again than go through all +this.</p> + +<p>Yet it seemed a large sum; not that she cared for it, but how could she +get it without her husband's knowledge? By her own wish, all money +affairs had been left in his hands; he would wonder when he looked at +her check book why she had drawn so large a sum; better write out checks +of a hundred pounds each.</p> + +<p>She did so, and sent them. Just as she was folding the paper that +enclosed them a grand inspiration came to her—an impulse to go to her +husband and tell him all.</p> + +<p>He would find some means of saving her, she was quite sure of that. Then +the more cowardly, the weaker part of her nature, rose in rebellion. She +dared not, for, if she did, he would never love her again. So she sent +the thousand pounds, and then there was an interval of peace. Yet not +peace for her; the sword was suspended over her head, and any moment it +might fall. She grew thin, restless and nervous; her husband and all her +friends wondered what ailed her; her manner changed, even her beautiful +face seemed to grow restless and pale.</p> + +<p>Then came the demand for a second thousand. Having tasted the luxury of +spending what he liked and living without work, Allan Lyster was +entranced with his triumph. He had taken rooms in a very expensive and +fashionable locality, he bought a horse, and set up a private cab, with +a smart little tiger. He entered one of the fashionable clubs, and +people began to say that he had had money left him. If any one of the +gentlemen who met him and touched his hand, had but known that he was +trading on a woman's secret, they would have thrashed him with less +remorse of conscience than if they were punishing a mad dog.</p> + +<p>Then the third thousand was asked for, and Lady Atherton was at a loss +where or how to get it; her husband had already rallied her about the +large sums of money she spent, and she was obliged to have recourse to +means she disliked for procuring it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + + +<p>There came a day when Lady Atherton could no longer meet the demands +made upon her; the estate near Hanton was to be sold, and her husband +wished to purchase it.</p> + +<p>"A little economy for one year," he said to his wife, "and we shall do +it easily. You will not mind being careful for one year, Marion?"</p> + +<p>She told him, what was perfectly true, that she would deprive herself of +anything on earth for his sake. He laughed.</p> + +<p>"There will not be much privation needed, for one who has spent three +thousand pounds in six months. I shall have to give my little wife some +lessons in economy."</p> + +<p>It was hard, for on her own self she had not spent one shilling. Another +time she was greatly distressed what to say—her husband complained of +her dress.</p> + +<p>"Marion," he said, "it seems absurd to say, but, my darling, you are +positively shabby—that is, for one in your position. How is it?"</p> + +<p>She did not tell him that she could not purchase more dresses, or, +rather, would not until Madame Elise was paid. Her face flushed, and +Lord Atherton smiled.</p> + +<p>"You need not carry economy too far," he said; "it is very good of you +to take so great an interest in me, Marion, but you must not go to these +extremes. You had five hundred pounds yesterday; go and get some pretty, +elegant dresses suitable for Lady Atherton."</p> + +<p>She could not tell him that she had sent that all away, and had not a +shilling left. There were times when Marion, Lady Atherton, heiress of +Hanton, mistress of one of the finest fortunes in England, wife of one +of the richest men—when she hardly knew where to turn for money; the +poorest beggar in the street was more at ease.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Allan Lyster, by his successful trading on a woman's +secret, was leading a life of complete and perfect luxury. He spared no +expense; he gambled, betted, played at every game of chance; he was well +known at Tattersall's in all the green rooms; he played to perfection +the part of a fast man about town, while the woman he had pretended to +love was wearing her life away in mortification and suspense.</p> + +<p>At last, what she had long foreseen came to pass. Allan wrote to her for +money when she was utterly unable to get it. She was compelled to borrow +it from Lord Ridsdale. He lent it to her with a smile, telling her at +the same time, with real gravity in his voice, that he hoped she was +keeping no secret from her husband.</p> + +<p>So the time came when she could no longer keep pace with his +extravagance, when she was compelled to refuse his request. He had lost +some money in a bet over some horses. He told her that he must have it, +and she assured him that it was impossible. Then the blow fell. He wrote +to say that if the money were not sent him by Thursday he should at once +commence an action against her.</p> + +<p>"The damages that I shall win," he wrote, "will be so large that I shall +not want to ask you for more."</p> + +<p>She was terrified almost out of her senses. To many women it would have +occurred to sell or pledge their jewels, to change diamonds for paste. +She thought of none of these things. Lord Ridsdale had gone to Paris, +she could not ask him, and Lady Atherton was at her wits' end.</p> + +<p>She learned, however, that she was too fearful, that he was trading on +her alarm, that he could not bring an action against her, because at the +time that promise had been given she was a ward and not of age. She +wrote and told him that his threat was in vain.</p> + +<p>It was the answer to that question that drove her from home a fugitive, +that exiled her from all she loved, that drove her mad with terror.</p> + +<p>He wrote to her and admitted that her argument was perfectly just, that +perhaps in strict legal bounds he could not maintain such an action; +but the shame and exposure for her, he told her, would be none the less.</p> + +<p>"If you persist in your refusal," he wrote, "I shall go at once to Lord +Atherton. I will show him those letters, and ask him in justice to give +me some share of the fortune he has deprived me of. I shall read every +word to him, and tell him all that took place; he may judge between us."</p> + +<p>The letter fell from her nerveless hands, and Marion, Lady Atherton, +fell on her knees with a cry of despair. She was powerless to help +herself, she could do nothing, she could get no more money; and even if +she could of what avail? If she sent this, in a few weeks or months at +the farthest, he would renew his demand, and she could not do more. The +sword must fall, as well now as in a year's time; besides, the suspense +was killing her. The long strain upon her nerves began to tell at last. +She was fast, losing her health and strength; she could not eat nor +sleep; she was as one beside herself; frightful dreams, dread that knew +no words, fear that could not be destroyed, pursued her. She grew so +pale, so thin, so nervous, that Lord Atherton was alarmed about her.</p> + +<p>If she had loved her husband less her despair would not have been so +great. Sooner than he should read those ill-considered words—those +protestations of love that made her face flush with flame—sooner than +he should read those she would die any death. For it had come to that; +she looked for death to save her. She felt powerless in the hands of a +villain who would never cease to persecute her.</p> + +<p>She sent no answer to the letter. What could she say? She made one or +two despairing efforts to get the money, found it impossible, then gave +herself up for lost.</p> + +<p>She did not write, but there came another note from him saying that +unless he heard from her that the money was coming he would wait upon +her husband on Friday morning and tell him all.</p> + +<p>There was no further respite for her—the sword had fallen—she could +not live and face it; she could not live knowing that her husband was to +read those words of her folly, that he was to know all the deceit, the +clandestine correspondence that weighed now so bear it.</p> + +<p>"I shall never look in his face again," she said to herself. "I could +never bear that he should see me after he knows that."</p> + +<p>She weighed it well in her mind. She looked at it in every way, but the +more she thought of it the more impossible it seemed. She could not +bring disgrace on her husband and live. She could not doom her only +child to sorrow and shame, yet live. She could not bear the ignominy of +the exposure. She, who had been so proud of her fair fame, of her +spotless name, her high reputation. It was not possible. She could not +bear it. Her hands trembled. All the strength seemed to leave her. She +fell half-fainting—moaning with white lips that she could not bear it +and live.</p> + +<p>Must she die? Must she part with the sweet, warm life that filled her +veins? Must she seek death because she could no longer live?</p> + +<p>No, she dare not.</p> + +<p>"I cannot live and I dare not die," she moaned. "I am utterly wretched, +utterly hopeless and miserable. Life and death alike are full of terrors +for me."</p> + +<p>What should she do? Through the long, burning hours, through the long, +dreary nights, she asked herself that question—What should she do?</p> + +<p>Her husband, alarmed at her white face and altered manner, talked of +summoning a physician to her. Her friends advised change of air, but +there was no human help for her.</p> + +<p>Then, when mind and brain alike were overdone, when the strained nerves +gave way, when the fever of fear and suspense rose to its height, she +thought of flight. That was the only recourse left to her—flight! Then +she would escape the terrors of death and the horror of life. Flight was +the only resource left to her. The poor, bewildered mind, groping so +darkly, fixed on this one idea. She would not kill herself. That would +deprive her of all hope in another world. She dare not live her present +life, but flight would save her.</p> + +<p>People would only think she was mad for running away, and surely when +Allan Lyster saw what he had done he would relent and persecute her no +more.</p> + +<p>She was not herself when she stole so quietly from home and went +disguised to the station. She was half delirious with fear and dread; +her brain whirled, her heart beat, every moment she dreaded to see Allan +Lyster pursuing her. Her only idea was to get away from him, safe in +some refuge where he could not find her.</p> + +<p>She little dreamed that in the hurry of her flight she had dropped Allan +Lyster's letter—the letter in which he threatened to tell her +husband—the letter which drove her mad, and sent her from home. She had +intended to destroy it; she believed she had done so; but the fact was, +it had fallen from her hands on the floor, and she never thought of it +again. Her maid, thinking it might be of consequence, picked it up and +laid it on the mantelshelf. Only God knows what would have become of +Lady Atherton but for this oversight.</p> + +<p>Her absence was not discovered until evening, when it was time to dress +for dinner; then the maid could not find her. No notice was taken of her +absence at first; they thought she had gone out and had been detained; +but when midnight arrived, and there was still no news of her, Lord +Atherton became alarmed. He went into her dressing-room, and there his +eyes fell upon the letter. He opened and read it, bewildered by its +contents. At first he did not understand it, then he began to see what +it meant.</p> + +<p>Gradually the meaning grew clear to him. This villain was trading upon +some secret of poor Marion, and she in fear and trembling had fled. He +felt sure of it, and from that conviction he took his precautions.</p> + +<p>He said nothing to the servants, except that Lady Atherton had gone away +for a few days and would not return just yet. "I shall find her," he +thought, "before the scandal gets known." Seeing their lord perfectly +cool and unconcerned, the servants made sure all was right. No one in +the wide world knew the true story of Lady Atherton's flight except her +husband.</p> + +<p>"I will find her," he said to himself; "but before I even begin to look +for her I will settle my account with the sneaking villain known as +Allan Lyster."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + + +<p>In his luxurious drawing-room Allan Lyster sat alone. He was engaged to +dine with a party of guardsmen at Richmond, but he hardly felt in +spirits to go. This was Thursday; never dreaming that Lady Atherton +would fail him, he had faithfully promised to pay his bet on Friday. It +was now Thursday evening, and he had heard nothing from her. He had not +the least intention of really betraying her to her husband—he knew the +character of an English gentleman too well for that. He knew that if +Lord Atherton had but the least suspicion of the vilely treacherous way +in which he had preyed upon his innocent wife, he would, in all +probability, thrash him within an inch of his life.</p> + +<p>He was far from being comfortable, and wished that he had taken +Adelaide's advice and had gone less rashly to work—had been content +with less. After all, he felt compelled to own that he had been rather +hard upon her.</p> + +<p>"Let her send this time," he said to himself, "and I will not trouble +her again just yet."</p> + +<p>He was seated in a luxurious lounging chair, on the table by his side +was a bottle of finest Cognac, and he was enjoying the flavor of a very +fine cigar. Notwithstanding all these comforts, Allan Lyster was not +happy.</p> + +<p>"I cannot think," he said to himself, "why she does not send."</p> + +<p>At that moment he heard a sharp ring at the door bell.</p> + +<p>"That is the messenger," he said to himself, triumphantly, "and it is +quite time, too."</p> + +<p>But it was a man's heavy footstep that mounted the stairs, and when +Allan Lyster looked anxiously at the door, he was astonished to see Lord +Atherton enter, carrying a thick riding whip in his hand.</p> + +<p>He sprang obsequiously from his chair.</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to see you, my lord," he began, but one look at that +white, stern face froze the words on his lips. Lord Atherton waved his +hand.</p> + +<p>"I want those letters, sir!" he cried, in a voice of thunder—"those +letters that you have, holding as a sword over the head of my wife!"</p> + +<p>"What if I refuse to give them?" replied Allan.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall take them from you. I have read this precious epistle, in +which you threaten to show them to me. Now bring them here."</p> + +<p>"I am not accustomed, my lord, to this treatment."</p> + +<p>Lord Atherton's face flushed, his eyes seemed to flame fire.</p> + +<p>"Not a word; bring them to me! You have traded for the last time upon a +woman's weakness and fears. I will read the letters, then I will tell +you what I think of you."</p> + +<p>"Better tell your wife," sneered the other, "what you think of her."</p> + +<p>"My wife is a lady," was the quiet reply—"a lady for whom I have the +greatest honor, respect and esteem. Your lips simply sully her name, and +I refuse to hear it from you."</p> + +<p>"She did not always think so," was the sullen reply. "If you had not +stepped in and robbed me, she would have been my wife now."</p> + +<p>The white anger of that face, and the convulsive movement of the hand +that held the heavy whip, might have warned him.</p> + +<p>"I want those letters," repeated Lord Atherton; "bring them to me at +once. Remember, they are useless to you; you will never force one mere +farthing from Lady Atherton—your keeping them will be useless."</p> + +<p>"It will be more to my interest to keep them," sneered Allan Lyster; +"they are interesting documents, and I can show them to those who will +not judge the matter in so onesided a manner as your lordship."</p> + +<p>"You may publish them, if you please," said Lord Atherton, "but I will +take care that every line in them brands you with red hot shame. You +shall publish them, and I will make all England ring with the story of +your infamy. I will make every honest man loathe you."</p> + +<p>"You cannot," said Allan Lyster.</p> + +<p>"I can. Englishmen like fair play. I will tell all England how you took +advantage of a girl's youth and inexperience, above all, of the fact of +her being an orphan, to beguile her into making you a promise of +marriage, and how since you have traded, you coward, on her weakness, on +her love for her husband, on the best part of her nature; and I will +tell my story so honestly, so well, that every honest man shall hate +you. You may have frightened my poor wife with shadows, you cannot so +frighten me. I tell you, and I am speaking truthfully, that I do not +care if you print her letters and every man, woman and child read them; +they shall read my vindication of her and my denunciation of you."</p> + +<p>"You see, Lord Atherton, she did promise to marry me, and I did reckon +upon her fortune. What will you give me for the letters?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. If, after reading them, I find you really received, from the +pure and noble lady who is now my wife, a promise of marriage, I will +give you some compensation. I will give you two thousand pounds, +although I know that promise to have been drawn from her by fraud, +treachery and cunning."</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster began to see, in his own phrase, that the game was up. He +unlocked the door of a little cabinet, and took from it a bundle of +papers. He gave them to Lord Atherton, who, still standing, read them +word for word.</p> + +<p>"It is as I thought," he said, when he came to the last. "It is the +worst case of fraud, deception and cowardice I have ever met. Nothing +could be more mean, more dishonorable, more revolting. Still, as the +promise is true, I will give you a check for two thousand pounds when +you have destroyed them."</p> + +<p>Very slowly and deliberately Allan Lyster tore the letters into the +smallest shreds, until they all were destroyed, then Lord Atherton, +taking a check book from his pocket, wrote him out a check for two +thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>Allan took it sullenly enough.</p> + +<p>"If I had my rights," he said, "I should have more than that every +quarter."</p> + +<p>"That is as it may be," said Lord Atherton, quietly. "You may have +deceived a very young and inexperienced girl; but you would not, +perhaps, have been so successful when that same girl was able to compare +you with others. Now I have paid you; remember, I do not seek to +purchase your silence. I leave it entirely to your own option whether +you tell your story or not. I know that you cannot brand yourself with +deeper disgrace and shame than by making public your share in this +transaction."</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster murmured some insolent words which his lordship did not +choose to hear. He straightened the lash of his whip.</p> + +<p>"Now," he continued, blandly, "I am going to give you a lesson. I am +going to teach you several things. The first is to respect the trusts +that parents and governesses place in you when they confide young girls +to you for lessons; the second, is to respect women, and not, like a +vile, mean coward, to trade upon their secrets; and the third lesson I +wish to give you is to make you an honest man, to teach you to live on +your own earnings, and not on the price of a woman's tears. This is how +I would enforce my lesson."</p> + +<p>He raised that strong right arm of his and rained down heavy blows on +the cowardly traitor who had taken a woman's money as the price of his +honor and manhood. His face never for one moment lost its calm; but the +strong arm did its work, until the coward whined for pity. Then Lord +Atherton broke his whip in two and flung it on the floor.</p> + +<p>"I should not like to touch even a dog with it," he said, "after it has +touched you."</p> + +<p>He stood still for some moments to see if the coward would make any +effort to rise and revenge himself; but the man who had been content to +live on a woman's misery thought the safest plan was to lie still on the +floor.</p> + +<p>"I shall be happy to repeat my lesson," said his lordship, calmly, "if +you require it again."