diff options
Diffstat (limited to '44819-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 44819-0.txt | 11356 |
1 files changed, 11356 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/44819-0.txt b/44819-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09a0f55 --- /dev/null +++ b/44819-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11356 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44819 *** + + KATHLEEN'S DIAMONDS + + OR + + SHE LOVED A HANDSOME ACTOR + + _By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller_ + + HART SERIES No. 45 + + COPYRIGHT 1895 BY GEORGE MUNRO + + (Printed in the United States of America) + + + + Published by + THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY + Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. PAGE + "Alas! Why Did She Do It?" 5 + + CHAPTER II. + After Sixteen Years 7 + + CHAPTER III. + "This Prince Karl--This Ralph Chainey--is My Rescuer at Newport + Last Summer," Whispered the Romantic Girl 11 + + CHAPTER IV. + "I Distinctly Forbid You to Know this Actor," said Mrs. Carew 15 + + CHAPTER V. + Mrs. Carew is Mysteriously Absent 19 + + CHAPTER VI. + Kathleen's Defiance 23 + + CHAPTER VII. + "Mrs. Carew is Going to Make You Marry Her Son," said the Maid 27 + + CHAPTER VIII. + "Please Buy My Diamond Necklace," said Kathleen 33 + + CHAPTER IX. + Murdered! 37 + + CHAPTER X. + At Dead of Night 40 + + CHAPTER XI. + The Fatal Telegram 45 + + CHAPTER XII. + "Kathleen, I Swear that I Will Avenge Your Murder!" 50 + + CHAPTER XIII. + Another Mystery 53 + + CHAPTER XIV. + A Strange Fate 57 + + CHAPTER XV. + Poor Daisy Lynn 63 + + CHAPTER XVI. + Kathleen's Desperation and Her Escape 70 + + CHAPTER XVII. + "Will You be My Own Sweet Wife, Kathleen?" 74 + + CHAPTER XVIII. + Kathleen's Disappearance 79 + + CHAPTER XIX. + "Ralph Chainey is a Married Man!" 83 + + CHAPTER XX. + Kathleen Makes a Startling Discovery 88 + + CHAPTER XXI. + Was Ralph Chainey a Villain? 91 + + CHAPTER XXII. + Rescued 93 + + CHAPTER XXIII. + "Papa, Darling, It is I, Your Little Kathleen!" 97 + + CHAPTER XXIV. + Turned Out Into the Storm 102 + + CHAPTER XXV. + Teddy Darrell Again 105 + + CHAPTER XXVI. + "I Would Lay Down My Life to Serve You!" said Teddy 107 + + CHAPTER XXVII. + Alpine's Renewed Hopes 111 + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + Teddy Darrell's Plans 115 + + CHAPTER XXIX. + Fedora's Escape 119 + + CHAPTER XXX. + "My Darling Girl, I'm as Fond of You as Ever!" 122 + + CHAPTER XXXI. + Kathleen's Weary Waiting 126 + + CHAPTER XXXII. + "We Have Met--We Have Loved--We Have Parted!" 128 + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + Ralph Chainey's Anger 133 + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + Alpine Sows the Seed of Jealousy 135 + + CHAPTER XXXV. + Alpine's Falsehood 138 + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + A Cruel Stab 142 + + CHAPTER XXXVII. + Ralph Chainey is Driven to Desperation, and Turns on His Foe 146 + + CHAPTER XXXVIII. + "I Have Come for My Diamonds," Kathleen said to the Jeweler 148 + + CHAPTER XXXIX. + Kathleen Before Her Father's Portrait 153 + + CHAPTER XL. + A New-found Relative 157 + + CHAPTER XLI. + Ralph's Letter 160 + + CHAPTER XLII. + "You Shall Not Marry Ralph Chainey!" Uncle Ben Cried Violently 162 + + CHAPTER XLIII. + The Old Housekeeper's Story 167 + + CHAPTER XLIV. + Grandmother Franklyn 171 + + CHAPTER XLV. + Ivan Receives a Check in His Career 175 + + CHAPTER XLVI. + "I Have Betrayed Myself. You Know My Heart Now." 177 + + CHAPTER XLVII. + A Terrible Crime 181 + + CHAPTER XLVIII. + "Kathleen Has Mysteriously Disappeared." 184 + + CHAPTER XLIX. + The Franklyns at Last! 188 + + CHAPTER L. + "She Was My Mother." 192 + + CHAPTER LI. + A Cousin for a Lover 195 + + CHAPTER LII. + The Search for Kathleen 198 + + CHAPTER LIII. + "Oh, Sir, Have Pity on Me!" prayed Daisy Lynn 200 + + CHAPTER LIV. + "Is This Your Niece?" 205 + + CHAPTER LV. + Kathleen and Daisy Meet at Last 207 + + CHAPTER LVI. + "So Shines a Good Deed in a Naughty World." 210 + + CHAPTER LVII. + Mrs. Carew Triumphs in Her Sweet Revenge Upon Kathleen 212 + + CHAPTER LVIII. + "I Will Never Humble Myself to You Again." 214 + + CHAPTER LIX. + Oh, Ralph Chainey, Wake! 217 + + CHAPTER LX. + "My Love Shall Call Him Back from the Grave!" 220 + + CHAPTER LXI. + She Loved Much 223 + + CHAPTER LXII. + "God Bless Brave, Bonny Kathleen Carew!" 225 + + CHAPTER LXIII. + Within Prison Bars 227 + + CHAPTER LXIV. + "Your Father is George Harrison, the Convict!" 231 + + CHAPTER LXV. + A Startling Dénouement 234 + + CHAPTER LXVI. + "I Will Go to the Old Haunted Mill," said Kathleen Bravely 239 + + CHAPTER LXVII. + Teddy's Love Letters 242 + + CHAPTER LXVIII. + In Mortal Peril 244 + + CHAPTER LXIX. + "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen." 252 + + + + +KATHLEEN'S DIAMONDS + +OR + +SHE LOVED A HANDSOME ACTOR + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +"ALAS! WHY DID SHE DO IT?" + + + What is the matter? Oh, nothing--a girl + Is found here in suicide rest. + Romantic? Of course; here's a rich, dark curl + On the beautiful, blue-veined breast. + AMELIA V. PURDY. + + +Incredible, you say? + +Alas, it was too true! + +She was dead by her own hand, the beautiful child-wife of Vincent +Carew, the millionaire--dead in her youth and beauty, leaving behind +her all that life held for a worshipped wife and loving mother; for +upstairs at this moment in the silken nursery her child, the baby +Kathleen, barely six months old, lay sweetly sleeping, watched by an +attentive French _bonne_, while in the darkened parlor below, the +girlish mother, not yet eighteen, lay pale and beautiful in her coffin, +with white flowers blooming on the pulseless breast, hiding the crimson +stain where the slight jeweled dagger from her hair had sheathed itself +in her tortured heart. + +She was so young, so ignorant, or surely she would have held back her +suicidal hand--she would have taken pity on her child, the dark-eyed +little heiress she was leaving motherless in the wide, wide world +that, whatever else it may give us, can not make up for the loss of the +best thing life has to offer--a mother's love! + +It is always a terrible misfortune to a young girl to be motherless, +and it was going to be the tragedy of Kathleen Carew's life that she +had no mother. The dagger-thrust that let out the life-blood of unhappy +Zaidee Carew turned the whole course of her daughter's life aside into +different channels. + +But that lay in the future. _Now_ all Boston wondered over the tragic +death of Vincent Carew's wife, and people asked each other in dismay: + +"Why did she do it?" + +No one could answer that question. + +The world thought that the young wife was perfectly happy. + +And why not? Surely she had good cause. + +Vincent Carew, the rich bachelor, who was a power in politics, and +aspired to be governor of his state, had married Zaidee Franklyn out of +a poverty-stricken home, lifting her at a bound to rank and fortune, +and all for love of her fair face. + +He had snapped his white fingers in the face of the world that called +his marriage a _mésalliance_, and carried everything by storm. For his +sake, society--cultured Boston society--had received his wife, the +lovely young Southern girl, with her shy ways and neglected education, +and for a time all went well. + +So no one could answer the question why did she kill herself, but +that was because Vincent Carew was too proud to admit the ubiquitous +reporter inside his aristocratic portals. If one of these curious +mortals had secured admittance to the house and questioned the +servants, they would have told him what they suspected and discussed +in whispers among themselves--that madame was madly jealous of the +teacher her husband had employed to finish her very imperfect education. + +"She is a snake in the grass, that pretty widow, and she makes my +mistress unhappy," said the housekeeper, the first month that Mrs. +Belmont came, and her opinion was adopted by all the other servants. +They all hated the stately young widow in her black garments, and when +the grewsome tragedy of Mrs. Carew's death darkened the sunlight in +that luxurious home, they whispered to each other that it was Mrs. +Belmont who had worked their mistress such bitter woe that she could +not bear her life. + +If indeed she had schemed for anything like this, Mrs. Belmont had +succeeded in her designs. Zaidee Carew, with her own dimpled, white +hand, had cut the Gordian knot of life, and in a few more days a +stately funeral _cortège_ moved away from Vincent Carew's doors to the +cemetery where his dead wife, in all her youthful beauty, was laid to +rest beneath the grass and flowers. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS. + + + An exquisite face--patrician in style; + Note the lashes, how black, and their sweep-- + The arch of the brows, and the proud lip's smile, + The flash of the eyes dark and deep. + + Away from the forehead in waves the hair + Flows with the glisten of bronze; + Glorious in volume, the frame from where + The face of an houri dawns. + AMELIA V. PURDY. + + +"I never saw such a forgetful girl as you, Kathleen Carew. Here you sit +dreaming, instead of dressing for 'Prince Karl' to-night. Are you going +to the theater, then, or not?" + +"Of course I am going, Alpine. I did not know it was so late. What, you +are dressed already? How sweet you look! That blue crêpe de Chine is +awfully becoming to you. Well, then, please ring the bell for my maid, +won't you? I'll be ready in ten minutes." + +"You'd better. Mamma will be furious if you keep her waiting," Alpine +Belmont answered, crossly, as she touched the bell. + +Then she looked back curiously at the graceful, indolent figure in +the easy-chair, leaning back with white hands clasped on top of the +bronze-gold head. + +"Kathleen, what were you thinking about so intently when I came in? I +had to speak twice before you heard me." + +Kathleen raised her dark, passionate, Oriental eyes to the speaker's +face, and, blushing vivid crimson, answered, dreamily: + +"Alpine, I was thinking of that handsome young man who saved my life at +Newport last summer. I was wondering who he was, and if we should ever +see him again." + +"It isn't likely we ever will," answered Alpine Belmont, carelessly. +"I don't suppose he's in our set at all--some poor clerk spending all +his winter's savings on a short summer outing, very likely. I wouldn't +be thinking about him, like a romantic school-girl, if I were you, +Kathleen. He didn't care about you, or he would have made himself known +to you before this," and, with a low, taunting laugh, Alpine Belmont +left the room just as Susette, the maid, came in. + +"You'll have to do my hair in a hurry, Susie. There's no time for +prinking," laughed her mistress; and while the maid brushed out the +magnificent, rippling tresses, Kathleen relapsed into thoughts of the +unknown hero whose handsome image haunted her thoughts. + +"Is it true, as Alpine says, that he did not care for me? It is +strange he did not stay to inquire who I was, after I came so near +drowning. If he was a poor young clerk, as Alpine believes, perhaps he +was too proud to reveal himself, thinking I would scorn him because I +was an heiress. Ah, how little he knew Kathleen Carew's heart!" + +Her thoughts ran thrillingly on: + +"Oh, how handsome he was when I first saw him in the water, that day +at Newport! He kept watching me, and I could not help looking back. +He seemed to draw my eyes. I know I wanted him to like me, for I +wondered if my bathing suit was becoming, and I felt glad my hair was +down, because I had been told it looked pretty that way, all wet and +curling over my shoulders. His brown eyes said as plain as words that +he admired me. Other men did, too, I know, but this time it seemed to +thrill me with a new pleasure. As I splashed about like a mermaid in +the waves, I kept thinking of him, wondering who he was, and hoping he +would be at the ball that night. I wanted him to see how well I looked +in my white lace and pearls. Then all at once came that treacherous +undertow that swept me from my feet, down, down, down, under the heavy +waves. Oh, how horrible it was! I thought I would be drowned, and my +last thought was----" + +"What gown, Miss Kathleen?" asked the maid. + +"Anything, Susette. It don't matter how I look to-night. You can't +decide? Oh, well, that new white cloth with the pink ostrich feather +trimming, and diamonds. Alpine is wearing pearls and a blue gown, and +we don't want to be dressed alike." + +While Susette fastened the exquisite gown and clasped the diamonds, her +thoughts ran on: + +"He rescued me, the handsome, brave fellow, and as soon as he laid me, +limp, but faintly conscious, upon the sands, he walked hastily away, +and no one at Newport ever saw him again. Neither could any one ever +find out who he was, although I'm afraid mamma did not try very hard. +But he was certainly very modest. He did not want us to make a hero +of him. Heigho, I do wish I knew his name--I do wish I could see him +again! Alpine says I am foolish and romantic, and that I fell in love +with him because he saved my life. Indeed, I think it was before--yes, +at the very moment I first met his beautiful brown eyes gazing so +eagerly into mine. A quick electric thrill seemed to dart through me, +and----" + +"Kathleen, aren't you ready yet?" asked Alpine, entering. "The carriage +has been waiting ever so long, and mamma is getting furious over your +delay." + +"I'm ready," Kathleen answered, composedly, without hurrying the least +bit. She drew her white opera-cloak leisurely about her ivory-white +shoulders, and followed her step-sister down-stairs to where Vincent +Carew's second wife, once the widow Belmont, poor Zaidee's governess, +was waiting in impotent wrath at the detention. + +"The first act will be quite over before we get there, and it will be +entirely your fault, for Alpine and I have been ready for an hour," she +fretted as they entered the carriage. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +"THIS PRINCE KARL--THIS RALPH CHAINEY--IS MY RESCUER AT NEWPORT LAST +SUMMER," WHISPERED THE ROMANTIC GIRL. + + + This is the way of it, wide world over, + One is beloved, and one is the lover, + One gives and the other receives. + E. W. W. + + +The first act had indeed begun when Mrs. Carew with her two daughters +entered their box at the theater; but absorbing as was the interest +in the popular play, "Prince Karl," many heads were turned to gaze +admiringly at the trio of fair ones, for the matron, although fifty +years old, looked much younger, and her stately charms were set off to +advantage by black velvet and jet, with ruby ornaments on her neck and +arms. Her silvery-white hair was arranged very becomingly, and Alpine +felt quite proud of her mother's _distingué_ appearance. + +Alpine Belmont herself was a milk-white blonde, a trifle below +the medium height, and with a rather too decided inclination to +_embonpoint_. But the plumpness and dimples were rather fascinating, +now in the heyday of youth--she was barely twenty--and with passable +features, pale straw-gold hair, and forget-me-not blue eyes, Alpine +passed as a belle and beauty. + +But Kathleen Carew--Kathleen, with her slender, perfect figure just +above medium height, and her vivid face as fresh as a flower, with +her great, starry, passionate, Oriental eyes, veiled by thick curling +lashes black as starless midnight, in such strong contrast to the +rich bronze-gold of the rippling hair that crowned her queenly little +head--Kathleen Carew was truly + + "The Rose that all were praising." + +"The house is crowded," Mrs. Carew observed in a gratified tone, as +she swept the brilliant horse-shoe with her lorgnette. + +"Oh, of course. They say Ralph Chainey is a splendid actor," returned +Alpine, as she threw back her blue-and-white cloak to give the crowd +the benefit of her plump white arms and shoulders. + +"Does Ralph Chainey play Prince Karl?" inquired Kathleen, with languid +interest; and, forgetting to listen for the answer, turned her +attention to the stage where the actors were strutting their brief day. + +The play went on, and Kathleen, rousing with a start out of her languid +mood, watched it with eager eyes. + +Everybody knows the clever, fascinating play "Prince Karl." Mansfield +has made it immortal in his rôle of the courier. + +This new actor, whose name had brought out the fashionable world +of cultured Boston, was no whit behind Mansfield in his clever +impersonations. He was young, and had flashed upon the dramatic world +two years before with the brightness of a star. Time was adding fresh +laurels to his name, and Boston, critical as it was, did not hesitate +to add its plaudits, for, be it known, Ralph Washburn Chainey was a +Bostonian "to the manor born." + +"Oh, it is splendid! And is he not perfectly magnificent?" exclaimed +Alpine Belmont, turning eagerly to Kathleen, as the curtain fell upon +the first act. + +Then she started with surprise, for Kathleen was leaning back in her +chair, breathing heavily, her face very pale, her eyes half veiled by +the drooping lids. + +"Kathleen, what is the matter? Are you going to sleep, or are you ill, +or--_what_?" she demanded, in a high whisper. + +Kathleen caught Alpine's hand and drew it against her side. + +"Oh, Alpine, feel my heart how it beats!" she whispered. "I have had +such a shock! Did you not recognize him, too?" + +"I don't know what you are talking about, Kathleen." + +"Don't you? Oh, Alpine, I have found _him_ out at last--my hero!" +whispered the romantic girl. + +"Kathleen, you're dreaming!" + +"I'm not. I knew him in a minute, and he recognized me, too. I saw it +in his glance when his eyes met mine. He started, then I smiled--I +could not help it, I was so glad." + +Mrs. Carew had been listening to catch the whispered conversation. A +heavy frown darkened her face. She leaned forward and muttered, harshly: + +"Kathleen, you must be crazy!" + +The girl shrugged her shoulders contemptuously, and took no other +notice of the speech. + +But Alpine's curiosity was awakened, and she whispered, eagerly: + +"Where is he, then? Point him out to me." + +"I can not. He has gone off. Wait till he returns," answered Kathleen, +sitting up straight in her chair again. The color was coming back into +her face again, her eyes flashed radiantly. Mrs. Carew regarded her +with suppressed displeasure. + +Some gentlemen acquaintances came into the box, and the subject of +Kathleen's discovery was dropped. They chatted gayly until the time for +the curtain to rise, then returned to their seats. + +The curtain rose upon the second act of the play, and Alpine was so +interested that she leaned eagerly forward, quite forgetting, in +her keen admiration of Prince Karl, her step-sister's interesting +disclosure just now. + +But suddenly Kathleen's taper fingers closed in a gentle pinch upon her +plump arm. + +"Look--now--don't you recognize him?" she murmured, triumphantly. + +"Who? Where? Oh, for goodness' sake, Kathleen, don't bother me now! I +don't want to lose a word of glorious Prince Karl!" + +"But, Alpine, it is _he_, Prince Karl--my hero!" + +"Good heavens, Kathleen! do you really mean it?" + +"Yes, I do, Alpine. This Prince Karl--this Ralph Chainey--is my rescuer +at Newport last summer. Watch him, Alpine, and perhaps you will catch +him looking at us a little consciously, as I did just now." + +"I see the likeness _now_!" answered Alpine, in a tone of suppressed +dismay, whose import Kathleen could not understand. She said no more +to her step-sister, but sat through the remainder of the play in a +blissful dream. + +The beautiful young heiress was intensely romantic, and for long months +her fancy had been haunted by the image of the handsome young man who +had saved her life. To find him again in the handsome young actor whose +name was on every lip thrilled her with delight. He had recognized +her, too, and the memory of his startled glance, so quickly withdrawn, +thrilled her with keen delight, although he did not permit her to meet +his eyes again. + +Kathleen felt a little triumph, too, over Alpine, who had declared that +her hero was doubtless a mere nobody--perhaps a clerk in a country +store, than which position Alpine's contemptuous ideas could not +descend lower. + +Alpine was watching him now with such eager interest that Kathleen +smiled and thought: + +"I believe Alpine has fallen in love with him, herself. But she need +not; he is mine, mine, mine!" + +She was claiming him already in her thoughts, forgetting that she had +never even spoken to the handsome stranger to whom she owed such a debt +of gratitude. It seemed to her that she was as dear to him as he was +to her, and she almost expected to see him waiting to hand her to her +carriage when they left the theater. + +But no; the faint, fluttering hope was soon extinguished. Other +admirers were waiting obsequiously, eager for the honor of touching the +small gloved hand of the beautiful belle, but when the curtain dropped +on Prince Karl bowing to the applauding audience, Kathleen saw him no +more that night. + +When Mrs. Carew dismissed her maid that night she sent an imperative +summons to her step-daughter to come to her room, and received in +return a polite request to be excused. Kathleen was tired, and meant to +retire immediately. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +"I DISTINCTLY FORBID YOU TO KNOW THIS ACTOR," SAID MRS. CAREW. + + + Love is a pearl of purest hue, + But stormy waves are round it; + And dearly may a woman rue + The hour when first she found it. + L. E. L. + + +Despite the message, Mrs. Carew, who went at once to Kathleen's room +in a rage at her impertinence, found the young girl still in her +ball-dress and jewels, sitting dreamily in an easy-chair, having +dismissed Susette to arrange her bath. She yawned sleepily at her +step-mother's entrance. + +"I sent you word to wait till to-morrow," she said, petulantly. + +"I did not choose to wait, Miss Impertinence!" and as Kathleen opened +wide her big black eyes in a sort of contemptuous amazement, Mrs. Carew +continued, angrily: "Alpine has told me how silly you were over that +actor; how you love him, and long to get acquainted with him. Do you +not know that it is very bold and coarse for a young girl to even think +of a man that way until he has given some sign of liking for her? But +Alpine declares that this man has never even noticed you." + +"Alpine is a sneaking tell-tale, and you are a cruel woman!" Kathleen +answered, indignantly. "And, madame, if I am ignorant, as you charge, +of the proper feeling to observe toward men, who is to blame for that? +Why did you not train me as carefully as you did your daughter Alpine? +You took my poor dead mother's place before I was two years old. Why +did you not do your duty by her orphan child?" + +"How dare you speak to me like this?" demanded the angry woman. "Be +silent, and listen to my commands!" + +Her fingers itched to slap the cheek that dimpled with insolent +amusement, but she clinched her hand and went on: + +"Your father left you in my care when he went abroad for his health, +and you shall obey my commands while he is gone. If you dare defy me, +I shall lock you in your room, on bread and water, till you beg my +pardon." + +There was no answer. Kathleen looked her indignation, that was all. + +"I distinctly forbid," said Mrs. Carew, "any further nonsense over this +actor. Good heavens! an _actor_! What would your haughty father say?" +contemptuously. "I will not take you to the theater again while he +plays here. You disgraced yourself to-night, making eyes at him on the +stage, and there shall be no more of it. I shall not permit him to make +your acquaintance, even if he seeks to do so, which is very doubtful, +as"--scornfully--"the infatuation seems to be all on one side." + +Kathleen writhed with mortification, but she did not permit her foe to +see how cruelly she was wounded. She held her queenly little head erect +with that silent smile of maddening amusement on her scarlet lips. +Years of wrong and injustice had made her scorn this woman who filled +her dead mother's place so unworthily, and she made few efforts to +conceal her feelings. + +"I forbid any acquaintance with this Ralph Chainey--this actor. Do you +understand me, Kathleen?" repeated her step-mother. + +"I have heard you," answered the young girl, with a mutinous pout of +her full lip. + +"You will obey me?" a little anxiously, for Kathleen had never been so +aggressively rebellious as to-night. + +At the question, Kathleen rose to her feet and stood up like a young +lioness at bay. + +"I will _not_ obey you, madame!" she replied. + +"What?" almost shrieked Mrs. Carew. + +"I will not obey you!" she repeated, with flashing eyes. "I will not +run after Mr. Chainey, as you pretend so falsely that I am doing, and I +will make no unmaidenly overtures toward his acquaintance, but if the +proper opportunity offers for me to know and thank him for saving my +life, I shall surely avail myself of it!" + +They stood glaring at each other, the girl roused into furious +rebellion, the woman speechless with fury, her steel-blue eyes seeming +to emit electric sparks from her deathly white face, so intense was her +fierce wrath. Controlling herself with an effort, she turned to leave +the room, and, pausing on the threshold, hissed back one significant +sentence at the defiant girl: + +"Forewarned is forearmed!" + +"I do not fear you!" Kathleen answered; but Mrs. Carew never looked +back. + +"What will she do? What can she do? She will never dare lock me in my +room, as she threatened!" Kathleen murmured, uneasily, and then her +overstrained nerves gave way. She threw herself on the bed and sobbed +aloud, in nervous abandonment to her outraged feelings. + +God help that poor, motherless girl! She knew that the events of that +night would only make her life harder than it had been before under the +roof that her step-mother ruled with an iron hand. + +The beautiful young heiress did not have a happy life, in spite of all +the good gifts with which fate had so richly dowered her at her birth. +Her step-mother had always hated her, and never relaxed her efforts to +harden her father's heart against his only child. Perhaps she hated +Kathleen the more because Heaven had denied any children to her second +marriage, and she knew that to this girl would go the bulk of her +father's great wealth. + +Mrs. Carew had two children by her first marriage--a son, now +twenty-three, called Ivan, and the girl Alpine. Her favorite scheme +was to marry the hated Kathleen to this son, so that he might share +her rich inheritance. Failing in this, she meant, if it lay in the +power of a human devil to compass it, to have Kathleen disgraced and +disinherited, so that she and her children might enjoy the whole of the +great Carew fortune. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MRS. CAREW IS MYSTERIOUSLY ABSENT. + + + Alas, that clouds should ever steal + O'er Love's delicious sky-- + That ever Love's sweet lip should feel + Aught but the gentlest sigh. + L. E. L. + + +Mrs. Carew did not appear at breakfast the next morning and Alpine, +with a reproachful glance at Kathleen, said that mamma was sick. She +had been so worried last night that she could not sleep, and this +morning she had such a terrible headache that she must lie abed all day. + +Kathleen did not look either repentant or sorry. She simply said that +in that case she would not practice her music this morning, and went +off to her own little studio, where she painted a while with great +ardor, then threw down her brush, and rang for Susette to bring up the +morning papers. + +Susette lingered a minute after she had put down the newspapers. + +"Miss Kathleen, I don't think it will disturb Mrs. Carew the least bit +if you practice your music," she said, significantly. + +"But her head aches, Susette." + +"No, it don't miss; she's not in the house, so there! She went away +early--very early, in her traveling-dress, the Lord knows where; for +James told me so on the sly." (James was the butler, and Susette's +sweetheart.) + +Kathleen looked a little startled as she said: + +"You must be mistaken. Ellen has been with her mistress all day. I +tapped at the door a while ago to ask how she was, and she reported +Mrs. Carew as very low." + +"They are all deceiving you, Miss Kathleen, but what for I don't know, +only I'm sure and certain she ain't in this house," protested Susette, +stoutly. + +"Very well, Susette. Her absence has no more interest for me than her +presence," Kathleen answered, indifferently, as she opened _The Globe_ +and read the encomiums on Ralph Chainey's acting that filled a critical +half column. + +Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks glowed with pleasure. + +"He plays 'Prince Karl' again to-night. Oh if I only could go again!" +she thought, regretfully; then, throwing down the paper, she decided +she would go and practice her music, since Mrs. Carew was not ill, as +Alpine pretended. + +She had played but a few bars when Alpine entered with reproachful eyes. + +"Have you no feeling, Kathleen? You will kill mamma!" + +"Since mamma went away this morning early and has not yet returned, +there's no danger," Kathleen answered, coolly. + +"It is false! Who told you so?" + +"No matter how I found it out. I'm in possession of the mysterious +fact." + +"It's that prying Susette, I know! I shall advise mamma to dismiss her +immediately." + +"You'd better not, Alpine. Susette knows some of your _secrets_!" +Kathleen answered, with a provoking laugh. + +"I have no secrets!" snapped Alpine; but she left the room discomfited. + +Kathleen practiced and read until the late luncheon, where she was +surprised to find herself alone. + +"Where is Miss Belmont, James?" she asked. + +"Miss Belmont went out for a walk," he answered, respectfully. + +While Kathleen was making up her mind to go for a walk, too, some +callers were announced. She received the matron and her two gay young +daughters, entertained them herself, with an apology for the absence +of the other members of the family, and saw them depart with a sigh of +relief. + +"I will go for my walk now," she decided, but turning from the piano, +she saw an open note lying on the floor. Her own name attracted her, +and picking it up, she read, under date of that morning: + + "DEAR ALPINE AND KATHLEEN--Mamma wishes you to join us at an informal + three-o'clock lunch to-day, to meet a distinguished guest. Brother + George was at college with Prince Karl--Ralph Chainey, you know--and + he is coming here to lunch with us to-day. Do come, girls! He's so + handsome and talented I want you both to know him. There will be + several others, too, but we want you especially. I want him to see our + beautiful Kathleen." + +The note bore the name of Helen Fox, one of their intimate girl +friends, and Kathleen realized in a minute that she had been tricked by +crafty Alpine, who had gone to the luncheon alone to meet Ralph Chainey. + +A futile sob of bitter disappointment rose in the girl's throat, and +crushing the note in her hand, she walked to the window, gazing blankly +out into the handsome street through burning tears. + +A light laugh startled her. There was Alpine Belmont, in elegant +attire, walking toward the gate with a tall, handsome, _distingué_ +young man. Lifting his hat with a smile, he left the young lady there, +and walked away with a hasty backward glance at the window that +showed him a lovely, woful face staring in undisguised wonder at the +spectacle of Ralph Chainey walking home with deceitful Alpine Belmont. + +"Alpine, you wicked girl, how could you treat me so unfairly?" she +demanded, shaking with passion. + +Alpine flung herself into a chair, flushed, laughing, insolent. + +"You told mamma last night that I was a sneaking tell-tale, didn't you? +Well, then, I paid you off, that's all! Besides, mamma does not allow +you to know Ralph Chainey--a pity for you, my poor Kathleen, for he's +the most fascinating young man I ever met. I made myself very agreeable +to him, and I think he fell in love with me. You see yourself he walked +home with me from Helen's luncheon. Would you like to know what I told +him about you, my charming Kathleen?" + +"No!" the girl answered, hotly. + +"I don't believe you--you're dying to hear. Well, it was this: I said +you did not recognize him in the least last night till I told you it +was the man that saved you at Newport. Then I said you would not come +to meet him at the luncheon to-day, because you said it would be such a +bore having to thank him. Ha, ha! You'd like to murder me, I know!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +KATHLEEN'S DEFIANCE. + + + She went her way with a strong step and slow-- + Her pressed lip arched, and her clear eye undimmed, + As if it were a diamond--and her form held proudly up. + N. P. WILLIS. + + +Helen Fox was one of those sweet, pretty, amiable girls that everybody +loves. Her rosy lips were always wreathed in smiles, and the very +glance of her roguish blue eyes invited confidence. She was the most +popular girl in her set, and the intimate friend of Kathleen Carew and +Alpine Belmont. + +Warm-hearted Helen had been sadly disappointed because Kathleen had not +come to the luncheon, and the excuse that Alpine offered--namely, that +her step-sister could not tear herself away from a new novel--seemed +too shallow to entertain. + +"I'm really mad with Kathleen, the lazy thing!" she said, frankly, to +Ralph Chainey, who smiled, but made no comment. He was thinking about +what Miss Belmont had told him just now. It rankled in his mind. + +"I am anxious for you to meet her, she is such a beauty!" continued +Helen, enthusiastically. + +He gave some flattering answer that made her dimple and blush, but she +answered, with a careless glance around: + +"Oh, yes, we girls are well enough; but wait till you see my bonny +Kathleen. Such lips, such hair, such eyes!" + +Ralph Chainey laughed. + +"You needn't be so sarcastic, Mr. Chainey. You haven't seen our beauty +yet." + +"I saw her last night at the theater." + +"Oh, so you did. I forgot that. Well, isn't she charming?" + +The handsome actor replied with a quotation: + + "'Perfectly beautiful, faultily faultless.'" + +"She is all that," Helen Fox replied; but she looked at him with +puzzled eyes, and thought within herself that he was somehow piqued at +Kathleen Carew. But why, since the two had never met? + +Suddenly the reason presented itself to her mind. + +"The great vain thing! He is piqued because the beauty didn't come to +the luncheon. He is offended because she did not seem anxious to meet +him." + +And she was secretly amused at the young actor's palpable vanity, +regarding it as a good joke, little dreaming of the seed that Alpine +Belmont had been sowing in his mind. + +Many envious glances followed Alpine, a little later, when she bore +Ralph Chainey off in triumph as her escort home; but Helen was pleased, +for she thought: + +"If Alpine asks him into the house he will get acquainted with +Kathleen, and then he will find out how lovable she is." + +But when George Fox, who had also walked home with a young lady on +Commonwealth Avenue, returned home he reported that Ralph Chainey had +left Miss Belmont at the door. + +Suddenly Helen remembered sundry small matters that were not at all to +Alpine's credit. + +"That girl is tricky, I know," she said to herself. "Perhaps she did +not ask Mr. Chainey to go in. Perhaps she kept Kathleen from coming +here to-day. She has been known to do shabby things to cut other girls +out of their lovers. Not that Ralph Chainey is Kathleen's lover _yet_, +but he ought to be. They are just suited to each other, both are so +splendid. It may be that Alpine intends to catch him herself before her +sister gets a chance." Helen laughed a sage little laugh to herself, +and added: "I'll ask mamma to let us call at Mrs. Carew's and take +Kathleen with us to the theater to-night." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, Alpine! where is Kathleen? George and mamma are waiting out here +in the carriage. We have just one seat left, and we stopped to ask +Kathleen to go with us to the theater." + +"Mamma is out, Helen, and she would not like it if Kathleen went +without leave." + +"But mamma is with us, Alpine. She would chaperon Kathleen." + +"She can not possibly go," began Alpine, in a high tone of authority; +but at that moment a light swish of silken draperies came through the +hall, and a sweet voice said, clearly: + +"Kathleen _can_ go, Helen, and she _will_ go, too, if you will wait +till she gets on her things." + +And Alpine beheld her step-sister, cool, calm, defiant, rustle up to +Helen Fox and kiss that piquant, silk-robed damsel. + +"Come upstairs with me, Helen, dear, while I dress," she said, +radiantly, trying to draw her toward the stairway, for this colloquy +had taken place in the hall. + +Alpine followed them upstairs out of reach of the servants' ears, and +then she said, sharply: + +"You need not get ready, Kathleen, for I shall assume mamma's authority +in her absence, and forbid your going." + +"Oh, Alpine, where is the harm?" pleaded Helen. + +"Mamma has forbidden her to go to the theater any more this week, +because she caught her making eyes at an actor on the stage last +night," Alpine answered, maliciously. + +"It is false!" answered the young girl, stung to madness by Alpine's +wickedness. Turning to Helen, she said, proudly: "I accept your +invitation, Helen, and will accompany you to the theater, in spite of a +hundred Alpine Belmonts! I am no slave to be domineered over in this +manner, and Alpine had better go and leave me alone before she arouses +me any further." + +"Very well, miss; take your own way and defy _me_; but mamma will make +you repent it, be sure of that," snapped Alpine, withdrawing. + +"Oh, Kathleen, I didn't know I was going to raise such a breeze! +Perhaps you had better not go if Mrs. Carew objects," Helen said, +uneasily. + +Kathleen turned on her a face crimson with angry passion. + +"I'd go if she killed me for it!" she cried, with an imperious stamp +of her dainty foot. "Who is that woman to forbid my going to places of +amusement, like other girls?" She rang the bell violently for Susette, +and added: "Say nothing before my maid, Helen; but on our way to the +theater I'll tell you how wickedly Alpine treated me this afternoon." + +Presently Alpine, peeping through her door, saw the two girls going +away, Helen a little uneasy looking, the other proud, defiant, +beautiful as a dream. + +"She will meet Ralph Chainey, after all," Alpine muttered, in a fury. + + * * * * * + +It was midnight when Mrs. Fox's carriage stopped again at the Carew +mansion, and George handed Kathleen out and rang the bell for her at +her own door. + +The windows were closed, and not the faintest gleam of light shone +through them. George waited a few moments, then rang the bell again. + +"Every one must be asleep, they are so long coming," said Kathleen, +shivering in the cold night air. + +They rang again furiously; but there was no response. The locked door, +the dark, forbidding windows seemed to frown on their frantic efforts +to arouse the house. + +Mrs. Fox put her head out of the carriage window and said: + +"Kathleen, you had better come home with us to-night, my dear. I don't +think you will be able to rouse any one there; and you will catch cold +waiting in the cool night air." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"MRS. CAREW IS GOING TO MAKE YOU MARRY HER SON," SAID THE MAID. + + + I've thought of thee--I've thought of thee, + Through change that teaches to forget; + Thy face looks up from every sea, + In every star thine eyes are set. + N. P. WILLIS. + + +Kathleen was annoyed by her failure to get into the house, but she +did not attach any particular significance to it. She supposed that +Alpine, out of spite, had caused the servants to lock up and go to bed; +that was all. She went home willingly enough with her kind friends, +intending to return the next morning. + +And when she laid her beautiful head on the pillow that night, it was +to dream of soft brown eyes that had looked thrillingly into hers, +and of a warm white hand that had clasped hers, oh! so closely, when +he said good-night; for Ralph Chainey, the actor--or Prince Karl, as +Kathleen called him in her thoughts--had come into Mrs. Fox's box twice +between the acts, and had been presented to the beautiful heiress whose +life he had saved last summer, and from whose presence he had gone away +_incognito_. + +Prince Karl had been on his dignity at first. He had remembered what +Alpine Belmont had told him that afternoon. + +He believed that beautiful Kathleen was cold, proud and ungrateful. + +So, after bowing over her little hand when George Fox presented them, +he turned his attention to the vivacious Helen, and scarcely looked at +the radiant creature close to her side. + +Kathleen bit her red lips and remained silent. She understood Ralph +Chainey's mood, and knew that she had to thank Alpine for his +indifference. + +Her sweet lips quivered with a repressed sob, and her dark eyes +swam in moisture that threatened to fall in blinding tears. It was +hard--cruelly hard to have him believe her proud and ungrateful, and to +see him resent it in this cavalier fashion. + +He bowed himself out presently, and then Helen Fox turned to her, +eagerly. + +"How did you like him, Kathleen? Isn't he just splendid?" she +exclaimed. Then she saw how grave and quiet the young girl looked, +and remembered what Kathleen had told her in the carriage. "Oh! I +forgot; he did not really pass one word with you. He was piqued and +stiff over what Alpine told him," she cried, and added, consolingly: +"Never mind; he'll come round. He admires you very much--I saw that in +his eyes--and, of course, he is secretly very much interested in you, +having saved your life! It is very romantic, Kathleen, and I shouldn't +wonder if it's a match." + +"Don't, Helen!" answered the girl, somewhat incoherently. + +But Helen laughed gayly, and when the next act was over and the +actor came again for a few minutes, he found her whispering very +mysteriously to her mother. She nodded at him, and went on confiding +something to her mother's ear. + +George Fox had gone out, so there was no one to speak to but +Kathleen--trembling Kathleen--who blushed warmly when he came to her +side, and murmured, tremulously: + +"I want to thank you for--for last summer. It was so good of you, so +noble, to risk your life for a--a stranger." + +"Pray do not speak of it; it was nothing. I ran no risk; I am a good +swimmer," he replied, a little stiffly. + +But Kathleen went on, in that tremulous voice: + +"I--I have always remembered you with gratitude--always longed to see +you again, that I might thank you from my heart for your goodness. +Papa, too, wanted to see you. Why did you go away so suddenly?" + +Where was the arrogance, the indifference on which Alpine had +expatiated? The sweet lips trembled; there was dew on the curling black +lashes that shaded the splendid, luring black eyes. When Ralph Chainey +had gazed into them a moment, he turned away his head like one dazzled +by too much sunlight. + +"Why did you go away so suddenly?" she repeated; and then he said: + +"It was because I am an actor, Miss Carew. If I had stayed to receive +your thanks, and disclosed my identity, the story would have got into +the newspapers, and people would have said I did it to get some free +advertising. Your name would have gone all over the country as the +heroine of the rescue. You would not have liked the publicity, perhaps; +and so I hurried away." + +"It was very good of you to think of that," she answered, simply; +then added hastily, for the minutes were passing, and she knew he must +soon return to the stage again: "Mr. Chainey, Alpine told me what she +had told you this afternoon. It was--was--a joke on her part. I _did_ +recognize you last night as soon as I saw you. I told her who you were. +She was jesting, believe me for I--I could not--be so ungrateful as to +forget your face so soon." + +It was time for him to go. He rose and held out his hand. + +"Thank you," he said, in his deep, sweet voice, pressing her hand +warmly. His magnetic brown eyes gazed deep into hers, and he murmured, +inaudibly to the others: "It was the happiest moment I ever knew when I +saved your life!" + +Then he was gone. From the stage she met his eyes twice fixed on her, +as if he could not resist the temptation of looking. When George Fox +put them all into their carriage, he came out, still in his stage +costume, to say good-night. He held her hand just a moment longer than +Helen's, and he whispered: + +"I hope we shall meet again." + +His eyes, his words, his thrilling hand-clasp, haunted the motherless +girl that night in the mystical land of dreams. + +She arose early, after a rather restless night, and her first thought +was that she had no morning-dress. + +"I am taller than Helen, so I can not wear one of hers; neither can +I wear the low-necked costume I wore to the theater last night," she +murmured, in perplexity. + +Her musings were cut short by a tap at the door. Susette, her maid, +entered with a large bundle. + +"Good-morning, Miss Kathleen. I've brought your walking-dress for you +to come home," she said, undoing the paper and displaying a black silk +costume. + +"Oh! how good of you, Susette! I was just thinking I would have to ask +Mrs. Fox to send around for it." + +"Mrs. Carew sent me," said Susette, pursing her lips. + +"So she has returned?" asked Kathleen, resting her charming head on +her elbow and looking down at the maid, who had seated herself on an +ottoman close to the bed. + +"She came home near midnight last night, Miss Kathleen." + +"Near midnight? Why, then, some one must have been awake when I came +home, Susette! Why did no one answer the bell?" + +"The madame's orders," Susette replied, significantly. + +The great dark eyes of Kathleen dilated in wonder. + +"But why----" she began, and the maid interrupted: + +"Miss Kathleen, I did some eavesdropping on your account last night, +and if you'll not think the worse of me for it, I'll tell you Mrs. +Carew's plans." + +The woman was rather intelligent and quite well educated for one in her +position. She had been in Kathleen's service five years, and loved her +young mistress dearly. Her devotion to her interests had won her a warm +place in Kathleen's heart. + +"Go on," she said, and Susette continued: + +"When madame went away yesterday it was somewhere into the country +where there's a boarding-school, where you are to be sent to-day." + +"Susette!" + +"It's the gospel truth, miss! They packed your trunk last night, all +ready for you to start. That's why they wouldn't let you in. You were +not to know anything." + +"To--send--me--back--to--school!" exclaimed the young girl in such +amazement that the words came with difficulty from her lips. Her eyes +flashed with anger. "I will not go! She can not force me!" she declared. + +"She intends to _make_ you go. I heard her tell Miss Belmont so," said +the maid, looking very sad, for she knew that Mrs. Carew's will was law. + +Kathleen's face grew scarlet with passion, and there was a dangerous +light in her eyes, but she did not answer. Springing from the couch, +she allowed Susette to attire her in her black silk. + +"I thought maybe if I told you beforehand that maybe you could think of +some way to outwit her," said the maid. + +"And I will--I _will_! I will never be sent to school again!" cried the +girl, in something almost like terror. She clasped her little hands +and sighed: "Oh, why did papa ever go away and leave me here in that +woman's power? She was always cruel to me, but she did not dare so much +while he was here. Oh, I wish he would come home to his poor Kathleen!" + +Bitter burning tears rolled down her cheeks and dropped on her heaving +bosom. It was so hard to be ruled by this coarse woman, who envied and +hated her in the same breath. + +"She is going to make you marry her son, too. She told her daughter +that she was determined to bring that about, so he might share your +fortune," Susette remarked at this juncture. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"PLEASE BUY MY DIAMOND NECKLACE," SAID KATHLEEN. + + + I've no mother, now I'm weeping-- + She has left me here alone; + She beneath the sod is sleeping, + Now there is no joy at home. + _Old Song_. + + +Before Kathleen could reply, the door opened softly and Helen Fox came +in with two letters in her hand. Kissing Kathleen good morning, she +exclaimed: + +"What do you think? The postman has just brought me a proposal!" + +"From Loyal Graham?" queried her friend. + +Helen blushed up to her eyes, but answered, gayly: + +"No, indeed--from Teddy Darrell." + +Kathleen arched her black eyebrows in surprise. + +"Teddy Darrell! Why, he proposed to _me_ last week," she said. + +"And did he ask you to keep it a _secret_?" asked Helen, consulting her +letter, her blue eyes dancing with fun. + +"Yes, he did, now that I recall it. Oh, my! I'm sorry I mentioned it; +but you took me by surprise." + +"There's no harm done, my dear, and you need not look so +conscience-stricken. Bless you, I don't mean to keep it a secret, +although he prays me here to do so. Why, Teddy Darrell is the worst +flirt in Boston, and proposes to a new girl every week, always trying +to keep the new love a secret from the old one." + +"But does no one ever accept him, Helen?" + +"Perhaps. I don't know, I'm sure I sha'n't, and I'm just dying to tell +the girls. Why, only last week we were comparing notes over him, and +out of seven girls in the crowd he had asked five to marry him. Maud +Sylvester said I'd be the next one on his list, and you see I am." + +"But how can he fall in love so often?" queried Kathleen, laughing. + +"He's very susceptible, I suppose, or maybe it's all in fun. You know +some young men like to be engaged to several girls at once, so they +can boast of their conquests, and maybe he's one of them. Well, I must +lacerate his poor heart by a refusal," with a mock sigh. + +"Who will be his next victim?" asked Kathleen. + +"Either Maud Sylvester or Katie Wells. One is an actress, the other a +novelist. He is wild over both fraternities." + +"How amusing!" laughed her friend. "But your other letter, Helen? Is it +another proposal?" + +"No; this is an invitation to attend a flower show." + +"From Loyal Graham?" + +"Ye-es," Helen answered, a little consciously. "But, Kathleen, how pale +you are! Did you not sleep well?" + +"No; I was restless," answered the girl. + +She debated within herself whether she ought to tell Helen of the news +Susette had brought. She concluded that she would not just yet. + +"Come, we will go down to breakfast, dear," Helen said, drawing an arm +through Kathleen's to lead her away. + +"Susette, you need not go back yet. I shall want you after a while," +said Kathleen, and the maid remained very willingly. + +Down-stairs Kathleen smiled, talked, ate, and drank in a mechanical +fashion. She was busy revolving schemes for escaping her threatening +fate. + +Kathleen had not been home from school more than six months. The idea +of returning to it, and leaving the social whirl, that as yet was so +new and charming, was not to be tolerated. + +"And just as I had met Ralph Chainey, too," she said to herself, in +keen dismay. + +Her mind was on a rack of torture. She was afraid that open rebellion +would not avail. Her foe was keen and subtle. She would employ strategy +to compass her ends. + +"I ought to meet her with her own weapons," she thought; and all at +once she began to wonder if she could not quietly get away and go South +to her dead mother's relatives, there to remain until the return of her +father should make her safe from persecution. + +Two hours later Kathleen bade her friends good-morning, and walked away +with Susette, as they supposed, toward her home. Little did Helen Fox, +as she gazed with loving eyes after her beautiful form, dream of the +tragic doom hanging over Kathleen Carew. + +"Susette, I am not going home with you," she said. + +The maid looked inquiringly into the beautiful young face, and Kathleen +added, determinedly: + +"I am going straight to the station, where I shall take the train and +go South to my mother's relatives, to remain until papa gets back to +free me from that woman's tyranny." + +"Oh, Miss Kathleen! do you think that will be for the best?" inquired +Susette, timorously. + +"Of course it will, Susette; for they will be kind to me for my dead +mother's sake." + +"And you will have me to pet you and care for you?" said the +affectionate maid. + +"I can not take you with me, Susette; for it might get you into +trouble, you good soul, and I don't want to do that. I can take care of +myself, never fear. No, you are to go straight back home and say that +I sent you, and will follow presently." + +Susette began to sob dismally, and Kathleen had to draw her aside into +a pretty little park where they seated themselves, and talked softly +for some time. Then Kathleen arose, and pressed her sweet rosy lips to +the woman's wet cheeks. + +"Now good-bye for a few weeks only, Susette, dear; for as soon as +papa returns I'll be back. If Mrs. Carew turns you out, go to Helen +Fox and ask her to give you employment while I am away. She will do +it for my sake, I know. And I'll write to you at Helen's as soon as I +get to Richmond. How fortunate that I have my diamonds with me, for +I can go to the jeweler's and sell enough to carry me on my journey. +Oh, Susette, don't sob so, please, dear! Good-bye; God bless you!" She +signaled a passing cab, gave the order: "Golden & Glitter's, Tremont +Street," and was driven swiftly away. + +It was a bright, cool morning in April, and Tremont Street was thronged +with shoppers and business people as she stepped out of the cab in +front of the jeweler's elegant shop. + +Bidding the cab wait, the young girl drew down her lace veil and +entered without noticing, in her preoccupation, the tall, blonde young +man, with a small satchel in his hand, who was intently gazing into the +jeweler's window with a covetous gleam in his pale, dull-blue eyes. + +But the young man's eyes turned aside from the contemplation of the +treasures displayed within the heavy plate-glass window and fastened on +the beautiful young girl with her patrician air and elegant costume. + +"Kathleen, as I live!" he exclaimed, with a violent start, and followed +her stealthily into the shop. + +The elegant place was thronged with shoppers, and he mingled with them, +keeping close to Kathleen, although unobserved by the object of his +espionage. + +"I wish I had the money that lucky girl is going to spend!" he +muttered, enviously, to himself. + +Kathleen went immediately to the desk of Mr. Golden, the senior partner +of the firm. Drawing a small black case from her pocket, she opened it, +displaying a very pretty diamond necklace. + +"Mr. Golden, of course you remember when papa bought this necklace here +for me," she said, timidly. "He paid five thousand dollars for it, you +know. Well, papa is away"--with a catch in her breath--"and--I--I need +some money very much. Will you do me the favor of buying this back for +whatever you will give me?" + +The kindly white-haired gentleman, drew a check toward him and began to +write rapidly. + +"Will a thousand dollars do you, my dear young lady? Because you can +take that, and leave the necklace as security for the loan. You can +redeem it when your father gets back," he said, beaming genially upon +her, for the Carews were among his best customers. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MURDERED! + + + As I came through the Valley of Despair-- + As I came through the valley, on my sight, + More awful than the darkness of the night, + Shone glimpses of a past that had been fair. + E. W. W. + + +When Kathleen had thanked Mr. Golden for his ready kindness, and +gratefully accepted the check, she hastened to the bank, on the next +block, and had it cashed in some large and a few bills of smaller +denomination. She had left Cabby waiting for her in front of the +jewelers, telling him that as soon as she returned from the bank she +wanted him to drive her to the station, to take the first train for the +South. + +Accordingly, she returned in a few minutes and sprung into the cab, +little dreaming that she was watched and followed by the tall, blonde +young man who had recognized her when she had alighted at Golden & +Glitter's, and followed her into the store. + +He had secured a cab for himself, and was following fast upon her track. + +"Now, what is up with the heiress? Must be an elopement. Egad! Alpine +told me she was in love with a handsome actor, and that the _mater_ +was going to take her back to school to save her for me. Deuce take +her! I don't want her, only for the money she'll get from old Carew. +I was always afraid of those snapping black eyes of hers. I'd rather +have that little blue-eyed New York ballet dancer of mine, in spite of +her extravagance. A thousand dollars--a cool thousand! That's what the +little minx wants me to give her now, or----But I won't think of that; +it makes me savage. A thousand dollars! That's what Kathleen Carew has +in her purse this moment, besides the diamond on her finger, and her +ear-rings--real diamonds inside the little gold balls she wears snapped +over them in daytime. I wish I had 'em for my little duck! Wouldn't she +be sweet with great sparklers in her pink ears! And to think that the +_mater_ refused me the check I begged her for this morning, and she +rolling in old Carew's money, while her only son could not keep up any +style at all only for gambling!" ran the tenor of his thoughts, as he +pursued hapless Kathleen to the station, making up his mind that she +was about to elope, and grimly determining that she should purchase +his silence with her money and jewels. "And cheap getting off like +that, when I might take her back to mother and keep her for myself. +Egad! maybe the actor will pay me something on his own account; d--n +the lucky rascal!" he muttered. + +To his amazement, no person met Kathleen at the station. She bought her +ticket alone, and entered the parlor car of the vestibule train going +South. + +"To Richmond, hey? Running away alone, and to those poor relations of +hers, I'll be bound. No chance, then, of getting any of her boodle +for my dearie. She will need it all, for they say the Franklyns, her +mother's relations, are poor as Job's turkey hen. Well, I'll follow, +and we'll see if anything turns up to my advantage;" and, buying a +ticket as far as Philadelphia, he entered the train, after first +disguising himself by taking from his hand satchel and putting on a +dark wig and dark, heavy whiskers. + +The train rushed on and on through the land; but Kathleen, sobbing +under her veil, took no heed of time. Day passed, and it was far into +the night. The train rushed into a lonely woodland station, snorted and +stopped, while the conductor shouted: + +"Passengers for the South change cars here!" + +Kathleen and a single gentleman seemed the only Southern passengers. +They groped their way out into the darkness of the starless night. +The other train was waiting on the other side of a small wooden +depot. Kathleen, confused by the strangeness and darkness, staggered +shiveringly forward on the muddy path, alone, and frightened at the +solitude. + +A stealthy step behind her, two throttling hands at her throat +smothering her startled cry. She was thrown violently down, the jewels +wrenched from her hands and ears, the purse from her dress; then the +black-hearted murderer fled toward the waiting train, leaving his +victim for dead upon the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AT DEAD OF NIGHT. + + + I gaze on her frozen face, + Her mystical, sightless eyes. + And now--even now--her grace + The power of death defies. + W. J. BENNERS, JR. + + +Kathleen lay still and white under the starless sky, like one dead, and +there was no one to come to her rescue, for the telegraph operator, +busy at his instrument, dreamed not of her proximity, and at this hour +of the night there were no loiterers about in the village. Swiftly and +silently had the fiend escaped, and it was most probable that day would +dawn ere any one would discover the beautiful girl lying out there in +the rear of the depot upon the damp, muddy ground, dead and cold. + +But to return to Boston, which our heroine had so unceremoniously +quitted. + +Her last thought as the train steamed away with her was of Ralph +Chainey, the handsome actor, who had looked so tenderly into her eyes, +and who had whispered as he held her hand at parting: "I hope we shall +meet again." + +Her tears had started at the memory. + +"It is all over," she sighed. "He will be gone away from Boston before +I go back, and I shall never see him again." + +But at that very moment events were shaping themselves in Ralph +Chainey's life so as to bring him to her side again. + +In his room at the Thorndike Hotel he was reading a telegram that said: + +"Come at once. Fedora is ill--perhaps dying." + +His handsome face grew grave and troubled. Throwing down the telegram, +he sought his manager. + +"Every engagement for this week must be canceled. I must go South on +the first train." + +"But, my dear Mr. Chainey, the loss will amount to thousands of +dollars," expostulated the reluctant manager. + +"No matter; let the loss be mine. A--some one--is--ill--dying. I must +go." + +"I am very sorry. We were having a splendid success here," sighed the +manager; but his regrets did not deter the young man from going. + +Two hours after Kathleen had left Boston, he drove up to the same +station where she had taken the train for the South, and entered +another one going in the same direction. + +Meanwhile, Susette sauntered back to Beacon Street with the message +Kathleen had dictated--she would be at home later on. + +Mrs. Carew was indignant. She had been planning to take Kathleen away +by the noon train. Her trunk, already strapped and corded, stood in the +hall. + +Susette received a severe scolding for leaving her young mistress, but +she did not seem much affected by it. + +"She is my mistress, and I should not dare to disobey her orders," she +replied, and walked out of the room. + +"What shall you do now?" asked Alpine, curiously. + +"I must wait and take her on a later train." + +Ringing a bell, she sent her own maid to Commonwealth Avenue, to bring +home her tardy step-daughter. + +Ellen returned with the news that Kathleen had left Mrs. Fox's several +hours ago. + +"And with Susette, too," said the elderly maid, sourly; for she +cherished a secret grudge against Kathleen's maid, who was younger than +herself, better looking, and had insnared the affections of James, the +butler. + +Susette was recalled. On being questioned, she readily admitted that +Kathleen had started home with her, but sent her on ahead, promising to +follow. + +While the angry step-mother stormed and raved over Kathleen's +willfulness, awaiting her return in impotent anger, the young girl was +flying fast from her tyranny, and nearer to the fate that loomed darkly +in the near future. + + * * * * * + +The flying train sped on through the night with Ralph Chainey. He had +thrown himself down dressed upon his berth, for the porter had told him +that he would have to change cars at midnight. + +He was restless and troubled. No sleep visited his eyes. In spite of +himself, his thought turned back to Boston--to Kathleen Carew. She +haunted him with her musical voice and luring eyes. At last a deep +groan forced itself through his lips. + +"I would to Heaven we had never met!" he exclaimed, in a tone of deep +despair. + +Pushing back the light curtain, he looked out into the night. It had +grown cold and bleak. A light patter of mingled rain and snow was +beating against the window. + +"How dreary!" the young man murmured, with a shudder; and added, in a +sort of awe: "Dying! can that be true?" + +The porter, who was very attentive--the result of a liberal tip--came +and put his head between the curtains. + +"We change cars at the next station, Mr. Chainey, and that's but a few +miles away. You'd better be getting ready." + +Ralph came into the little reception-room, and the man assisted him +into his overcoat. A few minutes more, and the train was slowing up at +the lonely station. + +"You're the only person getting off, sir. Good-night, sir; a pleasant +journey!" + +The porter handed out Ralph's valise, and he stepped down into the +darkness, while the train went its way. + +"But where the dickens is the other one?" soliloquized the young man, +standing still a moment, the light snow pelting his face, while he +peered into the darkness for the locomotive's head-light. "It must be +behind that little depot. Here goes for a tour of investigation!" and +with his valise in hand, he strode forward in the darkness, hardly +knowing where he went, and wondering at the scarcity of railway +officials and light. + +"The train can't be here. It is probably late," he thought, and then +his foot tripped, and he fell headlong over a body lying in his path. + +A shudder of nameless horror shook the young man as he scrambled to an +erect position, muttering: + +"Good heavens! a woman, I know, from the silken garments. Now, what is +she doing out here on the ground in this Cimmerian darkness, with the +snow coming down in a fury?" He raised his voice and shouted loudly: +"Halloo, halloo!" + +The closed door of the depot, with its one blinking lighted window, +opened, and then the form of a man appeared in the opening. + +"Who is it, and what's the matter?" he exclaimed, shortly. + +"Bring a lantern out here. I've found a woman dead in the snow!" was +the startling answer. + +Ralph had knelt down and felt the face and hands of the motionless +woman. They were cold as ice, and he realized that she was dead. + +"Horrible!" he murmured, and while he waited for the man to come with +the lantern little thrills of awe ran through him. The flesh he had +touched was firm and young, the hair was soft and curly, the garments +silken. Who was she, and why was she out here under the night sky, cold +and dead? + +The depot agent came hurrying out through the driving snow, and flashed +the light of his lantern full into their faces, for Ralph was still +kneeling down by the motionless form. + +"Who are you, and what is the row?" he inquired, curiously, but Ralph +did not reply. + +He was gazing in terror at the silent face with its closed eyes that +lay so pale and still before him, wet with the falling snow, the +bronze curls tangled on the forehead, drops of blood congealed on the +exquisitely-formed ears; and, oh, horror! the white throat and chin had +dark crimson finger-marks upon them. The small velvet hat had fallen +off, the dress pocket was turned inside out, one hand had the glove +torn off, and was wounded where a ring had been wrenched from it. + +"Oh, Heaven!" groaned Ralph Chainey, in a low voice of shuddering +horror, and the man exclaimed: + +"Why, this looks like robbery and murder! See, her pocket has been +turned inside out, a ring has been torn from her finger--a diamond, +very likely--and her ears are bleeding where her ear-rings have been +torn out! Look at the red marks on her throat! Good Lord; she has +certainly been choked and robbed by some devil in human shape! Mister, +who are you, and where did you come from, and how did you find her?" + +Ralph Chainey, whose face had grown as white as the dead one before +him, did not reply save by a second groan of unutterable horror. He was +wringing his hands in dismay, and the expression of his eyes was one +of bitterest anguish. Not until the man shook him by the shoulder, and +plied him over and over with questions, did he reply, telling him in +disjointed sentences the simple truth of how he came there, and adding: + +"If I am not mistaken, she is Miss Carew, a young Boston lady, whom I +met there only last night. How she came here, what is the mystery of +this, I can not understand." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE FATAL TELEGRAM. + + + "The young village maid, when with flowers she dresses + Her dark, flowing hair for some festival day, + Will think of thy face till, neglecting her tresses, + She mournfully turns from the mirror away." + + +"Poor thing! she must have been a beauty," the railway employé said, as +he contemplated Kathleen's cold and beautiful face. "Come, let us carry +her into the house and get a doctor. Maybe she ain't really dead, only +swooned," he continued, hopefully; and between them they bore her in, +and laid her on a bench made soft with their overcoats. + +Then the man ran to his instrument, which was ticking busily away, and +directly said: + +"Your train is several hours late, sir; so if you'll stay here, I'll +run and fetch a doctor." + +He flashed out at the door, and in the illy-lighted, shabby little +waiting-room Ralph Chainey was alone with beautiful dead Kathleen, so +cruelly murdered. + +He knelt down by her side in an agony of dumb despair. He gazed through +blinding tears upon the sweet white face; he took her cold, white hand +and kissed the wound upon it, and then he whispered, as if she could +hear him: + +"Beautiful Kathleen! you will never know now how dearly I have loved +you since first I saw your face! You are dead--dead! and soon the dark +earth will cover you away forever from the sight of men. Ah! if only +those dead lips could unclose long enough to tell me the name of your +dastardly murderer, I would pursue him to the ends of the earth, but +that I would bring him to punishment!" + +He bent his head until his pale lips touched the rigid ones of the +dead girl. They were icy cold, but the soft curls of bright hair that +lightly brushed his forehead, how soft, how silken, how alive, they +felt! But she was dead--this girl who had blushed last night beneath +his glance, whose voice had been so sweet and low when she spoke to him. + + "Ah, Fate is a cruel lord, + A tyrant at best his rule; + And we learn by sin and sword + While here in his rigid school. + Ah, me. I left her with hopes beguiled, + We parted, and Fate looked on and smiled." + +The shock and horror of the occasion began to overcome him, strong man +as he was; and his head reeled; consciousness forsook him. He fell in +a crouching position upon the floor, where he lay until the doctor +entered, followed by his gentle, girlish wife. + +"Oh, the dear, sweet, pretty creature! what an awful way for her to +meet such a fate! The murderer ought to be burned at the stake!" +exclaimed the young wife, sorrowfully, and her tears fell fast on +Kathleen's face. + +Doctor Churchman examined the girl's throat carefully, and said, with a +deep sigh: + +"Poor thing, she is quite dead! There is nothing I can do for her but +to carry her over to our house and take care of the body until her +friends come." + +A deep groan startled him, and Ralph Chainey staggered dizzily to his +feet. + +"Ah, sir! so you have recognized this young woman, Dickson tells me. +Well, please dictate a telegraph message to her friends at once," +Doctor Churchman said to him, gently, for the despairing look on the +young man's face touched him with sympathy. + +"He must have been in love with the murdered girl," he said to himself. + +Ralph went into the little office and sent a message off to Mrs. +Carew's address: + + "I have found Kathleen Carew here dead under very mysterious + circumstances. Please come immediately, as I am compelled to leave." + +By one of those strange rulings of fate that so startle us at times, a +mistake was made at the Boston office in taking the message, and when +received by Mrs. Carew the telegram ran thus: + + "I have married Kathleen Carew, and nothing can change it. Please God + in Heaven, I am comforted to know it." + +Mrs. Carew raved with anger, and the very next day the Boston papers +published, as a sensational item, Miss Carew's elopement and marriage +to the handsome actor, who charmed all women's hearts out of their +keeping--Ralph Washburn Chainey. + +Mrs. Carew's active malice could invent but one sting for the heart of +her step-daughter at so short a notice. She cabled at once to Vincent +Carew in London a garbled account of Kathleen's elopement with an +actor, one of the lowest and most unprincipled professionals who had +ever disgraced the stage. + +Vincent Carew had just been buying his ticket to return to America. +His health was restored, and his heart ached for a sight of his bonny +Kathleen, his beloved daughter. + +Close against his heart lay her picture, and her last sweet, loving +letter, in which she implored him to come home to his unhappy child. +She did not mention her step-mother's unkindness, but a vague suspicion +stirred within him and prompted his speedy return. + +His ticket was bought, his luggage, with so many beautiful gifts for +Kathleen stored in it, was sent down to the steamer. He smiled as he +thought of the surprise in store for his "home folks." + +Upon this complacent mood came the malicious cablegram from his irate +wife. + +The revulsion from his pleasant mood to keen wrath was terrible. + +Vincent Carew had a dislike to actors in general, of which no one +understood the origin. + +The thought of his bonny Kathleen married to one of this abhorred class +drove the proud man beside himself with shame and rage. For an hour he +raged and stormed about his room until he was on the verge of apoplexy. + +Having exhausted the first fury of his anger, he flung himself into a +cab and was driven in haste to a lawyer's office. + +His last act on leaving England was to execute his last will and +testament, in which he angrily disinherited Kathleen, his only +child. Leaving the document with the lawyer for safe keeping, with +instructions to forward it to America in case of his loss at sea, the +angry man was driven down to the steamer, and embarked for home--the +home that would be so lonely now without the light of Kathleen's +starry, dark eyes. + +Did he repent his harsh and hasty deed, that haughty man, as he +paced the steamer's deck those long moonlight nights thinking of +his dead wife--lovely, childish Zaidee--and the daughter she had +left him--willful, spirited Kathleen? Did he shudder with fear as he +remembered that should anything happen to him at sea, the cruel will +that disinherited the young girl would be irrevocable? Or did he gloat +over the prospect of her sufferings with her impecunious husband? No +one knew, for in his bitter trouble and humiliation he stood proudly +aloof from all, cultivating no one's friendship, seemingly absorbed in +his own thoughts, until _that_ night--that night of awful storm and +darkness--when fatal disaster overtook the good ship _Urania_, and she +was burned at sea, her fate sending a thrill of horror through the +heart of the world when the tidings became known with Vincent Carew's +name among the lost. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"KATHLEEN, I SWEAR THAT I WILL AVENGE YOUR MURDER!" + + + My idol is dead--my queen! + I stand by her frozen clay, + And bitterly wail, "Kathleen, + Come back to my heart, I pray!" + But only the moaning storm winds sigh, + "Come back, come back!" as they hurry by. + W. J. BENNERS, JR. + + +Gentle, womanly hands prepared lovely, hapless Kathleen for the grave, +and she was laid upon a white bier in Doctor Churchman's pretty parlor. +Very pale and beautiful she looked, and as Ralph Chainey bent over her +for one farewell look, she did not seem like one dead, but just asleep. +It even seemed as though the white flowers on her breast moved softly, +as with a gentle breath; but when he hastened to hold a mirror over her +lips, it remained clear, without any moisture. He laid it down with a +bitter groan. + +His delayed train would arrive in a few moments and he was compelled to +leave the dead girl's side for a death-bed. He must leave Kathleen here +with these kind, sympathetic people; but he would return as soon as +he could; for there must be an inquest, at which he must be the chief +witness. + +He wondered how her relatives would take it--her stately step-mother, +her pretty step-sister, who had told him such unblushing falsehoods +about Kathleen. + +"Helen Fox will be sorry, I know, for she loved Kathleen dearly," he +murmured aloud. Tears fell from his beautiful brown eyes upon the +angelic face, and he went on talking to the girl in a low monotone, +almost forgetting that she could not hear him, or perhaps fancying that +her gentle spirit hovered near: "My darling, you will never know how +dearly I loved you, nor how I shall mourn you all my life long! Once I +saved your life and oh! why did not Heaven give me that joy again? Why +did I come too late to-night?" With a groan, he laid his hand softly +on the one that clasped the white flowers on her breast, and added: +"Kathleen, I swear that I will avenge your murder, if it takes me all +my life to do it and costs me all my fortune!" + +He bent and pressed his lips on her white brow and her soft curls, took +a white rosebud from under her pulseless hand and placed it in his +breast, then he was gone. Presently, when the excited villagers began +filing in to look at the murdered girl, they saw a tear-drop that had +fallen from his eyes glittering like a pearl on the bosom of her black +silk dress. + +The little community was wild with horror and excitement at the finding +of the murdered girl in their midst, and when it became known that she +had been recognized as a great Boston heiress, the _furore_ became +even greater. The telegraph wires flashed the news from town to city, +and the newspapers that one day had chronicled the news of Kathleen's +elopement, printed twenty-four hours afterward in flaring head-lines +the awful story of her robbery and murder. + +Even Mrs. Carew, wicked as she was, paled to the lips as she read it, +and Alpine fainted outright. Weak, selfish, cruel as the girl was, she +had cared for Kathleen more than she knew. The girl's charms had won +upon her, in spite of herself. + +"Good heavens! that actor, he has robbed and murdered her, the fiend!" +Mrs. Carew cried, violently. "He is even worse than I thought!" + +"I do not believe it, mamma. There is some mistake--there must be. +Ralph Chainey was a gentleman, and rich in his own right," Alpine +answered, speaking the truth for once. + +Like every one else, she admired the young actor, and though his +preference for Kathleen had angered her, she was not prepared to do +him the flagrant injustice of believing him as wicked as her mother +asserted. + +There was a moment's silence; then Mrs. Carew exclaimed, with a +startled air: + +"Good heavens, Alpine! think what this means to us! Kathleen dead, the +whole Carew fortune is ours!" + +Alpine had the grace to be ashamed. + +"How can you think of that _now_?" she exclaimed, reproachfully. "I--I +had rather know that--that Kathleen was alive than have the wealth of +the Vanderbilts!" + +Then she burst into tears and left the room in a hurry. + +Mrs. Carew looked after her aghast. + +"I did not think she would take it so hard, but then I always suspected +her at times of a sneaking fondness for that black-eyed witch," she +mused. "Well, I don't mind. It will look better in society, a little +real grief on Alpine's part. As for me, I'm glad she's out of the way, +and the Carew wealth assured to me and mine." + +She gave a low laugh of satisfaction, but her hands were shaking with +excitement, and her heart fluttered strangely. She was recalling the +coincidence of Kathleen's and her mother's deaths--both at nearly the +same age--sixteen--and both by violent means. + +The maid came so suddenly into the room that it gave her a violent +shock. She started and looked around angrily. + +"Why do you enter the room so rudely, without knocking, Ellen?" + +"I beg pardon, madame. I knocked, but you did not hear, so I made bold +to enter, because Miss Belmont sent me in a hurry." + +"Well?" + +"She desires to know if I shall get your things ready to go after Miss +Carew's body?" + +The woman spoke in an unmoved tone. Her mistress had taught her to hate +the fair young heiress. + +"She means to go?" interrogated Mrs. Carew. + +"She is getting ready, madame, and told me you were going." + +"Yes, of course, Ellen. In the absence of my husband and son, it is my +harrowing duty." Mrs. Carew put her handkerchief to her dry eyes and +sighed: "Make haste, Ellen." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ANOTHER MYSTERY. + + + "Ah, you or I must look + Into the other's coffin, far or near, + And read, as in a book, + Words we made bitter here, + Some time!" + + +There was a little flutter of excitement at Doctor Churchman's pretty +cottage. + +The Carews had at last arrived, after being vainly looked for for more +than two days, and their aristocratic airs and their stylish maid +created quite a sensation. + +Kathleen was waiting for them in the little parlor--Kathleen with shut +eyes and pallid lips and folded, waxen hands--so unlike the brilliant +beauty they remembered, with this awful calm upon her face. + +They gazed upon her, and Mrs. Carew's lips twitched nervously, while +Alpine wept genuine tears, remembering remorsefully how kind Kathleen +had been, and how illy she had repaid her goodness. + +Ralph had not come yet, but a telegram from Richmond had arrived +announcing that he would come early in the morning when arrangements +had been made to hold an inquest. + +Mrs. Churchman placed rooms at the service of the ladies and they +retired early, pleading fatigue, but really to talk over all that they +had heard. + +They had inquired as to the strange telegram that had been received, +and learned the true contents of it. They knew now that it was of +Kathleen's death, not her marriage, they had been informed. + +"She must have arrived here on an earlier train than Mr. Chainey, +so she was evidently running away from home," said Mrs. Carew, and +she added: "I think that wicked Susette eavesdropped and blabbed my +intentions to her mistress." + +"It is very likely," said Alpine, dejectedly. She was sitting with her +pale cheek in her hand, thinking of the dead girl down-stairs whom she +had been taught to hate and envy. The latter had come easy enough, +the former was a lesson not so easily learned. She wished now, in her +sudden accession of remorse, that she had let herself love winsome +Kathleen, whom it was so hard to hate. + +An exquisite casket had been ordered, in which Kathleen was now resting +easily like one asleep. Although she had been two days dead, there was +no sign of change about her. Beautiful and fair as a flawless pearl lay +Kathleen in her last sleep. + +"Immediately after the inquest to-morrow, we will remove the body to +Boston for burial," Mrs. Carew had said in her haughty manner to Doctor +Churchman. + +As the night advanced, the whole family retired to rest. It was not +deemed necessary to sit up with the corpse. She was left alone in the +open coffin, the lid being placed on a table. Not until after the +inquest would it be fastened down on the murdered girl. + +Alpine Belmont tossed restlessly upon her couch by the side of her +sleeping mother. She could not rest, this girl whose conscience had at +last awakened. She was haunted by the ghosts of her evil deeds--the +cruelties she had shown her little step-sister. + +"If she had not run away, she would not have come to this; but we drove +her to it--it was my mother's sin and mine," she thought, fearfully, +for the crimson marks on Kathleen's throat, the wounds on her ears and +fingers had thrilled her with horror. + +She was not usually romantic, this girl, but Kathleen's horrible fate +had terribly unnerved her. A strange impulse came to her to go down +alone to the parlor, to stand by that open coffin, and beg Kathleen to +forgive her all the wicked past. + +"She will hear me, for the spiritualists tell us that the souls of +the dead remain at first near their unburied bodies," she thought, +superstitiously; and, obeying her impulse, rose, slipped on a +dressing-gown, and drawn by an awful and irresistible yearning, sought +the presence of the dead. + +It was but a few moments more before the whole household was aroused by +piercing shrieks. They rushed to the parlor and found Alpine screaming +beside an _empty coffin_! + +Kathleen Carew had disappeared as mysteriously as if her body had +followed her soul to Heaven. + +The gray light of dawn was stealing in through the windows, and by that +light they saw some withered roses lying on the floor. Last night they +had lain on Kathleen's breast. The hall door stood wide open, and a +terrible suspicion came into Doctor Churchman's mind. + +The beautiful corpse had been stolen by unscrupulous parties, either +for the purpose of a ransom from rich relations or for the horrible +uses of a medical college. + +"I could not sleep, so I came down here to look at her again, and she +was gone," sobbed Alpine, in hysterical dismay. + +Searchers were organized in haste, but no clew was found, and when +Ralph Chainey came it was to be confronted with this mysterious case. +He almost went wild with agony; he employed the cleverest detectives +unavailingly. Mrs. Carew grew tired of the search, gave it up, and went +back to Boston, congratulating herself in secret that she would not be +at the expense and trouble of a funeral for her hated step-daughter. + +Following fast upon this event came the news of the _Urania's_ loss at +sea, being burned to the water's edge, with all on board. + +Soon after a cablegram from a London lawyer made the widow acquainted +with the fact of her husband's recent will, under whose provisions all +Vincent Carew's wealth was divided between his wife and her daughter, +disinheriting Kathleen for her disobedience, and making no mention of +his prodigal step-son, whom he had cordially despised. + +Alpine was delighted with her good fortune, and her mercurial +temperament began to recover itself from the shock it had sustained in +Kathleen's loss. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A STRANGE FATE. + + + I never thought that I should see thine eyelids shut in death, + Thy bright brow cold, thy spirit quenched that glowed and bloomed + beneath. + SUMNER LINCOLN FAIRFIELD. + + +Poor Kathleen! she had passed through a strange and terrible experience. + +On that night when she had been so suddenly choked and robbed by an +unseen foe, the young girl had swooned from terror. + +That quick relapse into unconsciousness had saved her life. + +Thinking her dead, the murderer had relaxed his hold on her throat, and +throwing her roughly from him, escaped with his booty in time to board +the other train. + +Kathleen, by one of those strange psychological conditions sometimes +induced by severe mental strain or shock, passed from her swoon into a +state of coma or trance. Through the two nights and one day in which +she lay thus, her senses seemed to be preternaturally acute, although +her bodily faculties were bound in iron bands of inaction. + +What was her agony during the two hours when she lay alone in the murky +darkness and the snow and rain--what her joy when the voice of her +beloved penetrated her senses! + +Saved, saved! And by _him_! How she longed to speak--to utter aloud her +joy and relief; but she could not voice her gladness--she could only +lie passive and inert, and hear him proclaim her dead in a voice of the +bitterest despair. + +Oh, the blended rapture and agony of those hours! To lie still like a +stone, mute, moveless, and hear _his_ voice breathing his love for +her, feel his kisses on her cold face and hands! + +She longed with a terrible yearning to move, to stir beneath his touch, +to cry out to him that she was alive, that she loved him even as he +loved her; but her body seemed to be as entirely dead as her soul was +alive--alive and in agony. + +She knew that strangers came and went; that they talked of her as +dead; that they spoke of her beauty in pitying admiration; that they +shuddered at the red finger-marks on her throat, the wounds on her +hands and ears where her jewels had been torn away. She felt tears fall +often on her cold white face; she heard them talk of an inquest on the +morrow, and wonder if her relations from Boston would soon arrive. + +Then came the moment when Ralph Chainey had to tear himself away +from her. She heard gentle Mrs. Churchman talking to him about her, +and saying that she was not changed in the least--she was a very +natural-looking corpse. + +It seemed to the girl as if her heart leaped wildly enough to stir the +flowers on her breast at that awful word. + +A corpse! + +That was what they called her--when she was so full of agonized +life! Why could they not see that she was not dead? They said she +was unchanged. Why did they not suspect the truth, that she was in a +trance, not dead? + +Then the doctor's wife went out and left Ralph Chainey alone with +the lovely corpse. Then it was he kissed her brow and hands, and +his tears fell on her face. She heard him utter words of love and +of farewell. She knew that he took a flower from under her hand +and went away, and then she realized that the man she loved better +than any one else in the world had gone away and left her to her +fate. No one else would greatly care if she were dead or living. +Perhaps--they--would--bury--her--alive! + +At this stage of thought Kathleen seemed to die indeed. Her acute +consciousness of everything became mercifully suspended; she did not +know who came or went; she did not know when she was placed in the +elegant casket, with its silver plate bearing her name; she did not +know when the two women, her step-mother and step-sister, came and +looked at her in her pallid, silent beauty. All was a merciful blank. + +Then the lamp was turned down to a weak glimmer, and they left her +alone until the morrow. Mrs. Carew went upstairs to be with her secret, +silent exultation, Alpine with her keen, stinging remorse. + +The hours crept on toward midnight, and if any one had been there to +notice, they would have seen a marked change on the face of the girl in +the coffin. + +The complexion had lost its deadly pallor and become more life-like in +its hue. The breast was faintly heaving, the beautiful veil of long, +curling black lashes was fluttering faintly against the cheeks. + +Suddenly the black lashes rolled upward; a pair of large, glorious +dark eyes were revealed. In them was for a moment the blankness of one +rousing from a deep sleep. + +Then Kathleen weakly lifted her hands, and as they dropped at her +sides they touched the cold, metallic edges of the casket. A low, +inarticulate cry came from her lips, and she rose upright, staring +about her with bewildered eyes. + +She comprehended that she was about to be buried alive. Nothing +returned to her yet of the past--everything merged itself into one +startling consciousness of utter horror, and with a blind instinct of +fear struggling in her dazed mind, Kathleen climbed down out of the +casket, that stood on long trestles, and escaped from the house. + +Doctor Churchman was attending a patient in the neighborhood, and the +front hall door was unlocked. Kathleen tore it open with a shaking +hand and ran out into the street. A white flood of moonlight shone +down upon the sleeping town, but no one noticed the black clad figure, +bareheaded, with white flowers falling from its breast, running along +with terror-winged feet toward the open highway, until out of sight of +the glimmering white houses. + +Just as Kathleen emerged into the open country, she saw lights flashing +in the gloom, and several men who seemed to be searching for something +or some one. She shrunk back in alarm, but she was too late. They had +seen her, and came toward her with eager shouts and made her a prisoner. + +"It is she!" exclaimed one. "See, she answers the description +exactly--young, pretty, dark eyes, light hair, and a black silk dress!" + +"I do not know you. What do you want with me?" wailed Kathleen, +wringing her little white hands piteously. + +But they did not answer her. They dragged her away from the spot and +placed her in a waiting carriage. Then they drove away, and one of them +said, significantly: + +"She is so exhausted by her long tramp that she will not be violent, +and we shall get her back to the asylum without any trouble." + +Kathleen did not notice what they said. She was so dazed and frightened +by her troubles that her memory was almost gone. She put her white +hands to her brow and tried to recall her wandering thoughts, to +remember her name, and why she was here. But she could not do +it--everything was cloudy and vague. With a helpless, fluttering sigh, +she resigned herself to her strange fate, and crouched shiveringly into +the corner of the carriage that lumbered along the country road a good +seven miles before it came to a standstill before a large, gloomy, +prison-like building. + +It was a lunatic asylum, and hapless Kathleen had rushed upon a strange +fate. + +A handsome young woman, who had gone mad over the treachery of a false +lover, was being conveyed to the asylum, and had cunningly eluded +her keepers and escaped into the woods. A reward was offered for her +apprehension, and a large number of men had formed themselves into +searching parties. As none of them had seen her, and she answered +perfectly to the description, one of these parties had taken Kathleen +into custody. At the asylum it was the same way. No one had seen her, +so the captive was accepted without any doubts as to her identity, her +hatless condition and dazed manners keeping up the illusion of her +insanity. The men received their reward and went away, never doubting +that they had found the right girl. + +Kathleen was put to bed in a small cell by a kind but illiterate +attendant, and, still dazed and dumb with horror, sunk into a deep +sleep. Food had been offered her, and she had eaten a very little, +then pushed it away with a repellant gesture. After that, she was left +alone, and slept wearily for long hours, awaking refreshed and in her +right mind. + +She could remember everything now--her flight from home, her journey +that had been interrupted by her terrible experience of robbery and +attempted murder. Then the long trance, her terrified revival in +her coffin, and the frenzied flight into the darkness of the chilly +night. All flashed over her mind in the first, walking moment, and she +wondered why those strange men had captured and brought her here to +this strange place. + +"And what a miserable little room and bed; not one quarter as good as +Susette's," she murmured, with a glance of disdain around her at the +tiny cell. + +Alas! she soon became aware of the painful fact that she was an inmate +of an asylum for the insane, was believed to be insane herself, and was +called by the name of Daisy Lynn. + +In vain did Kathleen eagerly assure the attendants, and every one +else that would listen to her tale of woe, that there was a dreadful +mistake--that she was not the girl they thought her, but Kathleen +Carew, of Boston. + +They listened to her with significant smiles, and said to each other: + +"In her wanderings she has heard about that poor murdered girl, and now +assumes her identity." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +POOR DAISY LYNN. + + + Do not ask me why I love him! + Love's cause is to love unknown; + Faithless as the past has proved him, + Once his heart appeared mine own. + LETITIA E. LANDON. + + +Spring, summer, and autumn glided past, and still Kathleen Carew +remained an inmate of the asylum. At first she had been frantic over +her strange fate, and her wild entreaties for freedom had been set +down to real lunacy. The stupid attendant paid no heed to her ravings, +and only laughed when she claimed to be Kathleen Carew, the beautiful +young girl whose murder at Lincoln Station had so stirred up the whole +country. + +They were stupid, and did not read the papers, or they might have seen +the strange story of her disappearance--might have suspected that she +was speaking the truth. + +So the weary months went on, and when Kathleen, after her first wild +ravings against her fate, had given up at last to a sort of sullen +despair, something happened in her favor. + +The matron, startled and alarmed by the appearance of the young girl, +felt her heart stirred to pity, and wrote to her friends: + + "Miss Lynn is no longer a raving maniac, as at first. She has become + silent and melancholy, and looks so worn and ill that I fear she is + slowly dying of a broken heart. I think you ought to take her home + again, and see what home associations will do toward prolonging her + life. She will never be troublesome or violent again; the physician + assures me of that. Indeed, the state she has fallen into is one that + often precedes speedy death, and the poor child ought to have home + comforts and petting, now that she is so very near the end." + +The matron, who had always pitied and admired the beautiful, unhappy +young girl, watched over her tenderly while she waited for the answer +to come to this merciful letter. She was startled at the delicacy of +the young girl's form, that had been so graceful and rounded when she +first came, and the pallor of her face and hands. The great Oriental +dark eyes had become wild and startled, like those of a haunted fawn, +and her voice when she spoke was low and tremulous, and had the sound +of tears in its music. + +When the matron gazed at this sweet and lovely young girl she marveled +that any man's heart could have been cold and harsh enough to turn +against such charms and leave that young heart to die of despair, or +madden with its cruel wrongs. + +"She is beautiful and refined enough for a king's bride," the matron +said, with an angry thought of the monster in man's likeness who had +brought the young girl to this pass. + +She waited eagerly for a letter to come from Miss Watts, the girl's +aunt, hoping and praying that she would take her away, and not leave +her to die at the asylum. + +Tears came into her kind old eyes as she thought of herself robing this +beautiful form for the grave, and folding those waxen white hands on +the weary breast for the last long sleep. + +She did not tell Kathleen she had written to her aunt to take her away, +because she feared the effect of a disappointment. She waited silently, +and at last the letter came. Miss Watts was an old woman--a soured +old maid, who had not much patience with love and lovers, and who had +been much disgusted with her niece for losing her senses over a man's +perfidy. She was blind, and her pretty niece had been eyes and hands to +her before her trouble. Now she had to depend on servants entirely, +and she was crosser than ever. She grumbled very much at the idea of +her niece's return. + +"A nice place this will be--me blind and Daisy insane," she grumbled; +but the thought of the young girl's fading so fast in the asylum +touched her, and she had her maid to write that the girl might come +home if they were quite, quite sure she was harmless and would not make +any trouble. + +So Mrs. Hoover, the kind-hearted matron, came herself to bring Kathleen +home to her aunt, for she wanted to explain to the old lady the young +girl's strange fancy that she was not Daisy Lynn at all, but Kathleen +Carew, a beautiful young Boston heiress, who had been mysteriously +murdered in the vicinity of the asylum, and of whom the poor lunatic +had chanced to hear in her wanderings. + +So Kathleen came into her new home an utter stranger, but was received +as belonging to it. The servants were new, and the old lady was blind. +She could not see the face of her niece, and she attributed the strange +tone of her voice to her illness. She passed her long, delicate fingers +carefully over Kathleen's face, and exclaimed in surprise at its +delicacy of outline. + +Kathleen overwhelmed Mrs. Hoover with kisses and thanks, and called her +her benefactress for securing her release from the asylum. + +"I should have died or gone mad in reality if I had been kept there +much longer; but now I shall go away from here and find my friends," +she said, hopefully. + +Mrs. Hoover looked very much alarmed at this declaration. + +"My dear, if I had thought you would run away, I would not have +brought you here," she exclaimed, uneasily. + +"But, dear madame, I have no claim on this old lady here, and I must +think of my poor father, who has returned from Europe ere this, I know, +and is mourning me as dead," obstinately answered the pale young girl, +whose heart throbbed wildly at the thought of returning to her home and +friends. + +The good old matron seized the wasted little white hand of the girl, +and patted it tenderly in hers, as she said, remonstratingly: + +"Now, listen to me, Daisy, dear: If you run away from home your aunt +will have you followed and brought back to the asylum, and you know you +would not like that, would you?" + +"I would rather die," sobbed the poor girl, trembling like an aspen +leaf. + +"Then take my advice, and don't do anything rash, dear child. Now +here's a good idea: Stay quietly here, and write to your friends to +come to you here," said the matron, who thought that this would pacify +Kathleen a while. + +"But I wrote to them from the asylum. I wrote and wrote and wrote--all +in vain," sighed the girl. + +"Perhaps your folks were out of town. I would try again," soothed the +matron, who knew that none of those pathetic letters had ever gone +outside the asylum. + +"I will write again," said Kathleen, patiently, for the matron's hints +had sorely frightened her. She did not want to run away and be captured +and taken back to her terrible prison. She resolved to write again; +then, if no answer came, she must dare her fate. Let her but get +safely home and all would be explained, and her pursuers would have to +go away baffled. + +"How angry papa will be when he finds out what horrors his little girl +has endured," she thought, with burning tears. + +So Mrs. Hoover went away, sadly believing that she should never see +the poor, sweet child again; she looked so wan and pallid, as if she +already had "one foot in the grave." + +Then Kathleen, who was left to herself almost all the time, went back +to poor Daisy Lynn's room, and began to write to all her friends. By +night she had quite a pile of letters to post. + +She had written to her father, to Helen Fox, to Alpine Belmont, to +several of her girl friends, to Ralph Chainey, and even to Teddy +Darrell, who had loved her and asked her to marry him. Despite his +flirting propensities, Teddy was a prime favorite with every one +because of his warm heart and good nature. If any one asked Teddy +Darrell to do a favor, he would "go through fire and water" to +accomplish it. Helen Fox was accustomed to say, laughingly, that Teddy +Darrell would try to flirt with a broom-stick if he only saw a woman's +dress on it; but beyond this weakness, which the girls easily forgave, +he was a thoroughly good fellow, with a good figure, handsome face, +and a pair of dark eyes that always laughed their owner into your good +graces. + +"Some of them will get my letters, surely, and come for me," she +thought, as she started out to post her letters. + +Her aunt sent a servant to post them and ordered her back. + +"Reba will always do your errands for you," she said; and Kathleen had +to relinquish them reluctantly to the maid. + +Reba had her instructions, and while Kathleen watched her from the +window, she cleverly pushed some scraps of papers into the letter-box +on the corner, and carried the letters back to Miss Watts, who locked +them into her private desk. + +"It is strange what a fad she has taken into her head!" she thought, +carelessly. + +Kathleen waited with burning impatience for the answers to come to +her letters. She counted the hours it would take for them to go from +Philadelphia to Boston. + +Meanwhile, almost unconsciously to herself, she began to take an +interest in the absent girl whose place she had taken in the asylum, +and in this small, neat home, so different from the splendor to which +she had always been accustomed. + +The little room she occupied, although not luxurious and grand like +her own in her father's mansion on Commonwealth Avenue, was a perfect +bower of maidenly innocence and sweet, loving fancies. The windows were +curtained with white lace looped with rosy ribbons; the brass bedstead +had a white lace canopy; the toilet-table, the lounge, the low chairs, +all repeated the pretty fashion of white lace and rose-pink ribbons, +and the floor was covered with a light-hued carpet strewn with ferns. +Pretty little pictures adorned the mantel and the walls, and the +daintiest kind of a dressing-case was displayed on the toilet-table. +In the drawers were girlish trifles, such as young girls gather about +them, and there was, too, a pretty little diary, at which Kathleen +glanced with tender interest, wondering what was written on those +pages, penned by the hand of a fair young girl, who had gone mad for +love. + +"But it would not be right to read it," she said at first, and would +not touch it, until her loneliness, added to her interest in poor, +missing Daisy Lynn, decided her that it would be no harm to read the +diary. + +She opened it, and a man's photograph fell out into her hands. She +gazed at it with eager curiosity, exclaiming: + +"This must be the false wretch that drove poor Daisy Lynn to madness!" + +Suddenly the girl's face, already so pale and wan, whitened to an ashen +hue, her great dark eyes dilated in a sort of horror, and she flung the +photograph far from her into a distant corner, exclaiming, indignantly: + +"Ivan Belmont, my step-mother's hateful son, whom she wanted me to +marry, so that I might endow him with a fortune." + +It was some time before she could command her nerves sufficiently +to read Daisy Lynn's diary, and then her tears fell freely, for the +story of the young girl's love was all written there, gay and joyous +at first, then sad and plaintive, then drifting into deep despair, +followed by the disjointed ravings of a mind distraught. + +"Oh, how sweet, and then how sad!" exclaimed Kathleen. "Love comes to +all young girls with the same symptoms, I suppose, for I felt just as +she wrote in the first after meeting Ralph Chainey--so gay, so glad, so +joyous. The sky seemed brighter, the flowers sweeter, the whole world +was a new place. There is nothing in the world as sweet as love." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +KATHLEEN'S DESPERATION AND HER ESCAPE. + + + "And then she sang a song + That made the tear-drops start; + She sang of home, sweet home, + The song that reached my heart." + _Popular Song_. + + +Kathleen sighed restlessly as she turned the pages with her little +white hands. + +"Love is sweet, but, oh, how sad it is, too!" she sighed. "Oh, how +cruel it is to love and be beloved again, yet be severed from one's +love by so strange and cruel a fate as mine." + +She read aloud, in a soft, murmuring voice, like sweetest music, some +verses from Daisy Lynn's book: + + "It is the spirit's bitterest pain + To love and be beloved again, + And yet between a gulf that ever + The hearts that burn to meet must sever!" + + * * * * * + + "With me the hope of life is gone, + The sun of joy is set; + One wish my heart still dwells upon, + The wish it could forget! + I would forget that look, that tone, + My heart has all too dearly known. + But who could ever yet efface + From memory love's enduring trace? + All may revolt, all my complain, + But who is there may break the chain?" + +"Poor Daisy Lynn! how could she love Ivan Belmont like that?" exclaimed +Kathleen, in disgust, forgetting that he _was_ a rather handsome man, +and that tastes differ. A longing to see what Daisy Lynn looked like +came over her, and she searched the room in vain for her picture. + +Then she went down and asked Miss Watts if she might see her niece's +photograph. + +The old blind lady looked up with gentle displeasure. + +"Daisy, child, have you no memory of the past?" she exclaimed. "You +know very well that in all your life I have never allowed you to have +your picture taken!" + +"But why not?" asked Kathleen, in wonder. + +"Because it is a sin," replied the old lady, who was rigidly religious. +"Have you forgotten," she continued, "the second commandment that you +used to read every Lord's day at Sabbath-school?" and she repeated, +solemnly: + +"'Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness +of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the +waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship +them.'" + +Kathleen stared in amazement at this liberal interpretation of the +Scriptures, and retired regretting that she could not have the sad +pleasure of gazing on the features of the unfortunate girl in whose +fate her own was so strangely bound up. + +"Poor, poor Daisy Lynn! I wonder what became of her when she escaped +her keeper and wandered abroad that cold, dark night?" she mused; and +she thought that the girl must be dead and at rest from her sorrows. + +A long week of waiting elapsed, but no answer came to Kathleen's +letters. + +Kathleen grew desperate with suspense and trouble. She could no longer +while away the dreary winter days by reading poor Daisy Lynn's novels, +or playing sad melodies on her pretty little piano. She began to pace +up and down the little room for long hours, revolving plans for escape +from Miss Watts. + +The three servants whom the old lady employed guarded the young girl, +by the order of their mistress, as jealously as if she had been a +convict in a penitentiary. All the doors were locked and guarded by +burglar chains. She had appealed to their mercy in vain; and she was +empty-handed and had nothing with which to bribe them. They had been +told she was melancholy mad, and saw no reason to doubt the story. Her +sad, white face, her beautiful dark eyes, in which the tears so often +gathered, and her mournful little songs, all lent color to the charge. + +Desperate emergencies require desperate remedies. Kathleen decided, in +spite of Mrs. Hoover's warnings, to run away. + +She had no money; but that did not deter her from her purpose. She +would beg in the street for money to go to Boston before she would +remain here any longer, she told herself, with a burst of tears. + +Her old fear of her step-mother had died out in the conviction that +her father had, of course, returned home ere now, and that, under his +protection, no harm could befall his beloved child. + +From the curtained alcove where Daisy Lynn's soft, white sheets and +blankets and counterpanes were stored on shelves, Kathleen brought the +sheets and tore them into strips, working on them every night until she +had succeeded in making a strong plaited rope with which to let herself +down from the window. + +"Heaven help me--dear Heaven help me!" she prayed all the while; and +one dark night toward midnight she fastened the rope to the shutter +hinge and let herself safely down to the street. + +Stunned by the velocity of her descent, and with bleeding hands +rasped by the rough rope, Kathleen fell upon the ground and lay there +pantingly a few moments. + +"Free at last, thank Heaven--free!" she murmured, gladly, and wrapping +her long circular cloak around her, and drawing the warm hood close +about her beautiful face, she ran breathlessly along, flashed around a +corner, and had left her prison behind her, fleeing, as she hoped, to +home and happiness. + +It was growing late, and in the quiet city of Philadelphia there were +few pedestrians abroad, and those mostly men. In any other city of that +size Kathleen, with her beautiful face, would have been insulted over +and over, but the Quaker City of Brotherly Love had in it a smaller +ruffianly element than the others. When she stopped and appealed to +those she met she invariably received a coin instead of a leer; but +they were so small--so small, and, oh, it would take so much money to +get to Boston! + +She had stopped a policeman on his beat and asked him timidly how much +money it would take to get to Boston. + +"Oh, as much as twenty dollars, I guess!" he replied; and at his +curious stare she thanked him and ran away, pausing under a street lamp +to count her money. + +"Only two dollars and twenty cents! I shall never, never get enough!" +she sighed, and then she gave a shriek. A thief had snatched the money +from her little white hand and run down a side street. + +Kathleen started to run after him, but there was no policeman in sight, +and the thief had quite disappeared. She ran till her limbs trembled +with weariness, and suddenly emerged into Walnut Street. People were +coming out of the Walnut Street Theater, and crowding the pavement. +She saw a handsome man handing a fair young girl to her carriage, and +the sight awoke memories of the past when she, Kathleen Carew, heiress +then to a million, now a beggar in the streets, had been handed to her +carriage by Ralph Chainey, the handsome young actor, who had whispered +in her ear: + +"I hope we shall meet again." + +A dry sob rose in her throat, but she choked it back, and advancing +till she was in the midst of the throng, paused suddenly, and began to +sing in a low but thrilling voice that favorite old song, "Home, Sweet +Home," at the same time holding out her tiny white hand for largess. + +It was a desperate deed, but poor Kathleen was a desperate girl, and +knew little more of the evil of the world than a little baby. She was +so eager to get money to go home, and she thought that out of this +great crowd there might be many who would pay her for singing the +simple little song that everybody loved so well--"Home, Sweet Home--The +Song That Reached My Heart." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"WILL YOU BE MY OWN SWEET WIFE, KATHLEEN?" + + + "Love thee? So well, so tenderly, + Thou'rt loved, adored by me, + Fame, fortune, wealth, and happiness + Are worthless without thee!" + + +Kathleen had a sweet and bird-like voice, that had held crowded +drawing-rooms entranced in the happier days that now seemed so far away. + +As that exquisite voice--timid at first, and faltering, but gradually +gaining strength and volume--rose upon the night air the young girl was +at once surrounded by a wondering and admiring throng. + +Her desperate courage began to give way as she saw herself hemmed in by +the crowd, and the impulse seized her to fly; but she beat it bravely +back, for already silver coins began to rain into the small, white, +outstretched hand that seemed so ridiculously dainty and aristocratic +for a street beggar. + +"Jove! what a regular beauty!" one man whispered to another, as he +gazed eagerly into the sweet, flower-like face. + +She heard him, and her voice shook with indignation, but she kept on, +holding fast meanwhile to her earnings, determined that no bold thief +should capture them this time. + +Suddenly she became aware that the crowd's attention was being diverted +from her, and resolved to escape at this auspicious moment. + +The fact was that the popular actor, Ralph Chainey, who had just +carried staid Philadelphia by storm in his popular impersonation of +Prince Karl, was just leaving the theater for his hotel, and almost +every one turned away from the beautiful singer for a glimpse of the +tall, dark, handsome young fellow, with his swinging stride, as he came +among them. + +He, on his part, had been standing back a little, arrested, like the +others, by that sweet, sad, thrilling song. As it neared the end, he +pressed forward to make a generous contribution to pay for his share in +the rare entertainment. + +The crowd fell back and made way for him, and Kathleen, dreaming not of +the nearness of the lover who haunted all her thoughts, started to fly. + +Ralph Chainey had not yet seen her face, but he hurried in pursuit of +the slight cloaked figure, generously anxious that she should not lose +the money he was going to bestow on her for the song. + +The crowd began to disperse, and Kathleen, unconscious of pursuit, ran +half a square, then slackened her pace. So it was that Ralph Chainey +caught up with her, and laid a strong, detaining hand upon her arm. + +With a low moan of terror Kathleen raised her beautiful, frightened +dark eyes to the face of her assailant. + +For a moment they gazed, spell-bound, into each other's eyes. + +To both it seemed like the shock of a life-time--that sudden +_rencontre_; and to the man it was more startling then to the girl, for +he had long sorrowed over the fate of Kathleen Carew, believing her +dead. + +Yet here stood this slight girl whose voice had so thrilled him a few +minutes ago gazing at him with Kathleen Carew's eyes, looking out of +Kathleen Carew's face. + +Was she ghost or human? + +Was she a phantom of his brain, this slight, pale girl? + +He had thought of her so often, he had mourned her so passionately, +that perhaps his brain was distraught--perhaps the vision was the +figment of a mind diseased. + +But suddenly the moan died away on the sweet, red lips; the hunted look +faded from the somber dark eyes and was succeeded by a look of joy as +she faltered: + +"Ralph Chainey!" + +His hand had slipped from her arm in the first shock of recognition. +Now he hastily put it back and pressed it to see if it was real flesh +and blood or only a phantom woman. He muttered, hoarsely: + +"Kathleen Carew, are you ghost or human?" + +Kathleen's dark-eyes laughed radiantly into his. + +"I am human, Mr. Chainey, as I think you ought to realize from the way +you're pinching my arm," she returned, with pretty archness. + +All in a moment she had changed from a sad, persecuted young girl, +begging her way in the dark street, to a very queen of love and +happiness. + +Looking into his luminous brown eyes, all her sorrow seemed to flee +away, and the sunlit sky of love seemed glowing over her head, instead +of dark, wintery skies. + +Her archness, her smiles, and the warm, human touch of her wrist, +recalled him from his ghostly fears, and he said, faintly, but eagerly: + +"I can hardly believe my senses, Kathleen. You--alive--after all these +months, when I sorrowed for you dead! Where have you been?" + +Her face paled, and she looked apprehensively over her shoulder. + +"I--I--can not tell you here!" she faltered. "I might be missed and +followed. If--if--you would only take me to the depot, and send me home +to Boston to papa, I will be so grateful. I--I--think I have enough +money to pay my way." + +Ralph Chainey signaled a passing cab, and lifted the young girl gently +into it. + +"Drive slowly about the streets for an hour until further orders," he +said to the driver, as he sprung in and took his seat by Kathleen. "Oh, +what happiness this is to find you alive, Kathleen!" he exclaimed, +searching for her little hand, and holding it warmly clasped in his. + +She nestled slightly toward him, and he thrilled with happiness at the +confiding motion. + +"You will send me home to papa?" she repeated, sweetly. + +Then he said: + +"It will be several hours before the next train for Boston leaves, +Kathleen, so you can tell me all about yourself while we ride about and +beguile the time of waiting. Or, would you prefer to go to a hotel and +rest, and have some refreshments?" + +"I am not hungry nor tired, and prefer to ride about with you this +way," answered the girl, with naïve simplicity; and he drew a sigh of +relief. + +He was young, but more worldly wise than Kathleen. He preferred not +to take her to a hotel until she had some claim on him, to silence +carping tongues. But first he must know the secret of her mysterious +whereabouts ever since the night when he had kissed and wept over her +beautiful dead face, and gone away on a mission that brooked no delay. + +But for a few minutes he was silent from sheer happiness. Alive, his +beautiful Kathleen, whom he had adored in secret, but never told of his +love! What happiness, when he and happiness had so long been strangers! + +Her tremulous voice broke the silence: + +"Do you understand it all--that I was in a trance that night when you +bade me farewell and went away?" + +"My God! a trance? Yes, you _did_ look natural. Mrs. Churchman remarked +upon it before she left me alone with you." + +"I heard what she said," Kathleen answered, shuddering, and Ralph +Chainey put his arm about her and drew her closer, murmuring: + +"Did you hear what I said, too, my bonnie Kathleen?" + +"Yes," she answered, trembling in a sort of ecstasy and feeling warm +blushes redden her cheeks as she whispered: + +"You kissed me--you wept over me--you--said--said--that you loved me!" + +"And you, sweet Kathleen? Were you vexed at me for my presumption?" +questioned the young man, drawing her closer with a fond but reverent +arm. + +"No; oh, no!" faltered the girl, shyly, yet blissfully. + +"And you will let me tell you the same thing over, darling Kathleen, +that I worship you, and you will promise me, dear, to be my own sweet +wife? Yes, is it not, my own one? There, do not draw away from me in +fear. One kiss, my own love, my beautiful treasure, given back to me +from the grave itself!" + +Then one kiss became a dozen. He pressed her close to his heart, and +she rested there with a blissful sigh, happy in this haven of rest. + +Presently: + +"Now, darling, you may tell me all your story; then I have a startling +proposition to make to you," he said. + +From what she had said to him about taking her home to her father, he +perceived that she was entirely ignorant of all that had transpired +since her supposed death. + +She was mercifully ignorant of her father's loss at sea, and the will +made in London just before he sailed, disinheriting his only daughter, +and giving her portion of his wealth to Alpine Belmont. + +Poor little Kathleen, who believed that she had still a loving father +and was the heiress to all his wealth, was in reality orphaned and +penniless--a beggar in reality. + +But Ralph Chainey, in the greatness of his noble heart, decided to +spare her the pain of knowing all this yet, and he could see but one +way out of the difficulty--one very agreeable to himself, and not +unkind to the lovely waif so strangely thrown on his protecting care. + +He knew well that the selfish Belmonts would refuse to care for the +homeless girl, would deny her identity, refuse to admit her claims on +them. He determined to propose an immediate marriage to Kathleen, by +which her future could be made secure. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +KATHLEEN'S DISAPPEARANCE. + + + "Ay, call her on the barren moor, + And call her on the hill; + 'Tis nothing but the heron's cry, + And plover's answer shrill." + + +Kathleen told her lover, between sobs and tears, while she rested close +in the shelter of his loving arms, all her sad story. + +Ralph Chainey listened with bated breath, his eyes dim with moisture, +to the story of Kathleen's persecutions. + +"What stupid people they must have been at the asylum not to listen to +your strange story! I will have them indicted for unlawfully detaining +you!" he exclaimed indignantly. + +"Never mind that, as they can never find me again," she replied, +happily. + +"They could not take you if they did," he answered; and then he +unfolded to her, gently and tenderly, his wish to make her his wife +at once, and asked her if she would consent. "It is the most proper +thing for us to marry at once," he said. "Unfortunately, we can not +be married in Philadelphia without a license, which, as it is near +midnight now, I could not procure until to-morrow. But we can take +a train within the hour for Washington, and be married, without the +necessity of a license, by the first minister we can wake up there. Do +you think you can agree to this, darling?" + +She hesitated; she said, anxiously: + +"Had we not better go straight to Boston and ask papa's leave? Perhaps +he would not like it if we were married without his consent." + +Why did he not tell her the truth--that there was no use in going to +Boston; that her father was dead and she had no home there; that her +step-mother and her selfish daughter had inherited the Carew millions? + +He could not bear to inflict this shock upon her so soon. She had +suffered so much already, poor little darling! that he would save her +this added blow for a little while. He could fancy how hard she would +take it, to come back to the world, fatherless, penniless, homeless. +Let him make her his wife first, and she would have love, wealth, and +position almost equal to what she had lost. Then he would have the +right to comfort her with his devotion. + +So he began to urge his suit with all a lover's devotion, picturing to +her the possibility of her father's refusal. + +"You are so young, dear Kathleen, he might want us to wait years and +years, and there are so many things that might come between our love," +he urged, anxiously. + +She shuddered and thought of Alpine Belmont's cruelty. The remembrance +decided her; she consented to his wish. + +They were driven to the station to take the train for Washington. + +"In about three hours we shall be there, and then you shall soon be my +little wife," he whispered, joyfully. + +They learned that the train was more than an hour late. They went into +the reception-room to wait. + +Then it suddenly occurred to him that the members of his company at the +hotel would be so alarmed at his non-appearance that night that they +would think he had been foully dealt with, and raise a great hue and +cry. + +He hastened to explain these facts to his lovely, girlish _fiancée_. + +"Do you think you would mind staying alone here, long enough for me to +go and excuse myself to them?" he inquired, tenderly. + +Her throat ached with the impulse to sob out to him that she was +frightened--that she did not wish for him to leave her there alone. + +But she was ashamed of her weakness; she would not confess it to her +bright, handsome lover. + +In a low, tremulous voice, and with a sad little smile on her quivering +red lips, she bade him go. + +"It is only for a little while, my own little love!" he whispered; but +her heart sunk heavily with fear and dread. He found her a secluded +seat in a dim corner. "You can sit here quietly and unobserved until +I return," he said, and stole a parting kiss from the sweet red lips +that smiled at him with such pathetic love. + +Then he was gone, and she no longer tried to check her bursting sobs. +Leaning far back in the corner, her little cobwebby handkerchief was +soon drenched with her raining tears. + +She told herself that he would soon return and laugh at her for being +such a great baby, but she could not help it. A terrible presentiment +of coming evil weighed down her spirits. + + * * * * * + +Ralph Chainey entered a cab and was driven rapidly to his hotel. He +explained that business of great importance called him in haste to +Washington, but that he would return the next day in time for the +evening performance, "Beau Brummel." + +Then he drove as fast as possible back to the depot, where his little +darling, as he called her in his fond thoughts, was impatiently +awaiting his return. + +"My little darling, so soon to be my adored wife," he murmured, as he +hurried eagerly into the waiting-room, where the second great shock of +his life awaited him. + +Kathleen Carew was gone! + +He stared with dazed eyes at the empty seat where he had left his +beautiful young sweetheart less than an hour ago. + +She was gone! + +Then commenced a frantic search that lasted so long that by and by the +train that was to have taken the pair to Washington thundered into the +station and away again, while he still pursued his unavailing quest. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +"RALPH CHAINEY IS A MARRIED MAN!" + + + "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, + Men were deceivers ever; + One foot on sea and one on shore, + To one thing constant never." + + +When Ralph Chainey had led Kathleen into the waiting-room of the depot +he had been so absorbed in her that he failed to notice any one around +him. + +So he did not observe a pretty and showily-dressed blonde beauty +who was walking restlessly up and down the room, evidently bent on +attracting attention to herself and her dress by these maneuvers. + +When Ralph entered with Kathleen, the young woman gave him a curious +glance that speedily changed to one of dismay. + +Then she shrunk back hurriedly into the shadow and watched the pair +with bright, steel-blue eyes that glittered with the light of hate. + +"A love affair," she muttered, angrily, and noted keenly every movement +of the two. She saw how they looked at each other with the light of +love in their beautiful eyes. She stole nearer and overheard their +words; she saw their kiss, their tender parting. + +Her white hands clinched themselves tightly, her face paled beneath its +rouge, and she muttered indistinctly to herself--muttered words of hate +and menace. + +When Ralph Chainey had left Kathleen alone the stranger boldly +approached the weeping girl. + +Standing before Kathleen, she touched her on the shoulder, and when +Kathleen shrunk back and lifted her white face in piteous fear and +entreaty, the stranger almost started at its wonderful beauty. + +"Ralph Chainey is deceiving you," was the startling sentence that fell +on Kathleen's ear. + +"Oh!" the girl exclaimed in bewilderment; but the blonde beauty went on: + +"He has promised to marry you, but he does not mean it, you poor, +pretty child. It is only a plot to betray you." + +"You speak falsely," Kathleen managed to stammer in a choking voice, +her dark eyes flashing indignantly. + +"You do not want to believe it, I know, but I can prove to you that I +speak the truth. Ralph Chainey is a married man. _I am his wife!_" + +Kathleen grew as pale as she had been in her coffin that terrible +night; her dark eyes stared as if fascinated into the pretty painted +face of the woman. She could not speak; her head seemed to be going +round and round; her poor heart throbbed as if it would break. + +"Perhaps you have heard that actors are wicked people," continued the +pretty stranger. "It is true of the whole class, and most especially of +this Ralph Chainey. He is always seeking for a new love, and leaving +some other woman to break her heart for love of him. Although I am +his wife, he tired of me months ago, and left me to starve or die of +a broken heart, he cared not which, so that he was well rid of me. My +kind parents took me home, and since then I have watched his career in +amazement and despair. Many and many a fair and innocent young girl I +have saved from his clutches." + +"Oh, Heaven! must I believe this?" came in a low, sobbing under-tone +from Kathleen's pale lips. + +"You are the youngest and fairest of them all and it would break my +heart to see you fall into Ralph Chainey's power," continued the +blonde, anxiously. "Be warned in time, my poor girl. Fly from this spot +and go home to your friends." + +"I have no friends in this city, and my home is in far-off Boston," +sobbed Kathleen, clasping her little hands in despair. + +"Then come home with me, and stay all night, and you can go on to +Boston to-morrow morning early," was the quick reply. + +She waited for an answer, but none came. Kathleen's head had drooped on +her breast. A fatal unconsciousness had stolen over her, and the hour +of her enemy's triumph was at hand. + +The blonde beauty laughed low and maliciously, as she realized how +deeply her words had struck their poisoned arrows into the young girl's +heart. + +Coolly signaling a stranger who had hurriedly entered the almost +deserted waiting-room, she said: + +"My friend has fainted from grief at receiving a telegram containing +news of the death of her lover. Will you assist me to carry her out to +my carriage before she revives? I know she will go into hysterics as +soon as she recovers, and that would be so embarrassing in this public +place." + +The gentleman, a slight-built, genial-faced man of about thirty years, +courteously acceded to her request, and gazed with deep compassion at +the beautiful face of the unconscious girl he was carrying in his arms. + +"What a lovely creature! and so young--scarcely more than a child; yet +she had a lover, and he is dead," he thought, pityingly, as he placed +her in the carriage. + +"I thank you for your kindness," said the blonde beauty, with a +dazzling smile. The carriage door closed upon her after she had +said "Home" to the driver, and then Samuel Hall, the kind-hearted, +smiling-faced young man, stood under the gas-light, gazing after them +with dazed blue eyes. + +"Quite an adventure, Sammy, was it not, eh?" he muttered, talking +naïvely to himself. Perhaps his arms thrilled yet with the pressure of +the beautiful form that had lain heavily in them a minute ago. His mild +blue eyes looked soft and dreamy. + +"How lovely she was!" he mused. "So lovely and so sorrow-stricken! The +other one was handsome, too, in her way, but not like the younger. +Grand, rich people, I suppose," he ended with a sigh; for, having +once known "better days," our friend "Sammy" did not very much enjoy +his position as a hard-working clerk in one of Philadelphia's immense +dry-goods emporiums. + +He went home to his lonely room in a great, rambling boarding-house, +and though he was not usually impressionable, his mind kept running on +his little adventure. He said to himself that it was because he was so +sorry for the beautiful young girl who had fainted when she received +the telegram that her lover was dead. + +"I wonder what their names were?" he mused, curiously. "The blonde I +did not quite like. There was something theatrical and made-up about +her. She did not in the least resemble the fainting one, so they could +not be sisters." + +Still musing on his little adventure, he retired. Sleep came to him, +made restless by uncanny dreams. + +It seemed to the young man that he was standing on the verge of a +precipice, looking down into a dark gulf where a turbulent river rushed +along in foam and fury. Struggling in the gloomy waves was the young +girl he had carried fainting to her carriage, and her white face was +upturned to him; her great, piteous dark eyes were fixed on his with +unutterable reproach. Tossing her white arms up toward him, she cried, +bitterly: + +"_You_ helped that wicked woman to destroy me!" + +Then she sunk beneath the waves, and they closed forever over her white +face and shining hair. + +Sammy Hall awoke in anguish, his forehead beaded with perspiration. + +"Oh, what a strange, weird dream! How vivid it is still in my mind! +What does it mean? Is it a warning? That can not be, however, for I was +doing her a kindness, not an injury, and my heart ached with sympathy +for her sorrow." + +He could think of nothing else next day, and at noon, when a heavy +storm came up and kept customers from crowding into Haines & Co.'s +great store, he told the bright, pretty young salesladies about it, +dream and all. + +They listened to him with the liveliest interest; their eyes grew dim +with pity for the beautiful young girl whose heart had broken for the +death of her lover. + +"But it was so strange for her to reproach me in that dream!" he said, +in a troubled voice--"so strange! Because, you see, I was only kind to +her, and did nothing wrong." + +"Mr. Hall, I have a theory to explain your dream," cried Tessie Mays, a +romantic young girl; and every one turned to her with interest as she +went on: "The blonde was a bad, wicked creature who frightened that +pretty, innocent young thing into a faint, and then carried her off to +some wretched fate--'the spider and the fly,' you know." + +"It is very likely, indeed!" chorused all those romantic young girls, +and Sammy Hall's heart sunk like a stone in his breast. + +He brooded over that night's adventure, and in his sleep that strange +dream kept recurring. He feared that Tessie Mays was right. The blonde +woman was a wicked creature who had made him a tool to help her in her +nefarious plans. + +Two days later, as he was going along Ninth Street to dinner, he came +suddenly face to face with the blonde, made up carefully and gaudily +attired. He stopped in front of her and stammered: + +"Oh! ah! miss--madame--excuse me; but how is that unhappy young girl?" + +"Why, you must be crazy! I don't know you. I don't know what you mean. +Get out of my way!" + +She pushed him roughly aside, and had disappeared before he recovered +from his surprise. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +KATHLEEN MAKES A STARTLING DISCOVERY. + + + "Who that feels what Love is here-- + All its falsehood, all its pain-- + Would, for even Elysium's sphere, + Risk the fatal dream again?" + + +When Kathleen Carew recovered consciousness she found herself on a bed +in a shabby garret bed-room, with the eyes of the blonde beauty looking +into hers. + +"So you are come to at last? I began to think you were dead, child. +Here! smell this, and you'll soon be better," she exclaimed, +vivaciously, as she held a bottle of camphor under Kathleen's nose. + +Kathleen pushed it away like a petulant child. + +"What am I doing here?" she sobbed, in a frightened voice. + +"This is my home, you know. I offered to bring you here to save you +from Ralph Chainey, that wicked actor. Oh, my! what a scene there was +after you fainted. He came back, and I can tell you, he was frightened +at finding _me_ there. I told him he must go away, that I had told you +all, and you hated him. He tried to brazen it all out at first, but +presently he was humble enough, and I made him carry you out and put +you in my carriage. Then he went away, vowing he would get you into his +power some day." + +Kathleen shuddered from head to foot, and cried, appealingly: + +"Oh, madame, is he really your husband? For the sake of Heaven, do not +tell me an untruth, for it is more bitter than death to lose faith in +one's lover!" + +"Alas! if it is so hard to lose faith in a lover, how much worse to be +deceived by a husband?" cried the blonde, pathetically. + +She dashed her white hand across her dry eyes, and Kathleen caught the +glitter of a diamond ring flashing like a little sun. In her small, +pink ears there were magnificent diamonds, too, and Kathleen began to +watch them with fascinated eyes. + +"What a beautiful diamond ring! Won't you let me try it on, please?" +she asked, humbly. + +The blonde, flattered by the admiration for her ring, slipped it off +with some difficulty, and allowed Kathleen to take it in her fingers. + +She held it up and gazed inside the gold circle, reading aloud: + +"'Kathleen Carew!'" + +"Why, I never knew before that a name was cut----" began the woman, +then bit her lip and checked herself, abruptly. + +"Where did you get this ring?" asked Kathleen, excitedly. + +"My husband gave it to me." + +"And your beautiful ear-rings?" + +"They, too, were gifts from my husband." + +"From Ralph Chainey?" + +"Of course. Didn't I tell you he was my husband? Do you want to see my +marriage certificate?" holding out her finger for the ring. + +"Presently," said Kathleen, sitting erect, with a strange fire in her +eyes. "Is this," she continued, in a strange voice, "_your_ name inside +the ring?" + +"Of course," airily answered the blonde. + +Kathleen's slumbrous eyes began to glow with an angry light, and she +exclaimed, passionately: + +"It is false! It is my own name, and the ring is mine! The ear-rings +also are mine! My father gave them to me!" + +"You must be crazy, girl!" exclaimed the blonde, in honest surprise. +She snatched the ring and slipped it back on her finger. + +"I tell you I am in earnest," stormed Kathleen, roused to a sudden fury +by the thought of her wrongs. "I tell you I am Kathleen Carew, and +those jewels were stolen from me by a man who choked me and left me for +dead on the ground, while he tore those gems from my bleeding hands +and ears. And you say it was your husband----" she stopped, shuddering +violently. Was she criminating Ralph Chainey? + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +WAS RALPH CHAINEY A VILLAIN? + + + Roses have thorns, and love is thorny, too; + And this is love's sharp thorn that guards its flower, + That our beloved has the cruel power + To hurt us deeper than all others do. + SARAH C. WOOLSEY. + + +Kathleen, pale, shuddering, startled, gazed in horror at the face of +the bold, handsome creature who declared to her that these gems for +which she had been almost murdered were given to her by Ralph Chainey. + +Was it true that the woman was Ralph's wife, and that he had given her +the jewels? + +If so, what an awful vista of suspicion and crime opened back of these +two facts! + +Could it be that Ralph Chainey was the fiend who had robbed and +murdered her that night, and then by his clever acting thrown off +suspicion from himself? + +The terrible suspicion made her tremble like a leaf in the wind; and +meantime the woman, whom we will call Fedora, was gazing at her with +suspicious eyes. + +"I don't know what to make of you, girl," she said, impatiently. "Come, +now; I want to hear your story from beginning to end." + +Kathleen did as she was asked. She related the whole story of her life, +from the first meeting with Ralph Chainey until now. + +Fedora listened with eager attention. + +She was especially interested in Mrs. Belmont and her son Ivan. + +"And she wanted you to marry _him_?" she said. + +"Yes; but I will never do it. I hate him, and so does papa. He is a +spendthrift, and dissolute," said Kathleen, quoting words that her +father had used of his step-son. + +Fedora frowned and said, hastily: + +"But he is very handsome, isn't he?" + +"I believe some people think so, but I don't. I guess Daisy Lynn +thought so, or she would not have gone mad for love of him;" and the +whole story of Daisy Lynn came out. + +It proved very interesting indeed to the blonde, who asked many +questions, and seemed disappointed that Kathleen could not answer them +all. + +When she had elicited all that Kathleen could tell, she returned to the +subject of Ralph Chainey. + +"I knew he was false to me, but I did not believe he was wicked enough +to do murder," she said. + +Kathleen shuddered as with a mortal chill, and said faintly: + +"There must be some mistake." + +The blonde gazed in silence for several minutes at the lovely face of +the hapless young girl, then asked, abruptly: + +"What shall you do about it?" + +"Nothing," Kathleen answered, sorrowfully; and she thought to herself +that she would give the world to blot out of her life all memory of the +man she had loved so dearly and so well; yet she knew that his memory +would haunt her all her life long, and that her heart would break +because he had proved unworthy. + +She looked pleadingly at the woman before her, and exclaimed: + +"Will you please take me home to my father?" + +"To-morrow," answered Fedora, soothingly. She rose as she spoke. "Lie +down and sleep; it is late," she added. "To-morrow I will go home with +you and restore you to your friends." + +She went out, carefully locking the door behind her. + +Alone in her own room, she looked at the beautiful jewels that had cost +Kathleen so dear, and muttered: + +"He did it for me--to get these for me. How he loves me! But this girl! +her life is a menace to his liberty. If I let her go home and tell what +she knows, suspicion will fall upon _him_. Why did he bungle so, if he +must do that ghastly job?" Then she laughed. "Oh, I have paid _you_ +out, Ralph Chainey!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +RESCUED. + + + "Hame, hame, hame! 'tis hame I fain wad be-- + Hame, hame, hame, in my ain countree!" + + +Sammy Hall was bitterly sorry that he had missed getting any +information from the blonde about the beautiful girl he had seen with +her that night at the station. + +The beautiful white face and closed eyes of the young girl haunted him +with strange persistency. + +And after his accidental _rencontre_ on the street with the insolent +blonde he felt more apprehensive than ever. + +"I wish I knew where she lived: I would find out more about her," he +thought; and fell to watching for the bright, steel-blue eyes and +golden hair every day. + +He was rewarded for his efforts when one day he saw her at the trimming +counter buying some gold passementerie from Tessie Mays. + +Sammy Hall waited till she had sailed out of the store, then went +across to the young salesgirl. + +"It's that woman--the one that carried off the girl that night. I saw +her give you her address. What is it?" he queried, excitedly. + +As much excited as himself, Tessie gave it to him, and he began to set +his wits to work to find out the mystery of that night. + +To Kathleen's indignation and dismay, Fedora had kept her a close +prisoner in the shabby little garret chamber ever since that night--now +five days ago--when she had been brought there. + +To quiet the complaints of the girl, Fedora told her that she dare +not let her go outside the house, because her aunt's emissaries were +searching for her everywhere, and that, if found, she would be arrested +and taken back to the asylum. + +"You must remain quietly hidden here until the search blows over," she +said; and no entreaties could move her jailer's heart; there was always +a plausible excuse; but Kathleen, looking into the flippant, insolent +face, began to distrust the woman. + +"She hates me--hates me because Ralph Chainey said he loved me," she +thought, uneasily; and she grew frightened in the miserable little +garret room in which she was kept a prisoner, seeing no one but Fedora, +who brought her food with her own hands--food which tasted palatable +enough, but which seemed only to sap the young girl's strength. + +For with each day Kathleen grew weaker and weaker. + +At first she had been wont to pace the chamber restlessly for hours. +Now her limbs grew weary; her brain seemed to reel. She rested in the +chair, then upon the bed, and her burning brain was full of the thought +of Ralph Chainey's treachery. + +"I loved him so, I loved him so--yet he was wicked, false and cruel +beyond all men!" she sobbed; and the knowledge was killing to her. She +thought that now, at last, she was going mad, like poor Daisy Lynn, +over a lover's falsity. + +She did not know that it was death, not madness, that was approaching; +but the food brought her by Fedora was drugged, so that in a short time +it must cause her death if she kept on taking it. + +She did not dream what a terrible interest the woman had in her death, +and that she had decided that Kathleen Carew must never go out of that +house alive. + +"He did it for _me_, and I must not let her go free," she decided, +grimly, and went unfalteringly about her plans for ending that sweet, +innocent young life. + +Kathleen found her imprisonment here more galling than it had been in +the home of Miss Watts. There was here no pretty, dainty room filled +with a young girl's dainty books and pictures, but only squalor such as +might have surrounded an uneducated servant. + +She wondered much over the house she was in, and if her jailer, the +gaudily attired blonde beauty, inhabited such a shabby apartment as she +allotted to her guests. But she was not likely to have her curiosity +gratified on this point, as Fedora always locked the door on leaving, +and there was only one window--a small one, very high up--that gave +an uninteresting outlook on the walls of other houses--poor ones, it +seemed, from their moldy bricks. + +A day came when Fedora did not bring her any dinner, and the whole day +wore away dully and gloomily. It was the day when Samuel Hall saw her +shopping in the store of Granville B. Haines & Co. Kathleen did not +dream of what had happened, but Fedora had moved out of the house that +day, leaving her victim to her fate. + +Kathleen ate so little of the drugged food prepared for her that she +had lived longer than the woman anticipated, so she decided to leave +her to starve to death in the unoccupied house, where she was locked +into the wretched garret. + +When she gave her address to the pretty saleslady at Granville B. +Haines & Co.'s, it was in a fit of absent-mindedness that saved +Kathleen's life. + +Instead of giving her new address, she gave her old one, and, as we +have seen, Samuel Hall at once secured it from Tessie Mays. + +So excited was the young man, and so fearful that harm had befallen +the beautiful young girl of that night's adventure, that he actually +secured the services of a policeman, and finding the house closed and +seemingly unoccupied, the doors were broken open and a strict search +instituted. + +When they had almost begun to despair of success, the beautiful victim +was found by the delighted young clerk, who at once recognized her as +the fainting girl he had placed in the carriage that night. + +She fainted again when she learned that she was saved, and the +policeman and Sammy had some difficulty in restoring her to +consciousness. When they had done so, they were filled with grief and +horror at the story she had to tell. + +"Oh, let me go to papa!" she begged them, pathetically, and Samuel +Hall, melted by her beauty and distress, assured her that she should +be sent at once to Boston. A closed carriage was secured, and Sammy +and the sympathetic policeman escorted her to the station, where a +first-class ticket was bought and Kathleen placed in a Pullman car. + +"God forever bless you!" sobbed the young girl, weeping over Sammy's +hand, and overwhelming him with promises of what her rich father would +do to reward him for his nobility. + +Then the train steamed away out of the station, and there were tears in +the eyes of both men, through which they saw dimly the pale and lovely +face, on which a little hopeful smile was budding into bloom. + +The policeman made Sammy promise to keep a sharp lookout for the +perfidious blonde, and to let him know if he found her, so that she +might be arrested and punished for kidnapping the girl. Then the two +separated, the policeman returning to his regular beat, and Sammy to +the store, where he told the sympathetic young girls the story of his +knightly deliverance of Kathleen, and became quite a hero in their +admiring eyes. + +But gladdest of all was our beautiful Kathleen, speeding as fast as +steam could carry her back to Boston and to papa, who must surely have +come home ere now, and who would be so glad to see his little girl. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +"PAPA, DARLING, IT IS I, YOUR LITTLE KATHLEEN!" + + + The world says now I am dead; but, oh, + Lean down and listen. 'Tis all in vain! + Again in my heart bleeds the cruel blow; + Again I am mad with the old-time pain! + CARLOTTA PERRY. + + +It snowed in Boston that night when Ivan Belmont came home on his usual +mission--to extort money by begging, coaxing, threats or curses--(he +usually tried all in succession before he succeeded)--from the rich +widow, his mother, and the heiress, his sister. + +And he was wont to say on these occasions that he would almost rather +_work_ for the money than to extort it from those two penurious women, +they were so close-fisted and quarrelsome. + +It was quite true what he said. Money he _would_ have, but he was so +spendthrift and reckless that his mother groaned in spirit over his +excesses, and often flatly refused him a penny. + +Then he would have recourse to Alpine, and he never left until he +secured it, although he invariably had to raise a storm before he +succeeded. + +His periodical pirating visits grew to be deplored by the whole +household, even by the servants, who knew that the effects of his +demands were to be dreaded for days, in the increased harshness and +ill-temper of the two women they served. + +To-night the contest had raged hotter than ever before and only the +threat of criminal deeds, unless his demands were met, had sufficed to +draw gold from the pockets of his relatives. + +Chuckling over his success, he left the house and prepared to face the +raging storm outside on his way back to the distant city whence he had +come. + +Crushing his hat down over his face, he hurried down the marble steps, +pausing at the bottom in surprise at seeing the cloaked figure of a +female in the act of ascending the steps. + +The glare of a street-lamp shone full on the scene. Curiosity prompted +him to stare at the beautiful white face upraised timidly to his own. + +As he did so, his own face whitened with horror, his eyes dilated, his +limbs trembled with fear. + +"My God!" he muttered, hoarsely; and turning, fled from the spot in mad +haste, like one pursued by fiends. + +He believed that he had seen a veritable ghost, for it was the +pale, lovely face of Kathleen Carew into which he had gazed so +wildly--Kathleen, whom he believed dead. So he fled from the spot as +wildly as his trembling limbs would permit. + +Kathleen had always disliked and despised Ivan Belmont, so she only +smiled scornfully at his precipitate flight, and began to ascend the +marble steps, her heart beating with joy at the thought of meeting her +father again. + +"I wonder if James will be frightened, too, and run away, thinking me a +ghost?" she murmured, with a sad little smile, as she rang the bell. + +But it was not James who opened the door to her; it was a total +stranger, who stared in surprise at the sight of a beautiful, +refined-looking young girl out alone on such a stormy night. + +All the old servants had been discharged after Kathleen's death, +because they had irritated Mrs. Carew by grieving after their young +mistress. + +So the man looked in wonder at the strange young girl with the rich +golden hair and flashing dark eyes who stepped across the threshold as +if she belonged there, and said to him with gentle imperiousness: + +"Tell your master there is a young lady to see him." + +Without waiting for a reply, Kathleen brushed past the astonished +servant, entered a small reception-room on her right, and sat down to +await the entrance of her father. + +She had not mentioned her name, because she wanted to take him by +surprise. + +She wanted to see the joy-light flash into his handsome face when she +should throw herself into his arms and cry out, tenderly: + +"Papa, darling, it is I, your little Kathleen, come home to you again!" + +How glad he would be to see her again! He had always loved her so +fondly that his heart must have almost broken when they told him she +was dead. + +And how glad he would be to have her back again. How his eyes would +flash when she told him how wretchedly she had been treated. He would +certainly call in the strong arm of the law to punish her persecutors. +Only she did not want them to do anything to old Mrs. Hoover, the kind +matron who had befriended her in the asylum. + +She sunk down into a beautiful satin chair with a sigh of relief at +getting back to papa and home again--her beautiful home, so warm, so +luxurious, filled with the rich odor of hot-house flowers, in strong +contrast to the storm raging bleakly outside. + +The man-servant, somewhat amazed at her coolness in entering the +reception-room, but supposing her to be some intimate friend of the +family, went in search of his mistress. + +"A young lady is in the small reception-room asking for Mr. Belmont," +he said. + +He had naturally supposed that Kathleen meant Ivan Belmont, as he was +the only man connected with the house. + +"Did you send Mr. Belmont to her?" + +"He had just gone out, madame, and she did not wait for me to tell her, +but brushed past me and went into the room," he replied. + +"Impertinent!" exclaimed the lady, in angry surprise. "I will go and +see what she wants," she added, rising and throwing down her novel to +go. + +She was already in a towering rage, because she had been bullied by +Ivan into giving him five hundred dollars a few minutes ago, and the +idea that a woman, one of his low associates, most probably, had had +the effrontery to follow him here, added fuel to the flame of her fury. + +Kathleen heard the swish of a silken robe, and the heavy curtains +parted and fell behind the tall and stately form of her handsome +step-mother. + +The girl rose up--grieved that it was not her father, but so glad to +be safe at home again that she was almost glad to see again the wicked +woman who was the cause of all her trouble. + +"Mamma!" she faltered, using the name she had been taught to give her +cruel step-mother, and Mrs. Carew, who had been advancing angrily +toward her, recoiled with a smothered cry and starting eyes. + +Kathleen came toward her with eager, imploring hands outstretched in +greeting. + +"Do not be frightened, mamma, I am not a ghost, I am human," she said, +sweetly; but Mrs. Carew, who had sunk down on her knees in mortal +terror, waved her back. + +"Back, back!" she breathed, hoarsely; and Kathleen saw that she +believed herself haunted by the spirit of her dead step-daughter. + +She went back to her seat and began to explain her appearance in +soothing tones: + +"It was all a mistake, mamma. I was in a trance, not really dead, and +I came to myself in the coffin that night, and dazed and frightened +lest they should bury me alive, I ran away into the woods. Some people +caught me and put me into a lunatic asylum, from which I have just +escaped!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +TURNED OUT INTO THE STORM. + + + The poor too often turn away unheard + From hearts that shut against them with a sound + That will be heard in Heaven. + LONGFELLOW. + + +Mrs. Carew drew a long, sobbing breath, and struggled up to a chair, +keeping her eyes fixed fearfully on Kathleen, who went on sorrowfully: + +"I can not tell you mamma, what I have suffered since I went away last +spring. The recital would be enough to melt a heart of stone. You never +loved me, I know, but you would have pitied me if you could have known +how I was suffering from the stupidity of those people, who took me for +another girl, and kept me a prisoner so many months. Thank Heaven, it +is all over now, and I am at home again. But where is papa? I want to +see him so much, and I am sure he can not be out this stormy night." + +While the young girl talked, the color had been coming back to Mrs. +Carew's lips and a malevolent gleam to her blue eyes. Straightening +herself up in her chair, she looked across at the girl, realizing that +it was indeed Kathleen Carew come back from the portals of death. + +She had always hated the lovely, innocent girl, and now she thought +triumphantly that Kathleen's day was past. Her father was dead, and she +was disinherited. She had no part nor lot in the home to which she had +returned. + +The cruel woman looked at the lovely young suppliant, and sneered: + +"You can not impose on me with your false claims. You are not Kathleen +Carew, and your resemblance to her is very slight--not strong enough to +bear out your assertion. My step-daughter is dead." + +"No, no!" Kathleen cried, piteously. "I am your step-daughter, indeed +I am, mamma, and I have told you the truth. I have been so ill and +unhappy all these months, it is that which has changed my looks and +made me look so unlike the Kathleen you remember. Where is papa? He +will know me, he will be glad that I am alive!" She made a movement to +leave the room, but as suddenly Mrs. Carew barred her way. + +"You lunatic! you shall not leave this room!" she hissed, savagely. + +Kathleen's hot temper, held at bay so long, flamed up at once. + +"I _will_ go to papa!" she uttered, angrily; and in a low but perfectly +clear voice her tormentor answered: + +"Vincent Carew is _dead_!" + +She saw the girl start and tremble as if she had been struck. Her sweet +face, flushed a moment ago with anger, went deathly white, and she +clutched the back of a chair for support. + +"Vincent Carew is dead!" repeated the pitiless woman before her. +She heard a moan of mortal agony issue from Kathleen's pale lips, +but she continued, heartlessly: "My husband was lost at sea in the +_Urania_, that was burned to the water's edge the very week after my +step-daughter was murdered in Pennsylvania. By his will, made in London +just before he sailed, he disinherited his daughter for her intimacy +with an actor, and left his whole fortune to me and my daughter." + +"It is monstrous, impossible! You are telling me a falsehood!" moaned +Kathleen, with difficulty, for her senses were leaving her under the +shock of her step-mother's words. A low gasp came from her lips, she +staggered blindly forward, then fell insensible upon the carpet. + +Mrs. Carew spurned the senseless form with her foot and threw wide the +velvet _portière_, calling: + +"Jones, lift this woman up and put her out into the street. And be +careful never to admit disreputable characters inside my doors again, +or you may lose your place!" + +The man, who had been lingering about very near, approached with +profuse apologies and excuses. + +"Carry her out into the street!" repeated his mistress, angrily. + +Jones took up the light, unconscious figure in his arms and moved +toward the door, but he muttered, deprecatingly: + +"She'll die out there in the snow." + +"What is that to you? Creatures like _her_ ought to be dead! Do as you +are bid, or you will rue it!" stormed his mistress; and Jones, dazed +and frightened by her violence, hastened to obey her commands. + +The door had hardly closed on him as he bore poor Kathleen out into the +stormy night, when Alpine Belmont, disturbed by the noise, came gliding +down the stairs, demanding the cause of the excitement. + +Mrs. Carew was pale and trembling in every limb, and she answered, +reluctantly: + +"It's something not fit for a young girl's ears, my dear." + +"Oh, bosh! I'll find out from the servants if _you_ don't tell me," +retorted Alpine; and then Mrs. Carew said, cunningly: + +"Well, if you must know such awful things, a woman came here demanding +to see that disreputable brother of yours! You can imagine the sort of +woman, crazy with drink, that would follow _him_! So I made Jones put +her out into the street, and the whole disgraceful thing will be talked +over by the servants by to-morrow." + +Alpine shivered with horror and disgust, and muttered: + +"I wish Ivan was dead! He is too wicked to live! The idea of that +woman's effrontery!" + +Mrs. Carew thought to herself: + +"That was a good idea of mine! She believes every word. Good! for I +would not like for her to know the truth. She has been so soft over +that girl ever since her supposed death, that there's no telling what +pity would lead her to do!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +TEDDY DARRELL AGAIN. + + + The snow lies white and the moon gives light, + I'll out to the freezing mere, + And I'll tell my mind to the friendly wind + Because I have loved her so. + INGELOW. + + +Mrs. Carew's servant, Jones, was a very humane and tender-hearted +man, and his heart swelled with anger as he obeyed the command of his +mistress, and bore the fainting young girl out of the splendid abode of +luxury and wealth into the cold and stormy night. + +He stopped under the flaring street-lamp and looked pityingly into the +lovely white face that had fallen back against his arm. + +"Why, what a pretty young thing she is--little more than a child--and +looks as innocent, too!" he soliloquized. "I'll bet my life that +if she's ever done any harm, she's been betrayed into it by that +scoundrelly Ivan Belmont that she came here to find! He ought to be +hung, so he ought!" + +He glanced anxiously up and down the almost deserted avenue. The +snow lay white and deep upon the ground, and the great flakes swirled +through the air, striking him coldly in the face. + +"If I put her down here on the ground she will freeze to death, poor +girl, that's certain!" he murmured, uneasily. "I just can't do such a +wicked thing--no, not even if she _is_ bad, as Mrs. Carew said. Why, +even if she was a murderess it wouldn't be right to leave her out here +to die in the cold! But, land, what be I to do with her? That's what I +want to know!" + +The whinny and stamp of an impatient horse attracted his attention at +that moment. He turned his head and saw a smart cab waiting at the next +door. The driver, half asleep, sat on his box, his head sunk into the +collar of his great-coat. + +A sudden temptation came to the troubled Jones, and he did not fight +against it, but rather welcomed it as an inspiration. + +Walking noiselessly across the snow, Jones placed his burden inside the +cab upon the cushions, and closed the door so softly that it did not +attract the attention of the tired and sleepy driver on the box. + +"God bless you and raise you up a friend this awful night, you poor +little wretch!" apostrophized Jones, as he returned from the scene and +re-entered the Carew mansion. + +He had not been gone ten minutes before a servant came from the house +before which the cab was waiting and roused the sleepy cabby. + +"The lady as you brought here has decided to stay all night with her +sick mother, so she told me to pay you and send you away," he said. + +"All right, but I wish she had made up her mind afore she kep' me +a-waitin' here all night! I be frozen with the cold, that's what I be!" +grumbled the driver, accepting the double fee ungraciously, and driving +away at a high rate of speed, all unconscious of the silent passenger +inside. + +He went rattling down to a large hotel, hoping he might get a fare for +the theater. + +A tall, handsome young man came down the steps and hailed him. + +"Take me to the Opera House," he said, opening the door and springing +lightly in. + +"All right, sir," and away they went. + +Teddy Darrell, the new fare, pulled up the collar of his long, +fur-lined overcoat about his ears, and was about to settle himself +comfortably when he received a violent shock. + +He discovered that he was not alone in the cab. A slight girlish form, +shrouded in a heavy cloak, was huddled up on the opposite seat, and low +moans were issuing from its lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +"I WOULD LAY DOWN MY LIFE TO SERVE YOU!" SAID TEDDY. + + + How was any one to know + That those eyes had looked just so + On a hundred other women with a glance as light and strange? + There are men who change their passions + Even oftener than their fashions + And the best of loving always, to their minds, is still to change. + JOHN T. TROWBRIDGE. + + +Teddy Darrell had had some adventures in his day, and was not given to +nerves, so he did not let the shock of his discovery overcome him. + +The thought flashed over him that some drunken woman had crept into the +cab, unknown to the driver, and fallen into a troubled slumber. + +The flaring lanterns on the outside of the cab did not afford much +light, so Teddy struck a match and held it over the face of his unknown +companion. + +Then indeed he had a shock much greater than the first one. + +The lighted match fell from his hand and he recoiled with a startled +cry. + +"Good heavens! what a likeness!" + +He sunk upon the opposite seat, actually trembling with surprise and +emotion. + +In the pale and lovely face lying unconscious on the cushions the +young man had recognized a haunting likeness to one he had loved very +dearly, and whose tragic fate, six months ago, had thrilled him with +unutterable horror. Although other lovers had succeeded Kathleen in +Teddy's young, impressionable heart, he had never ceased to regret the +fact that she had rejected him. + +"The sweetest, loveliest girl in all the world!" he had always thought +of bonny, dark-eyed Kathleen. + +And he trembled with pain when he saw in the poor street waif, as he +believed her, the awful likeness to his lost loved one. + +Kathleen, who was beginning to recover consciousness, moaned and +stirred, half lifting herself toward the young man. + +He bent toward her kindly and said: + +"Are you ill, madame?" + +That voice! It was one from her happy past. It stirred a pulse in +Kathleen's heart, and she turned toward him wildly, her dark eyes +opening wide upon his anxious face. + +The flaring lights from some place of amusement shone into the cab and +showed her his features. + +"Teddy Darrell!" she murmured, in a feeble tone of amazement. + +"Good heavens! you know me!" he exclaimed. "Who are _you_?" + +She held out her white hands to him with an entreating gesture. + +"Don't you know me? Don't you remember Kathleen Carew?" she cried, +faintly. + +"Kathleen Carew is _dead_!" he answered, blankly. + +"No, no; she lives! It was a mistake. I was in a trance, and I escaped +from my coffin and ran away into the woods," whispered the girl, +rapidly regaining the strength to speak. + +"Good heavens! So that's what became of you!" cried Teddy Darrell. He +seized her little white hands and pressed them rapturously. "Welcome +back to life, my dear girl!" he laughed, happily, and she exclaimed: + +"You know me--you believe me?" + +"Of course I do," he replied, joyously. "But how came you to be here in +this cab, alone and unconscious?" + +"I do not know," she answered, in a puzzled voice. "I went home, and +mamma told me my father was dead, and that he had disinherited me in +his will. Then she denied my identity, and the last thing I remember I +fell fainting on the carpet. Oh, Mr. Darrell! will you do me one favor? +Take me to my dear friend, Helen Fox." + +"Helen Fox is in Europe," he replied, reluctantly. + +"In Europe? Oh, good heavens! what am I to do, then? Helen is the only +friend I have to turn to in my distress!" exclaimed the young girl, +clasping her beautiful hands in the keenest despair. + +Teddy Darrell looked at her reproachfully. + +"You seem to forget _me_, Miss Carew. But I would lay down my life to +serve you!" he exclaimed, impetuously. + +She glanced up and met his eyes. They wore the most killing expression +of devotion--and Teddy's dark eyes could be very expressive when he +chose. + +Kathleen blushed vividly, and answered: + +"I--I--did not know--if I might call you my friend or not. Some +men--might not like a young girl after--after----" She paused in +confusion. + +"After she rejected him," finished Teddy, coolly. "Well, I hope I am +not as mean as that, Miss Carew. I shall be only too happy to be your +friend and brother if you will allow me." + +"You are too good to me," she whispered, gratefully, as she held out +her little white hand to him, adding, sadly: "'A friend in need is +a friend indeed,' and I am poor in everything now, with not even a +shelter for my head." + +"Don't say that," exclaimed the sympathetic young fellow, with a break +in his voice. "I am going to take you to my cousin, one of the kindest +ladies in the world, if you will allow me to do so;" and, pulling the +check-string, he gave the driver orders not to proceed to the opera +house, but to the street where his cousin lived. + +Kathleen acquiesced gratefully in his decision. Her heart went out +warmly to this cordial friend, and she regretted in her heart that +she had ever laughed with Helen Fox over the young man's flirting +proclivities. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +ALPINE'S RENEWED HOPES. + + + And all my days are trances, + And all my nightly dreams + Are where thy dark eye glances, + And where thy footstep gleams. + EDGAR ALLAN POE. + + +Alpine Belmont, all in a flutter of surprise and delight, was making +herself beautiful, with her maid's assistance, for the eyes of a caller +who was waiting for her in the drawing-room. + +Ten minutes ago a card had been brought to her bearing the name of +"Ralph Chainey." + +"He asked for Mrs. Carew first, but I told him she was out; then he +sent his card to you," said Jones. + +Alpine's heart leaped with wild delight. + +She was as romantically in love with the gifted and handsome young +actor as was possible to one of her vain and selfish nature. + +After Kathleen's death she had cherished some hope of winning him, +but his coldness and indifference had been so marked, and his despair +over Kathleen's loss so deep, that in angry pique she had given up her +hopes, and determined to console herself with her newly acquired wealth. + +The novelty of her position as a great heiress had for a time diverted +her thoughts, but of late they had returned to him again, and rested +longingly on her desire to win his heart. + +So the sudden announcement of his presence filled her with joyful +anticipations. + +Her maid was hurriedly summoned to array her mistress for the coming +interview. + +In the servants' hall, a little later, she expressed the opinion that +the gentleman must be a very particular beau, as the lady was so hard +to please. + +Meanwhile, Alpine, palpitating in a light-blue silk that set off very +becomingly her blonde beauty, was entering the drawing-room to meet her +caller. + +Ralph Chainey, dark, stately, handsome, the incarnation of a romantic +young girl's idea of a lover, rose and bowed with courtly grace over +Miss Belmont's hand. + +He had been searching vainly for Kathleen more than a week, and at +last it occurred to him that perhaps she had come home. He hastened to +Boston in a fever of anxiety. + +Alpine could never remember afterward in what words he told his story, +it came on her so suddenly, it found her so unprepared, but presently +she knew it all--knew that Kathleen, whose death had so softened her +heart, was alive, and that but for some strange happening of fate, she +would that moment be Ralph Chainey's beloved wife. + +With that knowledge, Alpine's heart grew cold as ice again; the old +jealous hate revived. + +She could not speak for some moments, but sat staring with burning blue +eyes at the unhappy young man, who was pouring out his whole heart. + +"Oh, Miss Belmont, think what an awful shock it was to me, losing her +in that mysterious fashion. I have scarcely eaten or slept since, I +have been so wretched, I employed detectives, but they seem to be all +at sea. They even believe that I was mistaken--that it was not Kathleen +Carew at all, but really Daisy Lynn, a lunatic. Miss Watts, from whom +she had escaped, had been found, and she declared that the girl was her +niece." + +A wild hope came into Alpine's mind, and she faltered: + +"I believe the detectives are right. Kathleen can not be alive. +Remember we saw her in her coffin, cold and dead." + +"Not dead, for I have seen her alive!" he exclaimed. "Oh, Miss Belmont, +do not discourage me--do not turn unbelieving ears to my story, for I +swear to you that Kathleen Carew is alive to-night--alive, but given +over to some fate, perhaps, worse than death!" + +Alpine's heart beat wildly as he fixed his great burning brown eyes so +sorrowfully upon her face. Oh, God! she thought, what would she not +give for Ralph Chainey to love her as he did Kathleen Carew, her hated +step-sister! + +Some burning words of the Virginia poetess, Mittie Point Davis, came +into her mind: + + "If your heart could throb for me, + Even for a moment's space, + With the love I feel for thee + Gazing on that glorious face; + If the passion that I feel + Found response within your breast, + Years of anguish could not steal + Memories that I had been blest. + + "If those eyes so darkly glorious, + Kindled as with mine they met, + I could hold myself victorious + Even though you did forget. + I could give the lifelong passion + Of a thousand meaner souls + For one hour's brief adoration + Over thine to sway control." + +Ralph Chainey did not dream what a wealth of love for him had blossomed +into full flower in the young girl's heart. Men are blind, or they +would never confide to one beautiful young girl the story of their love +for another one. Few girls are noble enough to listen without being +piqued and jealous. + +Alpine Belmont's heart burned within her, and she said to herself +that she hoped he was mistaken, and that poor Kathleen was dead. She +believed it herself, and she and her mother had long ago agreed that +Kathleen's body had been stolen from the doctor's cottage for purposes +of dissection. She had shuddered at the thought of that beautiful body +being so desecrated, but Mrs. Carew had seemed quite indifferent, +and congratulated herself that she had escaped the expenses of a +fashionable funeral and a costly monument. + +All the sorrow she had felt for Kathleen's death died out of Alpine's +heart as she beheld the trouble of the handsome young actor, and she +said to herself that if Kathleen could rise from the grave and stand +before her, she would be tempted to strike her dead at her feet. + +While these cruel and jealous thoughts ran through Alpine's mind, +Ralph Chainey was looking at her with pathetic eyes that mutely craved +her sympathy. At last she began to understand this, and a clever idea +came to her. Why not pretend to sympathize with him in his sorrow? +It would bring them closer together, and perhaps win her some kind +thoughts from him. + +Following out her thought, Alpine moved to a seat beside the young +actor, and laying her soft, ringed white hand lightly upon his, she +gave it a sympathetic pressure, and murmured: + +"No words can tell you how deeply I sympathize with you in your sorrow. +I hope, for both our sakes, that your belief may prove true, and +Kathleen be restored to your heart." + +Her sympathy pleased him, as she knew it would, and he answered, +eagerly: + +"You loved her. I know. How could any one live in the house with her +and not be devoted to one so sweet and lovely?" + +Alpine withdrew her hand and played nervously with her many rings. + +"Yes. I was fond of Kathleen," she murmured. "You did well to come to +me. You have all my sympathy, and oh! how I wish I could find her and +restore her to you. Is there nothing I can do? I am rich, you know, and +if you wish it, I will employ a detective to find Kathleen;" but even +as she breathed the tender words, the wily girl knew that she would +rather employ a detective to hunt her rival down to her death. + +Ralph Chainey, blind mortal that he was, looked at her gratefully, +without detecting the hollow ring in her voice. + +"God bless you for your noble offer, Miss Belmont, but I can not accept +it," he replied. "I have detectives already employed. I, too, am rich, +and my whole fortune shall be devoted to finding her, if it costs that +much. All that you can do is to write to me at once if you hear from +our poor lost darling. I shall be moving from one city to another, but +I will keep you informed of my whereabouts." + +"Oh, thank you, Mr. Chainey, and I will write you if I have the least +bit of news!" exclaimed Alpine, with sparkling eyes, for she began to +see a prospect of getting up a correspondence with the great actor. She +would write to him often, asking if _he_ had any news, and he would be +obliged, in common courtesy, to reply. + +He rose to go, and Alpine poured out eloquently her sympathy for him +and her sorrow for Kathleen. + +"We both love her; it is a link between us," she said. "Try to think of +me as a sister, and remember I shall often be thinking of you in your +sorrow." + +He thanked her gratefully and hurried away, after promising to call +again the first time he came to Boston. + +Alpine told her mother on her return of the young man's visit, and his +startling disclosure, but Mrs. Carew pooh-poohed the whole story. + +"Kathleen is certainly dead," she said. "Ralph Chainey has been imposed +on by a pretty lunatic, that's all. I thought he had more sense." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +TEDDY DARRELL'S PLANS. + + + "You are all that I have to live for, + All that I want to love, + All that the whole world holds for me." + + +Teddy Darrell kept his promise to Kathleen. He took her immediately to +the home of his cousin, a widow lady of about thirty-eight years--a +woman of good circumstances and social standing, but whose divided +devotion to two pretty children and literary pursuits caused her to +live a very retired life. + +Mrs. Stone must have been very fond of her cousin Teddy, for she +accepted his story of the finding of Kathleen in good faith, and made +the young girl welcome to her luxurious home. She saw that the hapless +girl was nearly fainting with fatigue, and leaving Teddy alone in the +pretty library, carried her off to bed, after first coaxing her to take +some tea and toast. + +"Bless you, my dear, your name has been a familiar one in this +household for more than a year. Teddy was so madly in love with you +once that he could talk of nothing else but Kathleen Carew whenever he +came. Even the children knew all about it!" + +Kathleen blushed at receiving so much kindness from Teddy's cousin, +after having rejected _him_, so to clear herself she said: + +"But he got over it directly. Helen Fox told me he proposed to her the +week afterward." + +Mrs. Stone, who was warming a dainty lace-ruffled night-gown before the +fire for her guest, threw her head back and laughed heartily. + +"Teddy Darrell is the worst flirt in Boston! Actually, Miss Carew, I've +known that boy to be engaged to three girls at the same time!" she +exclaimed, merrily. + +"I suppose he can never be really in earnest," said the young girl. + +Then Mrs. Stone replied, more seriously: + +"I have never known him to be in earnest but once, and I have been his +confidante, I believe, in all of his love affairs. He has had many +fancies, but he never really loved any one but _you_, my dear girl." + +Kathleen did not know what to say to this, and the lady rattled on: + +"Well, Teddy is a good catch, if I do say it myself, for he is a real +good boy, and very rich. His wife, if he ever gets one, will have a +happy life; and I hope he will soon marry, for that would cure him of +his little fads." + +"Fads?" observed Kathleen, inquiringly. + +"Yes," replied her new friend; "he is full of them. Some time ago it +was to be an author, and I believe he wrote up whole reams of foolscap +in the six weeks while the fever lasted. He came here every day, +bringing dozens of pages of the thrilling romance over which he had +been wasting the midnight oil. Finally he sent it off to a publisher, +and a prompt rejection cooled his ardor. Now his fad is to be an actor." + +"An actor?" Kathleen exclaimed. + +Her thoughts flew with exquisite pain to Ralph Chainey--so beloved and +so false! + +"He has been stage-struck ever since he saw Ralph Chainey act last +winter," continued the communicative hostess. "He tells me now that he +is studying to go upon the stage, but I'm sure he will fail. He will +certainly have stage-fright." + +"I hope not," answered Kathleen; and then the gentle lady tucked her +kindly into bed as if she had been a little child. + +"Good-night, my dear," she said, with a kiss, and then she went away, +saying she must go down-stairs and see Teddy Darrell. + +He was waiting for her alone. The children who had been amusing him, +had gone off to bed, and he settled himself for a long, confidential +chat. + +From his talk she soon learned that his love of a year ago for bonny +Kathleen had revived with fuller intensity than ever. + +"Cousin Carrie, I'm bound to marry that girl!" he exclaimed, with +sparkling eyes. + +"But she rejected you last winter, Teddy." + +"I know; but everything is different now. She was a belle and heiress +then; now she is poor, and friendless but for us. When she learns that +I love her in spite of her changed position, and that I want to marry +her as soon as she will have me, she will be touched by the romance of +the affair, and--now don't laugh so, Cousin Carrie--it _is_ romantic, +is it not, my devotion?" + +"Certainly," she agreed, merrily; then added: "But I'm afraid you will +find it hard to convince her of your devotion; for she told me when I +spoke of it just now that you had proposed to Helen Fox the very week +after she rejected you." + +Teddy made a grimace. + +"Oh, that was all fun, and I think it was very shabby in Helen telling +all the other girls about it. Of course, I only wanted the engagement +for a few weeks, then to pique her and get discarded, as I've done with +other, girls," he said, carelessly, having a very elastic conscience in +matters of love. + +But he added, rather lugubriously: + +"But I'm in earnest, Carrie, with Kathleen Carew. Positively, she is +the only girl I ever loved in my life--that is, real, sure enough +love--and it will break my heart if I don't get her for my wife." + +"You didn't break your heart when you believed that she was dead," his +cousin reminded him, cynically. + +"Oh, that's different!" he replied, vaguely. "I've set my heart on +getting her now, and I could never get over it, if I failed. Look here, +Cousin Carrie," leaning toward her, his bright, dark eyes full of +tender pleading, "help me, won't you? Speak a good word for me to her. +I'm not such a bad sort, am I?" wheedlingly. "I would make a nice young +girl a good husband, wouldn't I, now?" + +"Yes, Teddy, I believe you would." + +"Then help me, won't you? It's not selfish in me, is it, to want to +marry this poor girl who has been so strangely despoiled of home and +fortune, and make up to her for all her cruel loss?" + +He was deeply, romantically in earnest, and Mrs. Stone could not help +admiring his nobility. + +"No, Teddy, it's not selfish, for you _are_ a good match, and I'll +help you with sweet Kathleen, if I can. I used to be called a good +match-maker in other days when I went more into society, and I'll exert +my powers now for your benefit." + +"Thank you over and over!" he exclaimed, fervently. + +Thus in two homes in Boston plans were being made to keep Ralph Chainey +and Kathleen apart. Teddy Darrell meant to marry his old sweetheart, +if she was to be won, and Alpine Belmont was scheming to marry Ralph. +These two hearts, that had gone out so tenderly in love to each other, +seemed but footballs of fate, tossed relentlessly hither and thither. +Well might Kathleen, tossing restlessly on her soft bed, wet the pillow +with bitter, burning tears for her lost love--her false love, as she +believed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +FEDORA'S ESCAPE. + + + Let me see him once more, for a moment or two; + Let him tell me himself of his purpose, dear, do; + Let him gaze in these eyes while he lays out his plan + To escape me, and then he may go--if he can! + FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD. + + +Kathleen had promised to write to Samuel Hall and let him know when +she arrived safely in Boston, and the next morning, although she felt +really weak and ill, she kept her promise. + +She wrote a kind and grateful letter to the noble clerk, again +thanking him for his goodness to her, and telling him of her terrible +disappointment on reaching home. + + "I can not understand it all, I am so dazed with my trouble," she + wrote. "But papa is dead--lost at sea--and the strangest thing I + ever heard of, he made a will just before he sailed for America, and + disinherited me--his only child. Think of the strangeness--the cruelty + of it. But he is dead; I must not harbor unkind thoughts of him. I am + sure some malignant influence was brought to bear. But I am homeless, + penniless, but for this friend, Mrs. Stone, with whom I am staying. + I can not now repay you the sum of money you so nobly advanced me to + return home on, but I shall never forget it, and the time may come + when I shall be able to restore it fourfold. Till then God bless you + is the prayer of your friend till death. + + "KATHLEEN CAREW." + +Sammy Hall was all excitement over the letter, and at the first +opportunity confided the news to his sympathetic girl friends. + +Of course they talked it over at that quietest hour in the day when the +throng of shoppers are out at lunch or gone home to dinner. + +Tessie Mays, who had the news direct from Sammy, retailed it all to +the eager listeners; and no one noticed a handsome, showily dressed +young woman who had entered the store and come up to Tessie's +counter--Fedora, who, having given the wrong address the other day, had +now returned to complain that she had never received her package of +gold passementerie. + +Just as she was approaching the counter she heard the name of Kathleen +Carew called, and drawing back with a great start, pretended to be +examining some gorgeous brocade silk that was displayed on the end of +the counter. The pretty, animated young girls did not observe her, and +went on talking. + +Fedora did not lose a word. + +Pretty soon she became aware that her prey had escaped her through +the efforts of Sammy Hall, and that she was now safe in Boston with a +friend, although her father was dead and had disinherited her, and her +step-mother had denied her identity. + +"It is just like a novel, isn't it?" commented one of the young girls. +"I would give anything I own for one good look at the beautiful Miss +Kathleen Carew, with the bronze-gold hair and proud dark eyes that +Sammy raves over." + +"Tessie Mays, I'd think you would be jealous!" exclaimed another girl, +with a meaning laugh. + +Tessie tossed her dark curly head carelessly. + +"Why, Sammy Hall is not my beau! I think it was you, Dolly Wade, that +he took to church Sunday night--wasn't it?" + +It was Dolly's turn to blush and bridle. She laughed. + +"Oh, pshaw! Mr. Hall's only a friend of mine, and I don't think he +wants to marry you, anyhow! He is cut out for an old bachelor if ever a +man was!" + +"Have you ever seen that woman again, Tessie?" asked another girl, +turning the conversation. + +"What woman?" + +"Why, the one that Sammy recognized and is going to arrest, if she ever +comes in here again, for kidnapping Miss Carew." + +"Why, no; and it's strange, too, for she made a mistake, gave me the +address of a vacant house, and her gold passementerie came back here. I +was certain she would be back here, fussing about it; and I tell Sammy +it's lucky she made the mistake, so she will _have_ to come back here. +He has the warrant for her arrest, and she'll never get out of Haines & +Co.'s without a policeman's escort!" + +"Won't she?" muttered Fedora, with a low, gurgling laugh of sarcastic +amusement. She tripped away in a hurry, in spite of her pretended +mirth, and did not breathe freely until she was out of the store and in +the cab that was waiting for her near the sidewalk. + +"Whew! what a narrow escape!" she muttered. "So I have been watched and +almost trapped while I believed myself triumphant!" + +An ugly look crossed the pretty blonde face, and she continued, angrily: + +"I wonder who Sammy Hall can be that those girls talked about so +familiarly? He must be the man that helped me put the girl in the +carriage, and that I met afterward in the street, and snubbed so +coolly. He has taken revenge on me by ferreting out the place where I +left Kathleen Carew, and rescuing her from her fate. Heigho! I think I +had better leave for New York right away. Philadelphia will be too hot +a place to hold me for a while. If I had the money I would go to Boston +and look up my runaway bird, and Ivan at the same time. He promised to +send me three hundred dollars this week. He had better do it, for I've +got a hold on him, now, thanks to that girl's disclosure, that he can't +shake off." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +"MY DARLING GIRL, I'M AS FOND OF YOU AS EVER!" + + + Sweetheart, name the day for me, + When we two shall wedded be; + Make it ere another moon, + While the meadows are in tune. + EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN. + + +"You must cheer up, dear Kathleen, and feel yourself quite at home with +me," Mrs. Stone said, affectionately, to her sorrowful young guest. + +Kathleen looked at her wistfully with her sad, dark eyes. + +"But I have no claim on your kindness, dear lady," she sighed. + +"Why, aren't you my cousin Teddy's friend? and isn't he one of the best +boys in the world? and didn't I promise his dead mother that I would +always be kind to the boy she was leaving so lonely in the wide world? +for his father had died years before. Yes, indeed, you have a claim on +me, not alone because Teddy loves you so passionately, but for your own +dear sake--because your trouble and your helplessness make it my duty +to love and care for you," exclaimed the kind lady, feelingly. + +"You are so good and kind! May Heaven reward you!" sobbed the unhappy +girl. + +She leaned her beautiful curly head on Mrs. Stone's shoulder and wept +bitter, burning tears from the depths of her overcharged heart. + +Poor Kathleen! She was surely the most unhappy girl in the world. + +So young, so lovely, and so loving, yet pursued by a cruel, unrelenting +fate, that had wrested from her little hands all that she held dearest +in life! + +Her young heart was torn with agony for the death of her beloved +father, and the thought of Ralph Chainey's sin added poignancy to her +grief. + +In the long, dark watches of the sleepless nights, poor, unhappy +Kathleen lay wakeful and wretched on her pillow, thinking wildly of +her lost love--the man who had seemed like a demi-god in her eyes, so +handsome, and so gifted, and so noble, but who had been deceiving her +all along--who had a wife while he was pretending he meant to marry her. + +And--but when it came to this thought Kathleen's hysterical sobs almost +choked her, and she said to herself that she would not permit herself +to believe it--the thought that it was Ralph Chainey who had robbed her +that night, and given her jewels to _that_ woman, was unendurable. That +way lay madness. + +But it was no wonder that each morning, when the kind eyes of her +hostess scanned her face so anxiously, she found it paler and paler, +while the dark eyes were somber and heavy from the tears that always +lay so near them, and the sweet, red lips had always a tremulous curve, +as if from repressed sobs. + +Mrs. Stone's kind heart ached for the unhappy young creature who only +wept at all her attempts at comfort. + +She said to herself that she did not believe there was much chance for +Teddy Darrell, after all. The girl did not show the least interest when +she spoke of her cousin. + +Her whole heart seemed to be absorbed in grief for her father's death, +and in wonder over the fact that he had been mysteriously angry with +her, and given her share of his wealth to her step-sister. + +"Papa always loved me, and I never did anything to vex him, so why did +he hate me? Why did he leave his poor Kathleen alone and penniless in +the cold world?" she would sob, piteously. + +Mrs. Stone had no answer ready for that oft-repeated inquiry. It was a +mystery to her, too, why Vincent Carew had done such a cruel and wicked +thing. She did not know that Mrs. Carew had brought about the whole +thing by her malicious cablegram. If she had only waited until that +strange telegram from Ralph Chainey had been explained, how different +Kathleen's fate would have been! + +Ill and penniless, the dead millionaire's beautiful young daughter was +as poor and wretched as any beggar in the streets, only for this kind +friend. + +"Cheer up, my dear, cheer up!" she urged, kindly; but Kathleen could +not even bring a smile to her poor, stiff lips. Teddy Darrell came +every day to inquire after her, and he was shocked at the change in +beautiful Kathleen. + +"She looks awfully ill--almost as if she were going to die," he +confided to his cousin after a week, in a troubled tone. + +"She _is_ ill; I'm sure of it; for she eats no more than a little bird, +and she gets weaker every day. I think I had better have the doctor up, +don't you?" she answered, anxiously. + +"Yes; I'll send him when I go out," Teddy replied; and then he went +back to the young girl, who was lying back in an easy-chair, trying to +interest herself in a little book of poems he had brought her with some +flowers. + +"Do you find anything pretty in it?" he asked, tenderly. + +"I--I don't know. I'm afraid I've not tried," she answered, penitently, +ashamed that she could not seem happier to these kind friends who were +so good. + +He took the book from her hands and began to read aloud some pretty +bits here and there, in a musical and well-modulated voice. + +"Listen to this. I am sure you will agree with me that it is pretty," +he said, and read, softly: + + "'Oh, Love, so sweet at first, + So bitter in the end; + Thou canst be fiercest foe + As well as fairest friend. + + "'Ay, thou art swift to slay, + Despite thy kiss and clasp, + Thy long, caressing look, + Thy subtle, thrilling grasp! + + "'Yet, cruel as the grave. + Go, go, and come no more! + But canst thou set my heart + Just where it was before? + + "'Go, go, and come no more! + Go leave me with thy tears, + The only gift of thine + That shall outlive the years.'" + +Kathleen's face was bent on her hand. Teddy heard a smothered sob, but +he did not know with what terrible directness the words had gone to her +heart. He believed that she was heart-whole and fancy-free. + +"It is too sad for you, is it not?" he exclaimed. "I will read you +something brighter: + + "'They may talk of love in a cottage, + And bowers of trellised vine, + Of nature bewitchingly simple, + And milkmaids half divine. + + * * * * * + + "'But give me a sly flirtation + By the light of a chandelier-- + With music to play in the pauses, + And nobody very near.'" + +Kathleen actually gave a soft little laugh, for Teddy had read the +lines with such gusto that he plainly betrayed how much the sentiment +was to his mind. + +He started, flushed, then said, with his unvarying good nature: + +"Ah, how cruel! But never mind, so that I've made you feel brighter. +Have I, Kathleen?" + +"You are too good to me," the girl answered, gratefully, moved by his +kindness. + +"Too good! Ah, not one-half as good as I would like to be, if only +you would let me," cried the young man, ardently. "Ah, Kathleen," he +continued, impulsively, "do you remember how I used to love you--how I +begged you to be my wife? My darling girl, I'm as fond of you as ever. +Won't you try to love me? I would be the proudest boy in Christendom if +you would marry me!" + +"Don't talk to me of love--please don't!" cried Kathleen, keeping her +ardent lover at bay with two entreating white hands. + +"Well, I won't--at least not to-day; and I beg your pardon, +dear, if I've intruded on your grief with my selfish love. But I +thought--thought it might please you to know that there was one who +loved you even better since your reverse of fortune than before," Teddy +explained, humbly. + +"You are too good to me," she repeated as before, incoherently, touched +by his devotion, and contrasting it in her mind with the treachery of +that other one so dearly loved, so deeply false. + +"Then may I hope, Kathleen?" + +"Oh, no, no, no! I shall never love nor marry any one!" she answered, +vehemently; but Teddy Darrell did not in the least believe her. He +thought that all young girls were sure to love some day, and almost +certain to marry. He determined to keep on hoping and trying to win +this peerless beauty. + +Kathleen guessed what his thoughts were, and it made her very uneasy. + +"If I remain here with his cousin he will expect me to marry him," +she thought. "I can not do it, for I do not love him. I must go away +again;" and that very day she wrote to her mother's relatives in +Richmond--the ones to whom she was going when overtaken by such an +awful fate at Lincoln Station. + +Kathleen was so weak that it tired her now even to write a letter, and +the pen dragged wearily before she finished the recital of her sorrows, +and pleaded with these unknown kin to let her come to them just for +a little while--until she was strong enough to go out into the wide, +cruel world and earn her own living with those weak, white hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +KATHLEEN'S WEARY WAITING. + + + Oh! you tangled my life in your hair; + 'Twas a silken and golden snare, + But so gentle the bondage my soul did implore + The right to continue your slave evermore. + MILES O'REILLY. + + +Teddy Darrell sent up a doctor to see Kathleen, and he was startled +when he found that the young girl was suffering from arsenical +poisoning. + +"It is quite well that you sent for me, because if this had gone any +further, she might have died. But I will go at once to work to remove +the effects of the poison from her system," Doctor Spicer said, gravely. + +Mrs. Stone was shocked, but she readily comprehended that the woman +Fedora had placed the deadly drug in Kathleen's food, intending to +compass her death by slow degrees. What mystified her was the woman's +motive. + +Kathleen, while confiding the rest of her harrowing story to these +kind friends, Teddy Darrell and his cousin, had withheld the story +of Ralph Chainey's connection with her trouble. She could not bring +herself to mention his name. Something in her heart pleaded mutely for +the culprit. What if the woman had lied to her? What if she had been +lured from Ralph by a cunning ruse? Her brain reeled sometimes with +this suspicion, and she felt that she should go mad with the miserable +uncertainty of it all. Where was Ralph? Oh, if she could only see +him--find out the real truth! + +So she did not tell her friends anything about Ralph, and Mrs. Stone +had no clew to the mystery of this attempt on her life. + +"She does not dream of it, and perhaps it will be as well not to tell +her, she has already suffered so much through her unknown foes," +thought the kind lady. + +Several weeks passed, and Kathleen began to grow stronger and better +under the physician's treatment, but in all this time no reply to her +letter to her Southern relatives had been received. Neither had the +fact of Kathleen's return to Boston ever transpired among her former +friends in the city. + +Mrs. Carew was the only one who knew that Kathleen really lived, and it +was to her interest to keep it a secret. + +Teddy Darrell remained silent on the subject, because the natural +selfishness of a lover made him wish to keep away all other lovers +until he had had his own chance + + "To win or lose it all." + +Mrs. Stone's quiet and retired life helped to keep Kathleen's presence +in her house unknown. She was a rising authoress, devoted to her +children and her pen. She had first commenced to write after her +husband's death as a solace to her loneliness and grief. Success had +made literature her life work, and she devoted herself to it, going but +little into society and receiving few friends. + +Kathleen began to look better, but she chafed bitterly in secret over +the strange silence of her relatives. + +Why would they not write her a few lines, even if they did not want her +with them? Did they care nothing, then, for the unhappy child of their +poor dead Zaidee? She had written to them so frankly, so appealingly, +tried to open her whole heart to them, but there came no response. + +And dearly as she loved her good friend, Mrs. Stone, Kathleen chafed +at her enforced dependence on her kindness. She saw so plainly through +her little matchmaking scheme, and she was so touched by Teddy's +devotion, silent and unobtrusive since that day when he had spoken out +so impulsively, but still patent to all observers. + +She was so lonely, so friendless; and she knew it was nobler in him to +cling to her now when she was no longer a belle and heiress, but only +a waif tossed back almost from the grave into a world that denied and +disowned her. Teddy never seemed to remember that. He was as courteous +and deferential as he had ever been to Miss Carew, the courted heiress. +Every day he brought her gifts of books and flowers; often he came with +a carriage to take her and Mrs. Stone to ride. He did not speak to +Kathleen of his love again, but his great black eyes looked unutterable +things, and she knew that, despite his usual variableness, he was +true, at least, to this love. + +Yes, Teddy's heart was touched for once, and he loved bonny Kathleen +even more warmly than in the former time when: + + "She had all that love could give, all that makes it sweet to live-- + Fond caresses, jewels, dresses; and with eloquent appeal + Many a proud and rich adorer knelt--in metaphor--before her." + +Teddy could not realize but that Kathleen would return his love some +time. He knew he was "a catch," in worldly parlance, and he knew that +he was good to look upon. Why, then, should not beautiful Kathleen +learn to love him? Other girls had found it easy to do so--girls for +whom he had not cared an iota, only to amuse himself. + +This was different. Teddy--flirting Teddy--had found heaven at last +in a girl's eyes!