</p> + +<p>Allan Lyster made no reply, and Lord Atherton walked away. When he was +quite gone, and the last sound of his footsteps died away, he rose—he +shook his fist in impotent wrath:</p> + +<p>"Curse him!" he cried. "It shall go hard with me but I will be equal +with him yet!"</p> + +<p>He had played his last card and lost; henceforward there was nothing for +him but hard work and dishonor. He knew that what Lord Atherton had said +was true; if any one knew what he had done, nothing but hatred and +disgust would be his portion.</p> + +<p>Lord Atherton went at once to Scotland Yard and asked for a detective. +He showed him the portrait of his wife, told him she had left home under +a false impression, and that he would give him fifty pounds if he could +trace her.</p> + +<p>For a week all effort was in vain, they could hear nothing of her; then +one morning Lord Atherton saw an advertisement in the "Times," and he +said to himself that the lost was found.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV.</h3> + + +<p>ADVERTISEMENT.—On Thursday evening last a lady arrived at the little +village of Redcliffe, and took lodgings there. The same evening she fell +ill of brain fever, and now is in danger of death. She is a stranger to +all in the village, and no clue as to her name or friends can be found. +Any one who has a missing relative or friend is requested to attend to +this advertisement.</p> + +<p>Then followed a description of the lady and of the dress she wore. Lord +Atherton felt sure that it was his lost wife.</p> + +<p>Without saying one word, he went at once to Redcliffe; he went to the +address given and was referred to Mrs. Hirste's.</p> + +<p>He went there, and said he had every reason to believe the lady +mentioned in the advertisement was his wife. "She left home," he said, +"unknown to us, delirious, without doubt, at the time, and quite unable +to account for her own action."</p> + +<p>They took him into the room where she lay; he looked at the flushed face +and shining eyes.</p> + +<p>"It is my wife," he said, quietly. "Thank God, I have found her."</p> + +<p>But Marion did not know him; her hot lips murmured continually of Allan, +who was persecuting her, and of her husband whom she loved so dearly, +but who would never be willing to see her again.</p> + +<p>"How she must have suffered!" he said to himself. Then he telegraphed to +London for a physician and a nurse. They were not long in coming; by +that time the whole village was in a state of excitement and +consternation.</p> + +<p>"She will recover, I have every reason to believe," said the doctor, +"but she has evidently suffered long and terribly. Some domestic +trouble, my lord, I suppose, that has preyed upon her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Lord Atherton, "a domestic trouble that she has been +foolish enough to keep to herself and which had preyed on her mind."</p> + +<p>She had the best of care, the kindest and most constant attention, yet +it was some time before she opened her eyes to the ordinary affairs of +this life.</p> + +<p>Lord Atherton never forgot the hour—he was sitting by her bedside. He +had barely left her since her illness began, and suddenly he heard the +sound of a low, faint sigh.</p> + +<p>He looked eagerly into the worn, sweet face—once more the light of +reason shone in those lovely eyes.</p> + +<p>"Marion," he said, gently.</p> + +<p>She gave one half-frightened glance at him, then buried her face in her +hands with a moan.</p> + +<p>"My sweet wife," he said, "do not be afraid. I know all about it, +darling. I have made that villain destroy those letters. You need fear +no more."</p> + +<p>"And you are not cross?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"Not with you, my poor child; always trust me, Marion. I love you better +than any one else in the world could love you. I am afraid even that I +love your faults."</p> + +<p>"Do you know that I promised to marry him?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know all about it. Thank God you were not deluded into carrying +out the promise. It was all a plot, my darling, between that wretched +man and his sister. They knew you had money and they wanted it. I must +not reproach you, but I wish you had told me before we were married—you +should not have suffered so terribly."</p> + +<p>"Shall you love me just as much as you did before?" she asked, after a +short pause.</p> + +<p>"I may safely say that I shall love you a thousand times better, Marion. +You see, I have found out in this short space of time that I could not +live without you."</p> + +<p>She was not long in recovering after that. As soon as it was possible to +move her, Lord Atherton took her to Hanton, and there she speedily +regained health and strength.</p> + +<p>When she was quite well, Lord Atherton had one more conversation with +her on this matter.</p> + +<p>"You were so very young," he said, "and the brother and sister seem both +to have been specious, cunning and clever; they evidently played upon +your weakness and childish love of romance. Therefore, my darling, I +look very indulgently upon that girlish error, if I may call it by so +grave a name. Shall I tell you frankly, Marion, where you did wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, looking up at him with eyes that shone brightly +through her tears.</p> + +<p>"You did wrong in concealing anything from me," he continued. "Rely upon +it, my darling, the surest foundation for happiness in marriage is +perfect trust. A secret between husband and wife is like a worm in a +bud, or a canker in fairest fruit; no matter if the telling of a secret +should even provoke anger, it should always be told. That shall be the +last between us, Marion."</p> + +<p>She clung to him with caressing hands, thanking him, blessing him, and +promising him that while she lived there should never more be any +secrets between them.</p> + +<p>Lord Atherton was quite right. Allan Lyster was only too glad to keep +his secret, but he never did any more good. Years passed on; fair, +blooming children made the old walls of Hanton re-echo with music; Lady +Atherton had almost forgotten this, the peril of her youth, when once +more there came a letter from Allan Lyster. He was dying, in the +greatest poverty and distress, and implored their help. Lord Atherton +generously went to his aid. He provided him with all needful comforts, +and, after his death, buried him.</p> + +<p>Of Adelaide Lyster, after the failure of her brother's schemes, they +never heard again. Lady Atherton is very careful in the training of her +daughters, teaching them to distinguish between true and false +romance—teaching them that the most beautiful poetry of life is truth.</p> + + +<h4>(THE END.)</h4> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors have been +corrected from the original edition.</p> + +<p>A missing quotation mark has been added to the sentence <i>"In all the +wide world there is none like you.</i></p> + +<p><i>the very though of seeing you</i> has been changed to <i>the very thought of +seeing you</i>.</p> + +<p><i>then they would be maried</i> has been changed to <i>then they would be +married</i>.</p> + +<p><i>skilful mamnagement</i> has been changed to <i>skilful management</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Then the enterview ended</i> has been changed to <i>Then the interview +ended</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The gentleman like him, he thought him clever, gifted and +intellectual</i> has been changed to <i>The gentleman liked him, he +thought him clever, gifted and intellectual</i>.</p> + +<p>A missing quotation mark has been added after <i>or his natural disposition +is anything but candid.</i></p> + +<p>A quotation mark at the end of <i>"Take my advice, Allan."</i> has been +removed.</p> + +<p><i>Her lips seeemd</i> has been changed to <i>Her lips seemed</i>.</p> + +<p>The original numbering of the chapters, omitting Chapter III, has been +retained.]</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Marion Arleigh's Penance, by Charlotte M. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Marion Arleigh's Penance + Everyday Life Library No. 5 + +Author: Charlotte M. Braeme + +Release Date: February 26, 2005 [EBook #15182] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARION ARLEIGH'S PENANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +EVERYDAY LIFE LIBRARY No. 5 +Published by EVERYDAY LIFE, Chicago + +[Illustration] + +Marion Arleigh's Penance + +BY CHARLOTTE M. BRAEME. + +_Author of "Dora Thorne," "Madolin's Lover," "Lord Elesmere's Wife," "A +Rose in Thorns," "The Belle of Lynn," Etc._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Three o'clock on a warm June afternoon. The great heat has caused +something like a purple haze to cloud over the deep blue of the sapphire +sky. There is not one breath of wind to stir the leaves or cool the +flushed faces of those whose duties call them out on this sultry June +day. Away in the deep green heart of the broad land broad streams are +flowing; in the very heart of the green woods there is cool, silent +shade; by the borders of the sea, where the waves break with a low, +musical murmur, there is a cooling breeze; but here in London on this +bright June afternoon there is nothing to lessen the white, intense +heat, and even the flowers exposed for sale in the streets are drooping, +the crimson roses look thirsting for dew, the white lilies are fading, +the bunches of mignonette give forth a fragrance sweet as the "song of +the swan in dying," and the golden sun pours down its flood of rich, +warm light over all. + +Three o'clock, and the express leaves Euston Square for Scotland at a +quarter past. The heat in the station is very great, the noise almost +deafening; huge engines are pouring out volumes of steam, the shrill +whistle sounds, porters are hurrying to and fro. The quarter-past three +train is a great favorite--more people travel by that than by any +other--and the platform is crowded by ladies, children, tourists, +commercial gentlemen. There are very few of the humbler class. Ten +minutes past three. The passengers are taking their places. The goddess +of discord and noise reigns supreme, when from one of the smaller doors +there glides, with soft, almost noiseless step, the figure of a woman. + +She wore a long gray cloak that entirely shrouded her figure; a black +veil hid her face so completely that not one feature could be seen. When +she entered the station the change from the blinding glare outside to +the shade within seemed to bewilder her. She stood for a few moments +perfectly motionless; then she looked around her in a cautious, furtive +manner, as though she would fain see if there was any one she +recognized. + +But in that busy crowd every one was intent on his or her business; no +one had any attention to spare for her. She went with the same noiseless +step to the booking office. Most of the passengers had taken their +tickets; she was one of the very last. She looked at the clerk in a +vague, helpless way. + +"Where to, ma'am?" he asked, for she had only said, "I want a ticket." + +"Where to?" she repeated. "Where does the train stop?" + +"It will stop at Chester and Crewe." + +"Then give me a ticket for Crewe," she said, and, with a smile on his +face, the clerk complied. She took the ticket and he gave her the +change. She swept it into her purse with an absent, preoccupied manner, +and he turned with a smile to one of his fellow-clerks, touching his +forehead significantly. + +"She is evidently on the road for Colney Hatch," he observed. "If I had +said the train would stop at Liliput, in my opinion she would have said, +'Give me a ticket for there.'" + +But the object of his remarks, all unconscious of them, had gone on to +the platform. With the same appearance of not wishing to be seen, she +looked into the carriages. + +There was one almost empty; she entered it, took her seat in the corner, +drew her veil still more closely over her face, and never raised her +eyes. + +A quarter past three; the bell rings loudly. There is a shrill whistle, +and then, slowly at first, the train moves out of the station. A few +minutes more, and the long walls, the numerous arches, are all left +behind, and they are out in the blinding sunlight, hurrying through the +clear, golden day as though life and death depended upon its speed. On, +on, past the green meadows, where the hedgerows were filled with +woodbines and wild roses, and the clover filled the air with fragrance; +past gray old churches whose tapering spires pointed to heaven; past +quiet homesteads sleeping in the sunshine; past silent, quaint villages +and towns; past broad rivers and dark woods. Yet never once did the +silent woman raise her eyes, never once did she look from the windows at +the glowing landscape that lay on either side. Once, and once only, she +caught a glimpse of the golden sunlight, and she turned away with a +faint, sick, shuddering sigh. + +Her fellow-passengers looked wonderingly at her. She never moved; her +hands were tightly clasped, as one whose thoughts were all despairing: +Once a lady addressed her, but she never heard the words. Silent, mute, +and motionless, she might have been a marble statute, only that every +now and then a quick, faint shiver came over her. + +On through the fair, English counties, and the heat of the sun grew +less. The birds came from their shelter in the leafy trees and began to +sing; the flowers yielded their loveliest perfumes, and the sweet summer +wind that blew in at the carriage windows was like the breath of +Paradise. + +Still she had neither spoken nor moved. Then the train stopped, and the +sudden cessation from all sound made her start up suddenly, as though +roused from painful dreams. + +"Have we--have we passed Crewe?" she asked. + +And then her fellow-passengers looked wonderingly at her, for the voice +was like no other sound--no human sound; it was a faint gasp, as of one +who had escaped a deadly peril, and was still faint with the remembrance +of it. + +"No," replied a gentleman; "we have not reached Crewe yet. They are +stopping for water, I should imagine. This is supposed to be one of the +most out-of-the-way villages in England. It is called Redcliffe." + +She gave one look through the open windows. There, behind the woods, a +little village lay stretched and half hidden by the thick green foliage. + +"I want to get out here," she said, in the same faint voice. + +Her fellow-travelers looked at each other, and their glances said +plainly, "There is something strange about her; let her go." A gentleman +called the guard, and the woman, whose face was so carefully veiled, put +something in his hand that shone like gold. + +"Let me get out here," she said, and without a word he unlocked the +door, and she left the carriage. Those who remained behind breathed more +freely after she had gone. That strange, mute presence had had a +depressing effect on them all. + +She looked neither to the right nor to the left, but made her way +quickly to the green fields, where the golden silence of summer reigned. +She walked there with hasty steps, looking behind her to see if she were +pursued. + +She opened the white gates and went into a field where the tall trees +threw a deep shade. She sat down then, or, rather, flung herself on the +ground with a vehement cry, like one who had suffered from a deadly pain +without daring to murmur--one loud cry, and, from the sound of it, it +was easy to tell that it came from a broken heart. She bowed her head +against the rugged bark of a tree, and then fell into a deep slumber. +The wearied limbs seemed to relax. To sleep as she did she must have +been watching long. + +When she opened her eyes again the afternoon had gone and the shadows of +evening were falling. It was still bright and warm, but she shivered +like one seized with mortal cold. + +She rose and made her way to the quiet little village. It was almost out +of the world, so completely was it hidden by the trees and hills. She +reached the quiet little street at last. She looked at the windows of +the houses, but the notice she wanted to see was not in any of them. At +the end of the street she came to a narrow lane that led to the woods; +half-way down the lane was a small cottage half buried in elder trees. + +In the window hung a small placard--"Rooms to let." She knocked at the +door, which was opened by a kindly-looking elderly woman. + +"You have rooms to let?" said the faint, low voice. "I want two." + +Then followed a few words as to terms, etc., and the transaction was +concluded. + +"Shall my son fetch your luggage?" asked the landlady, Mrs. Hirste. + +"I have no luggage," she replied; then seeing something like a doubtful +expression on the kindly face, she added; "I will pay you a month's +money in advance." + +That was quite satisfactory. Mrs. Hirste led the way to a pretty little +parlor, which she showed with no little pride. + +"This is the other room," she said, throwing open the door of a pretty +white chamber. "And now, is there anything I can get for you?" + +"No," replied the strange, weak voice. "I will ask when I want anything; +for the present I only desire to be alone." + +Mrs. Hirste withdrew, and her lodger immediately locked the door. Then +she threw off the gray cloak and thick veil. + +"I am alone," she said--"alone and safe. Oh, if my wretched life be +worth gratitude, thank God! thank God!" + +She repeated the words with a burst of hysterical weeping. She knelt by +the little white bed and buried her face in her hands. Deep, bitter sobs +shook her whole frame; from her white lips came a low moan that +betokened anguish too great for words. Then, when the passion of grief +had subsided and she was exhausted, she rose and stood erect. Then one +saw how superbly beautiful she was, although her face was stained with +tears. + +She was still young, not more than three-and-twenty; her figure was of +rarest symmetry; when the great world knew her it had been accustomed to +say that her figure resembled that of the celebrated Diana for the +Louvre; there was the marvelous, free-spirited grace and matchless +perfection. + +She had the face and head of a young queen, a face of peerless beauty; a +white, broad brow that might have worn a crown; eyes of the dark hue of +the violets, with long fringes that rested on a cheek perfect in shape +and color; brows straight, like those of a Greek goddess; lips sweet and +proud--they were white now, and quivering, but the beauty of the mouth +was unchanged. + +So she stood in all the splendor of her grand loveliness. There is over +her whole figure and face that indescribable something which tells that +she is wife and mother both, that look of completed life. + +The hands, so tightly clasped, are white and slender. There is no +attribute of womanly loveliness that does not belong to her. + +After a time she went to the window. Great crimson roses, wet with dew, +and odorous woodbine peeped in as she opened it. The night-wind was +heavy with the perfume of the sleeping flowers, the golden stars were +shining in the sky, and she raised her pale, lovely face to the radiant +heavens. + +"My God!" she prayed, "take pity on me, and before I realize what has +happened, let me die!" + +"Let me die!" No other prayer went from her lips, although she sat +there from sunset until the early dawn of the new day flushed in the +glorious eastern skies. + +While she sits there, with that despairing prayer rising from the depths +of her despairing heart, we will tell the story of Marian Arleigh's +penance. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +"You cannot be cruel. You cannot think it is wrong to meet me. My whole +life, with everything in it, belongs to you. If you told me to lie down +here and die at your feet, I should do so and smile. Why do you say it +is wrong, Marion?" + +A lovely, child-like face was raised to the speaker. + +"I do not know. I have a vague idea that anything requiring secrecy must +be wrong. Is it not so?" + +He laughed. + +"No, sweet. What would the great diplomatists of the world say to such a +theory? Rather try to believe that what is stolen is sweet." + +She smiled, but the anxious expression still lingered on her lovely +young face. He noticed it. + +"As a rule, Marion, you are quite right. Concealments are odious. But +there are exceptions--this is one--I love you; but I am only a poor +artist, struggling to make a name. You, sweet, are rich and beautiful. +From your high estate you smile upon me as a queen might smile on a +subject. You are a true heroine. You are content 'to lose the world for +love.'" + +"I am content," said the girl, with a little sigh of supreme happiness; +"but I wish it were all open and straightforward. I wish you would go to +my guardian and tell him you love me. Then tell Miss Carleton. Indeed, +she would not be angry." + +"Do you know what would happen if I did as you advise, Marion?" he +asked. + +"Nothing would happen," she replied; "and they would be pleased to see +me happy." + +"You have to learn some of the world's lessons yet," he said. "If I were +to go to Lord Ridsdale and say to him, 'My Lord, I love your ward and +she loves me,' do you know what he would do?" + +"No," she replied, slowly. + +"He would send for you at once, and take such measures as would prevent +me from ever seeing you again. If I were to tell him, Marion, we should +be parted forever. Could you bear that, darling?" + +"No," she replied, "I could not, Allan. If you think so, we--we will +keep our secret a little longer." + +"Thank you," he said, gratefully, kissing the little white hand clasped +in his. "I knew you would not be cruel, Marion. You are so heroic and +grand--so unlike other girls; you would not darken my solitary life for +an absurd scruple--you would not refuse to see me, when the sight of you +is the only sunbeam that cheers my life." + +The beautiful face brightened at his words. + +"You will write to me, Marion--and, darling, my heart lives on your +words--they are ever present with me. When I read one of your letters it +seems to me your voice is whispering, and that whisper makes the only +music that cheers my day. Tell me in your letters once, and once again, +that you will be my wife, that you will love me, and never care for any +one else." + +"I have told you so," she said; "but if the words please you, I will +tell you over and over again, as you say. You know I love you, Allan." + +"I know you are an angel!" cried the young man. "In all the wide world +there is none like you." + +Then he clasped the little white hands more tightly in his own, and +whispered sweet words to her that brought a bright flush to her face and +a love light to her eyes. She drooped her head with the coy, pretty +shyness of a bird, listening to words that seemed to her all poetry and +music. + +It was a pretty love scene. The lovers stood at the end of an +old-fashioned orchard; the fruit hung ripe on the trees--golden-brown +pears and purple plums, the grass under foot was thick and soft, the sun +had set, the dew was falling, and the birds had gone to rest. + +The girl, standing under the trees, with downcast, blushing face and +bright, clear eyes, was lovely as a poet's dream. She was not more than +seventeen, and looked both young and childlike for that age. She had a +face fair as a summer's morning, radiant with youth and happiness. +Greuze might have painted her and immortalized her. She had a delicate +color that was like the faint flush one sees inside a rose. She had eyes +of the same beautiful blue as the purple heartsease, and great masses of +golden-brown hair that fell in rich waves on her neck and shoulders. + +She was patrician from the crown of her dainty head to the little feet; +the slender, girlish figure was full of grace and symmetry, the white, +rounded throat and beautiful shoulders were fit models for a sculptor. +She had pretty white hands, with a soft, rose-leaf flush on the fingers. +She was a lovely girl, fair, high-bred and elegant, and she gave promise +of a most superb and magnificent womanhood. Such was Marion Arleigh on +this June evening. The young man by her side was handsome after a +certain style; the impression his face left upon every one was that he +was not to be trusted; his dark eyes were not frank and clear, the thin +lips were shrewd, with lines about them that betokened cruelty; it was a +face from which children shrank instinctively, and women as a rule did +not love. They stood side by side under the shade of an elder tree. +Plainly as patrician was written on her beautiful face and figure, +plebeian was imprinted on his. He was tall, but there was no high-bred +grace, no ease of manner, no courteous dignity such as distinguishes the +true English gentleman. His face expressed passion, but half a dozen +meaner emotions were there as well. None were perceptible to the girl by +his side. She thought him perfection and nothing else. + +How comes Marion Arleigh, the heiress of Hanton, ward of Lord Ridsdale, +one of the proudest men in England, and pupil of Miss Carleton, to be +alone in the sweet, soft eveningtide with Allan Lyster, whose name was +not of the fairest repute among men? + +If Lord Ridsdale had known it, his anger would have been without bounds; +if Miss Carleton had guessed it, she would have been too shocked ever +to have admitted Miss Arleigh in her doors again. How came she there? It +was the old story of girlish imprudence, of girlish romance and folly, +of a vivid imagination and bright, warm poetical fancy wrongly +influenced and led astray. Much may be forgiven her, for lovely Marion +Arleigh, one of the richest heiresses in England, was an orphan. No +mother's love had taught her wisdom. She had no memory of a mother's +gentle warning, or sweet and tender wisdom. Her mother died when she was +born, and her father, John Arleigh, of Hanton, did not long survive his +wife. He left his child to the care of Lady Ridsdale--his sister--but +she died when Marion was four years old, and Lord Ridsdale, not knowing +what better to do, sent his little ward to school. He thought first of +having a governess at home for her; that would have necessitated a +chaperon, and for that he was not inclined. + +"Send her to school," was the advice given him by all his lady friends, +and Lord Ridsdale followed it, as being the safest and wisest plan yet +suggested to him. She was sent first to a lady's school at Brighton, +then to Paris, with Lady Livingstone's daughters, then to Miss +Carleton's, and Miss Carleton was by universal consent considered the +most efficient finishing governess in England. + +Marion was very clever; she was romantic to a fault; she idealized +everything and every one with whom she came into contact. She had a +poet's soul, loving most dearly all things bright and beautiful; she was +very affectionate, very impressionable, able, generous with a queenly +lavishness, truthful, noble. Had she been trained by a careful mother, +Marion Arleigh would have been one of the noblest of women; but the best +of school training cannot compensate for the wise and loving discipline +of home. She grew up a most accomplished and lovely girl; the greatest +fault that could be found with her was that she was terribly unreal. She +knew nothing of the practical part of life. She idealized every one so +completely that she never really understood any one. + +Lord Ridsdale wondered often what he was to do with this beautiful and +gifted girl when her school days were ended. + +"She must be introduced to the world then," he thought; "and I fervently +hope she'll soon be married." + +But as her coming to Ridsdale House would cause so great an alteration +in his way of life, he deferred that event as long as it was possible to +do so. + +When Adelaide Lyster came as a governess-pupil to Miss Carleton's school +Marion Arleigh was just sixteen. Miss Lyster was not long before she +knew the rank and social importance of her beautiful young pupil. + +"When you have the world at your feet," she would say to her sometimes, +"I shall ask you a favor." + +"Ask me now!" said Marion, and then Miss Lyster told her how she had a +brother--a genius--an artist--whose talent equaled that of Raphael, but +that he was unknown to the world and had no one to take an interest in +his fortunes. + +"One word from you when you are a great lady will be of more value to my +brother than even the praise of critics," she would say; and Miss +Arleigh, flattered by the speech, would promise that word should be +spoken. Adelaide Lyster spent long hours in talking of her brother--of +his genius, his struggles, his thirst for appreciation; the portrait she +drew of him was so beautiful that Marion Arleigh longed to know him. Her +wish was gratified at last. The drawing master who for many years had +attended the school died, and Adelaide besought Miss Carleton to engage +her brother. The astute lady was at first unwilling. Allan Lyster was +young, and she did not think a young master at all suitable. But +Adelaide represented to her that, although young, he was highly +gifted--he could teach well, and his terms were lower than most masters. + +"There could be no danger," she said, "Miss Carleton's pupils were all +rich and well born--the young artist poor and unknown. They were all +educated with one idea, namely, that the end and aim of their existence +was to marry well, was to secure a title, if possible--diamonds, an +opera box, a country house and town mansion. With that idea engraven so +firmly on heart, soul and mind, it was not possible that there could be +any danger in receiving a few drawing lessons from a penniless, unknown +artist like Allan Lyster." + +So Miss Carleton, for once laying aside her usual caution, engaged him, +and Adelaide Lyster told her favorite pupil as soon as the engagement +was made. The governess-pupil had laid her plans well. On her first +entrance into that high school where every girl had either riches, +beauty or high birth, Adelaide Lyster had sworn to herself to make the +best use of her opportunities, and to secure wealth at least for this +her beloved brother. Allan should marry one of the girls, and then his +fortune in life would be made. After passing them all in review she +decided on Marion Arleigh. Not only was she the wealthiest heiress, but +in her case there were no parents to interfere--no father with stern +refusal, no mother with tearful pleadings. When she was of age she could +please herself--marry Allan, if he would persuade her to do so, and then +he would be master of all her wealth. She began her management of the +somewhat difficult business with tact and diplomacy worthy of a +gray-headed diplomatist. She spoke so incessantly of her +brother--praising his genius, his great gifts--that Marion could not +help thinking of him. She studied the character of this young heiress, +and played so adroitly upon her weakness that Marion Arleigh, in her +sweet girlish simplicity, had no chance against her. + +When Allan Lyster came, to all outward appearances no one could have +been more reserved; he rarely addressed his pupils, never except on +matters connected with the lesson. He never looked at them. Miss +Carleton flattered herself that she had found a treasure. Allan was not +only the cheapest master she had ever had, but he was also a model of +discretion. Yet none the less had he adopted his sister's ideas and made +up his mind to woo and win Marion Arleigh. + +"It is well worth your while to try," said his sister. "There are no +parents to interfere; she will be her own mistress the very day she is +of age." + +"But she is only about seventeen now," said Allan; "there will be so +long to wait." + +"The prize is well worth waiting for. Half the peers in England would be +proud and thankful to win it. If you play your cards well, Allan, in one +way or another you must succeed. Let me tell you the most important +thing to do." + +"What is that?" he asked, looking admiringly into his sister's face. + +"Persuade her to write to you, and mind that her letters to you contain +a promise of marriage. Do you see the importance of that?" + +"You are a clever woman, Adelaide; with you to help me I cannot fail." + +And he did not fail. Adelaide had arranged her plans too skillfully for +that. She began by saying how much Allan admired Marion; then, seeing +the idea was not displeasing to the young heiress, she gradually told +her how he was certain to die of love for her. + +If a wise mother had trained the girl, she would have been less +susceptible; as it was, the notion of a handsome young artist dying for +her was not at all unpleasant. She was seventeen, and had never had a +lover. Other girls had talked about their flirtations; nothing of the +kind had ever occurred to her. True, whenever she went out she could not +help noticing how men's eyes lingered on her face; but that one should +love her--love her so dearly as to die for her, was to her romantic +imagination strange as it was beautiful. Adelaide Lyster could play upon +her feelings and emotions skilfully as she played upon the chords of a +piano. + +"I was saying to Allan yesterday how sorry I am that he ever came to +Miss Carleton's. What do you think he said?" + +"I cannot tell," replied Miss Arleigh, her beautiful young face flushing +as she spoke. + +"He said, ah! that he would rather love you unhappily than be blessed +with the love of a queen; he would rather look upon your face once than +gaze for years on the loveliest of all created women. How he worships +you! Are all men of genius destined to love unhappily, I wonder?" + +"Is he so very unhappy?" asked the young lady, sadly. + +"Yes; I do not believe he knows what peace or rest is. He never sleeps +or enjoys himself as other people do." + +"Why not?" asked the girl, to whom this flattery was most sweet and +pleasant. + +"His life is one long thought of you. If you were poor, he would not +mind; there would be some hope of winning you; he would not let any +other barrier than riches stand before him--that is one that honorable +men cannot climb." + +"I do not see it," said Miss Arleigh. + +"Because you do not know the world. You are so noble in mind yourself, +you do not even understand want of nobility in others. Do you not know +that there are many people who would pretend to love you for the sake of +your fortune?" + +"I wish I had no fortune," said the young girl, wistfully. "How shall I +know, Adelaide, when any one loves me for myself?" + +"When they are, like Allan, willing to die rather than to own their +love; willing to suffer everything and anything rather than be +suspected of fortune-hunting." + +"No one could suspect your brother Allan of that." + +"No one who knows him. But, Miss Arleigh, what would your guardian, Lord +Ridsdale, say--what would Miss Carleton say--if Allan went to them, as I +know he wants to do, and asked permission to work for you, to try and +win you? Listen to me--I am telling you the truth. They would not be +content with insult, with dismissing him ignominiously, but they would +mar his future. You do not know the power vested in the hands of the +rich and mighty. An artist must court public opinion, and if one in the +position of Lord Ridsdale was his determined enemy and foe, he could +expect nothing but ruin." + +"That is not fair," said the heiress, thoughtfully. + +"Then again, if you were to tell Miss Carleton, she would dismiss my +brother, she would complain of him, she would ruin him as completely as +it was in human power to do so. The world is not generous; it is only +noble souls that believe in noble souls. Such people as those would +always persist in considering Allan a fortune-hunter and nothing more." + +All of which arguments Miss Lyster intended to impress upon her pupil's +mind, for this one great object of keeping Allan's wooing a secret. If +that could be until Miss Arleigh was twenty-one, and then she could be +persuaded into marrying him, their fortunes were made. + +That was her chief object. She knew Miss Arleigh was naturally frank, +open and candid; that she had an instinctive dislike of all underhand +behavior; that she could never be induced to look with favor on anything +mean; but if the romance and generous truth of her character could be +played upon, they were safe. + +She had the gift of eloquence, this woman who so cruelly betrayed her +trust. She talked well, and the most subtle and clever of arguments came +to her naturally. Her words had with them a charm and force that the +young could not resist. Let those who misuse such talents remember they +must answer to the Most High God for them. Adelaide Lyster used hers to +betray a trust, that ought to have been held most sacred. She cared +little how she influenced Marion's mind. She cared little what false +notions, what false philosophy, what wrong ideas, she taught her, +provided only she could win her interests, her liking and love for +Allan. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Miss Carleton had been with her young ladies for a promenade--people +less elegant would have said for a walk--Miss Carleton rejoiced in long +words. "Young ladies, prepare for a promenade," was her daily formula. +They had just returned, and Miss Arleigh missed Adelaide Lyster. + +"Why did not Miss Lyster go out with us today?" she asked of another +governess. + +"She complained of headache, and seemed quite out of spirits," was the +reply. + +Marion hastened to her; she was of a most loving disposition, this +motherless girl--tender and kind of heart, and there was no one for her +to love--no father, mother, sister or brother; she was very rich, but +quite alone in the world. She hastened to Miss Lyster's room, and found +that young lady completely prostrated by what she called a nervous +headache. + +"You have been crying, Adelaide," said Marion. "It's no use either +denying it or turning your head so that I cannot see you. What is the +matter?" + +"I wish you had not come here, Marion. I did not want you to know my +trouble." + +"But I must know it," and the girl's arms were clasped around her. She +stooped down and kissed the treacherous face. "I must know it," she +continued, impetuously; "when I say must, Adelaide, I mean it." + +"I dare not tell you--I cannot tell you, Miss Arleigh. It would have +been well for my brother had he never seen your face." + +"You have heard from him, then--it is about him?" and the fair face +flushed. + +"Yes, it is about him. I have had a letter from him this morning. He +says that he must give up his appointment here and go abroad--that he +cannot bear the torture of seeing you; and if he does go abroad, I shall +never see him again." + +The lips that had been caressing her quivered slightly. + +"He is all I have in the world," continued the governess; "the only +gleam of light or love in my troubled life. Oh, Marion! if he goes from +me--goes to hide his sorrow and his love where I shall never see him +again--what will become of me? I am in despair. The very thought of it +breaks my heart." + +And Miss Lyster sobbed as though she meant every word of it. The heiress +bent over her. + +"What can I do to help you? I am so sorry, Adelaide." + +"There is only one thing you could do," replied the other, "and I dare +not even mention it. My brother must die. Oh, fatal hour in which he +ever saw the beauty of that face!" + +"Tell me what the one thing is, Adelaide. If it is possible, I will do +it." + +"I dare not mention it. It is useless to name it. Men like my brother +throw their genius, their life and love, under the feet of girls like +you; but they meet with no return." + +"Tell me what it is," repeated the other, her generous heart touched by +the thought of receiving so much and giving so little. + +"If you would but consent to see him--I know you will not, but it is the +only means of saving him--if you expressed but the faintest shadow of a +wish, he would stay; I know he would." + +Marion hesitated. + +"How can I interfere?" she said. "How can I express any such wish to +him?" + +"I knew you would not. That is why I did not care to tell you my +trouble. Why should you--so rich, so happy, so beautiful--why should you +interest yourself in the fate of people like us? My brother is a genius, +not a lord." + +"I wish," cried the girl, impatiently, "that you would not be always +talking to me about my riches. I cannot help them. You make me wretched. +It is not because I am rich that I hesitate--how absurd you are, +Adelaide!--but because your brother is a stranger to me, and I have no +right to interfere in his life." + +"Is that all? I fancied you considered him so far beneath you. Genius +is Godlike, but it is not money. Ah, Marion, if that be all, save him! +Save him! He is all I have in the world! He is so young, so sensitive, +so clever, so proud, you could influence him with half a word. If you +said to him, 'Stay,' he would remain, though kings and emperors should +summon him. Will you see him, and say that one word, Marion, for my +sake?" + +It was very pleasant to know that one word from her could influence the +life of this great unknown genius; very pleasant to believe that she was +loved so dearly, so entirely, that even an emperor could not take the +man who worshiped her from her side. It seems weak that she should so +easily believe. Insight gives one a false estimate of her character; but +there are many things to be considered before judging her. She was +romantic in the highest degree; she was all idealty and poetry. She had +no idea of the realities of life; she had the vaguest possible idea that +there was wickedness in the world, but that ever deceit or treachery +should come near her was an idea that never entered her romantic mind. +She was too old to be at school; had her mother been living, she would +have been removed from there. She would have had friends and admirers, +her love and affection would have found proper objects, and the great +calamity of her life would have been averted. Heaven help and guide any +foolish, romantic girl left without the guidance of mother or friend! + +She thought nothing of the impropriety of meeting the young artist +unknown to any one. She remembered only the romance of it--a genius, a +handsome young genius was dying for love of her, for her sake; he was +going away, to leave home, friends and country, going to die in exile, +simply for love of her; to lay down all the brilliant hopes of his life, +to give up all his dreams, all his plans, because he found her so fair +he could no longer live in her presence. Before she made any further +remark she began to think whether any of her favorite heroines had ever +been in this delightful situation, and how it was best to behave with a +genius dying for her. She could not remember, but she knew there were +innumerable instances of queens having loved their subjects--to wit, the +stately Elizabeth and Essex. She, in the eyes of this poor artist and +his sister, was a queen--it would not hurt her to stoop from her high +estate. She turned her fair, troubled face to the astute woman by her +side. + +"Even if I could do him any good by seeing him," she said, "how could it +be managed?" + +Miss Lyster's stare of admiration was something wonderful to see. "Would +you be so noble, so generous? Oh, Miss Arleigh, you will save my life +and his! Would you really see him, and tell him he had better stay? How +good you are! Do you know, I could kneel here at your feet to thank you. +If you are willing, I can make all arrangements--I only needed your +consent." + +The excitement was a pleasant break in the monotony of school life. How +little did Marion understand those with whom she had to deal! She had +promised to grant this interview as something of a condescension. Miss +Lyster managed her so skilfully that before it took place she had +learned to long for it. + +The farce of Allan's illness was kept up. For two days the pupils were +deprived of their lessons through the indisposition of their master. + +"I do not know that your kindness will be needed after all," said +Adelaide, sadly. "My brother is very ill; he may not recover. Oh, what a +fatal day it was when he first saw you, Miss Arleigh!" + +Now, Marion had often rehearsed this interview. She had pictured herself +as taking the part of a very dignified queen; of saying to this +interesting subject who was dying for love of her, "Stay." She imagined +his delight at her condescension, his sister's gratitude for her +kindness; and now, behold, nothing of the kind was wanting--the pretty +role she had sketched out for herself required no playing. + +"I do not think I need make any arrangement for the little interview you +promised my brother," said Miss Lyster to the simple girl. "I have had a +note from him this morning. He is in better health, but he is in +despair, and he cannot hide it. He absolutely refuses to believe that +you have consented to see him. Unless you tell him so yourself, he will +never believe it." + +"But how can I tell him?" asked the girl. + +"Write on a piece of paper, 'Come at the hour and place your sister +appoints. I wish to see you.' Then he will come. I am writing tonight, +and will enclose the note." + +It would rather take from her queenlike attitude, she thought; but as +she had promised the kindness, it would not be graceful to dispute as to +how it should be granted; so, under the guidance of the woman to whom +her innocent youth was entrusted, she sealed her fate with her own +hands. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"How am I to thank you?" said Adelaide Lyster to the girl she had +betrayed. "I have a letter from Allan, and he says the very thought of +seeing you has given him a fresh life--fresh energy. I have never read +anything so rapturous in my life. Do you wish to see the letter?" + +As Marion Arleigh read the passionate, poetical words that had been +written expressly for her, her face flushed. How wonderful it was to +hold a man's life in her hands--to sway a genius so that her nod meant +stay or go, her least words meant happiness or misery! She looked around +with something of pity for other girls who had not this new and +wonderful sensation. + +"A life in her hands!" There came to her, young as she was, a vague idea +of woman's power for good or for evil. A cruel or cold word from her, +and the artist would go in his misery only to seek death in some far-off +land. A kind word, and he would remain--his genius would have its sway, +and he would paint pictures that the world should glory in. + +"I have arranged it all," said Miss Lyster. "Miss Carleton is going +to-day to that grand dinner-party at Macdonald's. She has given orders +that the young ladies shall go over to Herrington, and take some +refreshments with them--it will be a picnic on a small scale. You can +excuse yourself from going. I will volunteer to remain with you, and +toward sunset, we will walk through the old orchard. Allan will await us +there." + +The girl's heart beat; it was a romantic dream after all--that strange, +wonderful reality; the interview she had so often imagined was to take +place at last. + +"I cannot tell an untruth," she said to Miss Lyster; "I could not if I +tried. How could I excuse myself from going?" + +Adelaide looked slightly shocked. + +"I would not ask you to speak untruthfully, not even to save Allan's +life, dearly as I love him," she said. "There is no need. Say you are +not inclined to go. Miss Carleton will not interfere with the whims of +an heiress." + +So it was arranged, and everything fell out just as Adelaide Lyster had +foreseen. Miss Carleton did not care to interfere with the whims of a +great heiress like Marion Arleigh. + +"By all means, stay at home, my love, if you wish, and Miss Lyster, too. +She is an admirable young person; so prudent, so discreet. I could not +leave you in better hands." + +Marion Arleigh lived afterward to be presented at Court, but she never +again felt the same diffidence, the same trepidation, as when, with her +false friend by her side, she went down the steps that led to the +orchard. The hedge was high and thick, tall trees formed a complete +barrier between the grounds and the high road, no strangers or passersby +could be seen. Miss Lyster had chosen her time well. She knew that in +the lady superintendent's absence the servants would hold high revels; +there was no fear of interruption. + +In after life Marion Arleigh remembered every detail of that evening. It +was May then, and the hedge was white with hawthorn; there was a gleam +of gold from the laburnums, and the scent of the lilacs filled the air; +the apple trees were all in blossom, the birds were singing, the sun +shining, warmth and fragrance and beauty lay all around her. + +Far down the orchard, standing sketching a picturesque old tree, was the +artist, Allan Lyster. He looked up as the sound of light footsteps +rustled in the grass. When he saw who was coming he flung down his +pencils and advanced, hat in hand. + +There was something graceful and poetical, after all, in the way in +which he went up to Miss Arleigh and knelt lightly on one knee. + +"I would kiss the hem of your robe if I dared," he said. "How am I to +thank you?" + +Then he sprang up and took his sister's hand in his. He allowed no time +for confusion and embarrassment--he was too clever for that. + +"How am I to thank you, Miss Arleigh?" he said. "If the sun had fallen +from the heavens, I could not have felt, more surprise than your +kindness has caused me. My sister tells me you are good enough not to be +angry at my presumption." + +Miss Lyster laughed. + +"I think, Allan," she said, "that I shall leave you to listen to Miss +Arleigh's lecture alone. She will be able to say harder words to you if +I am not by to listen. I will see if I can finish your picture." + +She walked over to the tree where paper and pencils lay, leaving them +alone, and though she was a woman, and young--though she knew that she +was most foully betraying a girl whose youth and innocence might have +pleaded for her, she had not even a passing thought of pity. "Let Allan +win the fortune if he can. He will make better use of it than she +could." + +"You are so good to me," murmured the young artist, his dark eyes +flashing keenly for one-half a minute over that beautiful face. "I am at +a loss for words." + +Allan Lyster was gifted with a most musical voice, and he understood +perfectly well how to make the most use of it. The pathos with which he +said those words was wonderful to hear. + +"I am glad to see you," she said. "Your sister tells me you think of +going abroad." + +"Has she told you why?" he asked eagerly. + +Marion's face grew crimson. The beautiful eyes dropped from his. She +drew back ever so little, but another keen, sharp glance told him she +was not angry; only shy and timid. + +"You are so good to me," he continued, with passionate eagerness, "that +I am not afraid to tell you. I must go; life here is torture to me; it +is torture to see you, to hear you speak, to worship you with a heart +full of fire, and yet to know that the sun is not farther from me than +you, to know that if I laid my life at your feet you would only laugh at +me and think me mad. It is torture so great that exile and death seem +preferable." + +He saw her lips quiver, and her eyes, half raised, had in them no angry +light. + +"You are a great lady," he said, "rich, noble, powerful. I am a poor +artist. I have but one gift--that is genius. And I have dared, fired by +such a beauty as woman never had before, to raise my eyes to you. They +are dazzled, blinded, and I must suffer for my rashness; and yet--" + +He paused, gave another keen glance, felt perfectly satisfied that what +he was saying was well received, then went on: + +"Artists before now have loved great ladies, and by their genius have +immortalized them. But I am mad to say such things. This is the age of +money-worship, and art is no longer valued as in those times." + +"I do not value money," she said, in a clear, sweet voice. "I value many +things a thousand times more highly." + +"You are an angel!" he cried. "Even though my love tortures me, I would +not change it for the highest pleasures other men enjoy. The poets learn +by suffering what they teach in song; so it will be with me. Sorrow will +make me a great artist; whereas, if I had been a happy man, I might +never, perhaps, have risen much above the common level. I am resigned to +suffer all my life." + +"I do not like to hear you speak so," she said. "Life will not be all +suffering." + +"I have raised my eyes, looked at the sun, and it has dazzled me," he +said. "Ah, lady, I have had such dreams, of love that overleaped all +barriers, as Art has rendered loveliness immortal for all time. I have +dreamed of loves such as Petrarch had for Laura, Dante for Beatrice, and +I wake to call myself mad for indulging in such dreams." + +She was deeply interested. This was exactly as heros spoke in novels; +they always had a lofty contempt for money, and talked as though love +was the only and universal good. She looked half shyly at him; he was +very handsome, this young artist who loved her so, and very sad. How +dearly he loved her, and how strange it was! In all this wide world +there was not one who cared for her as he did; the thought seemed to +bring her nearer to him. No one had ever talked of loving her before. +Perhaps the beauty of the May evening softened her and inclined her +heart to him; for after a few minutes' silence she said to him: + +"We are forgetting the very object for which I consented to see you." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"It is no wonder," replied Allan Lyster. "I forget everything in +speaking to you. You do well, lady, in making me remember myself." + +"Do not mistake me," she said gently. "I only thought time is flying, +and I have not said yet what I promised your sister I would say." + +They had walked down the orchard, and they stood now under the spreading +boughs of a large apple tree--the pink and white blossoms made the +loveliest frame for that most fair face. She was lovely as the blossoms +themselves. + +"I feel like a criminal," said Allan Lyster; "and as though you were my +judge. I tremble to know what you have to say." + +"Yet it is not very terrible, Mr. Lyster. Your sister is my dearest +friend, and she tells me that you are thinking of going abroad. She is +very miserable over it. She fancies she should never see you again. I +promised her that I would persuade you to stay." + +His face flushed--his eyes flashed--he bent over her. + +"See what little white hands yours are," he said; "yet they hold a +life--a strong man's life. If you bade me stay, I would remain though +death were the penalty. If you bade me go, I would go and never look +upon a familiar face again." + +"I do not like to say go, or stay," she replied, hesitatingly. "It is a +serious thing to interfere with a man's life." + +"I have dared already more than I ever dreamed of daring. I have told +how rashly I have ventured to raise my eyes to the sun--you know my +presumption. I have dared to kneel at your feet, and tell you that you +are the star of my idolatry, the source of all my inspiration. You know +that, yet you will not punish my presumption by telling me to go?" + +"I will not," she replied, gently. + +"Then you are not angry with me? I did not know life held such happiness +as that. You know I love you? You are not angry?" + +A sudden breeze stirred the apple blossoms, and they fell like a shower +on her fair head. + +"You must pardon me if I am beside myself with joy. Looking on your +face, I grow intoxicated with your beauty, as men do with rare wines. +Ah, lady! in the years to come and in the great world people may love +you; but you shall look, and look in vain, for a love so true, so deep, +so devoted as mine." + +"I believe it," she replied. + +"You believe it, yet you are not angry with me? You hold my life in your +hands yet will not bid me go?" + +He bent over her, his handsome face was glowing, his dark eyes flashing +fire. + +"I could fancy myself in a dream," he said; "it is too strange, too +sweet to be true. There must be some intoxication in these apple +blossoms. Dare I ask you one more grace?" + +"I have not been very unkind," she said. + +"Will you let me sometimes see you? I will not presume upon your +kindness. Your face is to me what sunshine is to flowers. Do not turn +its light from me." + +"You see me at the lessons," she said. + +"Pardon me, I do not. I never dare to look at you; if I did, Miss +Carleton would soon know my secret. I am an artist, practiced to admire. +I may say what in others would be simple impertinence. You look so +beautiful, Miss Arleigh, with the sunlight falling on you through the +apple blossoms. Will you let me make a picture of you, just as you are +now? I could paint it well, for my whole heart would be in the work." + +"I am willing," she said. + +"And you will let me keep the picture when it is finished, and once or +twice before the lovely summer fades you will come out here and see me +again?" + +"Yes," she said, "I will come again." + +"I shall keep those few penciled words you sent me until I die," he +said, "and then they shall be buried with me." + +Allan Lyster was a wise general; he knew exactly when it was time to +retreat. He would fain have lingered by her side talking to her, looking +in her lovely face, but prudence told him that he had said enough. He +looked across at the trees and signed to his sister, unseen and unknown +to Miss Arleigh. Adelaide, quick to take the hint, joined them at once. + +"I shall not show you my sketch, Allan," she said laughingly; "it will +not show well by the side of yours. Marion, we must go. Have you +accomplished my heart's desire--persuaded my brother to stay?" + +"He did not want much persuasion," she replied, suddenly remembering +with surprise how little had been said about the matter. + +"I hope Allan has made no blunder," thought the sister; aloud she said, +"I know it. I knew that one look from you would do all that my prayers +failed to accomplish. We must go, Marion; it is time to re-enter the +house." + +"Miss Arleigh," said Allan Lyster, "when I wake to-morrow, I shall fancy +all this but a dream. Will you give me something to make me remember +that it is indeed a happy reality?" + +"What shall I give you?" asked the girl. + +"You have held that spray of apple blossoms in your hand all the +evening," he said, "give me that." + +She laughed and held it out to him. + +"Thank you," he said; "now that you have touched it it ought not to +die." + +"Do all artists talk like you, Mr. Lyster?" + +"When the same subject inspires them," he replied, and then Adelaide +reminded them again that time was flying, and they must be gone. + +A few more minutes and the handsome young artist was walking quickly +down the high road. He had succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. He +felt as sure of winning the beautiful young heiress as though he had +placed already a wedding ring upon her finger. He laughed to himself to +think how easy the task was; so easy, in fact, that he felt a touch of +contempt for that which was so easily won. + +"It will be a good thing for me," he said to himself. "If I succeed, +painting may go. I shall not trouble myself about anything but spending +money. If I succeed, Adelaide shall have her reward." And he pleased +himself by thinking how, out of his forty thousands, he would give her a +fortune. + +"She deserves it. She has worked hard for me, and she shall not be +forgotten." + +It did not occur to him that there would arise any serious difficulty. +Of course, no steps could be taken until she was twenty-one. He could +not marry her without the consent of her guardian, and to ask for it +was, of course, nonsense. He would bind her to himself with the most +solemn of promises, and the very day she was of age they would be +married. As he walked toward his humble lodgings he amused himself by +thinking what he should do when he became master of Hanton Hall. No +sentiment troubled Allan Lyster; he could make love in any style he +liked to anyone who suited him. As to any remorse over the girl his +sister had betrayed and they had both deceived, he felt none. + +"How do you like him, Marion?" asked Adelaide Lyster, as the two walked +home. + +"He is very handsome and very clever," was the grave reply. + +"Add to that--he is more deeply in love than any man ever was yet," said +Miss Lyster, laughingly. "Marion, he worships you--his love is something +that frightens me." + +Miss Arleigh avowed that it was true. + +"He will go home," continued Adelaide, "and instead of going to sleep +like a sensible man, he will walk about all night, composing grand poems +about you." + +"Does he write poetry?" asked Marion, with increased admiration. + +"He is a poet and artist both," said his sister, with a little touch of +pride that amused the heiress. + +That was Miss Arleigh's first interview with her admirer, the second +was, he assured her, for the sake of the picture--the third, that he +might see how the picture was going on--the fourth, that she might see +it completed--the fifth, because she found the flattery of his love so +irresistible she could no longer do without it--the sixth, because she +began to fall in love with him herself--and then she lost all count, she +lived for those interviews, and nothing else. + +"I want to impress one thing upon you," said Adelaide to her brother; +"bear it always in mind. When you think you have made sufficient +advances in her favor to ask her to marry you, do not rest satisfied +with her spoken word, make her write it. It will be of no use to you +unless you do that." + +"Explain a little further, my wisest of sisters," said Allan. + +"A written promise of marriage is the only security a man has. Women +change like the wind, without rhyme or reason. But if you have her own +word pledged to you, her promise of marriage written so that there shall +be no mistake, then it will be worth a fortune to you." + +"Even if she should refuse to fulfil"-- + +"You are not very worldly wise, Allan," said his sister with the +slightest tinge of contempt in her voice. "If she fulfils it, all well +and good. The very fact of having written it keeps a girl true when she +should otherwise be false. But if she refuses to keep it, the remedy +then is in your own hands." + +"And that remedy is"--he began, but she interrupted him quickly. + +"The remedy is, of course, an action at law; or what would be far more +efficacious in her case, holding her letters as a means of getting money +from her. A proud woman will sacrifice any amount of wealth rather than +have such a thing known." + +Marion Arleigh fell easily into the plot laid by those she considered +her best friends. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +It is not pleasant to trace the steps by which the simple credulous girl +fell into the snare laid for her. She had sense and reason, but they +were both overbalanced by romance--she saw only the ideal side of +everything. The romance of this hidden love was delightful to her; she +compared herself to every heroine in fiction, and found none of them in +a more charming position that herself. + +Allan's profession had something to do with romance; had he been a mere +commonplace doctor or lawyer it would have been a different matter, but +an artist--the halo of his art transfigured him in her eyes--thus to be +capable of a deep and passionate love such as he felt for her! + +It was altogether like one of those romances that charmed her; and after +a time she gave herself up entirely to her love. + +By the skilful mamnagement of Adelaide Lyster their meetings became very +frequent, and before long he had won from her a promise that she would +love him all her life, and would consent to marry him. Even at that +time, when she was most ecstatic, most carried away by the novelty and +the romance, even then, if any sensible person had spoken to her, she +would have understood more her position than she did now. + +If anyone had said to her: "That man is not a hero, he is only a fortune +hunter; he is not even an honorable man, or he would not seek to decoy +you from your duty to bind you to an underhand agreement; instead of +being honorable and a hero he is dishonorable and a rogue"--she had +sense enough to have seen that. She understood enough of the laws of +honor to know when they were broken. But this side of the question +never occured to her. He was young, handsome, and an artist; he loved +her so dearly that for love of her he was almost dying. She was rich and +powerful; he had nothing but genius; he loved her so that her smile gave +him life, her frown was death. It was pleasant, too, and most romantic, +to escape from the thraldom of school to wander with him in the gray +twilight through the old orchard and the green lanes; it was pleasant to +feel in the depth of her heart a love that no one knew anything of--no +one even understood. The scenery, viewed from its romantic side, charmed +her. + +They told her continually how great and noble, how generous she was, and +she delighted in hearing it. + +"You value genius more than money," Allan would say to her, "and you are +right. God gives genius, men make money. You have the power of +discriminating between them." + +She began to look upon herself as something very superior +indeed--something far excelling the ordinary run of girls. They +flattered her until she hardly knew what was false and what was true. + +She delighted in making pictures of the future; how she was to stoop +from the height of her grandeur to raise him; how her wealth was, as it +were, to crown his genius. They told her that the whole world would +praise her for her noble generosity. That the rich heiress who forgot +her wealth and became the artist's wife, would be honored wherever her +name was known. They intoxicated her with romance, they bewildered her +with flattery. And she was only seventeen, with no mother to speak one +warning word to her. + +She pledged herself to be Allan Lyster's wife when she came of age. He +told her he would rather forego all claim to her wealth, marry her at +once, and leave her guardian to act as he thought best; but she, though +delighted to find him free from the least taint of anything mercenary, +refused to run the risk of losing her fortune. + +"Would you really," she said to him one day, "love me as much if I were +quite poor, as you do now?" + +"Would I! Oh, Marion, what a question to ask me! The only drawback to my +love is that hateful fortune; if it were not for that I would marry you +at once. Ah, you should find out what I loved you for, sweet. I would +work for you night and day. I would move the whole world to find for my +darling that which she would require." + +And the girl in her simplicity believed him, and thought herself the +most fortunate among woman to have won a love for herself that had in it +no taint of this world. + +So they flung the glamor of love and flattery around her, until she lost +the keen perception of right and wrong that would have saved her. + +She promised to be Allan Lyster's wife. When he had won that promise +from her, he pretended to think better of it. + +"I am wrong to ask you, Marion; I am selfish, I ought not even wish you +to share my lot." + +She asked him why, raising her sweet eyes to his face. + +"Why, because when you go out into the great world peers and princes +will woo you, my darling; the noblest in the land will sue for your +favor, and you, who might have been a duchess, will repent loving and +caring for one so poor and obscure as I am. I can give you no title." + +"You can give me what I value more," she said. "You can give me true and +disinterested love." + +He did not forget his sister's advice, that he should have that promise +in writing. One evening--it was August then, when the fruit hung ripe on +the trees--he told her, with many sighs, that he should not see her +again for some days. + +"How am I to live through them, Marion, I do not know; now when I wake, +my first thought is that I shall see you; all the world seems so fair +and life so bright, because I shall see you. What will happen to me when +the morning sun brings no such delight?" + +She was young and simple enough to feel very much touched with his +words; the old idea of having his life in her hands never left her. + +"Grant me a favor," he said. "I shall have no energy for work unless you +promise it: Write to me every night and in your letters tell me, sweet, +that which I love best to hear, that you will marry me." + +So to make him happy, to give him life and energy for his work, she +wrote to him every evening, and, remembering his request, in each one of +those letters she repeated her promise to marry him. + +This is no overstrained story, it is no exaggeration; hundreds of men +have acted as Allan Lyster did, and hundreds will act so in the future. +When girls have once mastered the grand lesson that all secrecy--all +concealment is wrong, they will have taken the only precaution possible +to save themselves. + +So matters went on until the continued secrecy began to prey upon +Marion's mind; then she made an appeal to Allan with which our story +opens. He did his best to argue with her, and he sent a note to his +sister, telling her the bright, bonnie bird they had ensnared was +growing restive under constraint. + +No doubts ever came to her. Youth is the age of romance; youth +imperatively demands love and poetry. She had found both and was +perfectly satisfied. She believed honestly that she loved him very +dearly; it never occurred to her that the greatest charm really was the +excitement of having to plan interviews and arrange her letters so as to +escape detection; it never occured to her that if she had been like +other girls of her age in society, and so enabled to judge of people, so +far from loving him and making a hero of him, he would have been +distasteful to her. She had had no opportunities of being able to judge. +Lord Ridsdale's only idea was to keep her at school as long as possible, +in order to escape further trouble. She had never been in the society of +gentlemen, and her head was full of romance and poetry. + +Therefore she fell an easy victim to the artist and his sister. She was +ready to believe he was a great hero, because he was handsome; that he +was all that could be noble and generous, because he talked poetry. +True, she began to dislike the concealment, but it never struck her that +she disliked it because the whole affair was growing tiresome to her. + +She had talked it over and over again with him--how they must wait until +she was twenty-one, then they would be married and go to live at Hanton. + +"You will like Hanton," she said. "It is old, gray and picturesque; the +woods are beautiful, there is a river running through them." + +"I shall like any place that I could share with you," he replied. "When +shall you leave this place, Marion?" + +"At Christmas, I expect. But, Allan, shall we never see each other until +I am twenty-one?" + +"I hope so," he replied. "You do not know where you will live?" + +"No, that is not decided. Lord Ridsdale says I cannot go to Hanton +alone, and I know that I cannot live at his house." + +"But go where you will, Marion, you will write to me and see me +sometimes?" + +"Of course I shall. If I remain in London it will be comparatively easy, +and if I go into the country you will be obliged to follow me." + +"I wish I could disguise myself as a page and go with you," he said. "I +do not see how I am to live without you." + +He did another thing which touched her generous heart--he painted a +picture, and with the proceeds of the sale of it he purchased a ring for +her. It was his sister who told her how the ring was procured. + +"It is my belief," said Miss Lyster, "that if he could change his whole +heart into one great ruby, he would do so, and offer it to you." + +She placed the ring on her finger, and he made her promise never to take +it off. It was made of rubies and opals set in pure gold. + +"Do not remove that, Marion," he said, "until I can find a plain gold +ring and that shall bind you to me for as long as we both shall live." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +A change came at last--one for which none of the three had been +prepared: Lord Ridsdale married. + +The first thing the new Lady Ridsdale did was to insist on the removal +of Miss Arleigh from school. + +"Nearly eighteen," she said, "and still at school! My dear William, the +only wonder is that the poor girl has not fallen into some dreadful +mischief. She ought to have been presented last year. We must have her +home at once." + +Lady Ridsdale was a woman of the world; she knew exactly how much eclat +and importance would accrue to her from the fact of being chaperone to a +wealthy heiress like Miss Arleigh. + +"Is the girl pretty?" she asked her husband; and to do him justice, he +looked much confused. + +"I hardly know what to answer you, Laura. I must confess the truth; I +have not seen her for two years and more. When my wife died I was quite +at a loss what to do with her, so I sent her to school. Miss Carleton +promised to take complete charge of her, and I have not seen her, as I +say, for more than two years." + +"Was she a pretty girl then?" persisted Lady Ridsdale. + +"I think so. Miss Carleton said she was beautiful. She had been crying +when I saw her, so that I could hardly judge." + +"A beauty, and a wealthy heiress! We must have her at home at once, +William. We will fetch her without any delay." + +Lord Ridsdale thought some of the servants might go, that it was hardly +necessary for him to make the journey. His wife laughed at him. + +"You do not know the social importance of your ward," she said. "Before +long Miss Arleigh will be one of the queens of society, heiress of +Hanton, and of the large fortune left by her father; we shall have some +of the first men in England wooing her. She may be a duchess if she +likes." At which intelligence Lord Ridsdale opened his eyes. + +He had thought of his ward as of a tiresome responsibility, a child of +whom the charge would be very troublesome. He had taken good care of her +money, because he was an honorable man, but he had not thought much of +what his wife called her social position. As a probable duchess he felt +a great amount of respect for her. + +So Lord and Lady Ridsdale went together to bring their beautiful young +ward home. Miss Carleton was grieved to lose her. + +"She has been a docile pupil, and she is a beautiful, lovable girl. +Though I am sorry indeed to part with her, for her own sake I am glad +she is going; it is high time she saw something of the world." + +"You have had no trouble with her, I hope?" said Lord Ridsdale. "At +seventeen most young girls have begun to think of love and lovers." + +Miss Carleton prided herself on the fact that in her establishment such +matters were entirely avoided. + +"There is nothing of the kind," she replied, earnestly. "I do not +believe that Miss Arleigh has even begun to think of such things." + +"So much the worse when she does begin," thought Lady Ridsdale. + +When the preliminaries had all been discussed, and Miss Arleigh was +requested to meet her guardian, Lady Ridsdale could not control her +surprise at the sight of the girl's beauty. + +"You could not tell whether she was pretty or not?" she said afterwards +to her husband. "William you must be blind." + +She welcomed the young girl warmly. She kissed the fresh blooming face +that had all a woman's beauty with the innocence of a child. She clasped +her arms round the slender, girlish figure. + +"You must learn to love me," she said, "to look on me in the place of +the mother you have lost." + +And Marion Arleigh for the first time in her life imagined to herself +what a mother's love would be like. + +"What a strange idea to keep you so long at school!" said Lady Ridsdale. +"We must do our best to atone for it." + +"I should imagine that my guardian did not know what to do with me," she +replied, with a smile so bright and sweet that Lord Ridsdale at once +fell in love with her, as his wife had done before him. + +"Where am I going to live?" asked Marion, after they had been talking +for some time. + +"We are going to Thorpe Castle," replied Lady Ridsdale, "and I thought +you would enjoy being there with us." + +"I shall enjoy anything and everything" said Marion. "I have all my life +before me, and it will be full of glorious possibilities." + +Suddenly she paused, remembering that her life was settled and arranged; +it held no more possibilities; they were all at an end. For the first +time she felt the weight of the chain that bound her. Lady Ridsdale +wondered why the beautiful face suddenly grew pale and grave. + +Half an hour afterwards Marion came timidly to her side. + +"Lady Ridsdale," she began, in a half-hesitating manner, "of course I +never thought such happiness as the marriage of my guardian was in store +for me." + +"I suppose not," was the smiling reply. + +"I used to think that I should go away from here and be so lonely, so +sad. I have made a promise and I do not see how I can keep it." + +Lady Ridsdale was touched and flattered by the girl's confidence. + +"Tell me all about it, Marion; you shall keep the promise, if it be +possible." + +"There is a governess here, one of the assistants; her name is +Lyster--Adelaide Lyster. She has always been very kind to me; indeed I +should have been most lonely but for her, and I--I am very much attached +to her." + +"Quite natural and quite right," said Lady Ridsdale. "You wish, of +course, to make her a very handsome present?" + +"No, not quite that," said Marion, looking very uncomfortable; "it is +much worse than that. I thought I should be all alone, and I promised +that when I left Miss Carleton's she should go with me as my companion, +and should live with me." + +Lady Ridsdale looked very grave. + +"I do not think it possible, my dear," she replied. "Lord Ridsdale has +the greatest objection to that kind of thing. Will you not try if you +shall like me as a companion?" + +"I am quite sure to do that," she said; "but I made the promise. What +shall I do?" + +"You made it under a certain set of circumstances," said Lady Ridsdale +"and they no longer exist. You may, I think, in all honor, defer the +keeping of it, until you have a house of your own." + +But Marion still looked as she felt--uncomfortable. Lord Ridsdale had +gone to superintend some arrangements for their departure, leaving the +two ladies alone. + +"You think the young person will be disappointed?" said Lady Ridsdale, +kindly. + +"I am sure she will," replied Marion wincing at the words "young +person." + +"Let me see her; ask her to come here, and I will speak to her. After +all, my dear, you are not in the least to blame if you cannot keep your +promise--you must remember that." + +A few more minutes and Miss Lyster, dressed in her most becoming +costume, stood before Lady Ridsdale. + +A few words passed, and then Lady Ridsdale began; + +"My ward is in some distress, Miss Lyster. I find that she has promised +you that you shall live with her as companion." + +"She certainly did so, and I have made all arrangements for that +purpose." + +"We will hope you have not made many arrangements," said Lady Ridsdale, +suavely, "as Miss Arleigh's movements have been so very uncertain. Of +course, when Miss Arleigh is of age, and makes her own +arrangements--forms her own household--she will do as she likes. It will +be utterly impossible for her to carry out her promise in Lord +Ridsdale's house, as I am sure you will have the good sense to +perceive." + +Now, Miss Lyster was not wanting in good sense. She was taken by +surprise, as was every one else, by this sudden movement. She had had no +time to think what was best under the circumstances; the only idea that +occurred to her was how more than useless it would be to offend Lady +Ridsdale. Unless she managed to secure her good opinions there would be +no invitations to Ridsdale house. These ideas flashed through her mind +with the rapidity of lightning; then Miss Lyster, with an expression on +her face that was a most perfect mixture of reverence and humility, +said: + +"I hope Miss Arleigh will study herself and your ladyship, not me." + +"You must not look at it in that light. Miss Arleigh studies every one +most kindly, I am sure. It is simply this: that there would never be the +least objection to Miss Arleigh following out any wish or any idea that +should occur to her, but that in this case it would be impossible to +carry out her wish. Miss Arleigh will soon be surrounded by friends and +companions of her own age, and then she will not feel lonely." + +Miss Lyster's reply was a deep, silent bow. To herself she said: + +"If she thinks to take Marion from me, she is mistaken. I will never +lose my hold on her." + +Lady Ridsdale was touched by the companion's resignation to +circumstances. + +"We shall be very pleased to see you at Thorpe Castle during the +vacation, Miss Lyster," said Lady Ridsdale, "and we owe you a deep debt +of gratitude for your unfailing kindness to Miss Arleigh." + +Then the interview ended. + +Miss Lyster, after a few more words, quitted the room. + +"My dear Marion," said Lady Ridsdale, "I am almost glad that +circumstances do prevent you from carrying out this arrangement." + +"Why?" she asked simply. + +"Because I have lived in the world long enough to be a judge of +character, and your friend's face does not please me. Do not trust her +too far." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Life at Miss Carleton's and life at Thorpe Castle were very different. +Marion had not been there very long before she began to feel most +perfectly happy, and to wonder how she endured the monotonous routine of +school. + +The parting from Allan had really been terrible to her, his love had +for so long been her chief comfort and her only pleasure. She said to +herself that she should miss him most terribly; yet, if she had looked +into her own heart, she would have seen it was not so much him she +should miss as it was the novelty of his letters, his plotting, his +poetry, the stolen interviews, the hidden romance that she thought so +beautiful. + +"You will not forget me, darling?" he said, pleadingly. "You will write +to me, and you will let me sometimes see you?" She promised faithfully. +She wept over leaving him, yet in some unaccountable way her spirits +rose when she came away; she felt more free, more at ease than she had +done for a long time. + +"You must make the best use of the sunny days," said Lady Ridsdale. +"There is one advantage in having been so long at school--you will be +perfectly fresh to the world, and that is always a charm in itself. You +must give yourself up entirely to my guidance for a time." + +Marion did so most willingly. Lady Ridsdale engaged a pretty, quick +Parisian as lady's maid; she invited young ladies of her own rank and +position to stay at the castle; she obtained every possible enjoyment +and pleasure for the girl. + +This was something like. The hours seemed to fly like golden moments, +the very atmosphere was different. Here all was refinement, grace, +courtesy and kindness. Lady Ridsdale knew some delightful people, and +nothing pleased her so much as filling Thorpe Castle with visitors. + +One and all were delighted with the young heiress. Her beauty, her +brilliant accomplishments, her simplicity, her frankness of character +and sweetness of temper made her a general favorite. She soon made up +for lost time. She learned to drive, to ride, to row, to do all the +hundred and one pretty things that mark the young lady of the world. + +The gentlemen admired her exceedingly, she was so lovely, so candid. She +was never left alone. If she entered the drawing-room she was instantly +surrounded with a little court of admirers. When she wished to ride or +walk there was always some little contention as to who should accompany +her. It was very pleasant. Before she had been at Thorpe Castle long +Marion Arleigh was queen of the new world. In the midst of all her +happiness the first letter from Allan Lyster came like a thunderbolt. +She was naturally so frank, so candid, that the keeping of a secret was +most difficult to her. Her first impulse was to go to Lady Ridsdale and +tell her everything. Then she remembered that she had given a solemn +pledge of secrecy, and that she must not say one word. + +It made her very unhappy. She did not like the sense of concealment. She +did not like having a secret of so much importance that she could share +with no one. Then it struck her, too, that the tone of the letter was +not quite what she liked; it was in some vague way different from the +tone of the people she was living with. She did not like that reiterated +petition, for secrecy was weighing heavily on her heart and soul. She +waited two days before answering that letter. She said to herself that +she ought to be very pleased to receive it, and that she was pleased; +yet something weighed on her mind and shadowed the perfect happiness she +had expected to feel. + +Then she answered him, and again, for the first time in her life, she +sat with her pen in her hand, hardly knowing what to say. She had been +accustomed to writing page after page and never pausing. Since then +something seemed to have arisen in her life and to stand between them. +She did not care to tell him of the luxury of Thorpe Castle, the number +of visitors, the splendor of the entertainments. + +"That will not interest him," she said; "his life is so different." A +strange sensation of uneasiness came over her as she remembered how +different it was. So she wrote a letter full of commonplaces, and when +Allan Lyster read it he bit his lips in fierce, hot anger. + +"She is learning not to care for me already," he said. "She has never +written so coldly to me before." + +Adelaide bade him to be of good cheer. + +"I shall go to the castle at Christmas," she said, "and, rely upon it, +Allan, I will find an opportunity of sending for you. You need not be +anxious; there is no possible plea on which she can escape you now. If +you will take my advice you will not draw the chain too tightly; let her +feel that she is free." + +Allan took her advice. He did not persecute her with letters; he wrote, +and filled his pages with love and flattery so sweet it could not tease +her. + +And then when Christmas came around Adelaide filled the grand purpose of +her life--she went to Thorpe Castle. Her behavior there might have been +taken as a model. She was quite sure of Marion's affection, so she +devoted herself entirely to Lady Ridsdale; she waited upon her, she +solicited her advice, she administered to her the most delicate doses of +flattery. In short, she set herself to work to win Lady Ridsdale's +heart; but she did not succeed. + +The mistress of Thorpe Castle did not like Miss Lyster; she merely +tolerated her, and that was for Marion's sake. With Lord Ridsdale she +succeeded better. Her subtle flattery and constant attentions made some +impression on him. He told his wife that Miss Lyster was a very amiable +girl, and he hoped she would often pass her vacation at Thorpe Castle. +My lady smiled suavely, and made no reply. + +Adelaide wrote to her brother that he had no cause for fear. + +"The first morning of my arrival," she said, "Marion took me to her +room, and we had a long talk about you. Have no fear; she is quite true +to you, and I have a scheme in my mind for getting you invited to the +castle." + +One morning when Lady Ridsdale and Miss Arleigh were engaged with +visitors Adelaide asked if she might go through the picture-gallery. +Lord Ridsdale, flattered by the request, offered to go with her and show +her some of his especial favorites. + +Miss Lyster was all enthusiasm, and she was tolerably well acquainted +with the first principles of art. She made some remarks that pleased and +interested his lordship. Then she was quite silent for some minutes, +and afterward sighed deeply. Lord Ridsdale looked at her. The sigh had +been such a profound one that he could not help taking some notice of +it. + +"Are you tired?" he asked. + +"No," she replied. "You are so kind, Lord Ridsdale, that I may tell you +of what I was thinking. I was wishing that this great privilege I now +enjoy could be given to my brother instead of me." + +Lord Ridsdale looked benevolently interested, and she continued: + +"I have but one relative in the world, an only brother, and he is an +artist. He lives on his art, and I was thinking what a privilege he +would consider it of what benefit it would be to him, if he could see +those pictures." + +"Your brother is an artist! I see no reason why he should not profit by +this really beautiful collection of pictures. Would he like to visit +Thorpe Castle, do you think?" + +"You are too kind, Lord Ridsdale. I should say it would be a glimpse of +paradise to him." + +"Then by all means. Miss Lyster, write and ask him. I cannot extend the +invitation for any lengthened period, as we have so many visitors, but +if he will come for a week I shall be delighted to see him." + +She thanked him until his lordship was in a perfect glow of benevolence +to think what a kind and generous action he had performed. His wife did +not look quite so pleased when he told her; but then, my Lord Ridsdale +was not a man of great observation. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +As a result of the conversation in the picture-gallery the young artist, +in compliance with an invitation of Lord Ridsdale, came over to Thorpe +Castle. Long before he came Marion had grown sick of the deception and +weary of the chains that bound her. + +She was naturally so frank, so open, that the need for concealment +troubled her greatly. She had the warmest affection for Lady Ridsdale. +She would have liked above all things to have trusted and confided in +her. It was torture to the girl to think that she was helping others to +keep secret from her that which she ought to know. She shrank from Miss +Lyster. She no longer cared to be beguiled by long walks in the +shrubbery, to hear nothing but praises of "my brother," and the oft-told +tale of his love for her. Association with refined, honorable, +high-minded people was doing its work with her; anything approaching +deceit, falsehood or meanness revolted her. + +Those were not the best possible dispositions in which Allan could find +her. He had not reckoned upon these better influences; he had not +thought that when she came to contrast his behavior with that of others +she would see how deficient in all honor and manliness it had been; he +trusted to the glamor of love, and behold! there had been no love on her +part; nothing but gratified vanity. + +He was very pleased to go to Thorpe Castle--he thought nothing would +advance his cause more than for her to meet him among her own class, +meet him as her equal in some respects, if not in all. + +"I am so happy," said Adelaide Lyster to her on the morning of the day +on which he was expected. "I am so very happy, Marion, and you"-- + +But no answering enthusiasm shone in Miss Arleigh's face, and Adelaide +noticed it. + +"Allan will enjoy himself so much here," she continued. "Ah! Marion, the +sight of you will be like sunshine to flowers to him." + +But Miss Arleigh did not look delighted; she was thinking more of how +she could keep such a secret from her good, kind guardians than of any +pleasure in meeting her lover. + +He came; she lingered by Lady Ridsdale's side during his reception. The +thought did certainly pass through Lord Ridsdale's mind that Allan +Lyster was very young and very handsome to be drawing-master of a young +ladies' school; but not for the world would he have breathed such a +thought to any one living, lest it should injure him. Lord Ridsdale was +courtesy itself to his young guest. He pointed out to him the finest +pictures; he took him over the woods to show him where the most +picturesque scenery lay; he took him to the library and introduced to +his notice some of the finest works of art. + +When they came to compare notes Lord and Lady Ridsdale quite disagreed +over Allan. The gentleman liked him, he thought him clever, gifted and +intellectual; Lady Ridsdale, with the keener sense belonging to women, +read his character more clearly. + +"He is not true," she said. "His eyes have never once met mine with a +frank, clear look; either he has something to conceal, or his natural +disposition is anything but candid." + +Lady Ridsdale did not like him, but with some of the visitors at Thorpe +Castle he was very popular. His talents were appreciated and admired. +One gentleman, Sir Thomas Ashburnham, ordered a picture from him; +another purchased a series of sketches; and a third invited him to a +grand old castle in the North where he could make himself familiar with +some of the finest rugged scenery in Scotland. + +So that in one sense his visit was a complete success. He increased his +social importance; he made friends who would be of great value to him; +but, so far as Marion was concerned, it was a complete, dead failure. He +had expected long interviews with her; he had thought of long and +pleasant hours in the grounds; he had pictured to himself how she would +renew her vows of fidelity to him; how she would listen, as she had done +before, to his love-making, and perhaps even seem fonder to him than she +had ever done before. + +Instead of which she certainly shrank from him. Never once during the +whole of his stay at Thorpe Castle did he contrive to get one +tete-a-tete with her. If he wrote a little note asking her to meet him +in the shrubbery or the grounds, or to give him five minutes in the +conservatory, her answer was always that she was engaged. If he rose +earlier than usual, hoping to meet her in the breakfast-room, she +invariably remained later than usual upstairs. He could not, contrive as +he would, obtain five minutes with her. In vain he asked his sister to +manage an interview for him; Marion seemed instinctively aware of what +she wanted. When Miss Lyster suggested a walk in the garden, Marion, +knowing that her brother would be sure to appear, declined it. Her only +safeguard lay in continually seeking Lady Ridsdale's society. + +"The dear child is so warmly attached to me!" said the mistress of +Thorpe Castle to her husband. "It is really wonderful." + +While Allan and his sister began to feel, with something of baffled +rage, that their power over her was growing less. + +"Why do you never consent to see my brother?" asked Adelaide one day, +when Allan had complained most bitterly to her. + +"Because I have such great respect for my guardians," she answered. "I +cannot bear anything clandestine or underhand beneath their roof." + +A reply that, strange to say, silenced Miss Lyster. Brother and sister +held a council of war, and it was decided that all deference must be +paid to her humor. + +"Content yourself, brother, with reminding her of her promise to marry +you when she comes of age, but do no more. Do not seek an interview with +her; let her imagine herself quite free." + +But the finishing stroke was given one day during lunch, when the +conversation turned upon the elopement of a young lady in the +neighborhood. Lady Ridsdale expressed great fears for her future. + +"He is not a gentleman," she said. "No true gentleman would ever try to +persuade any girl to a clandestine engagement." + +She saw Marion open her eyes and look at her in amazement. + +"I am quite right, my dear," she said. "You may depend upon it, a man +who would persuade any girl to engage herself to him unknown to her +friends is not only no gentleman, but he is not even an honest man." + +Marion Arleigh's beautiful face flushed, then grew deadly pale; almost +involuntarily she looked at Allan, but he did not raise his eyes to meet +hers. + +Those words were the death-blow to her love, or what she called her +love--"Not even an honest man." This hero of her romance, this artist +whom she was to ennoble by her love, was not even an honest man. She +shuddered and grew faint at the thought. + +Again she was present when Lady Ridsdale was talking of the Lysters to +her husband. She praised Allan's artistic qualities, she admired his +talents, but she owned frankly that she did not like him, that she did +not think him true. + +Marion Arleigh was very much struck with this remark. Then she began to +think over all she knew of the Lysters. She saw all in the clear light +of reason, not in the glamor of love, and her judgment condemned them +both. The sister had been false to her trust; she had betrayed the youth +and innocence of the pupil entrusted to her, and he--she summed up the +evil he had done her in these few words--he was not true. + +She decided upon what to do. She would never be false to them; all her +life long she would do her best to advance Allan's interest; but she +must release herself from the tie that became unbearable to her. + +He, at this difficult juncture of affairs, behaved with great tact. He +took his sister's advice, and would not intrude upon her. He sought no +more interviews; he wrote no more notes. + +"He sees," thought Marion, "that my eyes are open, and he wisely intends +to let me go free. He sees that I understand he has acted dishonorably +in taking advantage of my youth, and he is, perhaps, sorry for it." + +So, in proportion as he ceased to importune her, she grew kinder to him. +She talked to him about his pictures, and the progress he was making. He +showed her sketches of pictures that he intended to paint, but the word +love was never mentioned. + +The time came now for Miss Lyster to return to her school duties. She +was not affected, but she felt the deepest sorrow. It was not pleasant +to leave such a home as Thorpe Castle for the drudgery of a school. But +she could see plainly if that visit was to be renewed she must go, and +make no sign. + +Brother and sister were profuse in their thanks; they expressed the +deepest gratitude to Lord and Lady Ridsdale; they professed themselves +overcome with benefits. Lord Ridsdale received all these thanks with +great complacency, feeling that he deserved them. Lady Ridsdale's +impression was: + +"I am glad they are gone, though I do not like to interfere in Marion's +affairs. I shall certainly advise her to drop that acquaintance as soon +as she can." + +Allan bade Marion "good-bye." His last words to her were: + +"I shall not seek to correspond with you clandestinely--nothing but the +fervor of my love can possibly excuse my having met you as I did. I +loved you, so I forgot prudence, ceremony, etiquette, and all. But, +Marion, you will remember that you are my promised wife." + +She shrank back at the words. It was the greatest relief to her when +they went; it was as though some dark, brooding presence was removed +from the castle. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +More than once was Marion Arleigh tempted to break that solemn promise, +and tell all to Lady Ridsdale. She longed to do so--the fact of being +blamed would not prevent her, she felt that she deserved it--but she was +one of those who are most scrupulous in keeping a promise once given. Of +one thing she was quite resolved--she would write to Allan and tell him +this clandestine engagement must come to an end. She could not bear the +burden of the secret any longer, neither could she possibly fulfil the +contract. She found on examining her own heart that she did not love +him, and a marriage without love was absurd. + +She told him she would always be his friend, that she should look upon +his advancement in life as her especial care; she should always remember +him, with the most grateful affection; but as for love, all notion of +it must be considered at an end. And, she wrote still further, she could +not blame herself for this, because she felt that her youth and +inexperience excused her. She should always remember the claim that +Adelaide and himself had upon her, and she was always his sincerely +affectionate friend, Marion Arleigh. + +Allan Lyster was not altogether surprised at the receipt of this letter; +he had anticipated some such blow. He went with it at once to his friend +and counsellor, his sister. + +"It seems to me," he said, "that there is an end of the whole +business--a dead failure." + +"Nothing of the kind," she replied. "Now you see the value of my advice +over documentary evidence; these letters of yours are a fortune in +themselves." + +"I do not see it," he replied, gloomily. + +"Men are not gifted with much foresight," said Adelaide Lyster. "Let us +consider. She has pledged her word, over and over again in those +letters, to marry you." + +"She has done so," he replied. + +"Then you hold a position from which nothing can dislodge you. If you +were to go over and insist on her promise being carried out, it would be +useless; not only would she refuse, but Lord and Lady Ridsdale would +take her part against you, and all would be lost. Evidently that plan +would be quite useless." + +"Yes, there could result nothing save evil from such an attempt," he +replied. + +"Take my advice, Allan. Now answer me honestly, what is it that you hope +to make out of this? Do you care very much for the girl herself?" + +"I like her," was the hesitating answer; "but I must confess I care more +for money than anything else." + +"Then I will teach you how to make money of this affair. Write tomorrow, +tell her you have received her letter, but that you must always love +her, and that you shall hold her to her promise of being your wife. The +chances are that she will not answer that letter, and that for a time +there will be silence between you. Then," she continued, "my advice to +you is this: wait until she marries. You cannot marry her now, she will +never be willing, but you can make a very decent fortune out of her when +she is married." + +"In what way?" he asked. + +"Hold those letters as a rod over her, threaten to bring an action +against her--she will never know that such an action cannot stand; or if +that does not do, threaten to show them to her husband. Rather than let +him know, rather than let Lord and Lady Ridsdale know, she will give you +thousands of pounds." + +Allan Lyster for one-half moment shrank from his sister. + +"It seems so very bad," he said. + +"Not at all. She will have more money than she can count; you have a +right to some of it. Of course, you will never really tell, but why not +make what you can out of it? She would not even miss a thousand a year +and see what one thousand alone would do for you." + +So it was settled--the fiendish plan that was to torture an innocent +woman until she was driven to shame and almost death. He wrote the +letter. Marion received it with silent disdain; she had told him that it +must all be at an end, and it should be so. + +Then, as Adelaide had wisely forseen, there fell silence between them. +Adelaide wrote at intervals; in one letter she said: + +"Allan has told me what passed between you." She made no further +comment; after a time she ceased even to mention his name in her +letters, and then Marion believed herself, in all honesty, free. She did +not forget her promise; she interested herself greatly in procuring +commissions for Allan Lyster; she persuaded Lord Ridsdale to order +several pictures from him; she sent very handsome presents to Adelaide, +and thanked Heaven that never again while she lived would she have a +secret. + +How relieved, how happy she felt! Life was not the same to her, now that +this terrible burden was removed. She asked herself how she ever could +have been so blind and mad as to believe the feeling she entertained for +Allan Lyster was love. + +A year passed, and, except for the favors she conferred upon him, the +orders that she had obtained for him, no news came to Marion of the man +who had been her lover. How was she to know that the web was weaving +slowly around her? It was silence like that of a tiger falling back for +a spring. + +Then the great event of her life came to Marion Arleigh. She fell in +love, and this time it was real, genuine and true. Lady Ridsdale +insisted on her going to London for the season. + +It was high time, she said, that Miss Arleigh, the heiress of Hanton, +was presented at court, and made her debut in the great world. + +So they went to London, and Marion, by her wonderful beauty and grace, +created a great sensation there; Heiress of Hanton, one of the prettiest +estates in England, she had plenty of lovers; her appearance was the +most decided success, just as Lady Ridsdale had foreseen that it would +be. + +Then came my Lord Atherton, one of the proudest and handsomest men in +England, the owner of an immense property and most noble name. He had +been abroad for some years, but returned to London, and was considered +one of the most eligible and accomplished men of the day. Many were the +speculations as to whom he would marry--as to who would win the great +matrimonial prize. + +The wonder and speculations were soon at an end. Lord Atherton saw Miss +Arleigh and fell in love with her at once. Not for her money--he was +rich enough to dispense with wealth in a wife; not for money, but for +her wonderful beauty and simple, unaffected grace. + +He was charmed with her; the candor, the purity, the brightness of her +disposition enchanted him. + +"Her lips seemed to be doubly lovely," he said one day to Lady Ridsdale, +"because they have not, in my opinion, ever uttered one false word." + +Marion was equally enchanted; there was no one so great or so good as +Lord Atherton. The heroes she had read of faded into insignificance +before him. He was so generous, so noble, so loyal, so truthful in every +way, such a perfect gentleman, and no mean scholar. It was something to +win the love of such a man, it was something to love him. + +Now she understood this was true love, the very remembrance of her +infatuation over Allan Lyster dyed her beautiful faca crimson. Ah, how +she thanked Heaven that she was free, how utterly wretched she would +have been for her whole life long had she been beguiled into marrying +him! + +She loved Lord Atherton with her whole heart, her womanly nature did him +full homage. She appreciated his noble qualities, she was happy in his +love as it was possible for a woman to be. + +Yet, after he had asked her to be his wife, there came over her a great +longing to tell him the story of her engagement to Allan Lyster. + +"He ought to know it," she said, "though all is at end now; he ought to +know it, there should be no secrets between us." + +But she dare not tell him. One thing that restrained her was the promise +she had given never to mention it, but the reason above all others was +she knew his fastidious sense of honor so well that she was afraid he +would not love her when he knew how lightly she had once before given +her love. + +So she committed that greatest of all errors, she engaged herself to +marry Lord Atherton without telling him of her acquaintance with the +young artist. Then she was so happy for a time that she forgot the whole +matter; she was so happy that she ceased to remember there had ever been +anything deserving blame in her life. + +The season over, they returned to Thorpe Castle, and Lord Atherton soon +followed to pay them a long visit. He told them quite frankly that it +was perfectly useless to delay the wedding, that he could not live out +of Marion's presence, therefore the sooner the arrangements were made +the better. + +That was perhaps the happiest time in Marion's life. Lady Ridsdale, +delighted at the excellent match she was about to make, was in the +highest spirits. Preparations were begun for the trousseau. Lord +Atherton ordered that his mansion, Leigh Hall, should be entirely +refurnished. Every luxury, every splendor, every magnificence, was +prepared for the bride; presents were lavished upon her from all sides; +congratulations and good wishes were showered on her. + +She was perhaps at that time the happiest girl in the world. She had +almost forgotten that buried romance of her school days. When she +remembered Allan, it was only with an earnest desire to help him. To +Adelaide Lyster she sent some very superb presents, telling her frankly +of her approaching marriage, and telling her she would always be most +welcome at Leigh Hall. + +If she had been more worldly-wise, poor child, she would have known that +Adelaide's silence meant mischief; but she was not married with any +presentiment of the sorrow that was to fall so heavily upon her and when +she was married she declared herself to be happier than any one had ever +been in this world yet. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +An agreement had been made between them that some little time should +elapse before Allan put his long-cherished scheme into execution. +Nothing, Adelaide assured him, could have answered his purpose better +than Marion's marriage with the wealthy Lord Atherton. + +"You will be able to get what you like from her, Allan. I am told she +worships her husband. Those letters will be worth a fortune, after all. +Now see what it is to have a clever sister." + +They allowed her, poor child, some short dream of happiness; she was +lulled into perfect security when the blow fell. As Lady Atherton of +Leigh her position was second to none. Her husband owned half the +county; she was queen of the whole of it. She was beloved, popular and +admired; her husband worshiped her; her friends held her in highest +honor and esteem. To Lord and Lady Ridsdale she had grown dear as a +child of their own. She was at the height of human felicity; there was +nothing on earth left for her to desire. Sometimes, when she heard of +the misery resulting from very unequal or loveless marriages, she would +raise her beautiful face to heaven and thank God that she had been +preserved from the snares of her youth. She heard quite accidentally +from some one, who had been purchasing a picture, that Allan Lyster was +abroad, and she decided, in her own most generous mind, that when he +returned he should have an order that would please him. But he did not +return, and from her old friend, Adelaide, she had heard no single word +since her marriage. + +There were great rejoicings when her little son and heir was born; the +only fear was lest the child should be absolutely killed by the great +amount of affection and caresses heaped upon it. Lord Atherton's +happiness was complete, Lord and Lady Ridsdale were delighted with the +beautiful princely boy, and his mother absolutely worshiped him. + +It was when the little heir of Leigh was about a year old that the blow +fell on his beautiful mother. She was seated one morning in her +luxurious dressing-room, a scene of splendid confusion and brilliant +coloring that would have enchanted an artist, herself more lovely than +ever, for the promise of her girlhood had developed into magnificent +womanhood. Jewels of great value lay on the toilet-table, costly dresses +were lying about. The nurse had just been in with baby, and nothing +would please baby but playing with his mamma's beautiful golden-brown +hair. Of course his wish must be gratified. The diamond arrow that +fastened the heavy coils was withdrawn, and the glorious wealth of hair, +in all its shining abundance, fell in picturesque disorder. Then Lord +Atherton entered to ask his wife some question about the day's +proceedings, and he told her she looked so lovely he would not let the +beautiful hair be touched. My lord withdrew, leaving his wife's face +flushed with pleasure at his praises. Then came the maid, and she +brought in her hands some letters that had just arrived. Lady Atherton +laid them down carelessly; there was nothing, she thought, that could +possibly interest her. + +Presently she took up the letters, and then all her indifference +vanished, the love light died from her eyes, the smile from her lips. +She knew the handwriting. One of those notes was from Allan Lyster. + +She hastily opened it, and, as she read, all the color faded from her +sweet face. The folly and sin of her ignorant girlhood were finding her +out. + +"I have but just returned from abroad," he wrote, "where I have been for +more than two years, and I am completely overwhelmed by the intelligence +that awaited me. You are married, Marion! You, who promised so +faithfully to be my wife. You, whose letters to me contain that promise +given over and over again. It is too late to ask what this treachery +means. I have by me the letter you wrote, asking for your freedom, and I +have the copy of mine absolutely refusing it. I told you then that I +should hold you to your promise, and you have disregarded my words. + +"Marion, I must have compensation. It is useless talking to one like you +of love. You throw aside the poor artist for the rich lord. You must pay +me in your own coin, in what you value most--money. You have wronged me +as your promised husband. I had some right to your fortune, as your +duped and deserted lover. That right still remains. I claim some portion +of what ought to have been all mine. + +"I am in immediate and urgent want of a thousand pounds. That is very +little for one who ought, as your husband, to be at this moment the +master of Hanton Hall and its rich domain. However, for a time, that +will content me; when I want another I will come to you for it. I will +not call at your house; you can send me a check, bank note, or what you +will. + +"I do not wish to seem harsh, but it is better to tell you at once that +if you refuse any money request of mine at any time I shall immediately +commence proceedings against you. I shall bring an action for breach of +promise of marriage, and all England will cry shame on the false, +mercenary woman who abandoned a poor lover, to whom her troth was +plighted, in order to marry a rich lord. All England shall despise you. +For your child's sake, I counsel you to avoid an exposure." + +She read those terrible words over and over again. Suddenly the whole +plot grew clear to her. It was for this they had schemed and plotted. +Not for love of her, but to make money out of her, to trade upon her +weakness and folly, stain her character, her fair name, her happiness, +the love of her husband and child, the esteem of her friends. All lay in +their hands. They could, if they would, make her name, that noble name +which her husband bore so proudly, a subject of jest all over the world. + +She could fancy the papers, their paragraphs, their remarks, their +comments. She could almost see the heading: + +"Action for Breach of Promise against Lady Atherton." How the Radicals, +who hated her husband for his politics, would rejoice! Even in the years +to come, when her child grew to man's estate, it would be as a black +mark against him that his mother had been the subject of such vulgar +jest. Her husband would never bear it. He would leave her, she was sure. +Ah! better pay a thousand pounds over and over again than go through all +this. + +Yet it seemed a large sum; not that she cared for it, but how could she +get it without her husband's knowledge? By her own wish, all money +affairs had been left in his hands; he would wonder when he looked at +her check book why she had drawn so large a sum; better write out checks +of a hundred pounds each. + +She did so, and sent them. Just as she was folding the paper that +enclosed them a grand inspiration came to her--an impulse to go to her +husband and tell him all. + +He would find some means of saving her, she was quite sure of that. Then +the more cowardly, the weaker part of her nature, rose in rebellion. She +dared not, for, if she did, he would never love her again. So she sent +the thousand pounds, and then there was an interval of peace. Yet not +peace for her; the sword was suspended over her head, and any moment it +might fall. She grew thin, restless and nervous; her husband and all her +friends wondered what ailed her; her manner changed, even her beautiful +face seemed to grow restless and pale. + +Then came the demand for a second thousand. Having tasted the luxury of +spending what he liked and living without work, Allan Lyster was +entranced with his triumph. He had taken rooms in a very expensive and +fashionable locality, he bought a horse, and set up a private cab, with +a smart little tiger. He entered one of the fashionable clubs, and +people began to say that he had had money left him. If any one of the +gentlemen who met him and touched his hand, had but known that he was +trading on a woman's secret, they would have thrashed him with less +remorse of conscience than if they were punishing a mad dog. + +Then the third thousand was asked for, and Lady Atherton was at a loss +where or how to get it; her husband had already rallied her about the +large sums of money she spent, and she was obliged to have recourse to +means she disliked for procuring it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +There came a day when Lady Atherton could no longer meet the demands +made upon her; the estate near Hanton was to be sold, and her husband +wished to purchase it. + +"A little economy for one year," he said to his wife, "and we shall do +it easily. You will not mind being careful for one year, Marion?" + +She told him, what was perfectly true, that she would deprive herself of +anything on earth for his sake. He laughed. + +"There will not be much privation needed, for one who has spent three +thousand pounds in six months. I shall have to give my little wife some +lessons in economy." + +It was hard, for on her own self she had not spent one shilling. Another +time she was greatly distressed what to say--her husband complained of +her dress. + +"Marion," he said, "it seems absurd to say, but, my darling, you are +positively shabby--that is, for one in your position. How is it?" + +She did not tell him that she could not purchase more dresses, or, +rather, would not until Madame Elise was paid. Her face flushed, and +Lord Atherton smiled. + +"You need not carry economy too far," he said; "it is very good of you +to take so great an interest in me, Marion, but you must not go to these +extremes. You had five hundred pounds yesterday; go and get some pretty, +elegant dresses suitable for Lady Atherton." + +She could not tell him that she had sent that all away, and had not a +shilling left. There were times when Marion, Lady Atherton, heiress of +Hanton, mistress of one of the finest fortunes in England, wife of one +of the richest men--when she hardly knew where to turn for money; the +poorest beggar in the street was more at ease. + +In the meantime, Allan Lyster, by his successful trading on a woman's +secret, was leading a life of complete and perfect luxury. He spared no +expense; he gambled, betted, played at every game of chance; he was well +known at Tattersall's in all the green rooms; he played to perfection +the part of a fast man about town, while the woman he had pretended to +love was wearing her life away in mortification and suspense. + +At last, what she had long foreseen came to pass. Allan wrote to her for +money when she was utterly unable to get it. She was compelled to borrow +it from Lord Ridsdale. He lent it to her with a smile, telling her at +the same time, with real gravity in his voice, that he hoped she was +keeping no secret from her husband. + +So the time came when she could no longer keep pace with his +extravagance, when she was compelled to refuse his request. He had lost +some money in a bet over some horses. He told her that he must have it, +and she assured him that it was impossible. Then the blow fell. He wrote +to say that if the money were not sent him by Thursday he should at once +commence an action against her. + +"The damages that I shall win," he wrote, "will be so large that I shall +not want to ask you for more." + +She was terrified almost out of her senses. To many women it would have +occurred to sell or pledge their jewels, to change diamonds for paste. +She thought of none of these things. Lord Ridsdale had gone to Paris, +she could not ask him, and Lady Atherton was at her wits' end. + +She learned, however, that she was too fearful, that he was trading on +her alarm, that he could not bring an action against her, because at the +time that promise had been given she was a ward and not of age. She +wrote and told him that his threat was in vain. + +It was the answer to that question that drove her from home a fugitive, +that exiled her from all she loved, that drove her mad with terror. + +He wrote to her and admitted that her argument was perfectly just, that +perhaps in strict legal bounds he could not maintain such an action; +but the shame and exposure for her, he told her, would be none the less. + +"If you persist in your refusal," he wrote, "I shall go at once to Lord +Atherton. I will show him those letters, and ask him in justice to give +me some share of the fortune he has deprived me of. I shall read every +word to him, and tell him all that took place; he may judge between us." + +The letter fell from her nerveless hands, and Marion, Lady Atherton, +fell on her knees with a cry of despair. She was powerless to help +herself, she could do nothing, she could get no more money; and even if +she could of what avail? If she sent this, in a few weeks or months at +the farthest, he would renew his demand, and she could not do more. The +sword must fall, as well now as in a year's time; besides, the suspense +was killing her. The long strain upon her nerves began to tell at last. +She was fast, losing her health and strength; she could not eat nor +sleep; she was as one beside herself; frightful dreams, dread that knew +no words, fear that could not be destroyed, pursued her. She grew so +pale, so thin, so nervous, that Lord Atherton was alarmed about her. + +If she had loved her husband less her despair would not have been so +great. Sooner than he should read those ill-considered words--those +protestations of love that made her face flush with flame--sooner than +he should read those she would die any death. For it had come to that; +she looked for death to save her. She felt powerless in the hands of a +villain who would never cease to persecute her. + +She sent no answer to the letter. What could she say? She made one or +two despairing efforts to get the money, found it impossible, then gave +herself up for lost. + +She did not write, but there came another note from him saying that +unless he heard from her that the money was coming he would wait upon +her husband on Friday morning and tell him all. + +There was no further respite for her--the sword had fallen--she could +not live and face it; she could not live knowing that her husband was to +read those words of her folly, that he was to know all the deceit, the +clandestine correspondence that weighed now so bear it. + +"I shall never look in his face again," she said to herself. "I could +never bear that he should see me after he knows that." + +She weighed it well in her mind. She looked at it in every way, but the +more she thought of it the more impossible it seemed. She could not +bring disgrace on her husband and live. She could not doom her only +child to sorrow and shame, yet live. She could not bear the ignominy of +the exposure. She, who had been so proud of her fair fame, of her +spotless name, her high reputation. It was not possible. She could not +bear it. Her hands trembled. All the strength seemed to leave her. She +fell half-fainting--moaning with white lips that she could not bear it +and live. + +Must she die? Must she part with the sweet, warm life that filled her +veins? Must she seek death because she could no longer live? + +No, she dare not. + +"I cannot live and I dare not die," she moaned. "I am utterly wretched, +utterly hopeless and miserable. Life and death alike are full of terrors +for me." + +What should she do? Through the long, burning hours, through the long, +dreary nights, she asked herself that question--What should she do? + +Her husband, alarmed at her white face and altered manner, talked of +summoning a physician to her. Her friends advised change of air, but +there was no human help for her. + +Then, when mind and brain alike were overdone, when the strained nerves +gave way, when the fever of fear and suspense rose to its height, she +thought of flight. That was the only recourse left to her--flight! Then +she would escape the terrors of death and the horror of life. Flight was +the only resource left to her. The poor, bewildered mind, groping so +darkly, fixed on this one idea. She would not kill herself. That would +deprive her of all hope in another world. She dare not live her present +life, but flight would save her. + +People would only think she was mad for running away, and surely when +Allan Lyster saw what he had done he would relent and persecute her no +more. + +She was not herself when she stole so quietly from home and went +disguised to the station. She was half delirious with fear and dread; +her brain whirled, her heart beat, every moment she dreaded to see Allan +Lyster pursuing her. Her only idea was to get away from him, safe in +some refuge where he could not find her. + +She little dreamed that in the hurry of her flight she had dropped Allan +Lyster's letter--the letter in which he threatened to tell her +husband--the letter which drove her mad, and sent her from home. She had +intended to destroy it; she believed she had done so; but the fact was, +it had fallen from her hands on the floor, and she never thought of it +again. Her maid, thinking it might be of consequence, picked it up and +laid it on the mantelshelf. Only God knows what would have become of +Lady Atherton but for this oversight. + +Her absence was not discovered until evening, when it was time to dress +for dinner; then the maid could not find her. No notice was taken of her +absence at first; they thought she had gone out and had been detained; +but when midnight arrived, and there was still no news of her, Lord +Atherton became alarmed. He went into her dressing-room, and there his +eyes fell upon the letter. He opened and read it, bewildered by its +contents. At first he did not understand it, then he began to see what +it meant. + +Gradually the meaning grew clear to him. This villain was trading upon +some secret of poor Marion, and she in fear and trembling had fled. He +felt sure of it, and from that conviction he took his precautions. + +He said nothing to the servants, except that Lady Atherton had gone away +for a few days and would not return just yet. "I shall find her," he +thought, "before the scandal gets known." Seeing their lord perfectly +cool and unconcerned, the servants made sure all was right. No one in +the wide world knew the true story of Lady Atherton's flight except her +husband. + +"I will find her," he said to himself; "but before I even begin to look +for her I will settle my account with the sneaking villain known as +Allan Lyster." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +In his luxurious drawing-room Allan Lyster sat alone. He was engaged to +dine with a party of guardsmen at Richmond, but he hardly felt in +spirits to go. This was Thursday; never dreaming that Lady Atherton +would fail him, he had faithfully promised to pay his bet on Friday. It +was now Thursday evening, and he had heard nothing from her. He had not +the least intention of really betraying her to her husband--he knew the +character of an English gentleman too well for that. He knew that if +Lord Atherton had but the least suspicion of the vilely treacherous way +in which he had preyed upon his innocent wife, he would, in all +probability, thrash him within an inch of his life. + +He was far from being comfortable, and wished that he had taken +Adelaide's advice and had gone less rashly to work--had been content +with less. After all, he felt compelled to own that he had been rather +hard upon her. + +"Let her send this time," he said to himself, "and I will not trouble +her again just yet." + +He was seated in a luxurious lounging chair, on the table by his side +was a bottle of finest Cognac, and he was enjoying the flavor of a very +fine cigar. Notwithstanding all these comforts, Allan Lyster was not +happy. + +"I cannot think," he said to himself, "why she does not send." + +At that moment he heard a sharp ring at the door bell. + +"That is the messenger," he said to himself, triumphantly, "and it is +quite time, too." + +But it was a man's heavy footstep that mounted the stairs, and when +Allan Lyster looked anxiously at the door, he was astonished to see Lord +Atherton enter, carrying a thick riding whip in his hand. + +He sprang obsequiously from his chair. + +"I am delighted to see you, my lord," he began, but one look at that +white, stern face froze the words on his lips. Lord Atherton waved his +hand. + +"I want those letters, sir!" he cried, in a voice of thunder--"those +letters that you have, holding as a sword over the head of my wife!" + +"What if I refuse to give them?" replied Allan. + +"Then I shall take them from you. I have read this precious epistle, in +which you threaten to show them to me. Now bring them here." + +"I am not accustomed, my lord, to this treatment." + +Lord Atherton's face flushed, his eyes seemed to flame fire. + +"Not a word; bring them to me! You have traded for the last time upon a +woman's weakness and fears. I will read the letters, then I will tell +you what I think of you." + +"Better tell your wife," sneered the other, "what you think of her." + +"My wife is a lady," was the quiet reply--"a lady for whom I have the +greatest honor, respect and esteem. Your lips simply sully her name, and +I refuse to hear it from you." + +"She did not always think so," was the sullen reply. "If you had not +stepped in and robbed me, she would have been my wife now." + +The white anger of that face, and the convulsive movement of the hand +that held the heavy whip, might have warned him. + +"I want those letters," repeated Lord Atherton; "bring them to me at +once. Remember, they are useless to you; you will never force one mere +farthing from Lady Atherton--your keeping them will be useless." + +"It will be more to my interest to keep them," sneered Allan Lyster; +"they are interesting documents, and I can show them to those who will +not judge the matter in so onesided a manner as your lordship." + +"You may publish them, if you please," said Lord Atherton, "but I will +take care that every line in them brands you with red hot shame. You +shall publish them, and I will make all England ring with the story of +your infamy. I will make every honest man loathe you." + +"You cannot," said Allan Lyster. + +"I can. Englishmen like fair play. I will tell all England how you took +advantage of a girl's youth and inexperience, above all, of the fact of +her being an orphan, to beguile her into making you a promise of +marriage, and how since you have traded, you coward, on her weakness, on +her love for her husband, on the best part of her nature; and I will +tell my story so honestly, so well, that every honest man shall hate +you. You may have frightened my poor wife with shadows, you cannot so +frighten me. I tell you, and I am speaking truthfully, that I do not +care if you print her letters and every man, woman and child read them; +they shall read my vindication of her and my denunciation of you." + +"You see, Lord Atherton, she did promise to marry me, and I did reckon +upon her fortune. What will you give me for the letters?" + +"Nothing. If, after reading them, I find you really received, from the +pure and noble lady who is now my wife, a promise of marriage, I will +give you some compensation. I will give you two thousand pounds, +although I know that promise to have been drawn from her by fraud, +treachery and cunning." + +Allan Lyster began to see, in his own phrase, that the game was up. He +unlocked the door of a little cabinet, and took from it a bundle of +papers. He gave them to Lord Atherton, who, still standing, read them +word for word. + +"It is as I thought," he said, when he came to the last. "It is the +worst case of fraud, deception and cowardice I have ever met. Nothing +could be more mean, more dishonorable, more revolting. Still, as the +promise is true, I will give you a check for two thousand pounds when +you have destroyed them." + +Very slowly and deliberately Allan Lyster tore the letters into the +smallest shreds, until they all were destroyed, then Lord Atherton, +taking a check book from his pocket, wrote him out a check for two +thousand pounds. + +Allan took it sullenly enough. + +"If I had my rights," he said, "I should have more than that every +quarter." + +"That is as it may be," said Lord Atherton, quietly. "You may have +deceived a very young and inexperienced girl; but you would not, +perhaps, have been so successful when that same girl was able to compare +you with others. Now I have paid you; remember, I do not seek to +purchase your silence. I leave it entirely to your own option whether +you tell your story or not. I know that you cannot brand yourself with +deeper disgrace and shame than by making public your share in this +transaction." + +Allan Lyster murmured some insolent words which his lordship did not +choose to hear. He straightened the lash of his whip. + +"Now," he continued, blandly, "I am going to give you a lesson. I am +going to teach you several things. The first is to respect the trusts +that parents and governesses place in you when they confide young girls +to you for lessons; the second, is to respect women, and not, like a +vile, mean coward, to trade upon their secrets; and the third lesson I +wish to give you is to make you an honest man, to teach you to live on +your own earnings, and not on the price of a woman's tears. This is how +I would enforce my lesson." + +He raised that strong right arm of his and rained down heavy blows on +the cowardly traitor who had taken a woman's money as the price of his +honor and manhood. His face never for one moment lost its calm; but the +strong arm did its work, until the coward whined for pity. Then Lord +Atherton broke his whip in two and flung it on the floor. + +"I should not like to touch even a dog with it," he said, "after it has +touched you." + +He stood still for some moments to see if the coward would make any +effort to rise and revenge himself; but the man who had been content to +live on a woman's misery thought the safest plan was to lie still on the +floor. + +"I shall be happy to repeat my lesson," said his lordship, calmly, "if +you require it again." + +Allan Lyster made no reply, and Lord Atherton walked away. When he was +quite gone, and the last sound of his footsteps died away, he rose--he +shook his fist in impotent wrath: + +"Curse him!" he cried. "It shall go hard with me but I will be equal +with him yet!" + +He had played his last card and lost; henceforward there was nothing for +him but hard work and dishonor. He knew that what Lord Atherton had said +was true; if any one knew what he had done, nothing but hatred and +disgust would be his portion. + +Lord Atherton went at once to Scotland Yard and asked for a detective. +He showed him the portrait of his wife, told him she had left home under +a false impression, and that he would give him fifty pounds if he could +trace her. + +For a week all effort was in vain, they could hear nothing of her; then +one morning Lord Atherton saw an advertisement in the "Times," and he +said to himself that the lost was found. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +ADVERTISEMENT.--On Thursday evening last a lady arrived at the little +village of Redcliffe, and took lodgings there. The same evening she fell +ill of brain fever, and now is in danger of death. She is a stranger to +all in the village, and no clue as to her name or friends can be found. +Any one who has a missing relative or friend is requested to attend to +this advertisement. + +Then followed a description of the lady and of the dress she wore. Lord +Atherton felt sure that it was his lost wife. + +Without saying one word, he went at once to Redcliffe; he went to the +address given and was referred to Mrs. Hirste's. + +He went there, and said he had every reason to believe the lady +mentioned in the advertisement was his wife. "She left home," he said, +"unknown to us, delirious, without doubt, at the time, and quite unable +to account for her own action." + +They took him into the room where she lay; he looked at the flushed face +and shining eyes. + +"It is my wife," he said, quietly. "Thank God, I have found her." + +But Marion did not know him; her hot lips murmured continually of Allan, +who was persecuting her, and of her husband whom she loved so dearly, +but who would never be willing to see her again. + +"How she must have suffered!" he said to himself. Then he telegraphed to +London for a physician and a nurse. They were not long in coming; by +that time the whole village was in a state of excitement and +consternation. + +"She will recover, I have every reason to believe," said the doctor, +"but she has evidently suffered long and terribly. Some domestic +trouble, my lord, I suppose, that has preyed upon her?" + +"Yes," replied Lord Atherton, "a domestic trouble that she has been +foolish enough to keep to herself and which had preyed on her mind." + +She had the best of care, the kindest and most constant attention, yet +it was some time before she opened her eyes to the ordinary affairs of +this life. + +Lord Atherton never forgot the hour--he was sitting by her bedside. He +had barely left her since her illness began, and suddenly he heard the +sound of a low, faint sigh. + +He looked eagerly into the worn, sweet face--once more the light of +reason shone in those lovely eyes. + +"Marion," he said, gently. + +She gave one half-frightened glance at him, then buried her face in her +hands with a moan. + +"My sweet wife," he said, "do not be afraid. I know all about it, +darling. I have made that villain destroy those letters. You need fear +no more." + +"And you are not cross?" she whispered. + +"Not with you, my poor child; always trust me, Marion. I love you better +than any one else in the world could love you. I am afraid even that I +love your faults." + +"Do you know that I promised to marry him?" she asked. + +"Yes, I know all about it. Thank God you were not deluded into carrying +out the promise. It was all a plot, my darling, between that wretched +man and his sister. They knew you had money and they wanted it. I must +not reproach you, but I wish you had told me before we were married--you +should not have suffered so terribly." + +"Shall you love me just as much as you did before?" she asked, after a +short pause. + +"I may safely say that I shall love you a thousand times better, Marion. +You see, I have found out in this short space of time that I could not +live without you." + +She was not long in recovering after that. As soon as it was possible to +move her, Lord Atherton took her to Hanton, and there she speedily +regained health and strength. + +When she was quite well, Lord Atherton had one more conversation with +her on this matter. + +"You were so very young," he said, "and the brother and sister seem both +to have been specious, cunning and clever; they evidently played upon +your weakness and childish love of romance. Therefore, my darling, I +look very indulgently upon that girlish error, if I may call it by so +grave a name. Shall I tell you frankly, Marion, where you did wrong?" + +"Yes," she replied, looking up at him with eyes that shone brightly +through her tears. + +"You did wrong in concealing anything from me," he continued. "Rely upon +it, my darling, the surest foundation for happiness in marriage is +perfect trust. A secret between husband and wife is like a worm in a +bud, or a canker in fairest fruit; no matter if the telling of a secret +should even provoke anger, it should always be told. That shall be the +last between us, Marion." + +She clung to him with caressing hands, thanking him, blessing him, and +promising him that while she lived there should never more be any +secrets between them. + +Lord Atherton was quite right. Allan Lyster was only too glad to keep +his secret, but he never did any more good. Years passed on; fair, +blooming children made the old walls of Hanton re-echo with music; Lady +Atherton had almost forgotten this, the peril of her youth, when once +more there came a letter from Allan Lyster. He was dying, in the +greatest poverty and distress, and implored their help. Lord Atherton +generously went to his aid. He provided him with all needful comforts, +and, after his death, buried him. + +Of Adelaide Lyster, after the failure of her brother's schemes, they +never heard again. Lady Atherton is very careful in the training of her +daughters, teaching them to distinguish between true and false +romance--teaching them that the most beautiful poetry of life is truth. + + +(THE END.) + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors have been +corrected from the original edition. + +A missing quotation mark has been added to the sentence _"In all the +wide world there is none like you._ + +_the very though of seeing you_ has been changed to _the very thought of +seeing you_. + +_then they would be maried_ has been changed to _then they would be +married_. + +_skilful mamnagement_ has been changed to _skilful management_. + +_Then the enterview ended_ has been changed to _Then the interview +ended_. + +_The gentleman like him, he thought him clever, gifted and intellectual_ +has been changed to _The gentleman liked him, he thought him clever, +gifted and intellectual_. + +A missing quotation mark has been added after _or his natural disposition +is anything but candid._ + +A quotation mark at the end of _"Take my advice, Allan."_ has been +removed. + +_Her lips seeemd_ has been changed to _Her lips seemed_. + +The original numbering of the chapters, omitting Chapter III, has been +retained.] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Marion Arleigh's Penance, by Charlotte M. 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