--deep, dark eyes like shady pools in their thick +fringes. Her glance thrilled him; the touch of her soft, cool little +hand burned like fire. He could think of nothing but his love for +her, and his desire to marry her and lift her again to her old proud +position. + +"Once my wife, she should queen it over that _fat_ Alpine Belmont, who +got all her money," he said to his cousin. "She should have one of the +finest houses in Boston, horses and carriages, jewels and fine dresses, +and I would worship the very ground she trod on!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +"WE HAVE MET--WE HAVE LOVED--WE HAVE PARTED!" + + + Farewell, farewell! for aye, farewell, + Yet must I end as I began, + I love you, love you, love but you. + JOAQUIN MILLER. + + +Kathleen gave up all hope of ever hearing from her Southern relatives. + +"They do not care for me, and I must not expect anything of them," +she sighed, and the thought came to her that now she had been at Mrs. +Stone's six weeks, and grown well and strong again, she must seek a +situation as a teacher and support herself. + +"I suppose I could teach little children, and I must try to find some +place. It is unfair to my kind friend for me to remain here longer," +she sighed, and stole softly down to the library for a morning paper to +consult the advertisements. + +As the girl glided softly across the floor a low murmur of voices +reached her through the falling curtains from the adjoining parlor. + +The girl gave a violent start, and sunk tremblingly into the nearest +chair. + +She was pale as death, and her heart beat violently against her side. + +What was it? What had startled the young girl so much? + +The sound of a voice had pierced her heart like a sword-thrust. + +It was Ralph Chainey's voice, so deep, so sweet, so mellow, that, once +heard, it could never be forgotten, especially by one who loved him so +despairingly as did our poor Kathleen. + +He was speaking to Mrs. Stone, and for one wild moment Kathleen +believed that he had traced her here, that he had come to inquire for +her. Surely then he could not be guilty, or conscience would have kept +him away. + +She strained her ears to catch every tone of that deep, sweet voice, +and then she heard him speaking to Mrs. Stone of her literary work. He +had been so struck with the force of one of her books that he wanted +her to dramatize it for him, or write him a new play. + +All unaware of Kathleen's nearness to him, the young actor had come +here to this house, seemingly led by the subtle hand of Fate. + +Kathleen glided to the falling curtains, and, drawing one ever so +lightly apart, gazed with eager, yearning eyes into the room. + +Her hungry eyes feasted on the sight of her false lover as he sat in +full view, opposite Mrs. Stone, in a large velvet arm-chair. + +Never, it seemed to bonny Kathleen, had she seen him look so grandly +handsome, not even in his spirited impersonation of Prince Karl, in +which he had so thrilled her girlish heart. + +But Ralph Chainey was pale, and in his splendid, thoughtful brown eyes +lay the haunting shadow of a cruel pain. He was tortured by his failure +to find lost Kathleen. + +But the conventional smile that played over his handsome face as he +talked to the gifted woman before him deceived Kathleen. It seemed to +her that he was well and happy, that he had forgotten that she ever +lived--the girl he had pretended to love so dearly. + +"I have the plot of a new story upstairs in my study, and I believe it +is just the thing you want, Mr. Chainey," said Mrs. Stone, vivaciously. +She rose, and added: "I will go and get it, but if I am some little +time away, please go into the library, and amuse yourself with a +book. I must confess that I am very careless, and often misplace my +manuscripts." + +Mrs. Stone vanished through the door, and Ralph Chainey, who was so +unhappy that he dreaded nothing so much as his own sad thoughts, +immediately turned toward the library. + +Kathleen gave a gasp of surprise and terror, and turned to fly. + +She was too late. Even as her hand fell from the curtain Ralph Chainey +swept it aside and entered. The strangely parted lovers were face to +face. + +For a moment the young man was only conscious that Mrs. Stone's library +was occupied by a beautiful young girl. + +But the moan that burst uncontrollably from Kathleen's white lips made +him glance more closely at the young girl's face, and then he saw that +it was his missing love. + +A cry of joyful astonishment broke from him, and he sprung forward, +crying, eagerly: + +"Kathleen, my darling!" + +His arms closed about her; he pressed her closely to his throbbing +breast. + +Kathleen's eyes closed, and her golden head sunk heavily on her lover's +breast. + +She had almost fainted with the shock of seeing him so suddenly, +combined with the exquisite rapture and pain of his fond embrace. + +But even while he showered kisses on her fair face and closed eyes, +memory and reason began to assert themselves. She struggled faintly in +his clasp, and he perceived that she was trying to free herself. + +Instantly he opened his arms and allowed her to go free, for Ralph +Chainey was one of the proudest of men, and would not force his +caresses on any one. + +But he said eagerly, although with a slight tone of reproach in his +voice: + +"Kathleen, my dearest, how came you here, and why was it that I found +you gone that night when I returned to the station?" + +The color flushed hotly into her pale face, but she stood apart, +looking at him with burning eyes, and not uttering one word. + +"Kathleen, why do you look at me so strangely?" exclaimed her lover, in +reproachful wonder. "Has your heart changed toward me? Did you repent +your promise to marry me that night, and run away, or did your enemies +find you, as you feared they would? Tell me the truth, my darling." + +But still she did not speak. In truth, she could not. There was a +hysteric constriction in her throat that held it tight as with iron +bands. She gazed with unwilling fascination into the large, pleading, +brown eyes of her lover, her young heart throbbing wildly in her breast. + +"Kathleen, what have I done that you will not even speak to me?" he +asked, piteously, and all her heart thrilled at the words; her will was +hardly strong enough to restrain her from springing into his arms. His +glance, deep, reproachful, loving, and magnetic, all in one, held her +like a charm: + + "It shot down her soul's deep heaven + Like a meteor trailing fire." + +A long, long, troubled sigh breathed over the girl's sweet lips, and +with a great effort of her will she drooped her eyelids so that they +could not encounter his gaze. + +"For I dare not, or--I should _risk_ everything for his dear love," she +thought, wildly. + +She mystified him so by her strange behavior that he forgot his pride, +and again advanced toward her side. + +"Kathleen, my love, my darling, speak to me, if only one word!" he +cried, yearningly, passionately. + +And finding her voice at last, she faltered to him, in a despairing +tone: + +"Did you ever--ever--know--a woman named--Fedora?" + +"My God!" cried Ralph Chainey. + +He flung up one hand to his brow and reeled backward from her side like +one wounded to the death. + +"So it is true?" Kathleen cried, in a hollow voice full of bitter +anguish. + +Ralph Chainey looked at her with sad eyes from which all the brightness +had strangely faded. + +"Who has told you?" he asked, in a dull voice. + +"She told me herself," Kathleen answered, and shot him an indignant +glance, pride coming to her rescue. There could no longer be any doubt +of his guilt. His looks confessed it. + +But he faltered in a dazed voice: + +"That is impossible! She is dead!" + +"You can not deceive me like that, Ralph Chainey!" cried Kathleen, in +tempestuous anger. Her eyes flashed lightning on her recreant lover, +and she continued, bitterly: "Your wife came to me that night in the +station and told me all. She--she took me away." + +"What was she like?" demanded the young man, hoarsely. He seemed dazed +by sudden misery. + +"She was a beautiful blonde with a haughty manner," answered Kathleen; +and he groaned as if there could be no longer any hope. + +"I have been duped, deceived! I believed that Fedora was dead long +ago," he said, angrily. Then his voice grew softer. "Kathleen, will you +let me explain it all?" he pleaded, humbly. + +But in the heart of the beautiful, passionate young girl there had +suddenly leaped into life the devouring flame of jealousy--jealousy and +hate for the woman who had thrust her rival into the pit of a black +despair. And he had deceived her. It seemed to her she must go mad with +her wrongs. In this moment she hated her lover. + +She turned on him with a tigerish glare in her splendid eyes. + +"I will hear nothing!" she said, bitterly. "You will never have the +chance to deceive me again!" and she rushed angrily from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +RALPH CHAINEY'S ANGER. + + + I can not break the cruel net, + And yet-- + My eyes with scornful tears are wet-- + Release me, teach me to forget. + CELIA THAXTER. + + +Kathleen gained her own room, locked the door, and fell prostrate on +the floor in a passion of blinding grief and jealous anger. Tears came +to her relief, and rained down her cheeks in a tempest of emotion. + +"Will he go away, or will he remain, tell Mrs. Stone my whole story, +and beg her to plead his cause with me?" she asked herself, and hoped +unconsciously that he would. + +She did not know the young man's sturdy pride. He had waited for Mrs. +Stone, transacted his business with her, and gone away without a word. + +"She did not love me, or she would have let me explain it all, as I +wished. She did not care to have the barrier between us swept away. +So be it. Let her go. She is not worthy such love as I gave her," he +thought, with scorn of the heart that could trample on such devotion: + + "The spirit of eager youth + That named her queen of queens at once, and loved her in very truth; + That threw its pearl of pearls at her feet, and offered her, in a + breath, + The costliest gift a man can give from his cradle to his death." + +His brow clouded with a heavy frown as he thought of the woman who had +turned the heart of his fair young love so cruelly against him. + +"Does she really live? Have I been duped by a cunning lie--a trick to +extort the price of a costly funeral? I almost believe it. Let me find +out if it is true, and bitter shall be that fiend's punishment," he +mused with almost savage intensity. + +He had reached Boston only that morning, and he had promised Alpine +Belmont, who had written to him almost every day since he left, that +he would call upon her very soon. Wondering if she knew of Kathleen's +presence in the city, he bent his steps toward Commonwealth Avenue. + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Stone, full of elation at the compliments paid her by +the gifted actor, and eager to share her pleasure with Kathleen, went +upstairs and tapped softly on the door. + +Kathleen opened it, and her friend started with surprise at seeing her +face flushed and her eyes swollen with weeping. + +"Do not mind me; it--it--is nothing," was all she would say in reply to +Mrs. Stone's sympathetic inquiries; and at last the authoress plunged +into her own affairs, telling Kathleen all about Ralph Chainey's visit, +and his wish that she should write a play for him. + +"He has taken away the plot of my new novel to read, and he will return +in a few days to tell me how he likes it. If I succeed in pleasing him, +I shall be famous!" she exclaimed. + +"I hope that you will succeed," Kathleen said, earnestly. + +"Have you ever seen Ralph Chainey act, my dear, and did you like him?" + +"I have seen him, and I think he is a grand actor," the girl replied, +quietly. + +"How would you like to go and see him to-night? He plays 'A Parisian +Romance.' I am sure he will be splendid in that, as he is in +everything. We will take Teddy with us. What do you say, my dear?" + +Kathleen hesitated, her heart throbbing wildly with the blended love +and hate she now felt for the handsome lover who had so wickedly +deceived and betrayed her girlish trust. + +Then a sudden temptation came to her to stab his heart as cruelly as +he had done hers. Why not go with Teddy, who loved her so dearly, and +pretend to return his devotion? + +"I should be delighted to go!" she said, unfalteringly to Mrs. Stone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +ALPINE SOWS THE SEED OF JEALOUSY. + + + They have told you some false story; + You believe them--all they say. + You are false, but I'll forgive you; + But forget I never may. _Song_. + + +"You startle me! Kathleen really alive? Kathleen here, in the same city +with us?" exclaimed Alpine Belmont, in genuine surprise. + +Ralph Chainey had been telling her all about his visit to Mrs. Stone +and his unexpected _rencontre_ with his lost love. + +"Some one has been slandering me to her, and she hates me now. She +refused to have anything more to do with me," he ended, with a long +sigh. + +The beauty's lashes fell to hide her blue eyes' exultant gleam. + +"Oh, how cruel of Kathleen!" she exclaimed. She sighed, and added, in a +low, tender voice: "How could any one be cruel to _you_?" + +He hardly noticed the purport of her speech, he was so absorbed in +thought. + +"You will go to her, Miss Belmont? You will bring her home?" he pleaded. + +"But perhaps she will not come with me. Is it not a little strange that +she did not come here at first, Mr. Chainey?" + +"Yes, it is strange. There is something very mysterious about this +affair. But go to her, Miss Belmont, and no doubt she will give you +her confidence. Be her friend, if she needs one," pleaded the lover, +forgetting his wrath against Kathleen in anxiety over her welfare. + +"I will go to-morrow," promised Alpine, soothingly. + +"And you will bring her home with you?" + +"If she will come," answered Alpine. Then she gave a violent start, +exclaiming: "Oh, I've just remembered something!" + +"Well?" asked the young man, eagerly. + +"Mrs. Stone is own cousin to Teddy Darrell, and he was Kathleen's lover +last winter. Can there be any connection between her being there with +Mrs. Stone--whom I'm certain she used not to know--and Teddy Darrell?" + +The shaft went home. She saw him pale and tremble with jealous dread. + +"I know Teddy Darrell," he said, trying to speak carelessly. "Did--did +she ever care for _him_?" + +"Yes, I believe so. There was a flirtation anyway, and we thought once +it would be a match; but suddenly it all came to nothing. I don't +know who was to blame, but I'm afraid it was Teddy. He's known to be +fickle-minded and a wretched flirt." + +How sweetly and artlessly she spoke; but every word was a sword-thrust +in the hearer's heart. Wan and haggard with misery, he rose and began +to pace the floor restlessly. + +Alpine watched him under her down-drooped lashes, her breast heaving +with its love and pain. Yet she knew that she was no more to him than a +hundred other girls whose names he barely knew, save and except that +she was Kathleen's step-sister. She "was not the rose, but she had +lived near it." + +It was cruelly hard, when she loved him so dearly. The temptation +seized her to fall at his feet, to cry out to him that she could not +live without him, that she was going mad for his dear love. + +She recoiled with horror from the thought. No, no; he would despise +her. Let her show him tenderness and sympathy, but not love. By and by +he might turn to her when he became convinced that Kathleen was lost to +him forever. + +"And she is, she shall be!" vowed the girl; and after watching Ralph +in silence for some moments, while he strode up and down, seemingly +oblivious of her presence, she moved to his side, and slipping her hand +timidly within his arm, murmured, softly: + +"Do not worry over it, please, dear friend. Even if Kathleen is lost to +you, there are hundreds of other girls as well worth the winning." + +He did not answer; he was dumb with despair; but he suffered Alpine to +cling to his arm and walk up and down by his side, murmuring low words +of sympathy all the while. + +"I shall scold Kathleen for her cruelty to you; you did not deserve it, +for you were true to her," she said, and sighed. "Ah, how sad it is for +one's love to prove false--false and fickle!" + +He turned on her almost fiercely. + +"You believe that she loves this Darrell?" he exclaimed. + +"I believe she does," answered Alpine, with pretended reluctance, +exulting in the pain she saw on his face. + +It gave her a savage joy to wound him in his love for Kathleen. She +longed to make him hate the hapless girl as bitterly as she herself +hated her. + +"I must go," he said, abruptly; then as she clung to his hand: "Do not +forget your promise to go to her to-morrow. And--you will send me a +note? I play here all this week." + +"Yes, you shall hear from me. I shall see you again, too, for I'm +coming every night to see you act," she answered, sweetly. + +"Thank you," he replied, dropped her hand, and went away, never +remembering how lovingly the blue eyes had looked into his, nor how +tenderly she had spoken. It was Kathleen of whom he was thinking--his +sweet, estranged love. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +ALPINE'S FALSEHOOD. + + + So dearly loved, so deeply false, + Ah, why should I regret thee? + 'Twas fatal to my peace of mind + The hour when first I met thee! + MRS. A. MCV. MILLER. + + +When the curtain rose that night on Ralph Chainey in the beautiful +play, "A Parisian Romance," there were seated in opposite boxes the +beautiful rivals for the handsome actor's love--Alpine Belmont in +one box with her haughty mother, and in the other Kathleen Carew, +chaperoned by Mrs. Stone and with Teddy Darrell hanging adoringly over +her chair. + +Kathleen was all in white--a simple form of mourning--and white +flowers, set off by their own green leaves, were her only adorning. + +And Teddy Darrell? Well, the young swell "was gotten up regardless," as +one of his friends remarked--"a golden youth" like himself. His evening +dress was faultless, and his button-hole bouquet matched Kathleen's +white flowers. His diamonds were magnificent, and his whole air was +so hopeful and exuberant that when Ralph Chainey from the stage first +caught sight of him his heart sunk with despair. He felt that "flirting +Teddy" was a rival to be dreaded. + +"Why need she have come to torture me with the sight of all I have +lost?" he thought, despairingly; but he went on splendidly with his +part in the play. A stubborn pride came to his aid. She should not +see how he was suffering, this lovely, scornful girl leaning back in +her chair to look up into the handsome face so close to her own as +attentive Teddy wielded the white ostrich feather fan. She scarcely +seemed to see what went on upon the stage; she did not look across +into the box where her step-mother and Alpine were staring in angry +surprise. She looked only at Teddy Darrell; she smiled only at him. It +was such a pronounced flirtation that the crowded house observed it +and smiled indulgently at the handsome pair, declaring that it would +certainly be a match. + +Whispers, too, were circulating among the people who had known Kathleen +Carew in her life-time. Who was this girl with the face and smile of +the dead heiress?--that luring face so subtly beautiful that no one had +dreamed the world could hold a copy. + +Curiosity moved a gentleman, when the curtain fell, to go and ask Mrs. +Carew about it. + +"I am as much amazed as you are," she replied. + +"Then you can not tell me who she is," he said, regretfully. + +"She is masquerading under the name of my dead step-daughter, and +pretends to be resurrected from a trance, or something like that. We +first heard about it yesterday," was Mrs. Carew's curt reply. + +"Then you have not seen her until to-night?" + +"No," nervously. + +"Shall you acknowledge her, Mrs. Carew?" + +"No. She is an impostor, and we will have nothing to do with the minx." + +"Speak for yourself, mamma," said Alpine, pertly. "I'm not sure she's +an impostor, for it is Kathleen's face and her very gestures. I am +going over to Mrs. Stone's box and find out the truth for myself, if +Mr. Layne will take me." + +She rose, drawing the blue wrap about her white shoulders. Mrs. Carew +stared aghast. + +"You will not, you _must_ not!" she exclaimed, angrily. + +Alpine bent down and whispered rapidly in her ear: + +"What does it matter? I have her money safe; she could not get it +if she lived a thousand years, and I have my own plans. You must not +interfere with them." + +When Alpine took that tone, her mother knew that protest was useless. + +"Do as you please," she muttered, angrily, and tossed her head as +Alpine went out leaning on Mr. Layne's arm. + +"What is the girl up to, I wonder?" she mused, uneasily. "She always +had a sneaking fondness for Kathleen, and would be just silly enough to +bring her home to live with us. She shall not do it, no matter what the +world says. I always hated the girl for the look she has of her dead +mother." + +Mrs. Carew was jealous of the very memory of poor Zaidee, and could not +bear the sight of her beautiful daughter. She writhed with anger when +she saw Alpine embrace Kathleen. + +"Kathleen, is it really you? Oh, you darling, let me kiss you!" she +cried, effusively, and put her arms impulsively about the young girl. + +Kathleen recoiled from her at first. She thought that Alpine knew +all about her mother's cruelty; but as Alpine held her in that warm +embrace, she exclaimed: + +"Kathleen, why did you not come home to us?" + +Kathleen released herself from Alpine, answering, bitterly: + +"I came, but your mother denied me, and put me out into the street, +unconscious, to perish in the snow." + +"Impossible!" cried Alpine. But there came to her all in a rush the +memory of that night when her mother had told her that a woman had come +to see Ivan, and she had driven her away. + +"She deceived me; it was Kathleen," she thought, and exclaimed, eagerly: + +"My dearest girl, she did not tell me anything about it, but of course +she believed you were an impostor. You believe me? you will let me be +your friend, Kathleen?" anxiously. + +"Come and see me at Mrs. Stone's to-morrow, Alpine," her step-sister +answered; and then turned to the gentleman. + +"How do you do, Mr. Layne? Will you, too, take me for an impostor?" she +inquired, holding out her little hand to him. + +"No, indeed, Miss Carew, for I am sure there can not be a copy of your +beautiful face in all the world," he replied, gallantly. Being an +elderly widower, he felt privileged to pay broad compliments. + +Kathleen blushed and smiled, and the curtain rising at that moment +showed Ralph Chainey that Alpine had seized the first opportunity to go +and see Kathleen. + +He was intensely pleased with Alpine's loyalty. + +"She is a better girl than I used to think," he decided, and made up +his mind to go to her box the first opportunity to thank her for her +goodness. + +He did not dream that Alpine was whispering at that moment little +poisoned arrows into Kathleen's ear about himself, nor of the cruel +pain that tore Kathleen's heart as she heard of her lover's liking for +Alpine. + +"When he came yesterday, he told me of your being at Mrs. Stone's. What +a shock it was to know you were really living! But I must go back to +mamma now, and to-morrow I'll come and see you, and hear all about your +little romance," tearing herself away. + +Just as she expected, Ralph hurried to her box as soon as the curtain +fell. + +"What did she say?" he whispered, eagerly; and Kathleen, who was +watching them, felt her heart thrill with renewed bitterness as she saw +the curly brown head bent low over Alpine's straw-gold one. + +"He is doing it to pique me," she thought; but she could not turn her +burning dark eyes away from the sight. + +Alpine looked up smilingly into the pale, anxious face. + +"She told me to come to-morrow and see her and hear her story; there +was not time to-night," she replied. + +He was disappointed; she read it in his speaking countenance, and +added: + +"She gave me one bit of news, but I am not sure that I ought to tell +you." + +"Please do so," he urged. + +"It will pain you, I fear," sighed Alpine. + +"I am strong enough to bear anything except--suspense," setting his +teeth firmly. + +Mrs. Carew was looking at them curiously: + +"Mamma, will you please excuse us for whispering? I have something to +tell Mr. Chainey--a secret." + +"You are excusable," the lady replied, sourly, turning away her head. + +Alpine whispered to Ralph: + +"Kathleen is engaged to be married to Teddy Darrell, and is the +happiest girl I ever saw!" + +He was silent a moment, then murmured, bitterly: + +"She has no heart! How could she turn so quickly from one love to +another?" + +"She is fickle as the wind," Alpine answered, with a contemptuous shrug. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +A CRUEL STAB. + + + My ship sails forth with sable sails + Over Life's stormy sea; + Thou knowest how heavy is my woe, + And still thou woundest me. + H. HEINE. + + +Alpine had come and gone. Under a mask of sweetness and love, she had +tortured Kathleen's heart. + +"My dear girl, how fortunate you are to have caught Teddy Darrell!" she +exclaimed, after Kathleen had told her the story of her adventures, +save and excepting about Fedora's claim that she was Ralph Chainey's +wife. That one dread secret the girl kept locked close in her heart. + +"Fortunate!" Kathleen echoed, dully. + +"Yes," Alpine answered. "He is rich, and unless you are going to marry +him, it does not look well for you to remain with Mrs. Stone." + +"But, Alpine, I have no other place to go. Mrs. Stone is my only +friend." + +"She is your friend because her cousin wants to marry you, and if you +refuse Teddy, she will be very angry." + +"Do you think so, Alpine?" the young girl exclaimed, startled at the +idea. + +"I am sure of it. My advice to you is to marry Teddy." + +"But I do not love him, Alpine. I--I loved Ralph Chainey--once--so +dearly that I feel that I can never love another." + +"Why have you turned against Ralph?" asked her step-sister, curiously. + +"I can not tell you," faltered Kathleen. + +"Do you love him still?" + +"No," Kathleen answered, spiritedly; but Alpine did not believe one +word. + +"Kathleen, how would you like to come back home?" she asked. + +"Your mother would not permit it," sighed the young girl. + +"It is because she does not believe you are really Kathleen. She thinks +you an impostor. I have been talking to her, trying to get her consent +to bring you home." + +Kathleen looked curiously at her step-sister, puzzled by her odd air of +hesitancy. + +"Well, go on. What is it?" she asked, with that little imperious manner +inseparable from herself. + +"She would not agree except on one condition." + +Kathleen looked at her in silent wonder, and, with pretended sorrow, +Alpine said: + +"The condition was that you come as a housemaid--as a paid servant." + +She saw, with silent, secret malice, the angry crimson mount to +Kathleen's pearly cheek, and remained silent a few moments to enjoy the +sensation of proud Kathleen humiliated. + +Kathleen was indeed furious with resentment, and for a moment she could +not speak for the great lump in her throat. + +Then she fought down her emotion with an iron will and looked straight +at her tormentor, saying, coolly: + +"I suppose it is so hard for your mother to forget the position she +once occupied in my father's house that she would be glad to sink his +daughter to the same level." + +Alpine crimsoned. She always hated to remember that her mother had been +Zaidee Carew's governess, and that it was hinted that her arts had +driven the artless child-wife to despair and death. + +But it was not her policy to seem offended with Kathleen. To propitiate +Ralph Chainey, she must still seem to be the friend of the girl he +loved so dearly. + +So she looked at her lovely rival with a sad, sweet smile, and said: + +"Of course, I knew that you would not come--that way--and I told mamma +so. But she made me promise to tell you what she said. You must not be +angry with me, dear, for I have a better plan for you." + +The young girl looked at her in angry silence, asking herself: "What +new insult?" + +"You know, of course, that your father, in a fit of anger against you, +left me all his money in a will?" asked Alpine. + +Kathleen nodded coldly. + +"I am going to make you an allowance to live on, Kathleen. I told mamma +I meant to do so, and she said your father did not intend for you to +have a penny of that money. Of course, I knew that. But it makes no +difference to me, for I can not bear to have you living on Mrs. Stone's +charity. It is better for you to depend on me for your support than on +a stranger. Don't you think so yourself?" + +Kathleen rose up, white-faced, indignant, goaded to fury. + +"No, I do not think so," she said, angrily. "I would rather starve in +the streets than support life on an allowance from you, made out of +the money that should be mine, but which you cheated me out of by some +cunning trick known only to yourself and your mother. I believe you +are deceitful, that you are only pretending a kind feeling for me to +serve some purpose of your own. Go, go, and leave me to myself and my +misery!" + +There was something in the looks and words of that frail, beautiful +young girl that compelled obedience from Alpine. She rose instantly. + +"Well, good-bye, since you will not let me be your friend," she said, +and glided from the room. + +Kathleen walked up and down the floor in a passion of insulted pride, +her cheeks burning, her little fists clinched in impotent wrath, her +heart on fire with the longing to avenge herself on those two insolent +women. + +It was a dangerous time to her for Teddy Darrell to enter--handsome, +loving Teddy who adored her, and who was wild with anger over the +insult she had received; for Kathleen could not keep back her +grievance; she told Teddy frankly of Mrs. Carew's message and of +Alpine's offer. + +"Great Heaven! how mean some women can be! It was done purposely to +humiliate you!" he exclaimed, angrily. + +He looked at beautiful Kathleen, with the fire of her dark eyes dim +with tears, and her cheeks burning with resentment, feeling himself +hardly able to refrain from taking her in his arms and kissing away the +tempestuous tears. + +Suddenly his repressed passion burst forth: + +"Kathleen, my darling, do marry me! Can't you learn to love me just a +little? I would be so fond of you, so devoted, that you could not help +but learn to love me. And I am rich, you know. I would help you queen +it over those insolent women." + +Her heart leaped at his words; pride carried the day. + +"I would do it--if--if--I--thought I _could_ learn to love you; and +that ought to be easy, because you have been so good to me, and I am so +grateful," she murmured. + +It did seem easy at the moment. Teddy was true, Teddy loved her, while +Ralph Chainey was false and cruel. Why should she wear the willow for +_him_? Why lie down in the dust, while her heartless step-mother and +step-sister trampled on her rights and her feelings? So in a fury of +resentment, Kathleen gave Teddy her promise to marry him and to learn +to love him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +RALPH CHAINEY IS DRIVEN TO DESPERATION, AND TURNS ON HIS FOE. + + + Even now, I tell you, I wonder + Whether this woman called Estelle + Is flesh and blood, or a beautiful lie + Sent up from the depths of hell. + EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN. + + +Ralph Chainey went from Alpine's presence to his home in Sumner, one +of the beautiful suburbs of Boston, and to the presence of his gentle +widowed mother, who presided over a lovely home that was shared with +her by an older son and his small family. + +"Ralph, dear, you look pale. You are ill!" she exclaimed, anxiously. + +"My head aches severely. I will go to my room and lie down for an +hour to get my nerves steady for to-night," he said; and kissing her +affectionately he left her to seek seclusion for his aching heart and +brain. + +He leaned his aching head on his hand, and a rush of bitter memories +swept over him. + +He saw himself five years ago a boy of twenty-two, brilliant, ardent, +and impetuous, just beginning his dramatic career. At the very outset +he had fallen into the toils of a beautiful actress years older than +himself. By a clever playing of her cards, she had entrapped him into +a marriage; but scarcely had the honey-moon waned ere he learned to +his horror the true character of his wife. She was false, light, and +wicked, and no entreaties could win her from her wicked ways. + +A separation ensued, and Ralph, ashamed to court publicity by applying +for a divorce, agreed to support the false woman if she would promise +not to annoy him by venturing into his presence. She accepted these +terms, but instead of retiring to seclusion, as he desired her, +Fedora, as she called herself, joined a ballet troupe, and scandalized +her unfortunate young husband by her wild career. Still the marriage +was wholly unknown to the world, and in hopes of maintaining this +silence, the young actor suffered on patiently, his pride wounded, his +fancy dead, his soul thrilled with disgust, but one solace left to him, +and that the knowledge that his false wife had kept faith with him in +preserving his secret--kept faith because he had threatened her with +exposure and divorce upon its betrayal. + +At last she had broken faith, and, bitterest of all, had betrayed his +miserable folly to the one woman that he wished never to know it--to +beautiful, proud Kathleen, the idol of his very soul, for whom he had +felt all the passion of the poet's plaint: + + "I love you. That is all. Life holds no more. + Here in your arms I have no other world. + Where is the mad ambition known of yore? + All fled away to some far-distant shore, + And lost forever. Yes, I love you, sweet-- + You only--you alone. My heart, my life + I lay--a meager offering--at your feet." + +It had fallen on him like a crushing blow, the knowledge that Fedora +lived, when he had been duped, deceived into believing that she was +dead and he was free. + +A telegraphic message from Richmond, where she had been playing, had +summoned him to her death-bed; but when he reached the city her friends +told him she was dead and buried. + +They showed him a new grave in the beautiful shades of romantic +Hollywood, and presented him with a long bill for her funeral expenses. +He paid it without a murmur, and could not help feeling glad that he +was rid of his terrible incubus. He did not dream that it was only a +clever plot of the wicked woman to extort money, and that she enjoyed +very much the liberal sum he had handed over to liquidate the expenses +of her interment. + +He realized it all now--saw how cruelly Fate, in the shape of the +heartless Fedora, had used him, and, with a bitter groan, stared his +cruel destiny in the face. + +Fedora--his false wife--lived! She had parted him forever from his +beautiful, dark-eyed love. + + "We have parted--I have loved thee; + But for me all hope is o'er! + We have parted, and forever; + I must dream of thee no more!" + +He believed that Kathleen was going to marry Teddy Darrell, as Alpine +hinted, but he was not so sure that it was for love. He remembered, +with a thrill of blended rapture and despair, how he had caught +Kathleen to his heart this morning, and how she had lain passive in his +arms at first. + +"She did not repulse me at first," he thought. "Her heart throbbed +wildly against mine, and she lay yielding and passive in the utter +_abandon_ of a pure woman who truly loves. Then she _remembered_ all at +once, and withdrew herself from me in stinging scorn." + +He groaned bitterly at the memory of her cruel words. + +"My poor, proud darling! if she would but have listened to me, she +might have pitied and forgiven me," he thought, with the fluctuating +hopes of a lover's heart. He loved Kathleen so dearly that he could not +remain angry with her, although he tried to do so. In his heart he made +excuses for her. She was so young, so inexperienced, and there was no +telling what lies Fedora had told the young girl. + +"I will punish that fiend, at least," he cried, starting to his feet. +"No more squeamishness shall deter me from seeking a divorce, and I +shall do so at once. Who knows but that Kathleen may pity me, may +relent, when she learns all that I have suffered?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +"I HAVE COME FOR MY DIAMONDS," KATHLEEN SAID TO THE JEWELER. + + + We love but once. A score of times, perchance, + We may be moved in fancy's fleeting fashion-- + May treasure up a word, a tone, or glance-- + But only once we feel the soul's great passion. + E. W. WILCOX. + + +Mrs. Stone was charmed when she heard that Kathleen was to marry Teddy. + +"You will be as happy as the day is long!" she exclaimed, fondly +kissing the beautiful girl. + +"Do you think so?" asked Kathleen, anxiously. + +Proud as she was, she began to feel frightened at what she had done. + +She found her wayward heart going out in a passion of regret after her +lost lover, instead of leaning fondly on her accepted one. + +She was alarmed lest it should always be so, and so she timidly asked +the question of Mrs. Stone: + +"Do you think so?" + +Mrs. Stone did not know anything of that lost lover--did not guess at +the pain in the young girl's heart. + +She honestly believed that, given a fair opportunity, her cousin might +win this girl's pure young heart. + +So she encouraged Kathleen to look forward with pleasure to her +marriage. + +"And I should let it be soon," she said. "Teddy wishes it very, very +much, and has begged me to plead his cause." + +"Oh, not soon!" cried the young girl, in alarm. + +"Why not, my dear? As well one time as another, if you mean to marry +him at all." + +"I--I want to wait until Helen Fox comes home. She always promised to +be my bride-maid." + +"You can write to Helen. It will take a few weeks to get your +_trousseau_ ready, and by then she can come home." + +The big, dark eyes were dilated with terror. + +"I should not like to _hurry_ Helen home. I want--want--her--to enjoy +her trip as long as she likes," faltered Kathleen, piteously. + +"You dear, timid child! you are determined to make Teddy wait for his +happiness," laughed her friend. "Well, never mind: let it be as long as +you choose. Only you will not mind if I begin to get your _trousseau_ +ready? You know there are always so many delays." + +A burning blush stole over Kathleen's pure cheek. + +"Dear Mrs. Stone, Teddy will have to take me as I am. I have no money +for a _trousseau_," she sighed. + +"Let that be my care. Surely I may make a wedding gift to my cousin's +bride!" + +"Let it be as simple as possible, then, dear Mrs. Stone," answered +proud Kathleen. + +But that night she thought of the necklace she had left with Golden & +Glitter. It was worth five thousand dollars, and they had advanced her +one thousand on it. Perhaps they would let her have more--enough to buy +her simple wedding garments, and save her the humiliation of accepting +them from Mrs. Stone. + +She was not afraid of startling them. The story of her return had +leaked out; the Boston papers had given it publicity. So she went in +Mrs. Stone's carriage the next morning to the great jewelers, and was +received by them with the greatest affability. They overwhelmed her +with congratulations on her resurrection. But when she asked about +her diamond necklace they told her an amazing story. Ivan Belmont had +come to them soon after her supposed death, and redeemed the necklace +by the payment of a thousand dollars, acting, he claimed, under the +instructions of his mother. + +Kathleen gazed at him in astonishment. + +"But I never told any human being about selling the diamonds! How could +they know?" she exclaimed. + +The jewelers were as much puzzled as she was. They had told no one, +either, but were intending to acquaint Mrs. Carew with the truth, when +Ivan Belmont had forestalled them by presenting himself and redeeming +the necklace. + +They advised the young girl to go to Mrs. Carew and demand the return +of the jewels. They did not doubt that she would be glad to return them +to the hapless girl they had stripped of everything. + +Kathleen's eyes were flashing with anger. She passionately gave the +order to drive to Commonwealth Avenue, determined to demand her rights. + +When Jones opened the door to the imperious young beauty his face +lighted with instant recognition and he rejoiced to see that she had +survived the horrors of that dreadful night when Mrs. Carew had cast +her forth to die. + +But he remembered the orders of his mistress, and firmly barred her +entrance. + +"Mrs. Carew's orders was not to admit you, miss, if you came again," he +said, resolutely. + +"How dare she!" exclaimed Kathleen, her eyes flashing. + +"But, really, miss, you know 'tain't right for you to follow Mr. +Belmont right into his mother's house," remonstrated Jones, uneasily; +and as she stared at him, he added, coaxingly: "You better go wait down +there at the corner while I go tell Mr. Belmont that you want him." + +"Why, what do you mean?" inquired Kathleen, sharply. + +"Why, ain't you Ivan Belmont's--sweetheart, miss?" + +"How dare you?" cried the girl. + +The lightnings of her eyes seemed almost to scorch him, and he faltered: + +"You--you asked for him that night when you came before; and Mrs. +Carew--begging your pardon, miss--said you were _bad_, and told me to +take you and throw you in the street." + +"So it was you that did it?" the girl cried, sharply. + +"No, miss. I could not have treated a dog like that," whispered Jones, +glancing over his shoulder, lest he be overheard. Then he told her how +much he had pitied her, and how he had placed her in the carriage, +hoping some one would care for her. + +"God bless you for your pity!" cried the girl, melted almost to tears; +and, in her turn, she told Jones who she really was, and that when she +had asked him for his master that night, she had meant her father, not +knowing that he was dead. + +"Mrs. Carew told you a willful falsehood," she said, angrily; +then paused, remembering that it was not dignified to discuss her +step-mother with a servant, no matter how great the provocation. + +"And you must really let me come in, because I have important business +with your mistress. If she discharges you for permitting me to enter, +I will get my friends to procure you another situation," she added, +kindly. + +The man stood aside in respectful assent. + +"Thank you kindly, Miss Carew. You will find my mistress with her son +and daughter in the library," he said. + +"So _he_ is here. So much the better," thought Kathleen. + +She swept, with an aching heart, down the superb hall of her old home, +Jones gazing after her in respectful admiration. + +"My! what a high-stepping beauty! A regular goddess!" he ejaculated; +and breathed a silent prayer that the disinherited daughter might yet +oust these heartless people out of her old home and come into her own. + +Kathleen, pale with passion, flung back the library curtains with a +shaking hand, and stood revealed to the inmates. + +Ivan Belmont had read with horror in a distant city the marvelous story +of his step-sister's resurrection and return. Trembling with fear, he +recalled the night when he had encountered her upon the steps and fled +away from her, believing she was a ghost. + +He had come home to find out the truth, and was even now listening to +the story, as told by his mother and sister, when the curtains parted, +flung back by an angry hand, and Kathleen, beautiful and imperious in +her righteous wrath, stood revealed to their astonished eyes. + +A gasp of astonishment, and Mrs. Carew rose, tall, stately, insolent. + +"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" she demanded. "I told Jones +that he was not to admit the likes of you to this house!" + +Kathleen's lightning glance almost transfixed her, and she flushed with +sudden uneasiness. + +"I came here for my diamonds. Give them to me, and I will go," the +young girl answered, defiantly, and she saw Ivan Belmont whiten to a +deadly pallor. + +"Diamonds?" echoed Alpine, in surprise. + +"I have just come from Golden & Glitter's," said Kathleen. "I went +there for my diamond necklace that I left there as security for a +thousand dollars when I went away. They told me that Ivan Belmont had +redeemed the necklace for his mother." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +KATHLEEN BEFORE HER FATHER'S PORTRAIT. + + + Oh, that those lips had language! Life has passed + With me but roughly since I heard thee last. + Those lips are thine--thy own sweet smile I see, + The same that oft in childhood solaced me. + COWPER. + + +Kathleen's declaration was almost equal to the bursting of a bomb-shell +in the handsome library of the Carew mansion. + +Alpine sprung excitedly to her feet with a scream of surprise, and +fixed her dilated blue eyes almost wildly upon Kathleen's pale, angry +face. + +Her mother, who was so crafty and wicked that one could scarcely charge +her with any meanness of which she was not guilty, had the novel +sensation of being falsely accused for once, and recoiled with a nasty +and indignant disclaimer from her insolent and threatening position +toward the intruder. + +"Your accusation is entirely false!" she cried, hoarsely. + +But it was upon her dissipated son that Kathleen's words fell with the +most crushing power. + +This slender, handsome Ivan Belmont, with his straw-gold curls and +seraphic blue eyes, was a cold and brutal villain who utterly belied +his gentle looks. He had all his mother's evil traits intensified, and +would not stop at murder if there was anything to be gained by it, +provided he was not to be found out. He was a coward, and afraid of +punishment. + +So when Kathleen made her bold charge against him, and he realized that +possible detection and punishment hung over his head, his coward heart +gave a thump as if it would burst the confines of his narrow chest, +his brain reeled, his fair face whitened to an ashy hue, his limbs +trembled beneath him as he clutched the back of a chair, and with an +inarticulate groan of feeble denial, he sunk in a senseless heap upon +the floor. + +"Ivan is dead! You have killed him with your false words!" shrieked +Alpine, running to her brother. + +Mrs. Carew followed, and they knelt down over Ivan, exclaiming and +lamenting, although much of it was for effect, for they did not waste +much affection on their black sheep. + +Kathleen, readily comprehending that Ivan had fainted from terror, +curled a scornful lip, and turning her back on them, walked across the +room to where a life-size portrait of her dead father filled a panel +near his writing-desk. + +Vincent Carew had been a singularly handsome and imposing gentleman, +and the fine artist had done full justice to his noble subject. The +dark eyes seemed to hold the very fire of life and the smiling lips +almost about to breathe a blessing on his wronged, unhappy orphan child. + +As Kathleen paused in front of the magnificent portrait of her lost +father, the hard, defiant look on her face faded as if by magic, and +the burning light of her large Oriental dark eyes was softened by a +rush of tears. Almost unconsciously she sunk upon her knees and lifted +her clasped white hands appealingly. + +"Oh, father, dear father, if only you could speak to me, if only you +could tell me why you turned against your unhappy child?" she sighed, +pathetically. + +It was a sorrowful picture--pathetic enough to move anything but the +heart of a fiend--that unhappy girl kneeling there in tears and love +before the portrait of the father who had disinherited her and left her +to want and misery. + +But no one noticed her. Mrs. Carew and her daughter were busy over +Ivan, whose swoon was a deep one. Kathleen's raining tears fell +unnoticed and unpitied, save by the great All-seeing Eye. + +Kathleen's heart was thrilling with all the pathos expressed in +Cowper's beautiful lines: + + "Oh, that those lips had language! Life has passed + With me but roughly since I heard thee last!" + +Alas! how cruel it was to think that this dear, loving father had +turned against her at the last! What was the mystery of it? Who was to +blame? + +"Not you, papa darling!" moaned the girl, loyal to her love for him +despite everything. "Some one deceived you, lied to you, made you +believe me unworthy of your love. I will not lay it up against you. I +forgive you, dear, because you were always so good and loving!" her +voice broke in a hard sob, ending with, "But, oh, papa, papa, I wish +you could come back from the grave as I did, to comfort your poor girl! +Dear Lord, I pray Thee send papa back to me!" + +Had Heaven answered her earnest prayer? + +She turned wildly toward the door, for a strange voice had sounded from +it--strange, yet not strange, for it had a tone of her father's voice +in it, although louder and less refined than Vincent Carew's polished +tones. + +A stranger had entered the library--a tall old man in shabby genteel +clothes that had seen much service, and wearing a long gray beard that +matched his bushy gray curls. A pair of smoky glasses hid a pair of +dark eyes that twinkled with curiosity as he advanced, exclaiming: + +"Hey-day, good friends! what's the matter with the pretty young man? +Sick?" + +Ivan Belmont had at that moment opened his light-blue eyes on the faces +of his mother and sister, and they turned languidly on the new-comer, +while Mrs. Carew exclaimed, almost ferociously, her eyes gleaming like +blue steel: + +"Who are you, and what is the meaning of this intrusion?" + +"My name is Ben Carew, at your service, Sister Carew. Howdy--howdy do, +all of you? These your children? Is your son sick much?" replied the +stranger, in a loud, familiar tone. + +"Impertinent!" muttered the lady, angrily. She rose to her feet. "See +here, old man, you have made a mistake coming here, certainly. I don't +know you, and have no business with you, so clear out at once!" + +The old man stood his ground, undismayed by the virago. + +"Not so fast, ma'am, not so fast," he said, soothingly, with a wave of +his hand. "Now, ain't you Vincent Carew's widow?" + +"Yes," she snapped. + +"And I'm Vincent Carew's brother Ben." + +Every eye in the room turned on him in amazement, and Mrs. Carew +exclaimed: + +"My husband did not have a brother at all!" + +"No brother that he owned, maybe, but an older brother, for all that, +living down on the farm, poor and humble, so maybe his proud, ambitious +brother didn't own up to his folks about Ben; but all the same he was +good to him, and many's the year Vince sent money down to the old farm +to help out when the crops failed and prices fell on live stock--many's +the day, God rest his soul!" + +Brother Ben drew his hand across his eyes and the sound of suppressed +sobs filled the room. + +"My husband is dead, if he was any relation to you; so we don't want +you here," Mrs. Carew said to him, brutally. + +He started back as if she had struck him, and said, sadly: + +"Yes, I heard that he was dead, and I wished it had been me instead. I +ain't much 'count in the world, no-how; but the neighbors said: 'Ben, +you ought to go up to Boston and get your share of your brother's +property.' Vince left me something, I know. He always said he would +without my ever asking." + +"He left you nothing. I don't believe in you, anyway. You're an +impostor, I'm sure. So get out of this at once!" insisted Mrs. Carew. +But he did not stir. + +"I want to stay and visit you, sister-in-law, and see the city sights," +he pleaded. + +"Go; I won't have you here! You are a disgrace to the house!" she +said, angrily, but still inwardly appalled, for, in spite of his rough +looks and country manners, he was wonderfully like the dead brother he +claimed. In voice, features, and gesture he recalled the dead. + +He stood staring in pained amazement at the inhospitable woman, when +suddenly a little hand stole into his, and a tearful voice murmured: + +"Uncle Ben, I believe in you and I love you, for you are so like my +dear, dead papa that it makes my heart glad just to see and hear you." + +He looked down into the face of a lovely, dark-eyed girl, whose lips +were trembling with a hushed sob, and exclaimed: + +"Why, this is Vince's girl. I know by the favor! God bless you, honey! +give your old uncle a hug;" and he put his honest arms around her, and +pressed the curly golden head against his breast. + +"Did you ever see such impudence, mamma? Kathleen is utterly +shameless!" cried Alpine, in a high key of disdain. + +"You'll let me stay, won't you, sissy, dear? I'm too old to travel +straight back to the country," said Uncle Ben, coaxingly, while he +turned a glance of meek pleasure and triumph on the others. + +"Alas! dear uncle, this is not my home. I can not invite you to remain, +much as I wish to do so," sighed the young girl. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +A NEW-FOUND RELATIVE. + + + As I came through the Valley of Despair, + As I came through the valley, on my sight, + More awful than the darkness of the night, + Shone glimpses of a past that had been fair. + E. W. WILCOX. + + +Uncle Ben Carew stared in surprise at his niece when she made her +strange declaration; but she continued, sadly: + +"Uncle Ben, you must not blame papa for his seeming cruelty to you and +me when I tell you all. But--but dear papa, when he died, disinherited +me, and left his wealth to these two heartless women here." + +"Good land! my child, what had you done to turn Vince against you?" + +"Nothing, dear uncle! but I believe that cunning arts were employed +by some other people to turn my father's heart against his child," +answered Kathleen, spiritedly. + +"Mamma, will you permit Kathleen to belittle us in our very presence, +and in our own house?" exclaimed Alpine, angrily. + +Kathleen looked at her step-sister, who stood at the back of the chair +into which she had assisted the pale and trembling Ivan. + +"I have no desire to remain in your house a moment longer than is +necessary," she said, proudly. "I am going at once, and I will take my +uncle with me as a guest in my friend's house. But before I go, Mrs. +Carew, please give me my diamond necklace." + +"There is some mistake. I know nothing about your diamonds. I did not +take them from the jewellers," answered Mrs. Carew, angrily; but there +was such a ring of truth in her voice that Kathleen believed her for +once. + +She turned to Alpine. + +"Perhaps _you_ have the diamonds?" she said, interrogatively. + +"I have _not_. I thought you took them with you when you went away, +and that they were stolen from you when you were robbed that night," +answered Alpine, earnestly. + +"I believe you," said Kathleen, and her burning glance fell on Ivan +Belmont as he cowered before her in his seat. + +"It is you," she said, shaking a disdainful finger in his face; "it is +you to whom I must look for my jewels! Where are they? What have you +done with them?" + +He tried hard to stammer a weak denial of all knowledge of them, but +even his own mother and sister knew that he was lying. Kathleen's great +flashing eyes surveyed him in bitter scorn. + +"Do not deny it--I can see that you are speaking falsely," she said. +"You can not deny it in the face of the jewelers' assertion. Perhaps +you have sold them to get money to go on with your dissipated habits. +Listen: I will give you one week in which to return the diamonds, or +four thousand dollars in lieu of them." She paused, and he muttered +another disclaimer, but Kathleen persisted: "I can not afford to lose +the small fortune that is all that remains to me of my father's gifts +for a scruple of pity to those who have been pitiless to me. So unless +you return the jewels or their value in a week's time, I shall hand you +over to the law." + +With a heightened color she took the old man's arm. + +"Come, Uncle Ben, let us go," she said, and swept from the room with +the air of a dethroned princess, Uncle Ben following humbly in her wake. + +Jones let her out with an air of distinct approval, having hovered near +the library door and heard all that transpired within. + +Kathleen, going down the steps with her shabby, newly found relative, +came face to face with a man going up--Ralph Chainey. A start on either +side, a cold, stiff bow, then Kathleen stepped into the carriage and +sunk half-fainting against the cushions. + +"Who was that, my dear?" inquired her uncle, observing her agitation. + +Kathleen stifled a sob, and answered: + +"It was Ralph Chainey, the great actor." + +"Um-hum! I have heard of him. But what made you feel so bad at seeing +him, honey?" + +"Oh! uncle, I used to love him, and expected to marry him; but, alas! +that is all over now," sighed the young girl; and there came into her +mind some of the words of Laura Jean Libbey's sweet, sad song: + + "Lovers once, but strangers now, + Though pledged by many a tender vow; + Still I'd give the world to be + All that I was once to thee." + +She leaned her bright head lovingly against the old man's kindly +shoulder and sobbed out all the pain in her heart. + +"Tell me all about it, dearie," said the old farmer, gently. + +But Kathleen's heart was too full. The sight of her handsome, perjured +lover, fascinating Ralph Chainey, was too much for her. Her tears +flowed unrestrainedly until Mrs. Stone's house was reached. + +But here Kathleen's uncle decidedly declined her invitation to enter. + +"No, honey; not just now. I'm shabby looking by the side of fine city +folks, and I'll go and buy me some better clothes--a new hat and a +white shirt--then to-morrow I'll come back here and see your friend and +yourself," he replied, and left her at the door. + +Kathleen told her friend all about the morning's events, and received +her very sincere sympathy. + +"I always felt that those Carews were mean, especially Ivan," she said. +"But, never mind, dearie. When your uncle comes to-morrow we will make +him remain for a long visit." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +RALPH'S LETTER. + + + The world is naught when one is gone + Who was the world; then the heart breaks + That this is lost which once was won. + ARLO BATES. + + +But before the old gentleman called in the morning, Kathleen had a +great shock of surprise. + +The morning papers had not had anything so exciting to chronicle for a +long time as the news that Ralph Chainey, the great actor, and the idol +of the hour, had been secretly married to a beautiful ballet dancer who +was no better than she ought to be, and that he had publicly applied +for a legal divorce to free him from his galling fetters. + +Of course the public had to know all about it, so the reporters had +besieged Ralph Chainey, and he had talked freely with them, giving them +all his sad story, hoping in this way to reach the obdurate heart of +beautiful Kathleen. + +Surely, he thought, when she heard his story aright--when she heard how +cruelly he had been betrayed by the false and wicked Fedora--she must +pity and pardon her unhappy lover. + +Ralph Chainey was not much of a praying man, but in these hours of +awful suspense his thoughts took almost the form of a prayer to God +that He would help him to win his proud young love who had scorned him +in such disdainful fashion. + +So he told the reporters his sad story in his most eloquent fashion, +and they reproduced it in glowing paragraphs, denouncing Fedora in +unmeasured terms for her sins and her hypocrisy, and hinting at the +beautiful love affair that had been broken off by Fedora's resurrection +from the grave in which her young husband believed her resting. They +did not tell the name of the actor's beautiful young love, because +Ralph Chainey had been very careful not to tell them; but they dwelt +eloquently on the actor's love for her, and his hope that, in the event +of his securing a divorce, she would become his worshiped wife. + +Kathleen read this moving story with heaving bosom and dilated eyes, +and while she was yet reading it, the bell rang and a package was +handed in for her with a letter. + +Ralph Chainey--forgetting, like any true lover, his pride in his +love--had sent to Kathleen marked copies of the morning papers and some +brief, pathetic lines. + + "Oh, my lost love," ran the note, "will you not read, and reading, + pity and forgive me, the story of my sorrows? Oh, Kathleen! they say + that you are pledged to wed another. Tell me that it is not so! My one + great hope is for freedom, that I may yet have the hope of winning + you. Life without that hope would be a living death. Oh, Kathleen, my + love, my darling! pity me--pity yourself! You have not learned to love + the man you have promised to marry. Send him from you. Wait a little, + my darling, and happiness will come to us! + + "RALPH." + +"Oh, my poor boy--my poor boy!" sobbed Kathleen. + +She forgot herself, she forgot Teddy Darrell, to whom she had promised +herself, and she kissed Ralph Chainey's letter with red, clinging lips, +as if it had been his handsome face. + +"Why did I not listen to him that day when I was so wild with jealousy +that I would not let him explain?" she cried, self-upbraidingly. "I was +foolish and silly. It is a wonder that he could ever forgive me. No. I +can not marry Teddy now. But--will--he release me--from--my promise?" + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +"YOU SHALL NOT MARRY RALPH CHAINEY!" UNCLE BEN CRIED, VIOLENTLY. + + + Adown my cheeks in silence + The tears came flowing free, + And, oh! I can not believe it-- + That thou art lost to me. + H. HEINE. + + +While Kathleen was still weeping over Ralph Chainey's appealing letter +her uncle was announced. + +She dried her tears and went down to welcome the old man. + +Mrs. Stone had taken the children out for the morning, so Kathleen had +a long interview with her new-found relative. + +He was so much like her dead father in his voice and looks that he won +Kathleen's heart at once, and when he expressed his love and sympathy +for her in moving terms, the unhappy young girl gave him her confidence +in the fullest measure. + +She told him the story of her young life from the beginning--her +step-mother's cruelty, Alpine's unkindness, and Ivan's attempts at +courtship, which she had repelled with scorn. + +Then her indignant voice softened as she murmured over the story of her +happy love-dream--her first romantic meeting with Ralph Chainey, when +he had saved her life, and her later acquaintance with him, down to the +moment when she had repulsed him with scorn, and, in a fit of pique, +engaged herself to Teddy Darrell. + +"I was wrong--all wrong!" she cried, self-upbraidingly, and gave him +Ralph's letter to read. + +Benjamin Carew listened in dead silence to all that Kathleen told him +of the young actor, and if she had observed him closely, she would have +seen that his brows were drawn together by a heavy frown. + +Once or twice he seemed about to speak to her, but checked himself +abruptly and waited. + +Kathleen, as soon as he had finished the letter, cried out, eagerly: + +"Do you not see that I was wrong to judge him so hardly?" + +Uncle Ben looked gravely into his niece's face and answered, almost +sternly: + +"No; you were right, for appearances were against him." + +"But, dear Uncle Ben, all that is explained away now, and I know that I +was wrong not to trust my lover," cried the girl, anxiously. + +But he answered, firmly: + +"You must not call that actor your lover. You are betrothed to Mr. +Darrell." + +"But Teddy will release me if I ask him." + +"Would you wound your true lover so cruelly?" asked the old man, almost +angrily. + +The beautiful dark eyes were raised to his, swimming in tears. + +"Oh, how unhappy I am!" cried poor Kathleen. "I am the most wretched +girl in the whole world! Every one is against me!" + +The old man did not answer. He regarded her with sad, troubled eyes +through his smoky glasses. + +"You, too, Uncle Ben, have turned against me just when I thought you +would be such a comfort to me," sobbed his niece. + +"You are willful and unjust, my child, if you expect me to counsel you +to throw over your lover for the sake of a man who has a wife already," +was the mild reply. + +"But he will be divorced, uncle, and then we will be free to love each +other." + +"And this honorable young man, Mr. Darrell, will be thrown over +remorselessly for the world to laugh at as a jilted man!" + +"Uncle Ben, I can explain it all to Teddy. He is so good and kind he +will forgive me. He would not want to marry me if he knew that I loved +another man." + +Her heart, thrilling with the intensity of her love, lent fire to her +eyes and passion to her voice. She felt that it would be a sin to marry +Teddy with her heart so full of Ralph. + +But the old man she had thought so kind and gentle rose up angrily and +caught her hand. + +"You are mad--mad, girl, to think of throwing over Teddy Darrell for +this miserable actor! You shall not do it!" he cried, violently. + +Kathleen tore her little white hand from his clasp in haughty amazement. + +"You have no right to control my actions!" she exclaimed; and he sunk +back into his chair and covered his face with his hand. + +"True, true!" she heard him murmur, dejectedly. "I have no authority +over my brother's child. I am only a poor, humble old farmer, and my +advice is not desired, even though I would save my brother's only child +from wrecking her life for the sake of an unwise love! So be it. I will +go now, a sadder, wiser old man." + +The pitiful words touched the girl's heart, melting her resentment. + +She knelt by him and drew the hand away from his moist eyes, murmuring, +remorsefully: + +"Dear Uncle, forgive me. I was hasty, and am sorry that I wounded you. +What would you have me do?" + +"To marry Mr. Darrell," he replied, firmly. + +"How can I?" she moaned, wearily. + +"At least say nothing to any one of your change of mind just yet, +Kathleen. Think a moment. Ralph Chainey may not get his divorce. Then, +were it not better, child, for you not to compromise yourself by +declaring your love for him?" + +"Perhaps so," she replied, dejectedly. + +"Then you promise me not to have anything to say to Ralph Chainey until +the divorce is secured?" he went on, eagerly. + +"I promise," answered the girl, with a long, heart-breaking sigh. "Oh!" +she thought, "how cold and cruel old people are! Surely they forget +they were ever young, or that they ever loved!" + +But she could not bear to grieve the poor old man, and so she gave him +her promise. + +"It is not for long, anyhow," she consoled herself with thinking, for +she thought it could not be long before Ralph secured the divorce. + +"Then nothing on earth shall keep us apart," she thought, blissfully. +"Poor Teddy! he will soon get over his disappointment and love some +other girl." + +Mrs. Stone came in at this juncture, and Kathleen began to feel quite +conscience-stricken over the treachery she was meditating to the kind +lady's cousin. + +Strangely enough, after she had cordially welcomed Uncle Ben +Carew, Mrs. Stone plunged into the subject of which they had been +speaking--Ralph Chainey. + +"I've just met the young actor," she said; "and congratulate me, my +dear, for he likes my plot, and I am to write him a play. Won't that be +nice? For he will make it famous. Teddy has been begging me to create +a part in it for him, and to ask Mr. Chainey to take him into the +company. Isn't it ridiculous in that spoiled boy? Why, he will be a +married man then, with no time for acting." + +Kathleen turned the subject as quickly as she could, and then Mrs. +Stone devoted herself to Uncle Ben, persuading him to become her guest +for a week. + +"I shall be delighted to have you, and Teddy will be glad to have the +pleasure of showing you the great sights of Boston," she declared. + +So it was arranged, and Mr. Darrell manfully fell into the line of +duty, escorting Uncle Ben to all the places of interest in the city, +feeling fully rewarded for all his trouble by the murmured thanks of +his beautiful betrothed. + +So three days passed by peacefully, and although Kathleen wept bitter +tears, when alone, over the dear letter her uncle had forbidden her to +answer, she managed to preserve a calm aspect before her friends, and +they did not guess how her heart was aching with its secret pain. It +grieved Teddy that she seemed to shrink from him a little, but he kept +on hoping he would win her love in the end. + +Toward the middle of the week a great surprise came to Kathleen. + +The long-hoped-for letter came at last. + +The Southern relatives, so long deaf to her loving appeals, wrote at +last to say that they wanted Kathleen to come and live with them. They +were rich now, and could make her life as gay and luxurious as it was +before her father's death. + +"I should like to go and visit them. My heart always yearned for my +mother's people," Kathleen said, wistfully. + +Uncle Ben was thoughtfully perusing the letter. He answered: + +"I will take you to them, my dear. I should not like for you to travel +alone any more." + +"Oh, how good you are, dearest uncle!" cried the girl, gladly. "But do +you see they want me to come right away? They want me to be there at +the celebration of my grandmother's birthday, which, she says, will +be quite an event in the Franklyn family, so that all the clan will be +gathered at the old homestead, and I can see all of them." + +"We can start for Richmond to-morrow," her uncle answered, smilingly. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER'S STORY. + + + I can not rise, my darling, + My breast is bleeding--see! + I stabbed myself, thou knowest, + When thou wast reft from me! + H. HEINE. + + +"But my diamonds, Uncle Ben. I must wait here for them, you know," said +Kathleen. + +"Pooh! We can leave that affair in the hands of a lawyer," he replied, +carelessly. + +He was determined that nothing should hinder this opportune trip. + +He was anxious to get Kathleen away from Boston, where Ralph Chainey +was playing every night to crowded houses. It would seem as if Uncle +Ben had as vigorous a dislike for actors as his dead brother had +cherished. + +So he carefully smoothed away all her objections, declaring that he had +money enough to take them both to Richmond, and that she could repay +him, if she insisted on it, when she got back her diamonds. + +"I wonder if papa thought, when he gave them to me, that some day they +would be my sole little fortune!" sighed the young girl. + +Uncle Ben did not answer. He was looking out of the window at the +country scenery, for they were on their journey now. Kathleen was +sitting opposite to him in the parlor car, with a big bouquet of roses +in her lap, the gift of the adoring Teddy, from whom she had just +parted at the station. + +"A noble young fellow," Uncle Ben had said, and his niece answered, +with a little sigh: + +"He has been very good to me; but, Uncle Ben, he is called the +greatest flirt in Boston, and I shouldn't wonder if he threw me over at +any time for a newer fancy." + +"You are just wishing he would!" the old man exclaimed, curtly, and she +replied only by a roguish laugh. + +The train rushed on and on through the wintry landscape, and both of +them grew very thoughtful. At last Kathleen touched her uncle's arm +with a timid hand. + +"Uncle Ben, this going home to my mother's people makes me think so +much about _her_ to-day. Tell me, did you ever see mamma?" + +The man's strong arm trembled under the pressure of her little white +hand, and he answered in a voice that was hoarse with emotion: + +"Yes, I knew little Zaidee--poor little darling!" + +"Was she as beautiful as the portrait a great artist made of her? There +is one that hangs in my room at my old home. It is beautiful as an +angel, and papa used to come there often to look at it. I don't think +he cared for my step-mother to know how often he came." + +"Zaidee was more beautiful than the portrait," answered the old man, in +a low voice. + +He pressed her little hand tenderly as it rested on his arm, and said: + +"Tell me all that you know about your mother, my child." + +"They have told me that she died by her own hand. Was it not terrible?" +whispered the young girl, with paling lips. + +"Terrible!" he echoed, with emotion; and then she asked: + +"Uncle Ben, who was to blame for that awful tragedy?" + +"No one," he answered, sadly. "Zaidee was passionate, willful, jealous. +She became madly jealous of a governess--a young widow who was employed +in the house to teach her painting and music. Before poor Vincent at +all comprehended the situation, his young wife, in a fit of anger, +destroyed herself by thrusting a little jeweled dagger into her +breast." + +"And you are sure no one was to blame?" she persisted and after a +moment's hesitation he replied: + +"Perhaps Vince was to blame; but he did not realize it then, poor +fellow! You see, Kathleen, he worshipped his lovely little bride, and +it grieved him that she was lacking in certain accomplishments familiar +to most young girls in his cultured set. To remedy this, he employed +teachers and Zaidee learned rapidly until----" he passed the back of +his hand across his eyes and groaned. + +"Until----" repeated Kathleen. + +"Quite unexpected by him--for she was probably too proud to betray +herself to him--Zaidee became quite jealous of that pretty young widow, +Mrs. Belmont, and in a fit of madness took her own life, and nearly +broke her husband's heart." + +"He married the young widow in a little more than a year," the girl +replied, unable to resist this bitter fling at her dead father's memory. + +He winced, the poor old man, as she spoke thus of her father, and +answered, almost excusingly: + +"He was so wretched, and Mrs. Belmont comforted him. She, too, had +loved Zaidee, and shared his grief with him. That was how she made +herself so necessary to the unhappy man." + +"The fiend!" broke hissingly from Kathleen's white lips. + +He turned to her in amazement. + +"What do you mean?" he asked, hoarsely. + +It was well that they were alone in the car, for Kathleen's excitement +was terrible. Her eyes blazed, her cheeks paled, her heart beat +violently against her side. + +"Uncle Ben, I am speaking of that woman who so unworthily took my dead +mother's place!" she exclaimed. "Yes, she is a fiend! _She_ to pretend +that she loved the memory of the woman she goaded to madness--perhaps +murdered; for no one saw my poor young mother drive the fatal steel +into her heart. Oh, God! what deceit--what treachery!" + +He grasped her wrist with steely fingers, his eyes flashed with a fire +akin to hers, and he whispered; + +"Hush! You must not dare accuse _her_ so! You drive me mad! Oh, it can +not be!" + +"You take that false woman's part, then, Uncle Ben, against me and my +poor young mother? Listen, then; let me tell you all I know--a secret +I kept from my dead father, because I believed in him, trusted him, in +spite of the servants' gossip that accused him of complicity in his +young wife's death." + +"They dared, the hounds! accuse m-my brother thus?" he breathed, +fiercely, the perspiration starting out on his brow, his strong frame +trembling. + +"Yes, they accused him," answered the girl. "Do not take it so hard, +Uncle Ben. He was innocent, I know; but that fiendish woman played +her part to perfection. She made my mother believe that Vincent Carew +wished her out of the way, so that he might wed _her_, the traitress! +She made the servants believe the same. She even plotted----" But +suddenly the girl paused with clasped hands. "Oh! uncle, dear, it will +wound you if I mention this; it will blacken my father's memory in your +eyes--and I always loved him--I love him still, in spite of what he has +done to me, and I ought to spare him." + +"Go on, Kathleen. I command you to tell me everything. I have a sacred +right to know," commanded the agitated man by her side. + +"Listen, then, dear uncle: Just a few months before my father went away +on that foreign tour, from which he never returned alive, I received a +message from an old woman calling me to her death-bed in the suburbs of +the city. I went, taking my maid with me. In a secret interview that +followed the dying woman told me she had been housekeeper at the Carew +mansion in my mother's time. She could not die easy without revealing +to me a secret she had carried untold for sixteen years." + +"That secret?" questioned Benjamin Carew, wildly. + +"Was this," replied the girl, solemnly: "On the day of the tragedy, +Mrs. Belmont sought the housekeeper, pretending to be overcome with +grief, surprise, and indignation. She confided to the woman that +Vincent Carew had been making secret love to her ever since she first +entered the house, and that day had openly declared his passion, +begging her to fly with him to Europe, saying that his ignorant +child-wife would then secure a divorce, and he could then marry his +heart's best love. With tears and shame, Mrs. Belmont owned that she +could not help loving her handsome employer, but that she had repulsed +him with scorn, and resigned her situation to take leave immediately. +Mrs. Belmont was too much overcome to explain to her pupil, and wished +the housekeeper to tell Mrs. Carew the whole cause of her leaving." + +"My God!" groaned the old man at Kathleen's side; but the girl hurried +on, with blazing eyes. + +"The housekeeper, after the fashion of most servants, was too ready to +believe a tale of scandal, and to excite a sensation. She did not think +of doubting Mrs. Belmont then, although grave doubts assailed her after +the tragedy. Well, with her heart on fire with sympathy for her wronged +mistress, she did not think for a moment of sparing her the whole +cruel truth. She blurted it all out in burning words, and advised the +outraged wife to forsake her monster of a husband and return to her own +relatives. Within the hour mamma was found dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +GRANDMOTHER FRANKLYN. + + + I dreamed that the moon looked sadly down, + And the stars with a troubled ray; + I went to my darling's home--the town + Lies many a league away. + H. HEINE. + + +Kathleen's awed voice died away in a hushed sob, and in the grand +parlor car there was a dead silence, broken only by the clatter of the +car-wheels as they rushed over the glistening steel rails. + +Old Benjamin Carew crouched silently in his seat, with clinched hands +and half-averted face, but Kathleen could see that he was pale as +death, and beads of dew stood on his forehead and around his pain-drawn +lips. + +"How dearly he must have loved his sister-in-law--my unhappy young +mother!" she thought, tenderly; and just then his hand moved and sought +hers, clasping it fondly, but with a grasp as cold as ice. + +"Oh, Uncle Ben, I ought not to have told you this distressing story!" +she exclaimed, remorsefully. "I am so glad to think that I never told +papa the story I had from the dying housekeeper. It would have been +so cruel for him to know that the woman he had loved and trusted had +plotted away the life of my mother." + +"Hush, child! you drive me mad! This is too cruel!" groaned the old man. + +He leaned his gray head forward on the seat, and sobs, all the fiercer +for being suppressed, shook his slight frame. Kathleen wept, too, and +altogether it was a sorrowful journey they had to the home from which +Vincent Carew had carried Zaidee, his fair young bride, to meet so dark +a fate. They talked but little, for a heavy cloud of trouble hung over +their spirits and shadowed the future, and the young girl at length +became conscious of a strange dread of arriving at the end of the +journey so long ardently desired. She ascribed it to sudden timidity at +meeting strangers. She did not dream it was a warning presentiment. + +She was glad that the cars went straight through Lincoln Station +without changing. She could not bear to be reminded of that terrible +night when the talon-like fingers of her unknown assailant had closed +stranglingly about her white throat, and of all the sorrows that had +followed after. The girl, so young and tender, shuddered as with an +ague chill, wondering how she had lived through it all. + +"And poor Daisy Lynn! poor Daisy Lynn! what ever became of that unhappy +girl?" she wondered, pitifully, and her thoughts wandered to the +girl's sad love story. "How sorrowful it is to go mad for love!" she +sighed. "And yet, how sad it is to lose one's love and remain sane +and conscious in the midst of all the cruel pain. Oh, God! am I fated +to lose Ralph, my own true lover? How shall I bear to give my hand to +another man while I love Ralph so dearly?" And when the train ran into +the station at Richmond she was weeping bitter, burning tears for her +love, Ralph, from whom she was so cruelly parted. "Oh, the pity of it +that I did not believe in him that day that I sent him away from me in +scorn, when he was already so sorrowful! Oh, Ralph, my darling! I did +not think then that I should ever be suing for your forgiveness for +my cruel words; but now--now I could fall at your feet for pity and +pardon!" sobbed the unhappy young girl; and there came to her a memory +of some verses she had read in the poems of Mittie Point Davis--sweet, +sad verses from a loving heart: + + "I did not think that I should say it first, + That summer evening when we quarreled so + About some trifle you had magnified-- + Men are so harsh, you know. + I said some bitter words of hate and scorn; + My pride was up, my temper too, indeed-- + But now I know that I perhaps was wrong, + And, dearest, I am brave enough to plead: + Forgive me! + + "I did not think that I should say it first, + Not even when you stayed away so long; + I thought I could be proud and stubborn, too, + I did not know that love could be so strong. + I did not think that life could seem so long + Without the love I reckless cast away; + But now I know that I perhaps was wrong, + And, dearest, I am brave enough to say: + Forgive me! + + "I did not think that I should say it first, + That summer evening when we quarreled so-- + I hated you, I know you hated me; + But, darling, that seems long and long ago-- + So long, and I, oh! I have missed you so! + While you, perchance, have shared my silent pain. + We both were wrong, but love has conquered pride, + Forget the past; let us be friends again-- + Forgive me!" + +"Richmond!" shouted the conductor, and Kathleen roused with a start +from her sad musings, and drew her heavy wraps about her, for the +opening of the car door had let in a blast of inclement air. It was +late in the afternoon--almost twilight--and a long carriage ride was +before them; for the Franklyns had written that they lived on the +suburbs of Richmond, but would send a carriage to meet Kathleen. + +Sure enough, a close carriage was in waiting, the driver an old darky +who seemed surprised and even displeased that he had two passengers +instead of one. + +"Mistis was only 'specting a lady," he observed. + +"This is my uncle, who came along to take care of me," Kathleen +answered, with assumed cheerfulness, for her heart was beating with a +strange suspense and dread. The old negro put her trunk up, and they +entered the carriage, and set out on a long ride that did not end until +night had wrapped its sable pall of gloom around the earth. + +"Oh, uncle, how glad I am that you came with me! I should have felt +so frightened all alone!" whispered the girl, nestling close to her +relative's side. + +He answered only by a silent pressure of her little hand. He had been +strangely moody and silent ever since she had told him the story of her +mother's tragic death. + +The dark, gloomy exterior of the old brick house standing alone in +thick, shrubberied grounds was not inviting, but presently the front +door opened and a gleam of light stole forth. In its ray there appeared +a witch-like old woman huddled in a gray blanket shawl, who stood +shivering in the hall while they alighted. + +"Howdy, granddaughter? Glad to see you!" She gave Kathleen a cold peck +on the cheek and peered curiously at her companion. "Who's this? I +warn't expecting anybody but you, my dear. Oh, your uncle! Howdy-do, +sir? Walk right in, both of you, to the parlor. Folks all out at a +party but me. You'll see them in the morning." + +She ushered them into a prim, old-fashioned sitting-room that did not +show much pretension to the wealth the Franklyns had written they were +possessed of; but Kathleen was so glad of the great glowing fire that +she ran to it and held her numb fingers to the blaze, with scarcely +a glance at her surroundings. Uncle Ben followed her with a strange +sinking at the heart. + +His impressions of Mrs. Franklyn--Kathleen's grandmother--were not +favorable, it seemed. + +She was unprepossessing in her looks and manners, and she certainly +regarded him in the light of an interloper. She had not extended +to him the warm welcome that Northern people are led to believe is +characteristic of Southern hospitality. + +Mrs. Franklyn pulled out a little table on which was arranged a +tempting little supper. + +"I kept oysters and coffee warm for you," she said beamingly. "Now lay +off your things, both of you, and eat before they get cold, won't you?" + +"I am so tired--my head aches--I don't think I can swallow a mouthful!" +pleaded Kathleen, on the point of hysterical tears. + +Oh; why had she come? She was alarmed, somehow, and she wondered why +her heart had failed to go out warmly to this new-found relative, as +she had expected. Instead, she experienced fear and repulsion. + +But the old woman was not to be denied. She almost forced her reluctant +guests to swallow some of the food, and then she bundled them off to +their rooms with an alacrity that savored of anxiety to be rid of their +company. + +"You must be dead tired and wanting to rest, and I'm free to confess +that it's long past my usual bed-time," she declared. + +"Good-night, Uncle Ben. I hope you will rest well," Kathleen said, +kissing the old man with quivering lips. Then they parted, each to +their separate rooms. + +But there was no rest for Uncle Ben; his pillow was one of thorns, and +he rose and paced the floor at midnight, restless and unhappy. + +"My heart is on fire! Oh, God, I can not bear this pain! Let me go out +into the cold, dark streets and walk it off!" he muttered, restlessly, +and hurried into his clothes. "I suppose I can easily slip out of this +old, ramshackle house without arousing any one," he thought as he +proceeded to open the door. + +But he recoiled with a start, for the door was locked on the outside! +He was a prisoner in this strange house! + + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +IVAN RECEIVES A CHECK IN HIS CAREER. + + + Full many a thankless son has been, + But never one like mine. + His meat was served on plates of gold, + His drink was rosy wine. + THOMAS HOOD. + + +When Kathleen and her uncle had left the house on Commonwealth Avenue, +Mrs. Carew turned to Ivan with angry eyes. + +"Is it true? Have you got that girl's diamonds?" she inquired. + +"Of course he has. You can read it in his guilty face!" chimed in +Alpine, contemptuously. + +Ivan glared back at them with defiant eyes. + +"What are you going to do about it?" he asked, insolently. + +"You must return them. There will be a terrible scandal if you do not," +replied his mother. + +"I have sold them and spent the money," he returned with inimitable +coolness. + +"Good heavens! what will you do?" she cried; and to her indignation he +laughed out aloud as he said: + +"You and Alpine will have to make up the four thousand between you, and +pay Kathleen!" + +"I will not!" came in a burst of rage from Alpine's lips, and her +mother echoed it. + +"I will not!" + +The son leaned back indolently in his chair, not a whit moved by their +anger. They always _had_ come round to his demands. They would have to +do it now. + +"Would you bring disgrace on yourselves by having me sent to prison to +save a paltry four thousand dollars?" he demanded, with the air of one +who is master of the situation. + +They glared at him aghast. The two women loved money passionately. It +made them almost frantic the way that Ivan squandered it. + +"You two are rolling in wealth," he continued, "and yet you begrudge +a poor devil of a son and brother a few thousand to get him out of a +penitentiary scrape." + +The listeners shuddered. Next to money, they loved good repute, and +it was the dread of their lives that the dissolute Ivan would bring +disgrace upon them. And here it was staring them in the face. The +penitentiary, ugh! + +"We have spent at least fifteen thousand dollars on you since we came +into this fortune!" groaned Alpine. + +"And what you ever did with so much money, in so short a time, I can +not imagine," added Mrs. Carew. + +"Fast living and cards," laconically replied the villain. + +They looked at each other, the two badgered women, and one thought was +in the mind of each. Ivan was shameless, defiant. He would never alter +his evil courses and if he went on like this, and they had to supply +him with money, he would bankrupt them in the end. Disgrace would come +to them sooner or later through this black sheep. + +Alpine turned to him and asked curiously: + +"How did you find out that Kathleen had left her diamonds at the +jewelers?" + +He started and whitened at the suddenness of the question, but +answered, doggedly: + +"That is my own secret, and I do not choose to disclose it." + +"Neither do I choose to help you out of the scrape you have brought +on yourself. Not a dollar will I give you!" retorted Alpine, stung to +defiance and rebellion by his matchless assurance. + +He did not believe her, and smiled as he answered: + +"Oh, yes, you will, for your own sake, my dear sister. Perhaps you +think I don't see through your little game; but I do. You're trying +to marry Ralph Chainey, the great actor, although he does not care +a pin for you. However, you are crafty enough to hook him, I'll be +bound--only, he certainly would not look at you again if Kathleen sent +your only brother to prison for stealing her diamonds." + +Her blue eyes blazed on him with the steely glare of a bitter hate; but +she said, almost as if begging him to do better: + +"But, Ivan, if we helped you out of this, you would be into some new +scrape directly." + +"Very likely," he replied, taking insolent pleasure in torturing her, +not dreaming she would really turn at bay. + +But Alpine was reckless, desperate--ready to give up the fierce contest +with an untoward fate. A revengeful longing to punish Ivan for his +misdeeds, even at the bitterest cost to herself, assailed her and drove +everything else out of her mind. Her eyes flashed, her face grew ashen, +and, turning to her mother, she said, in a low, tense voice: + +"You see how it is, mamma. If we help him out of this, it will be +something else directly. How can we bear the strain for years? Do what +we will, he will beggar and disgrace us sooner or later. Why not let +the end come now? Let--Kathleen send him to prison for his crime, and +we--we--can live it down as best we may." + +Every word fell like a drop of ice on the ingrate's heart. Did she mean +it? Would they desert him at last, these two? + +He was frightened, and yet incredulous. He had heard and read and +believed that there was no limit to the love and forgiveness of a +mother's and sister's heart. + +But he had gone too far in his insolent assurance, and, to his terror +and amazement, his hour of reckoning had come at last. + +He did not take into account the fact that he did not have a good woman +for a mother. His excesses had turned her heart against him, and to his +horror she sided with Alpine, angrily discarding him. + +"I wash my hands of you," she said, bitterly. "Kathleen may send you to +prison if she will. Alpine and I can go abroad. The affair will soon +blow over, and people will forget it by the time we come home from +Europe." + +He dropped his _insouciance_, and descended to pleading, but it was of +no avail. He saw a black fate lowering over him from which there seemed +no escape. + +In the darkest moment a clever idea came to him. + +"If I could only escape to Europe, the whole affair would be over, for +I would never come back; but, alas! I have not the means to pay my +passage across the ocean," he said, despondently. + +Mrs. Carew caught eagerly at the offered bait. + +"If you _will_ go and never return, I will furnish you the means," she +said. + +"I swear it," he replied, and left the house presently, the money in +his pocket, an evil, sneering smile on his thin lips. + +Meanwhile, Jones had said to Miss Belmont: + +"Mr. Chainey has been waiting in the drawing-room some time to see +you." + +"You should have told me sooner," she exclaimed, flashing at the +prospect of seeing Ralph. + +"I did not like to interrupt you, miss," he replied, respectfully, but +Alpine did not wait to hear his apology; she hurriedly sought the man +she loved. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +"I HAVE BETRAYED MYSELF. YOU KNOW MY HEART NOW." + + + It matters not its history; love has wings + Like lightning, swift and fatal, and it springs + Like a wild flower, where it is least expected, + Existing whether cherished or rejected. + L. E. L. + + +Ralph had been waiting many minutes for Miss Belmont, but he had +forgotten the lapse of time in his agitation over the meeting with +Kathleen, and he rose with almost a start to meet the beautiful blonde, +who hurried to him with both hands extended in rapturous greeting. + +"So glad," she murmured, with the loveliest upward glance, that was +quite lost on Ralph, for he did not notice it, but exclaimed: + +"I had quite a surprise coming in just now. I met Miss Carew. So she +has repented and come home?" + +"Yes, and no--it was only a formal call. Kathleen is so proud she will +not come back to us, even for the short time before her marriage," +answered Alpine. + +She sighed, and he echoed it; but it was of Kathleen he was +thinking--bonny Kathleen. Alpine guessed it, and bit her lips, then +plunged into an animated account of Uncle Ben Carew, making him appear +in the most ridiculous light. + +"He was an impostor, of course. Mamma is quite sure that my step-father +never had a brother," she said. + +"But Kathleen believed in him?" he asked. + +"Yes. Was it not strange she should let herself be deceived by such a +designing schemer? She carried him off as her guest at Mrs. Stone's." + +He was silent, wondering if Kathleen had made a mistake, and suddenly +Alpine said, sweetly: + +"Now please put Kathleen out of your mind and think of no one but me +while you are here. Am I not your friend, and haven't I some claim on +you?" + +Something in her tone startled him. He glanced hurriedly into her face +and read as in a book all her love and longing. Her eyes met his and +held them as if fascinated. While he gazed she started forward and +caught his hand in hers, murmuring, hysterically: + +"I have betrayed myself. You know my heart now. Oh, Ralph! forgive me +that I could not hide my love for you! Forgive me, and try to love me a +little in return." + +"Good heavens!" cried the young man, aghast, withdrawing his hand +hurriedly from her grasp and looking at her in consternation. + +But Alpine, already excited and unnerved by the scene with her brother, +could not draw back now, having betrayed her secret. She cried out, +pleadingly: + +"Do not turn from me so angrily. Is it a crime to love you--to wish for +your love?" + +She recalled him to the fact that he was acting rudely, that he ought +not to let this unhappy girl see the disgust with which she had +inspired him by her avowal of love. + +It was most embarrassing. He longed to get away, for he did not know +what to say. He was utterly abashed, and obeying a sudden impulse, +sprung to his feet and turned to the door. + +"Miss Belmont, I--I hope you will--excuse me, but I have--have just +remembered something--er--er--important--a rehearsal. Will you pardon +my haste? Good-bye," he stammered, like a bashful school-boy, and +instantly fled the scene, leaving Alpine to fling herself upon a sofa +in a burst of hysterical tears. + +"Oh, why did I betray my bitter secret! I was mad--mad! and now I have +driven him from my side forever by my imprudence!" she sobbed in the +wildest _abandon_. + +As she lay there sobbing, her hatred and jealousy of her beautiful +step-sister grew stronger than ever. It was for love of Kathleen that +Ralph Chainey had turned from her when she had humbled herself to him +and sued for his love. + +Some touching verses rang in sad melody through her brain. + + "Ah, dearest, had some happier chance, + The force of fateful circumstance, + Some burning thrill of love divine, + But touched your heart and made you mine, + How had my pulses gladly beat + With love's deep rapture wildly sweet; + How had my life so crowned put forth + Life's proudest strength to prove its worth + For love of you! + + "But cruel fate that shapes our ends, + Dark doom that poet love attends-- + The fate unhappy Petrarch sung + In fair Italia's burning tongue. + Such fate as, reckless, tears apart + The tendrils of the breaking heart + From every prop where it would twine, + Such cruel fate, alas! is mine + For love of you! + + "So when my grave is green to see, + You will not let them say of me: + Her talent was a wasted power, + Her life has failed of fruit and flower; + For you will know the hopeless pain, + That palsied heart and hand and brain-- + Will know that life has failed alone + Because a blight was on it thrown + For love of you!" + +She dashed the tears from her eyes and sat up, the picture of shame and +despair. + +"I could have been a better woman if he had been kind to me--if he +would but have promised to try to love me!" she muttered, angrily. "But +how fast he hurried away, as if he despised me. How I wish I could hate +him in return--hate him as I hate his dark-eyed love! It is for _her_ +he scorns me. Oh, God! for vengeance on them both!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +A TERRIBLE CRIME. + + + "Deep and dark the flowing river, + Close to the feet like a serpent glides; + Many a secret lost forever + The deep and beautiful water hides!" + + +Our Kathleen did not share the wakefulness of her relative. + +On the contrary, a strange drowsiness stole over her as soon as she +entered the shabby little bedroom to which Mrs. Franklyn conducted her +with such alacrity. + +"Get a good rest, that's a dear! and in the morning you shall see them +all," she said, wheedlingly; and giving Kathleen a cold little kiss on +the cheek, she retreated, leaving her guest alone. + +Kathleen flung off her clothes, shivering in the fireless room, slipped +into her gown, and crept between the sheets, murmuring over her prayers +in the bed because it was too cold outside. Then, with the tears still +wet on her lashes, she fell into a heavy slumber. + +Presently the door opened again noiselessly, and the old woman's head +was thrust inside the room. She gave a low grunt of satisfaction as she +heard the deep breathing of Kathleen, and closed the door. + +Silence again in the old house; but if any one had been listening they +would have heard outside, in the chilly night, the stamp of the horses +that had brought the uncle and niece to this place. The cab was waiting +yet. Why, and for whom? + +The night was intensely dark, it was freezing cold, and the driver did +not have to wait long. + +The door opened softly in a little while, and a man and a woman stole +out bearing between them a figure wrapped up in a long cloak. They +pushed their dead or living burden, whichever it was, into the cab, +entered themselves, and were driven a long distance, until the low +murmur of a river rushing between its banks was distinctly heard. At a +quiet, unfrequented spot they came to a stop; the two people got out +again, and carried their burden to the river-bank; then there was a +thud, a splash, and then they turned away, their arms empty of the load +they had brought. In the silence and darkness of the wintry night a +terrible crime had been committed. + +Alas! poor Kathleen, poor orphan-girl, the sport of a most malignant +fate! Heaven help thee now, drifting upon the dark, mysterious waves of +the gloomy river, beneath the pall of the ink-black heavens, unlighted +by either moon or star! + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, the old man, locked into his room like a rat in a trap, was +bending all his feeble efforts toward releasing himself. + +He feared to make an outcry, for he comprehended instinctively that +treachery lurked in the air of the old house, with its forbidding +mistress--treachery and danger to himself and helpless Kathleen. + +He sunk back helplessly upon the bed, at first shaken and unnerved by +his terrible suspicions. Sweeping his hand across his brow, he muttered: + +"My door was locked on the outside by design to bar me out from my +child--my bonny Kathleen. What have they done to her? or what are they +going to do?" + +He crept cautiously to the window and pushed up the sash. Horrors! it +was barred across with iron as closely as a prison; and again he fell +to raving of treachery and danger. + +"That woman was not Mrs. Franklyn. I did not believe at first that it +could be poor Zaidee's mother. She could not have changed so much in +seventeen years, I knew; yet I could not speak out then, lest I betray +myself. I thought I would wait for the developments of to-morrow. Alas! +it was a fatal resolve. We were decoyed here by the trick of some +deadly enemy, and every moment that I remain locked up here Kathleen is +in the most deadly peril. God in Heaven help me to escape, that I may +succor my poor child!" + +Desperate with fears for Kathleen, he threw himself against the door +and shook it with all his might. The sounds rang through the house, but +no one came to release him. He shrieked aloud, but no voice replied to +his frantic calls. + +In his misery an awful suspicion had come to him. + +He remembered Kathleen's threat to Ivan Belmont, that she would send +him to prison unless she received the value of her stolen diamonds. + +What if that villain had laid a deadly trap to decoy Kathleen to this +place and murder her to save himself the payment of that pitiful sum! +This affair looked like it. Perhaps she was already murdered--his +beautiful Kathleen, that he loved so dearly, and whom he had brought +here in his mistaken eagerness to get her away from Boston. + +Searching frantically about, he perceived with joy an old rusty poker +beneath the iron fender of the fire-place. He seized it, and with the +strength of a madman wrenched the lock from the door. It flew open. He +was free. + +Then ensued the most piteous search the world ever knew--the old man's +frantic search for missing Kathleen. + +It was all in vain. The old house was empty, the girl was gone, the old +woman was gone, and the night-wind, as it sighed around the gables of +the lonely old house, did not whisper to him of the awful secret the +river hid. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +"KATHLEEN HAS MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED." + + + 'Tis strange to think if we could fling aside + The mask and mantle that love wears from pride, + How much would be we now so little guess, + Deep in each heart's undreamed, unsought recess. + L. E. L. + + +Ralph Chainey waited in cruel suspense for an answer to the appealing +letter he had sent to Kathleen. + +But long days passed and no letter came from his heart's love. Then he +saw the announcement in a morning paper that she had gone away with her +uncle to visit her Southern relatives. + +"Cruel girl! she has gone without a word or sign. She hates me indeed, +and will never forgive my boyhood's folly," he groaned, despairingly. + +The first shock of pain and disappointment was so great that he could +scarcely bear it. He thought vaguely of suicide, wondered which would +be the easier way out of life--the dagger, the bullet, poison, or the +river. Shakespeare's words came to him: + + "Oh, that the Everlasting had not fixed + His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! Oh, God! Oh, God! + How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable + Seem to me all the uses of this world." + +He got up suddenly and shook himself with fierce self-scorn. + +"God forgive me for these wild thoughts!" he cried. "No, I can not be +such a coward! He is a coward who takes his own life because he can not +bear its ills. I must remember that I have a dear little mother to live +for, even though the hope of love and happiness be gone forever." + +But life was cruel. He longed to get away somewhere--far away from the +place where everything breathed of _her_, his cruel, beautiful love, +and he decided that as soon as he secured his divorce he would go +abroad and seek forgetfulness in constant travel. + +Meanwhile, a sorrowful little note came to him from Alpine, praying him +to forget her folly, or at least to keep it secret. + + "I should die of shame if I believed any one knew but you," she wrote. + "But you are so good and great, you can forgive me. Perhaps things + like that have happened to you before. I should not wonder. Then do + not exclude me from your friendship, I pray you. Forget that one mad + moment, and think kindly of me as you did before. + + "Your true friend, + + "ALPINE." + +With the letter was a little perfumed sheet on which were written some +sweet, sad verses that touched his heart: + + "THE FAREWELL. + + "Ah, yes! I can bid you farewell and forever, + No more will I think thy affection to claim, + And hope for thy heart's love again will I never, + Since now I have found that it lives but in name. + + "That dream of my life I too fondly have cherished, + Till now I have bitterly wept o'er my woe; + And hope from my bosom has withered and perished + When made the cold blight of desertion to know. + + "My way is all dark as it spreads out before me, + And gloomy and sad I must wander alone; + Fain wishing for some fatal blast to sweep o'er me + To still my heart's beating and silence its moan. + + "But far as I wander the wide world will dream not + The wounds in my heart that I strive to conceal; + And those who best know me and love me will dream not + The deep crushing sorrow alone that I feel. + + "I can not forget thee; where'er I shall wander + Thy image as bright shall abide with me yet; + And though I may roam like the far-speeding condor, + And though thou hast bid me, I can not forget. + + "Go thou and be happy; my last, fondest blessing + Shall be upon him that I once loved so well; + And though my heart break at the thought so distressing, + Oh go and be happy! I bid thee farewell." + +Ralph read the verses penned in Alpine's hand with deep emotion, but it +was not of _her_, it was of another he thought. The sweet, sorrowful +strain seemed to express his feelings toward his lost Kathleen. + +"Lost to me forever!" he sighed, bitterly. "Teddy Darrell, the boyish +flirt, who roves from one beauty to another, like a butterfly from +flower to flower, will win and wear the peerless rose, beautiful +Kathleen. He is not worthy of her, for he has frittered his heart away +in a score of passions, while mine has aye been true to her since first +we met." + +He could not help hating the fortunate Teddy because he had won +Kathleen; and Teddy, who was a versatile youth, envied him, in his +turn, his genius and his fame, and was fired with the desire of +becoming a great actor. He was always dabbling at some new fad; but +Mrs. Stone, who understood him thoroughly, declared that Teddy would +never accomplish anything great unless he should lose his fortune and +have to work for his living. + +It was lonesome for Teddy the first few days after Kathleen went away, +and he was fain to console himself with some of his old sweethearts. +While pursuing this diversion with the usual alacrity of a young +man whose sweetheart is away, he met a new girl who proved "quite a +bonanza," as he confided to Mrs. Stone. + +"Saw her at Maude Sylvester's. By the way, Maude's novel, 'A Blinding +Passion,' is having quite a success, don't you know? Well, as I was +saying, this girl, Mittie Poindexter, is a real daisy, and suits me +down to the ground--talks about going on the stage." + +"Kathleen would be jealous if she could hear how you run on!" his +cousin exclaimed, warningly. + +"Not a bit!" he replied, his frank brow clouding with vexation. "To +tell you the truth, Carrie, I don't believe she loves me in the least; +it's only gratitude that made her promise to be mine. Only think, now, +Carrie: she has been gone three days, and not one line to me, although +I've written _her_ two letters a day. Why, don't you know, that week I +went to New York I began a letter to her as soon as the train started, +and, by Jove! I mailed it at the first station. I'm ashamed to think of +all the spoony letters I wrote that girl in one week, and--_only one +little note in return for all!_" + +Mrs. Stone could not help laughing at his half-injured air. + +"Well, never mind. You have a special talent for letter-writing, you +know, and Kathleen detests writing; she told me so. That accounts for +her failure to write oftener," she began, soothingly; but just then the +door-bell rang a resounding peal, and she started up in dismay. + +"What a deafening ring! Maybe that's the postman now. No, it is too +early for _him_. What is it, Mary? Oh, a telegram! Open it, please, +Teddy. Those things always startle us women folks so." + +His handsome face paled to an ashen hue, and his lips trembled as he +read. + +It was a telegram from Richmond, and contained these startling words: + + "Ask Mr. Darrell to join me here at once, if possible. Kathleen has + mysteriously disappeared under circumstances that hint of foul play. + + "BENJAMIN CAREW." + +"Kathleen gone! Oh, Heaven! my little darling!" groaned the young man, +forgetting all about his new fancy in real grief and dismay. + +Mrs. Stone burst into tears, and for a few minutes one could not +comfort the other. + +But women are more quick-witted than men, and Mrs. Stone, who knew +nothing about Ivan Belmont and the diamonds, quickly leaped to a +conclusion. + +"Those asylum people--the fools!--have captured her again, and carried +her off to their old prison!" she exclaimed, brightening and wiping +away her tears. "Cheer up, Teddy. No harm can happen your little +sweetheart, except another detention at the lunatic asylum, and you and +her uncle can soon have her out when you find out exactly where the +place is situated." + +Her idea was so plausible that Teddy brightened up under its influence +and prepared to take leave. + +"I must go on the first train," he said, as he kissed his cousin +good-bye after the affectionate way he affected with all his female +relatives who had the slightest claim to good looks. + +The news spread rapidly, and Helen Fox, arriving the next day from +Europe, was shocked at the calamity that had overtaken her friend. The +news that Kathleen lived had thrilled her with joy, and hastened her +return from abroad. + +That was not all the news that shocked her, for she soon became +acquainted with Ralph Chainey's pathetic story. + +Helen was a frank, far-seeing girl, but she could not understand the +strange turn matters had taken during her absence. The next day after +her return she told her brother George to bring Ralph Chainey home to +luncheon. + +"I have been dying to see you ever since I got back," she said to him, +frankly, her blue eyes beaming with the kindness of her heart. "Now +tell me _everything_!" + +Luncheon was over, and they were alone in the cozy library together. +Helen looked sympathetically at the unhappy young man, remembering +how, such a little time ago, she had plotted in her loving fashion to +bring about a match between him and her bonny Kathleen. He comprehended +her sympathy, and opened his full heart to her with all its pain and +anguish. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +THE FRANKLYNS AT LAST! + + + I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled + Above the green elms that a cottage was near + And I said, "If there's peace to be found in the world, + A heart that was humble might hope for it here." + THOMAS MOORE. + + +River Cottage was one of the prettiest spots on the banks of the James, +and so far away from any other habitation that it was lonely to the +last degree; yet embowered in trees and vines and flowers, and lulled +by the murmuring voice of the majestic river, its inhabitants were +so happy and content that they did not pine for the world that at a +little distance surged busily around them. The family consisted of but +two--Mrs. Franklyn, a lovely old woman somewhat past fifty, and her +grandson, a youth of twenty-three years. Here at River Cottage they +lived quietly together on a modest competency, the woman with her sad +face and dreamy eyes absorbed altogether in dreams of her past and in +tender care for Chester, the blue-eyed boy under whose crown of yellow +curls throbbed the restless brain of a genius that was beginning to +express itself in dainty bits of verse--the first callow flights of +ambition. + +The boy was restless. Genius was beginning to burn. Sometimes he +walked the floor for hours while the midnight oil burned on his study +table. At times he loved to walk on the banks of the river, setting +his beautiful thoughts to the music of its melodious rhythm. On that +dark, cold night Chester had wandered from the cottage porch down to +the river's edge, and so he caught with startled ears the sound of that +sullen splash into the waves--caught the sound, and scarce a minute +later saw, with keen eyes strained into the gloom, a body floating in +the river past the cottage. + +"A suicide!" he muttered, in a voice of horror. + +The next minute he threw off his coat and shoes and plunged into the +stream. + +It was a brave deed, and sometimes in the anguished months that came +afterward Chester wondered if he would have risked so much could he +but have known all that was to follow on this night--the full draught +of life's chalice filled to the brim with love and pain that he was +to quaff. But no presentiment of the future came to him now as he +struggled in the almost freezing waves until he caught and held the +form drifting rapidly from him, and by almost superhuman efforts drew +it with him to the shore. + +Mrs. Franklyn always dwelt with loving pride on that night when the +cottage door was pushed open and her brave boy staggered in with his +unconscious burden, both of them dripping water upon her pretty ingrain +carpet, and Chester faltered weakly: + +"I--I have saved--some one--from the river!" Then he fell upon the +floor, too exhausted to utter another word. + +Mrs. Franklyn did not look at the stranger at first. She hastened +to revive Chester by pouring some wine between his pale lips and +chattering teeth. As soon as he could he sat up, saying, anxiously: + +"There, grandma! I'm all right. See about the woman, please." + +And then they found that the woman he had rescued was a young girl--the +most beautiful golden-haired young creature they had ever beheld. When +they had used some little effort at restoring her to consciousness, she +opened on their faces a pair of large, dark, wondering eyes, at whose +gaze Chester Franklyn's romantic heart leaped up in a sort of ecstasy. +He stooped down, almost unconsciously, and pressed his lips to her icy +little hand, carried out of himself by some strange, delicious emotion +he could not resist. + +Tears started to Mrs. Franklyn's eyes as she busied herself about the +patient, who did not answer one word when she spoke to her, but lay +watching her face with dazed, uncomprehending eyes. The good lady sent +Chester up to his room to put on dry garments, and brought some of her +own for the strange young girl thrown upon her care. + +She supposed that this was an attempted suicide, and wondered +what terrible sorrow had driven this beautiful young girl to +self-destruction. + +She ventured to ask the patient the question, but Kathleen seemed dazed +as yet, and did not comprehend anything very clearly. She answered to +every question that was asked her a feeble: "I don't know." + +"I must wait until she gets better," was her thought; and she put +Kathleen to bed, carefully spreading out her long gold curls over the +pillow to dry. Soon the girl fell asleep, and then Mrs. Franklyn turned +down the lamp and slipped away to ask Chester all about it. + +He could tell her nothing but that he had heard the dull thud of her +body striking the water, and that he jumped into the river to save her. +He believed it was a suicide, as he had heard no sound or cry. + +"Some poor girl, perhaps, who can not make an honest living and has +sought death in her despair," he said, and the gentle lady agreed with +him. + +"We will keep her here until she gets well and strong, and then we will +see how we can help her out of her trouble," she added, kindly. + +"Yes, we will take care of her," cried Chester Franklyn, eagerly. "It +may be she has some deadly enemies from whom she sought to escape in +that terrible fashion. We will say nothing of her being here until she +herself tells us what to do." + +When the morrow dawned Kathleen was ill with a low fever, and so it +chanced that while her friends were frantic with anxiety over her fate, +Kathleen lay passive in the river cottage, carefully watched by Mrs. +Franklyn, who wondered much over her mysterious guest. + +"So young and beautiful; and she can not be a poor girl, for her +clothing is of the finest quality," Mrs. Franklyn said to her grandson. +"Perhaps there are people who are anxious over her fate. Do you think +we ought to let it be known through the papers?" she added. + +"No, not yet. Let us wait till she gets well and tells us what to do," +he replied. + +Chester Franklyn had fallen in love at first sight with the beautiful +creature whose life he had saved. He was afraid that some one would +take her away from him if he let her presence be known. + +"Let me have my chance first," he said to himself, with all the selfish +ardor of a young lover. + +It seemed strange that Kathleen lay passive so long after the fever +left her, without seeming to take any interest in anything. They asked +her her name; they asked her where her home was, and how she came to be +in the river. To everything she answered dreamily: + +"I do not know." + +They did not know that before Kathleen had been thrown into the river +she had swallowed with her food a potent drug intended to produce +death. It was entirely owing to the small quantity of food she had +taken that she survived at all, but the strange drug had partially +paralyzed her faculties. Memory was dormant, or returned in such faint +gleams that it threw no light on her present state. + +She knew that two beautiful, kindly faces--a woman's old but strangely +lovely, and a young man's with deep blue eyes and curls of gold--bent +daily over her pillow. She watched them eagerly, she smiled at them +faintly and sweetly, but so numb were her reasoning faculties that she +did not wonder at their presence there. She was utterly quiescent. + +Mrs. Franklyn became alarmed, fearing the girl was an idiot, but +Chester was indignant at the very idea. + +"She has had some shock; that is it," he said. "Be patient, grandma. +She will come to herself." + +It was strange how his heart went out to the girl, who lay so silently +on the pillow all day, looking up at him with dark, inscrutable eyes, +like an infant's in their wondering expression. + +In a week she seemed stronger. She could sit up in an easy-chair. She +even talked a little, but it was just about things that she saw in the +room--books, pictures, flowers. She would say, softly: + +"How sweet! How pretty!" + +At last she was strong enough to walk about the room. + +"Grandma, I think she would like it better in the parlor," said +Chester, one day. He took her hand and led her into a pretty, cozy +apartment. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +"SHE WAS MY MOTHER." + + + "Sweet face, sweet eyes, and gleaming + Sun-gifted, mingling hair; + Lips like two rosebuds dreaming + In June's fruit-scented air." + + +Kathleen sat down in front of a bright coal fire, and leaned her curly +head back against the easy-chair. In doing so, her upraised eyes +encountered over the mantel the picture of a young girl done in water +colors. It was a life-size head and bust, and represented a beautiful +young creature with rosy cheeks, pouting lips, dark-blue eyes, and +curly golden hair. The expression of the face was piquant and spirited, +and greatly resembled Kathleen's own. + +Kathleen gazed with startled eyes at this beautiful picture, and +gasped, faintly: + +"Who is it?" + +She was alone with Chester, and as he looked up she saw a shadow of +pain cloud his dark-blue eyes. + +Drawing his chair close to hers, he half-whispered: + +"She was my cousin. She has been dead many years." + +"Her name?" exclaimed Kathleen, excitedly, and he lifted a warning hand. + +"Not so loud. Grandma might hear," he said; then, answering the puzzled +look in her eyes, he added, softly: + +"It was grandma's youngest child--her only daughter, and she met such a +tragic fate that it nearly broke her mother's heart. Even now she can +not bear to talk of her. We never speak her name, because it makes our +hearts ache." + +"It was Zaidee--Zaidee Franklyn," murmured the girl. + +"How did you know?" in astonishment. + +"No matter. Tell me all about her," answered Kathleen, whose memory had +returned to her as by a flash of lightning at sight of that lovely face. + +"There is little to tell," he replied. "My poor cousin's story is short +and tragic, like her life. My grandmother had but two children, a son +and a daughter. The son, my father, died years ago, but Zaidee, his +petted young sister, died years before--died, alas! by her own hand." + +She shivered like one in a chill, and he said: + +"Was it not horrible? She was so young, so lovely, and she had +everything, it seemed, to make her happy. But this is her story: When +she was barely sixteen, a rich man from Boston married her and took +her away from her simple home to his grand, rich one. She loved her +handsome husband very dearly, and seemed to be wildly happy. Her people +did not hear from her often, but she sent this picture and many gifts +to her mother. In a year she had a little daughter, but she did not +invite grandma to go and see the child. Vincent Carew was rich and +great, and very proud, so the Franklyns believed that he was trying to +break his young wife off entirely from her past. The Franklyns were +proud, too, in their way. They resented it; and so the communication +between the two families almost ceased, until, suddenly, like a clap of +thunder, came the news that the young wife had committed suicide!" + +"Why?" she gasped. + +"We do not know. It was a profound mystery even to her husband. But +it broke my grandfather's heart. He died in less than a week after +the news came. Grandma came, then, to live with us at River Cottage. +My mother died in a few years after, then my father. We two--grandma +and I--are the last of the family unless my cousin, Kathleen Carew, +Zaidee's child, is yet living. That we do not know. We wrote several +times. No answer came, and we gave up the hope of ever knowing the +daughter of the proud Vincent Carew." + +"And she has never written to you?" asked the girl, in wonder. + +"Never," he replied. + +"There must be some mistake," she faltered. + +"No, there is no mistake; but I fancy the proud Vincent Carew is at the +bottom of it all. He would not care for his child to know her humble +relatives on her mother's side. Why, he was governor of his state +eight years, and was in Congress also. The Franklyns were plain simple +people; my grandfather and my father were mechanics, although nobler +hearts never beat in human breasts, and they were never rich. It is +from the life-insurance money they left us that we are enabled to live +in comparative comfort now." + +Her eager, interested eyes made him go on rather diffidently: + +"As for me, I have no taste that way. My desire is for a literary life. +I have written some trifles that the critics praised." + +"Your name?" the girl asked, curiously, gazing with interest at his +handsome face. + +"Chester Franklyn," he replied. + +"Would you like to meet your unknown cousin--the daughter of the proud +Vincent Carew?" she pursued. + +His face grew grave. + +"I do not know how to answer you," he replied. "She would not care for +us. Perhaps her father has never told her about the Franklyns." + +She looked at him with a strange expression, and held out to him her +little white hand. + +"I am your cousin--I am Kathleen Carew!" she said to him; and, while +he stared in astonishment, she pointed at the picture of the beautiful +girl. + +"She was my mother!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +A COUSIN FOR A LOVER. + + + Ah! love was never yet without + The pang, the agony, the doubt + Which rends my heart with ceaseless sigh, + While day and night roll darkling by. + BYRON. + + +What a day that was! + +Kathleen seemed suddenly to grow well and strong at the wonderful +discovery that it was her own cousin who had saved her life, and that +the sweet, lovely woman who had cared for her so kindly was her own +dear grandmother. + +They had volumes to tell each other; and how Mrs. Franklyn was shocked +when she heard that a decoy letter, pretending to be from herself, had +at last brought Kathleen to Richmond. + +She wept bitterly at the thought that her precious granddaughter had so +nearly lost her life through this mysterious treachery. + +"My dear, I never wrote you a line, nor did I ever hear from you. +I thought you were too proud to care about us; so I let you alone, +although it nearly broke my poor heart!" + +She gazed with untiring love at the beautiful face, trying to trace in +it every faint resemblance to her dead daughter. + +"You are more like your father than your mother," she said, with vague +disappointment. "Your eyes, your features are his; but there is an +expression like Zaidee's, and your hair is gold like hers was, only a +richer, deeper shade. You are more beautiful even than Zaidee was," she +continued, fondly, as she stroked the bronze-gold curls. + +Chester had little to say. He looked and listened eagerly, his heart +thrilling at the thought that Kathleen was his cousin, and in a measure +belonged to them. + +"For her father has disinherited her; her step-mother cast her off. We +are her nearest and dearest, and she will stay with us and share our +lot," he said within himself. + +Kathleen, while confiding very freely in them, had held back with a +young girl's shyness the story of her love affair and her engagement +of marriage. She did not suppose they would care for _that_, and she +was so anxious to know what had befallen her uncle that she dwelt +constantly on that subject. + +"Perhaps they murdered him, too," she sobbed. "Oh, cousin! will you not +telegraph at once to my friends in Boston, and let them know where I +am? Perhaps in that way I may get news of him sooner. And they will be +so uneasy over my fate." + +"They?" the young man repeated, with his curious eyes upon her face. + +"Mrs. Stone, my friend, and--Mr. Darrell--the man I am to marry," +explained Kathleen, with a blush. Her eyes had dropped, so she did not +see the ashen pallor that suddenly overspread Chester Franklyn's face. +"You will telegraph at once, will you not, cousin?" she repeated, and +hastily scribbled down the addresses upon a card. + +"I will go at once," he answered, taking the slip of paper and leaving +the room. But a terrible temptation had assailed him. "Why not wait a +little before I send the telegrams!" he thought. "I can not give her +up just yet to the proud, rich man she is going to marry. If she stays +with us a little longer, I may, perhaps, win beautiful Kathleen from +him. It ought to be so. Grandma and I ought to have Zaidee's child for +our own because we have been cheated of her sweetness all our lives. +I--will--not--send the telegrams just yet. She will never know." + +He had often read the saying that "all is fair in love and war," and it +seemed to him that there could be nothing unfair in this. But yet his +heart smote him when he went back and met the eager light in the dark +eyes he loved so well. + +"They will be so much relieved when they know that I am safe and well," +she exclaimed. "And as soon as they can they will come for me." + +"You are in a great hurry to leave us!" Chester cried, reproachfully. + +"No, indeed, for I love you both dearly," the girl replied, not +dreaming how his heart leaped at the words. "But I am so anxious over +the fate of my uncle. Only think, cousin, I do not know if he is dead +or alive. Perhaps they drowned him, too;" and her eyes filled with +tears. + +"Try and bear the suspense as well as you can. I will try to amuse +you," and he kept his word as far as lay in his power. He read to her, +sung to her, played games, talked, and Kathleen would have really +enjoyed his company only for the cruel suspense of her waiting. + +"It is strange they do not come. It almost seems as if they did not +care for me," she said, wistfully, on the third day. + +"They will come to-morrow. Do not think about them now. I want to sing +you this sweet little song," he said, going over to the piano and +seating himself. + +He had found out that the best way to amuse or interest Kathleen was to +read or sing to her while she lay quietly on the sofa, her arms over +her head, her dark, curly lashes drooping over her sad, dreamy eyes. +Many a time when he was not looking, the burning tears ran down her +cheeks as she thought of Ralph, her dear, lost lover, who was brought +so vividly to mind by Chester's poetry and songs. + +So she lay very still now while Chester, who really played and sung +very well, poured out in the sweet love-song the passion that filled +his heart. + + "When nightly my wild harp I bring + To wake all its music for thee, + So sweet looks that face while I sing, + To reason no longer I'm free. + I forget thou art queen of the land, + 'Tis thy beauty alone that I see! + And trembling at touch of thy hand, + All else is forgotten by me. + + "The spell is upon me asleep, + In the region of dreams thou art mine-- + I wake, but, ah! 'tis to weep, + And the hope of my slumbers resign. + Ah, hadst thou been less than thou art, + Or I more deserving of thee, + Thou mightst have been queen of my heart, + Thou mightst have been all things to me." + +Tears came to the singer's eyes and tears to the listener's, the words +were so wildly sad. Chester thought of _her_, she of Ralph, so strange +are love's entanglements. + +"Go on," she murmured, unwilling that he should turn and see the +burning tear-drops in her eyes, so Chester selected another song: + + I've something to ask you to-night, Kathleen, + A secret I fain would know, + Oh, why do you seem so strange, Kathleen, + And why do you shun me so? + Come out on the porch in the starlight, sweet, + And tell me my joy or woe-- + Your coldness is breaking my heart, Kathleen, + For, darling, I love you so! + + You were never in earnest--were those your words? + Was that what you meant to say? + Your tones were so strangely low, Kathleen, + Yet I fancied I heard you say: + "I never loved you." Was that your voice, + Or the south wind's dreamy sigh? + Kathleen, Kathleen, you are dreaming, love, + Or perhaps it is only I! + + Go and forget you? Kathleen, Kathleen, + Your light words were spoken in vain, + The revel was wild, and the wine flowed red, + But it never drowned his pain, + Till under the sod in the autumn days + He pillowed his dreamless head, + With "Twenty" carved on the marble slab + For he was but a boy, _she_ said. + + And Kathleen goes on her lightsome way, + And smiles at his simple heart, + And dazzles and lures as she dazzled him + With the coquette's Circean art, + While under the daisy-dimpled turf, + A-sleeping light and low, + Heart-broken molder the lips that sighed + Kathleen, I love you so! + +He turned around on the piano-stool and looked at her. She was sitting +upright, her dark eyes wide and startled. + +"Forgive me," he said, gently. "The name was Irene, but I put in yours +because it rhymed so well." + +"But why do you choose such sad songs?" she said. "They make my heart +ache." + +"Because mine aches already," he answered, impulsively; and, seating +himself by her side, he continued, passionately: "Darling Kathleen, I +love you, and, unless you will give me your love in return, I shall die +of heartbreak, like that poor lad in the song." + +She remained perfectly silent a moment, then answered, rebukingly: + +"But you are my cousin." + +"Cousins often marry," he replied, eagerly. + +"But I can not marry you, Chester; I am engaged to marry a young man in +Boston. Besides, I don't love you," she replied. + +"Do you love _him_?" + +"Of--course," she replied; but her voice faltered as she thought how +impossible it was for her to love Teddy, because of that other passion +in her heart. + +"Oh, Chester, please let me alone!" she cried, with sudden petulance. +"You have not known me two weeks, and I don't want your love! I do not +want anybody's love!" + +Suddenly she burst into hysterical tears. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +THE SEARCH FOR KATHLEEN. + + + Oh! when shall the grave hide forever my sorrow? + Oh! when shall the soul wing her flight from this clay? + The present is hell, and the coming to-morrow + But brings with new torture the curse of to-day. + BYRON. + + +On the night when Kathleen was so strangely rescued from the river a +man and woman left Richmond by a midnight train for New York. + +They were Ivan Belmont and Fedora, the woman who had played such a +cruel part in the life of Ralph Chainey. + +Whatever their mission in Richmond, it could not have been an honest +one, since they were leaving the city in partial disguise--Ivan with a +luxuriant blonde beard, and his companion with a curly brown wig over +her flaxen hair, and a dotted veil drawn over her bold, handsome face. + +They traveled second class, and seemed to shun observation, conversing +with each other in low whispers. + +"It was a very ugly thing for us that the old man got away," he +observed. + +She shrugged her shoulders, and replied: + +"Oh, pshaw! I don't think it matters. He can never catch up with us. +Who would suspect you of being the old negro hack-driver, or me of +being that old witch, Grandmother Franklyn? Ha! ha!" + +"True!" he replied; and echoed her laugh of security, forgetting that +"he laughs best who laughs last." + +They thought that Uncle Ben Carew, the old, downcast farmer, was a +simple old fool; but they were doomed to find themselves mistaken. +He had his wits about him, as he proved afterward; for as soon as he +found that the old house was deserted, he made his way from the gloomy +neighborhood into the busiest portion of the city. Within an hour the +police were notified of what had occurred, and were organized to search +for the missing girl. + +They visited the old house, and some one who knew all about it +declared that the place had not been tenanted for a year. The owners +had died, and the property had fallen to their daughter, who was an +actress somewhere, and had never come to claim her inheritance. The +conspirators, whoever they were, had probably taken unlawful possession +of the place just long enough to carry out their evil purposes, and +then fled from the scene. + +The weary night passed away, but there was no sign of the missing girl, +and at the police headquarters the old man was advised to secure the +aid of a detective in the search for Kathleen. + +When he agreed to take their advice, and inquired who was the best +man for the purpose, they all vied with each other in recommending +handsome, dashing Jack Wren, the finest detective in the whole South. + +Uncle Ben, who up in Boston had pretended to be such a poor man, had a +fat wallet in his breast pocket. He sent for Jack Wren, and, giving him +a princely retainer, placed the case in his hands. + +"Now, tell me everything bearing on the case," said the detective. + +Uncle Ben did so, and when dashing Jack heard the story of Ivan Belmont +and the diamonds, he started up excitedly. + +"That's your man!" he exclaimed. "Poor little Miss Carew! things +look dark for her. That miscreant has doubtless made way with his +step-sister, rather than restore the diamonds or their value." + +Uncle Ben fell back, white and trembling. + +"Kathleen murdered! Oh, God! do not hint at anything so horrible!" he +gasped. "You must search for her everywhere. It may be he has only made +her a prisoner." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +"OH, SIR, HAVE PITY ON ME!" PRAYED DAISY LYNN. + + + Misery! we have known each other + Like a sister and a brother, + Dwelling in the same lone home + Many years . . . . . . . . + SHELLEY. + + +It seemed almost as if there was a fate in it that poor Daisy Lynn, +whose life-path had so strangely crossed Kathleen's, should again +become a figure on the scene of her destiny. + +Jack Wren having been furnished by Uncle Ben with a photograph of +Kathleen, suddenly chanced upon a face that made him think he had found +the missing girl. + +It was a face at the window of a little cottage in the suburbs of +the city--a beautiful face, dark-eyed, golden-haired, with piquant +features, so close a copy of Kathleen's that the detective was +startled. He consulted the photograph closely, and it seemed to him +that the description answered in every particular. So he congratulated +himself that he had been mistaken in his theory that Kathleen was dead. + +"But why did they leave her alive, and what is she doing here?" he +asked himself in wonder. + +He made some cautious inquiries among the neighbors, and he found that +the beautiful young girl was a governess in the family of a young +lawyer who occupied the cottage. His wife was an invalid, and had +employed the young girl to fill the position of nursery governess to +her five tow-headed boys, "the worst limbs in the whole neighborhood," +averred the gossiping neighbors. + +The new governess Daisy Lynn, as she called herself, had only been +there three weeks, they said, and they were sure she would not stay the +month out. No one could endure that Perkins tribe more than a month. +The oldest boy was twelve, the youngest only four. "But," said the +grocery man at the corner, "from the biggest to the littlest, they are +all imps of Satan!" + +"But why did the girl come here? why does she stay? Evidently she is +here of her own free will," thought the puzzled detective. + +He made up his mind to a bold procedure: he would go and see the girl. + +He rang the bell at the door, and a slatternly negro girl opened it and +started at the elegant-looking caller with his shiny hat. + +"I want to see Miss Lynn," he said; and she showed him into the little +parlor, and went to call the governess. + +He did not have to wait long before the face he had seen at the window +appeared within the room--such a beautiful face, but, oh! so pale and +frightened, the sweet lips trembling as she said, nervously: + +"I--I don't know you, sir." + +"But I know you, Miss Carew," he replied, as he rose and bowed. + +"Miss Carew!" She caught eagerly at the words. "Oh, I knew you were +mistaken! That is not my name, sir." + +Jack Wren laughed lightly and drew the photograph from his pocket. + +"Is not that your face?" he asked. + +The lovely girl started with surprise. + +"Oh, dear! it does look like me; but I never had my photograph taken in +my life!" she exclaimed. + +The detective smiled unbelievingly. + +"You are a very clever young girl, but I do not understand your game," +he said, bluntly. "Why have you run away from your friends and your +bright prospects, Miss Carew, to masquerade under a false name and wear +out your life teaching the rough Perkins cubs?" + +She trembled and grew deathly pale as she faltered: + +"There is--there must be--some mistake. My name is really Daisy Lynn, +and I--I have not--I have no friends and no bright prospects, except to +earn my own living by unremitting toil." + +Tears came into the dark eyes as she spoke. The great Southern +detective looked at her with puzzled eyes. "What superb acting!" he +thought, admiringly. "But, what the deuce is the matter with the girl, +to make her hide herself in this way from her friends?" + +"Perhaps you do not know who I am?" he said; and he held before her +eyes a card on which was neatly engraved his name and profession. + +"I--I have heard of you, Mr. Wren!" gasped Daisy Lynn. + +She sunk into a chair, and put her small white hand before her eyes, as +if to shut out some dreadful sight, her bosom heaving with frightened +sobs. + +He remained perfectly silent, and all at once Daisy Lynn slid out of +her chair and knelt in child-like humility at his feet. + +"Oh, sir, have pity on me!" she prayed. "Go away, and leave me in +peace! I am not insane, whatever any one may say. That was but a +temporary spell, and, under the care of the kind friend to whom Heaven +directed me that awful night, I soon recovered my reason. A wrecked +love had made me mad, but that is all over now. Only--only you would +not be able to convince them of it. So I--I do not want to go back. +Oh, God! I shall go mad, indeed, if I am sent again to that dreadful +place! Mr. Wren, perhaps you have a sister of your own. Think of her, +and, for sweet pity's sake, do not betray me to my enemies, who, under +the guise of friends, would work me the bitterest woe!" + +A light broke in upon his mind. + +"The girl is insane. That explains everything." + +He was a stern man, inured to trying scenes, but his heart stirred with +pity for her, so young, so beautiful, and--insane. + +He went up to her as she rose and sunk feebly into her chair. Touching +her kindly on the shoulder, he said: + +"I am very, very sorry for you, but it is better that you should +return to your friends. They are almost broken-hearted over your +disappearance, and have sent me here for you. Now, get your bonnet, +like a good girl, and come with me." + +"I can not go back to them. I would rather die," sobbed Daisy Lynn; and +when he insisted, she grew frantic and rebellious. "I--will--not--go!" +she cried. "They will put me in a horrible lunatic asylum, although I +am not mad. Oh, Mr. Wren, have pity on a most unfortunate young girl! +Go away and tell them you could not find me. Heaven will bless you for +your goodness." + +He thought it was a very good proof of her insanity that she expected +Heaven to bless him for telling a falsehood for her sake, and smiled +indulgently as he said: + +"My dear young lady, think of the distress of your lover if I go back +without you--the rich, handsome young man you have promised to marry." + +An expression of blended pain and scorn crossed the lovely face. + +"Do not speak to me of _him_," she cried, passionately. "It was his +falsity that wrecked my life. But that brief madness has passed. I am +sane now, and I scorn him as much as I once loved him." + +Oh, the imperial scorn with which she drew her graceful form erect, the +fire that flashed from her lovely eyes! He said to himself that she +was the most beautiful girl he had ever beheld. + +"It is not _he_, my false lover, that wants me; I am sure of that. It +is my aunt that has sent you," she continued. + +"No, it is your uncle, Mr. Carew," he replied. + +"But I have no uncle," she replied, in surprise. + +He was nonplused at her persistence in deception, and said, with rising +impatience: + +"You must really go with me and see Mr. Carew. If there is any mistake +he will detain you but a few minutes." + +"Will you not go and bring him here?" she asked, beseechingly. + +"And give you a chance to escape while I am away? No; I am too sharp +for that. Get your bonnet and come with me to the hotel where your +uncle is staying," replied Mr. Wren, firmly. + +With a stifled sob she rose to obey, although she said: + +"You are very cruel, and I warn you that if I am sent to the lunatic +asylum I shall kill myself." + +"They will not send you there," he replied, soothingly. + +In a few minutes she joined him in the hall, heavily veiled, and they +set forth on their trip to the Broad Street Hotel, where Uncle Ben and +Teddy Darrell were staying. He called a hack and assisted her into it, +and in a very few minutes they arrived at their destination. + +Uncle Ben was so prostrated with grief that he had been unable to leave +his room for days. He was now in his private parlor, and Teddy was +sitting with him, both men looking very sad and dejected, when the door +suddenly opened and Jack Wren entered, the picture of triumph, leading +a beautiful, weeping, dark-eyed girl. + +"Kathleen, my darling!" cried Teddy, springing to meet her; but she +shrieked, in dismay: + +"I do not know you!" + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +"IS THIS YOUR NIECE?" + + + My head is wild with weeping for a grief + Which is the shadow of a gentle mind. + I walk into the air; but no relief + To seek--or, haply, if I sought, to find. + SHELLEY. + + +Teddy Darrell was about to clasp the beautiful, weeping girl in his +arms; but at her quick cry of alarm, he recoiled in amazement--not +alone at her remonstrance, but because her voice was unlike that of +Kathleen Carew. + +Uncle Ben, who had also started forward in eager joy, drew back at the +sound of the girl's voice, and the great detective looked from one face +to the other in astonishment. + +"Mr. Carew," he said at last, "is this your niece?" + +"No," replied Uncle Ben. + +"No," echoed Teddy Darrell. + +"I told you so!" cried Daisy Lynn, with a radiant face; and Mr. Wren +brought out the photograph. + +"But this is her very face!" he exclaimed. + +They agreed with him that it was wonderful--the likeness that existed +between the girl and the picture--but they assured him that there were +subtle differences in the features, and that the voices were quite +unlike. + +"Then I have to beg this young lady's pardon," said the great +detective, rather crestfallen at his mistake; but he added, airily: +"There's no harm done, anyhow." + +"I beg your pardon, but there is," answered Daisy Lynn, her great, +eager eyes brimming over with tears. "I have lost my situation with +Mrs. Perkins through your mistake." + +"Impossible!" he cried. + +"It is, alas! too true," she answered, sadly. "Mrs. Perkins is a very +high-tempered woman, and when I attempted to explain to her why I was +going out so suddenly, she became terribly alarmed at the idea of my +being carried off by a detective. She hinted broadly that I must have +committed some dreadful crime, and discharged me on the spot." + +"The wretch!" cried all three of the gentlemen in chorus, and Teddy, +recalling his native gallantry, hastened to place a chair for the young +girl. + +"Pray sit down, miss," he began. + +"Miss Daisy Lynn, permit me to present to you Mr. Carew and Mr. +Darrell," said the detective. + +Daisy bowed as she sunk into the chair; but Teddy Darrell stopped and +stared as if he had seen a ghost. + +"Daisy Lynn!" he echoed. + +"Daisy Lynn!" cried Uncle Ben. + +Both had heard the story of unfortunate Daisy Lynn, and explanations +followed all around. The tender-hearted girl ceased weeping for herself +to pity the fair young girl who had suffered so bitterly in her stead. + +Then Jack Wren, who, now that everything was explained, no longer +suspected Daisy of insanity, spoke his mind. + +"I have made a great mistake," he said. "But I know that you will agree +with me that it was very natural under the circumstances. I beg your +pardon, and am ready to propose to you a plan by which to atone for my +folly." She looked at him attentively, and he continued: "I have a very +kind friend, a widow lady, who would be very glad to have you for a +companion, I know. If you will permit me, I will take you to this kind +lady at once, and I am sure you will find it a more pleasant situation +than teaching those Perkins cubs." + +"It was not very pleasant," answered the girl, sadly; and when she saw +how eager he was to atone for the trouble he had brought upon her, she +accepted his offer with shy gratitude. + +Taking a pleasant leave of Mr. Carew and Teddy, she withdrew with the +detective, and they were driven immediately to--River Cottage. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +KATHLEEN AND DAISY MEET AT LAST. + + + No, no, 'tis vain to hover + Thus round a hope that's dead; + At last my dream is over; + 'Twas sweet--'twas false--'tis fled! + T. MOORE. + + +It was the day following Kathleen's petulant rejection of her cousin's +love, and the young girl, embarrassed by Chester's grieved and dejected +looks, had gone to her room to nurse in solitude the pain at her heart. + +"Why does no one come to me? Am I forgotten by my uncle, Mrs. Stone, +and Teddy? Their silence and delay is very, very strange," she +murmured, sadly; and just then she heard a low murmur of voices in +the parlor, where she had left Mrs. Franklyn and Chester a while ago, +pleading a headache as an excuse for retiring to her room. + +"They have company. I am glad I came upstairs," she thought, feeling +far too dejected to meet strangers. + +The murmur of voices continued a while, then the front door closed, and +Kathleen thought the guests were leaving. + +Directly afterward, Mrs. Franklyn entered the room with an excited face. + +"Kathleen, do you remember the strange story you told us about Daisy +Lynn?" she asked. "Well, she is here in this house! She is no more +insane than you are, and is your living image--only, perhaps, not +_quite_ as pretty. She knows all you suffered in her place, and is just +dying to meet you. Will you come down?" + +"I should like to have her come up here," answered Kathleen, who felt +as if she would like to be quite alone at first with Daisy Lynn, the +fair young girl whose line of life had so strangely and tragically +crossed her own. + +Mrs. Franklyn understood her wish, and a few minutes afterward she led +Daisy to Kathleen's door and gently withdrew. + +They looked at each other--the two beautiful young creatures--then they +smiled at the likeness they saw in each other's faces. At that smile +their hearts leaped to each other. + +"Daisy Lynn! Oh, you poor darling!" cried Kathleen, holding out her +arms. + +Daisy ran into them. They kissed, then wept together. + +They sat down side by side on the bed, like two sisters, and wept like +little children for a while; then Daisy wiped her eyes, and said, +piteously: + +"Oh, Miss Carew, can you _ever_ forgive me?" + +"It was not your fault, Daisy, darling. But you must call me Kathleen; +you know we are not strangers to each other. I know all about you. I +have lived at your home, slept in your pretty room, and--can _you_ ever +forgive _me_, dear?--I read your sweet diary! I was so lonely and so +curious over the girl whose identity had become mixed with mine." + +"It was very silly, was it not?--that is all I regret about it," Daisy +Lynn answered, blushing crimson. Then she looked fearlessly into +Kathleen's eyes as she added: "But I am cured now. I despise him. I +could not love him now if he begged me on his knees!" + +"I am glad of that, dear, for he was not worthy of you," said Kathleen, +fervently. + +"You know him?" cried the other girl, in surprise, and then Kathleen +told her all about her wicked step-brother. + +She was rejoiced to see how disgusted Daisy Lynn became with the +accomplished villain who had once been the hero of her girlish dreams. + +"But, Daisy, tell me where you have been all this time?" said Kathleen, +curiously; and Daisy smiled as she answered: + +"Most of the time with an old couple in the country, to whose lonely +little house I wandered that night after I escaped from my keeper and +wandered into the woods. You see, Kathleen, I was not violently insane, +only sort of melancholy mad for a while; and because I foolishly +attempted to poison myself, an incompetent physician pronounced me +mad, and persuaded my aunt to send me to a lunatic asylum. Well, in my +horror and grief I confided my cruel distress to those good old people, +and they believed me and pitied me. They let me stay with them, and +were as good to me as if they had been my parents. A few months ago +the good old man died, and his gentle old wife soon followed him to +the grave. Then the little farm passed into the ownership of a distant +connection of theirs, Lawyer Perkins, of Richmond. He employed me to +teach his children." + +She went on then and told Kathleen how strangely the detective had +found her, and all that had happened afterward. + +"So Uncle Ben is alive, thank Heaven! I must go to him!" cried +Kathleen, springing to her feet in wild excitement. + +"No, dear, for Mr. Wren has gone to bring them here to you. Mrs. +Franklyn told him you were here," replied Daisy; then she started as a +low rap sounded on Kathleen's door. + +When she opened it, there was Chester, looking so remorseful and +dejected that her tender heart leaped with pity for his woe. + +"May I speak to you alone for one moment, dear cousin?" he asked, +humbly. + +She went out into the little hall with him, and Chester manfully +confessed his sin, and humbly begged her forgiveness. + +"All my foolish plans for keeping you away from your own true lover and +winning you for myself have come to naught. Heaven watched over you, +dear Kathleen, and foiled my selfish love. Oh, Heaven! how ashamed I +am, how wretched! and you can never forgive me!" + +"Yes, I can," answered the girl, nobly. She pressed his hand gently in +hers as she added: "I forgive you, dear cousin, and I will forget all +about it, and remember nothing but that I owe you my life." + +"God bless you!" he said, chokingly, and went down-stairs. But he was +not brave enough to meet his rival yet. He went away for a long walk, +unwilling to witness the meeting between Kathleen and her betrothed, +the man that Jack Wren said was so rich and handsome. Poor fellow! +he might have felt happier had he known how little Kathleen cared for +Teddy. It was Ralph who filled all her thoughts, hopeless as they were. + + "How am I changed! My hopes were once like fire; + I loved, and I believed that life was love. . . . + I love, but I believe in love no more." + +"Love is a tyrant that has no mercy. I wish I could forget all my +past!" she sighed nightly to her pillow; but Shelley's lines would +recur to her with cruel pathos: + + "Forget the dead, the _past_? O yet + There are ghosts that may take revenge for it; + Memories that make the heart a tomb, + Regrets that glide through the spirit's gloom, + And with ghastly whispers tell + That joy, once lost, is _pain_." + +Chester had scarcely left the house before the detective returned with +Mr. Carew and Teddy Darrell. Kathleen flew down-stairs, vouchsafed +Teddy a sedate kiss, and fell into her uncle's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +"SO SHINES A GOOD DEED IN A NAUGHTY WORLD." + + + Howe'er it be, it seems to me + 'Tis only noble to be good. + Kind hearts are more than coronets, + And simple faith than Norman blood. + TENNYSON. + + +Kathleen remained a week longer with her relatives; but such +importunate letters came to her from Mrs. Stone and Helen Fox that +she decided to go home to Boston, promising her grandmother that they +should meet often in future. + +Leaving her friend Daisy to brighten the quietude of River Cottage, +Kathleen departed with her uncle and her betrothed for Boston. + +She had promised Daisy that she would stop in Philadelphia and inquire +for her about her aunt, Miss Watts. She also wanted to see her +benefactor, the kind-hearted Mr. Hall. + +To her dismay, she found, on inquiry, that Miss Watts had died three +months before, and her will, made years ago, bequeathed her snug little +fortune to her niece, Daisy Lynn. + +There were no greedy relatives to dispute the will, so Kathleen had the +blended pain and pleasure of writing to Daisy that she was bereaved of +her only living relative by death, but that her aunt's demise had left +her rich. + +Kathleen sent her address to Samuel Hall, and the young man came +promptly to call on her, his kind face beaming with delight at seeing +again the beautiful heroine of his romantic adventure. He was shocked, +however, when he heard of the second peril from which she had escaped. + +"It is that woman Fedora who planned it, I feel sure!" he exclaimed; +for he believed the woman was wicked enough for anything. + +Kathleen did not agree with him, for her uncle had confided to her his +and the detective's belief that Ivan Belmont was the guilty party. Jack +Wren had been to Boston, carefully spotting the young man's movements +from the time that Kathleen had charged him with the theft of her +jewels, and he believed he had found a clew that, if carefully followed +up, would lead to his conviction. + +Uncle Ben Carew was very much pleased with Kathleen's friend, and when +he left her went for a stroll down Chestnut Street with him. + +Sammy Hall thought that the old gentleman was very inquisitive, he +asked so many questions, getting out of the rather quiet young man the +fact that he was engaged to a beautiful fellow-clerk, Miss Tessie Mays, +but that they thought themselves too poor to marry until he had laid by +a little sum for housekeeping. + +"You shall hear from me again, young man," said Uncle Ben, +mysteriously; and he did. + +Several months later, when he had almost forgotten all about the +old man's promise, he received a deed of gift to the pretty little +furnished house where Miss Watts had lived. Uncle Ben had bought it +from Daisy Lynn, who continued to reside with the Franklyns, and he +gave it to Sammy Hall in his niece's name. + +"Marry your lovely Tessie and be happy in your cottage home, the gift +of Kathleen's grateful heart to her noble friend," wrote Kathleen, +sweetly. + +Sammy Hall lost no time in taking this pleasant advice, and he and his +charming Tessie spent a long and pleasant life in the pretty cottage +home. Their first daughter was called Tessie, for her mother; but the +next time Heaven sent them girl twins, "as like as two peas," wrote +Sammy, when he announced to Kathleen that he had named them Kathleen +and Daisy. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + +MRS. CAREW TRIUMPHS IN HER SWEET REVENGE UPON KATHLEEN. + + + Revenge is a two-edged sword; + It has neither hilt nor guard. + Wouldst thou wield this sword of the Lord? + Is thy grasp, then, firm and hard? + CHARLES H. WEBB. + + +"Kathleen, you and Uncle Ben must come to me soon for a visit. It is +such a little time now before your marriage, and I can never have you +to myself again after that!" exclaimed Helen Fox. + +"Uncle Ben is going back to the country to-morrow, but I shall be glad +to come," Kathleen answered. + +She had been back at Mrs. Stone's for a week, but neither Mrs. Carew +nor Alpine had called on her or sent any message--"the heartless +wretches!" as Mrs. Stone said, indignantly. + +Rumor said that the mother and daughter were making hasty preparations +to sail for Europe, to be absent several years. It was rumored also +that the disreputable Ivan had crossed the sea before them, flying from +justice. The story of Kathleen's lost diamonds was public property now; +but there was no chance that she would ever recover the jewels or their +value, for Ivan had disappeared, and his mother and sister angrily +repudiated the debt. + +Uncle Ben himself went to the two proud women, begging them to do his +niece justice. + +"Think, madame," he said; "you and your daughter have stripped Kathleen +of everything. The jewels were all that remained to her, and now that +she is to marry a rich man, she would like to have the money for her +wedding _trousseau_. It is very little to you out of your great wealth, +but to her it is _all_. Be just and fair, and make good what she has +lost by your son's dishonesty." + +Mrs. Carew laughed mockingly. + +"I would not give her a penny if she were starving to death!" she said. + +"Your own husband's daughter!" he said, reproachfully. + +"I hate her the more for that. I hate everybody he ever loved!" she +replied, vindictively. + +"You hated poor Zaidee and caused her death, I know," he replied, +bitterly. + +Her face suddenly grew livid, and she looked at her accuser with +startled eyes. + +"It--it is false!" she muttered, weakly. + +"It is God's truth," answered the old man. "You told Zaidee Carew +a trumped-up story of her husband's falsity, and then--her death +followed. Answer me this, madame: Was her death a suicide or--a murder?" + +She quailed before the stern old man, pale as death, trembling with +nervous alarm; but Alpine rose up suddenly and interposed between him +and her mother. + +"How dare you distress my mother so with your shocking hints and +suspicions?" she cried, violently. "Get out of here at once, you old +wretch, or I will call Jones to throw you out into the street!" + +"As your mother did poor Kathleen," he sneered. + +"And served her right," she hissed. Then she rang the bell violently. +When Jones appeared, she said: "Take this old beggar and throw him into +the street! If you ever admit him again, you will be discharged." + +Uncle Ben moved toward the door with Jones, but, looking back, asked, +pleadingly: + +"Will _you_ not pay your brother's debt?" + +"Never! Now go!" she stormed, and the rich curtains fell behind the +bent retreating form; but from the hall a strange, exultant laugh came +back to them, and Mrs. Carew shuddered. + +"Heavens! how horribly that laugh sounded like my husband's laugh!" + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. + +"I WILL NEVER HUMBLE MYSELF TO YOU AGAIN." + + + Fare thee well, and if forever, + Still forever fare thee well, + Even though unforgiving, never + 'Gainst thee shall this heart rebel. + BYRON. + + +Helen Fox was a very bright girl. She did not tell Kathleen that Ralph +Chainey frequently visited the house, nor did she mention to him that +Kathleen was to be her guest. Yet she knew very well that the unhappy +young lovers were sure to meet under her roof. + +And, in fact, Kathleen had not been twenty-four hours at Helen's when +George Fox encountered Ralph somewhere, and dragged him home with him. + +Kathleen was playing and singing for Helen. Her back was turned to the +door, so she did not know when the two young gentlemen entered and +silently seated themselves, obeying a gesture from Helen. + +The young girl, unconscious of her lover's presence, sung on, sweetly +and sadly: + + "One word is too often profaned, + For me to profane it, + One feeling too falsely disdained + For thee to disdain it. + One hope is too like to despair, + For prudence to smother, + And Pity from thee more dear + Than that from another. + + "I can give not when men call love, + But wilt thou accept not-- + The worship the heart lifts above + And the heavens reject not, + The desire of the moth for the star, + Of the day for the morrow, + The devotion to something afar + From the sphere of our sorrow?" + +The plaintive words rang in sad echoes through her lover's brain: + + "The desire of the moth for the star, + Of the day for the morrow?" + +She turned around, and in a minute more she saw him coming forward to +speak to her. A start, and she recovered herself enough to speak to +him, but her voice faltered, and the little hand, as it touched his, +was deadly cold. It was like the old, sad song: + + "We met--'twas in a crowd, + And I thought he would shun me, + He came, I could not breathe, + For his eyes were upon me, + He spoke--his words were cold, + Though his smile was unaltered-- + I knew how much he felt, + For his deep-toned voice faltered." + +She did not know what he was saying to her, or what she murmured in +reply. She could realize nothing clearly but the ecstatic consciousness +of his presence, that had such power to thrill her whole being. + +Then she found herself slipping into a seat by Helen, and twining her +cold fingers in those of her friend. They turned the conversation +cleverly away from her, but in a very few moments George Fox got up and +left the room, saying as he went: + +"I will get those specimens we were talking about, Ralph." + +Ten minutes later he called down the stairs: + +"Helen, will you please come up and help me find those things I brought +from Palestine for Ralph?" + +"George can never find anything without my assistance," laughed the +young girl, as she excused herself and left the room. + +The unhappy lovers were alone together--perhaps by the clever scheming +of George and Helen, perhaps by chance; who could tell? + +There ensued a moment of intense embarrassment. Kathleen, sitting with +down-dropped eyes, felt her lover's eager brown eyes upon her, and a +deep blush arose to her beautiful face. Slowly she raised her bashful +eyes and they met his--deep, passionate, reproachful, beseeching, +all in one. In spite of herself, her own gaze replied to that +look--answered love for love. + +A moment, and he rose and came toward her. She thrilled with ecstasy +as he sat down by her side. Her little hand, icy cold a moment before, +grew burning hot as he touched it with his own. + +"Kathleen, forgive me," he murmured, "but I can not let this blessed +chance pass. I wrote to you. Did you receive my letter?" + +"Yes," she faltered. + +"Cruel girl! And you would not reply? Kathleen, was that just or fair? +Could you find no excuse in your heart for me when I had told you my +whole sad story?" + +"I--I--was sorry for you. I--wanted to--write--but I promised not to," +she whispered, almost inaudibly. + +"Promised not to write to me!" His dark eyes flashed with anger. "Who +was so cruel as to forbid you? Mr. Darrell?" + +"No--No! Teddy knows nothing. It was my uncle. It seemed to him that it +would not be right to my--to--to--Mr. Darrell!" + +"To Mr. Darrell! Oh, Kathleen, is it true, that you will marry him? Do +you love him?" + +"Do not ask me. It is not right. You--you--are not free!" she cried, +trying to be loyal to her absent betrothed. + +"I shall be--soon. The courts will certainly grant me a divorce from +that dreadful woman. But then, Kathleen, my freedom will avail me +nothing if you are lost to me! Oh, my own love--my darling! be brave, +and break through the fetters that bind you to this man you do not +love! Wait for me?" + +Oh, the passionate pleading in his voice and eyes! how they thrilled +her soul. She wished to herself that she had never seen poor Teddy, +whom she had so rashly promised to marry. + +"Oh, I must not listen to you!" she sobbed. "Please, Ralph, do not +speak to me so; do not look at me! I can not bear your eyes!" and she +hid her own with a trembling hand. + +There was silence for a moment, but Ralph could not give it up. It +seemed to him that he was pleading for more than life. + +"Kathleen, don't be angry, dear; but I can not give it up so +easily," he began. "If I thought you did not love me, if I believed +you cared for Teddy Darrell, I would not say another word. +But--if--I--were--free--you--would love me again, would you not, my +dear one?" + +Kathleen had been fighting down the weakness of her loving heart. She +looked at him with sad, hopeless eyes. + +"Spare me!" she sighed. "Oh, Ralph, we must not count on what has been +or what may be. I am promised to another, and I can not break my vow. +Think of the suffering I should bring to Teddy's noble heart." + +"He would soon forget you," Ralph Chainey urged. + +"Then you may soon forget me, too," she replied. + +"But, Kathleen, my darling, it is so different. I love only you, while +your Teddy has had scores of loves. Think, if you marry him, his fickle +heart may soon tire of you; then how wretched you would be!" + +"I do not believe that Teddy is fickle. If I thought so, I would beg +him to release me from my promise. But he loves me truly, in spite of +his past, and so I must be true to him," sadly replied Kathleen. + +"And your marriage day is set?" he asked, gloomily. + +"It is only two weeks from now," she replied; then her courage failed +her; she burst into tears, and sobbed miserably against his shoulder. + +Ralph tried to soothe her, whispering: + +"If he knew you cared like this--for--me--he would not want to marry +you. No true lover would accept the hand without the heart." + +"He must never know--for--I--I--shall learn to love him by and by. Mrs. +Stone says so; they all say so," she whispered. + +"They are driving you into a--a--a wretched future with their silly +advice!" cried the young man, violently, despair goading him to +desperation. He pushed her from him and rose to his feet. + +"I have been deluding myself," he said, bitterly. "I thought you loved +me. I was mistaken, I see. I will never humble myself to you again, +proud Kathleen. From this moment to my life's end, we are strangers. +Farewell!" and with a stately bow he was gone. + +Kathleen sprung to her feet with wild despair at her loss. + +"Oh, Ralph! come back!" she cried, faintly; but he was beyond the reach +of her voice. + +She threw herself weeping into the chair where he had sat but just now. + +"Gone--and forever!" she sobbed in bitterest agony, and there came over +her a longing to die and be at rest from her sorrow. Life seemed too +bitter to be borne, now that the last hope had failed, and Ralph had +gone from her "forever." + + + + +CHAPTER LIX. + +OH, RALPH CHAINEY, WAKE! + + + How murderers walk the earth, + Beneath the curse of Cain, + With crimson clouds before their eyes + And flames about their brain; + For blood has left upon their souls + Its everlasting stain! + _The Dream of Eugene Aram_. + + +Ralph Chainey left the presence of his loved and lost Kathleen with a +heart full of bitterness and pain, and hurried home. + +He had concluded his engagement in Boston the previous evening, and it +was a great relief to him, for he was eager to get away from the city +that held Kathleen. Stay there, and see her wedded to another, he could +not! That way lay madness. + +He had dismissed his company for several months. He was going to +travel, he said, although the manager pointed out to him that now was +the time to reap a golden harvest, if ever. He was even more popular +now than before, if such a thing could be. The divorce proceedings had +given him notoriety. People who had not gone to see him act before, +went now, just for a sight of his handsome face. + +He loved his art, but the money was no object to him. Fortune had +already showered her golden favors on him in lavish measure. He could +not be tempted to remain. + +"No, mother, I can not stay," he answered, sadly, when she pleaded with +him. "I must get away as soon as this divorce business is settled. +That will be soon--in a week or so, my lawyers tell me. Then I will go +abroad and try to live down this unpleasant notoriety. You do not blame +me, mother?" + +She sighed, but answered bravely: + +"No; but it will be very lonely, my son." + +"You will have my brother, his wife and little ones to cheer you," he +said, moved to the heart by her tears. He knew well that he was her +favorite son. + +He kissed her, and went to his own room, wrote some letters, and then +went with his mother for a drive. At night he felt as if the day had +been a month long. Oh, how cruel it was, this love that mastered him in +spite of his pride! + + "You may rouse your pride, you may use your reason, + And seem for a space to slay Love so; + But all in his own good time and season + It will rise and follow where'er you go." + +He threw himself down, dressed, on a couch in the luxurious room, +and gave himself up to bitter-sweet memories of the girl he loved so +hopelessly, living over in his thoughts every time he had met her until +now, when her dark eyes had made shipwreck of his life. Time passed +unnoted, although the tiny French clock had tinkled musically the +midnight hour. + +What a picture of manly beauty he made, lying there with half-shut +eyes on the rich couch with its Oriental draperies. The gas-light, +half-turned down, cast weird shadows all about the room. In the little +sleeping-room beyond, seen through the half-drawn _portière_, all +was dark and still. Did a white, desperate face with gleaming eyes +peer out of that gloom upon the young man resting there in his velvet +dressing-gown, one shapely hand tossed up over his brown curly head, +the dark, curly lashes drooping downward to the pale cheek? + +Yes, he was well worth looking at, this gifted young actor, this genius +who at barely twenty-five had scored such dazzling successes in the +dramatic world, and written his name up high upon the scroll of fame. +It was no wonder that women raved over his beauty and his genius, and +that they filled his daily mail with love letters that he flung into +the fire after one contemptuous glance. + +But were they eyes of love that gleamed on him now, lying so pale and +still and sad, with his thoughts upon his beautiful young love? + +Alas! a gleam of tigerish hate shone in those steel-blue orbs as they +watched the young man; and when at last the fringed lashes drooped +against his cheek, a faint sigh of relief escaped the lips of the +impatient watcher. For hours and hours she had been waiting there; but +it seemed as if he did not mean to retire to-night. Now he had fallen +into a light doze. Perhaps he would sleep there all night. + +Oh, Ralph Chainey, wake! From the curtained darkness beyond a fiend is +gliding toward you! + +The shrouding hood of the long cloak has fallen back from the face of +a woman--a bold, handsome face with steel-blue eyes, and glittering +golden hair. In her upraised hand glitters a long thin dagger, on her +face is stamped in awful, ashen pallor the fell purpose--murder! + +But he sleeps on lightly, dreaming, perhaps, of Kathleen, while this +beautiful fury glides soundlessly across the thick moquette carpet, +gains his side, poises her shining weapon on high, aims for his heart, +and--it descends, it pierces his breast! + +Ralph Chainey was sleeping but lightly, and as the cold steel entered +his breast a shudder ran over his whole frame, the dew of pain started +on his brow, and with a shriek of mortal agony he staggered to his +feet, clutching blindly at the midnight assailant. + +She had not counted on this; she thought her frenzied blow would be +short, sharp, and decisive, that she would have time to fly from the +scene of her terrible crime. + +She was mistaken. His outstretched arms caught and held her with the +momentary fierce strength of a dying man; his blood spurted out in hot +streams upon her face and hands. + +And meanwhile his shriek of agony had aroused the house. Earl Chainey, +his brother, started wildly from his dreams, and his wife, affrighted +at that awful sound, buried her pale face in the pillows. Mrs. Chainey, +lying awake and restless, brooding over her son's departure, recognized +Ralph's voice in an instant, and, with a terrible foreboding of evil, +sprung forward to his rescue. + +Upon the threshold of the door they met--the mother and her elder son. +Earl flung the door wide, and together they sprung into the room. + +Not a moment too soon was their entrance, for Ralph's momentary +strength had failed from the profuse loss of blood. He had struggled +madly to hold his assailant, but her superior strength had overpowered +him, and as he sunk back heavily upon the couch, she raised her bloody +weapon for a second, surer blow. + +But it never reached its mark, for Earl's strong arm caught and flung +her fiercely aside as he knelt by his fallen brother. + + + + +CHAPTER LX. + +"MY LOVE SHALL CALL HIM BACK FROM THE GRAVE!" + + +"Oh, my dear, how ill you look this morning. Surely you did not sleep +well!" Helen Fox exclaimed, gazing in surprise and pain at Kathleen's +pale cheeks and heavy, somber eyes. + +It was the morning after her painful interview with Ralph. Kathleen had +not closed her heavy eyes all night for thinking of her lost lover and +his cruel, parting words. They had pierced her heart like a thorn, and +some sweet, sad lines, strangely appropriate, rang in dizzy changes +through her brain: + + "It came with the merry May, love, + It bloomed with the summer prime; + In a dying year's decay, love, + It brightened the fading time. + I thought it would last for years, love, + But it went with the winter snow-- + Only a year ago, love-- + Only a year ago! + + "'Twas a plant with a deeper root, love, + Than the blighting Eastern tree; + For it grew in my heart, and its fruit, love, + Was a bitter morsel to me. + The poison is yet in my brain, love, + The thorn in my heart, for you know, + 'Twas only a year ago, love-- + Only a year ago!" + +"Yes," the girl thought, sadly, bitterly, "the root of that love went +so deep in my heart that I can never pluck it out unless my life goes +with it! Oh, God! that I _could_ forget--that I could give _all_ my +heart to the one who holds the promise of my hand! Oh, Teddy, Teddy! +you deserve more of me than this! You are so good, so noble, you +believe in me so fully, little dreaming that the heart which should be +yours is given to another!" + +She looked at Helen with a smile so faint that it was sadder than +tears. She could not speak, and Helen put her arm tenderly about +the drooping little figure, so pathetic in its unspoken despair, +understanding without one word all the sorrow in Kathleen's heart. + +And even then the newsboys running through the streets were shouting +wildly: + +"Extra copies of _The Globe_--all about the murder of the handsome +actor, Ralph Chainey, by his jealous wife!" + +Their startled ears caught the sound--the name. Starting apart, the two +beautiful young girls gazed with blanched faces into each other's eyes. + +The words were repeated clearly just beneath the window--blasting +words, that coldly drove the shuddering blood back from Kathleen's lips +to her heart. With a moan, she slipped down to the floor, winding her +arms about Helen's knees, leaning her head against her while she wailed: + +"Dead! Murdered! Oh, my love, Ralph!" + +Then consciousness fled, she slipped inertly to the floor, and Helen, +with a pallid face and trembling limbs, ran out to purchase a copy of +_The Globe_. + +Ere Kathleen had recovered from her swoon, Helen had hastily run over +the startling news--the attempted murder of Ralph Chainey by Fedora, +the woman whom he was suing in the courts for divorce. + + "But for the opportune entrance of his brother, Mr. Earl Chainey," ran + the paragraph, "the fiend would have succeeded in her fell design. + The deadly blade was descending a second time to sheath itself in + the victim's breast, when she was caught and violently hurled aside + by Earl Chainey. She proved to be Fedora, the wife whom he was suing + for divorce. She now lies in a prison cell, awaiting her punishment, + which will probably be a capital one, as Ralph Chainey has never + regained consciousness, owing to the loss of blood, and his death is + momentarily expected." + +It was to bear this terrible shock to her heart that Kathleen recovered +consciousness. Was it not a wonder she did not go mad with the horror +of it all? + +Parting from her only yesterday in despair and anger--lying dead, +perhaps, this moment--dying at least, and dying before he had forgiven +her for her coldness and hardness. Oh, God, the pity of it all! + +Weeping, she lay upon Helen's breast. Pride all gone, she laid her +heart bare to her sympathetic friend. + +"Oh, Helen, it will kill me unless I go to him--unless he speaks my +forgiveness before he dies!" + +"You _shall_ go my darling," was the answer; and in less than an hour +the carriage was at the door. The two girls stepped into it, and they +were rapidly driven to Mrs. Chainey's suburban home. + +All the way Kathleen lay upon her friend's breast, weeping, always +weeping. In all her long after-life she could never forget that long +hour of misery and suspense, in which she could not tell whether she +should find him dead or alive. Would he pronounce her forgiveness, or +would his lips be stiff in death, and the memory of his anger remain +forever a thorn in her heart? + +How the cold March rain swirled through the leafless shrubbery about +the great stone house, with its closed doors and windows, suggesting +so vividly the presence of death. Thank God! there was one thing +lacking--the funereal crape upon the door. At the worst, he was still +alive. + +"Alive, alive! oh, thank God!" murmured Kathleen through her raining +tears. + +Helen tenderly supported her as they left the carriage. Soon they were +within the house; Kathleen was waiting with a wildly beating heart for +some one to come to them. + +But when Ralph's mother came to them, Kathleen was beyond speech. +It was Helen who had to prefer the request that they should see +Ralph--"Friends, old and dear friends," she said, in excuse. + +The gentle, gray-haired lady looked in wonder at the beautiful, weeping +girl, the fairest she had ever beheld. Her heart went out to her at +those tears. + +"They are for my boy," she thought, tenderly. + +But she hesitated, for the doctors had forbidden any one to enter the +room. + +"He knows no one. He has spoken but twice, and then just to utter a +name," she said, looking doubtfully at the two fair supplicants. + +"A name?" whispered Kathleen, eagerly. + +"Yes; it is that of a young girl whom I fancy he loves. If it were only +_her_ now," she said, musingly. + +"The name?" questioned Helen Fox, with eager impatience. + +"Kathleen!" replied Mrs. Chainey. + +Oh, what a cry came from Kathleen's lips! + +"Oh, my love, my love, you have not forgotten me! I am Kathleen! Oh, +madame, let me go to him!" + +"Come!" was the thrilling answer, and as she led the girl away, +Kathleen's heart throbbed wildly with the thought that she should hear +his lips pronounce her forgiveness. + +"And he shall not die! My love shall call him back from the grave!" she +sobbed. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI. + +SHE LOVED MUCH. + + + I would have rather been a slave + In tears, in bondage, by his side, + Than shared in all, if wanting him, + This world had power to give beside. + L. E. LANDON. + + +She was kneeling by his couch--she was gazing through her blinding +tears upon that pallid, emotionless face, as still now as though it +already bore the stamp of death; her hand touched his, but it did not +respond to her passionate pressure, and when she called his name, there +was no answer--not even a quiver of the dark, curling lashes lying so +heavily against the marble-white cheek. + +Mrs. Chainey and the two physicians looked on in the tenderest +compassion. The story of the young girl's love was written on her +anguished face, and they knew, alas! that Ralph Chainey lay close to +the borders of spirit-land. The dark eyes would never open on that most +beautiful face bending over him, the pale lips would never unclose to +speak her name. + +Breathlessly she called upon his name, beseeching him to look at her, +to speak to her; but the spell that wrapped him was too deep. Those +strong men listening to her wept in sympathy. They had no hope. It had +been so difficult to stanch the flow of blood from the terrible wound +so close to his heart, that he was sinking from inanition--he could not +survive the weakness. + +Suddenly the girl turned and looked at them. They were whispering +together. She caught some disjointed words: + +"It has been tried with success. You remember cases of?--but he is so +far gone, I doubt--transfusion of blood--do you think?" + +It startled them, the way the weeping girl sprung to her feet. New +life seemed to come to her. She threw off the long fur cloak from her +slender form, pushed back the sleeve from the most beautiful white arm +they had ever beheld, and cried, beseechingly: + +"You can save him! Oh, take my blood--my very life, so that you restore +him!" + +They were shocked at first, but she would not listen. She implored them +to yield to her wish. + +"I am so strong, I have such splendid health, it will not hurt me--I +can bear it!" she cried, pleadingly, and they were full of admiration +for her courage and bravery. + +Her lovely face shone with its lofty purpose. + +"Impossible!" they answered; but they gazed with admiring eyes at the +beautiful girl whose fresh young loveliness indeed hinted at glowing +health and strength; but it seemed hopeless, such an experiment. He was +so far gone. Any minute might launch his life's bark out upon death's +unknown sea. + +She could not bear it, this obstinate refusal. Oh, to save him, to save +him she would lay down her life! + +A desperate thought came to her. Her dark eyes fastened on a rich blue +vein in the rosy white arm she had bared to their view. A furtive +movement and she had slipped from the burnished mass of her golden +tresses a toy dagger with a jewel-studded hilt. Maddened with misery, +she thrust the keen point against the blue vein, and the scarlet tide +of her life-blood spurted out in a tiny vivid jet. Oh, horror! + +They sprung toward her, one bound a handkerchief over the wound, +but--her bravery had thrilled their hearts. They could not hesitate +longer. It was a forlorn hope, but yes, they would try the experiment! + + + + +CHAPTER LXII. + +"GOD BLESS BRAVE, BONNY KATHLEEN CAREW!" + + + So silent! Yet it seems to me + That had you lived, and had I died, + My dead heart must have heard you call, + And, throbbing with new life, replied. + + +Doctor Beard was an enthusiast in his art, and his fine eyes shone with +eager interest as he realized the delicate and dangerous operation +that lay before him and his colleague, Doctor Miller. Both were +comparatively young, but they had attained eminence already, and if any +physician in Boston was capable of conducting this experiment, it was +one or both of these two. + +They gazed anxiously into each other's eyes as they made their hasty +preparations. Would it fail, or would it succeed? Death was so near--so +perilously near! Would the rushing tide of life ever flow through those +numb veins again? Yes, if there were any efficacy in love and prayer; +for the stricken mother knelt, weeping and praying, by her boy's side, +and down-stairs, in the darkened parlor, Helen Fox, waiting in keen +suspense, lifted her heart in earnest petitions that God would spare +the young life trembling in the balance. Within the great house all was +trembling anxiety and suspense, while outside the wild March wind shook +the dead branches of the trees and drove the gusty rain against the +windows with a mournful patter, as though kindly Nature wept for the +bright young life going out into darkness. + +When years had fled and gray hairs began to creep into their bonny +brown curls, Doctor Beard and Doctor Miller still loved to tell the +story of that day, and how it ended--of the patient who lay so close, +so awfully close to the portals of death that it did not seem possible +for human art to save him, and of the beautiful, brave young girl who +had prayed them on her knees to take the blood from her round, white +arm and infuse it into the patient's, giving him new life; how they had +hesitated to wound that tender, exquisite flesh, and how she had taken +the initiative, thrusting a jeweled pin from her hair into the blue +vein. + +"I tell you it was _grand_!" cried Doctor Beard, with enthusiasm. "I +could hesitate no longer. I was longing to make the experiment from the +first moment the thought entered my head. So we asked the consent of +Miss Fox, the young girl's dearest friend, who had brought her there. +She was willing, and we tried it. Tried it, and--with the grandest +success." + +"It was magical the way that the girl's fresh young blood put new life +into him," agreed Doctor Miller. "Why, I give you my word, I had _no_ +faith in the operation. The fellow looked like a dead man. I could have +sworn he would never revive again, yet--it was magical, as I said just +now--when we had carefully bound up their arms, that brave, beautiful +girl leaned over him, looked into his face, and cried in accents of +piercing anguish: + +"'Oh, Ralph, my darling, come back to Kathleen! You must not die!'" + +"And you may believe me or not," said Doctor Beard, taking the thread +of the story again, "but the dead man opened his eyes and met her look. +The color began to come back to his ashen face. He smiled faintly, +whispered her name, 'Kathleen,' turned on his side, and slept calmly as +a weary child." + +"That was the proudest moment of my life!" cried Doctor Miller. "God +bless brave, bonny Kathleen Carew!" + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. + +WITHIN PRISON BARS. + + + Oh, my heart, my heart is sick, a-wishing and awaiting: + * * * * * + I looked out for his coming as a prisoner through the grating + Looks and longs and longs and wishes for its opening day. + JEAN INGELOW. + + +"A week, and yet he has never been near me! Not a word, not a sign! +What does he mean? Why has he left me to my cruel fate?" + +The beautiful prisoner raged up and down the narrow limits of her +prison cell like a caged lioness, so desperate was her mood, so fierce +her unrest. + +"Such cruel and heartless neglect from him who incited me to that dark +deed is unbearable! He does not yet know Fedora if he believes she +will tamely bear it!" And she clinched her white hands ominously, her +eyes glittering with anger, as she thought of the man for whom she had +risked so much, yet who seemed to have left her to her fate without an +effort to save her. + +"Where is he? What has become of him? Will he leave me to die like a +rat in a hole? And I thought he loved me--fool that I was! Did I not +already know men too well to trust him? Oh, fool that I was! And yet, +dare he desert me, the partner in his terrible secret? Perhaps the +coward has fled, fearing that I may betray him!" + +So she raved on, every moment increasing her impotent fury. + +"No answer to my letters, no notice taken of my passionate appeals! +Why, he might have effected my escape ere this if he had tried, and I +_must_ escape! It is true I can not be hung, since that foolish girl +saved Ralph's life when he was on the brink of death; but if I am +sentenced I shall be sent to prison for long, long years! I can not +bear the thought! Oh, God, I'm stifling--dying!" She threw herself on +her hard couch, sobbing in hysterical _abandon_. + +A grating sound at the door; the key turned in the lock; the portal +opened, closed again. Inside stood a beautiful young girl gazing with +sad, accusing eyes at the wretched, sobbing woman. + +Fedora looked up with a cry of wonder mingled with rage: + +"Kathleen Carew!" + +"Yes, Kathleen!" answered the other. She advanced, and they gazed in +momentary silence into each other's eyes--the girl Ralph Chainey loved, +and the woman that was his wife. + +"Why are you here?" muttered Fedora, hoarsely, as she started to her +feet. + +"For justice," answered Kathleen, sternly. + +"Justice?" + +"Yes, justice to the man you tried to murder--the man I saved from +death!" + +"Saved, yes--curse you forever for that deed!" snarled the prisoner, +viciously. + +Kathleen recoiled a little at her terrible aspect, and said, in wonder: + +"Why did you do it? Why did you want him dead?" + +"I hated him! I hate you!" + +"I know, but you would soon have been free of him by the law. Why did +you want to kill him? It was horrible. Life is so sweet when one is +young; and Ralph is young--only twenty-five," said the young girl, +almost piteously. + +"Why do you come here to probe into my secrets?" Fedora cried, +fiercely. "Listen, then: I wanted him dead before he secured the +divorce, so that I might inherit his wealth. I, his loving widow! Ha! +ha! Was it not a clever scheme?" She laughed wildly; and, coming closer +to Kathleen, glared threateningly into her eyes as she hissed: "You +foiled me--you--curse you, I repeat! Let me but escape, and I will +murder you!" + +A weaker heart than Kathleen's might have quailed before such threats; +but she stood there trembling but courageous, an earnest purpose in her +splendid eyes. + +"These are idle words, and I did not come here to bandy words with +you. I came to make a solemn appeal to you," she said meekly, almost +beseechingly. + +"Appeal to me?" asked the prisoner, with a scornful laugh; and then she +waited out of curiosity for the other's answer. + +"Do you remember that night in Philadelphia?" Kathleen asked. + +"Yes, I remember." + +"You were wearing my diamonds--the ones that were stolen from me that +night when I was left for dead on the ground at Lincoln Station. You +told me--told me," her voice faltering, "that Ralph Chainey gave you +the jewels. Oh, God! I think if I had quite believed that horrible +story, I should have died! But there was always the merciful doubt--the +hope that it might not be true--that saved me from madness!" + +She paused, but the prisoner did not speak--only smiled derisively. + +"So I have come to you for the truth," went on the girl. "Oh, for God's +sake, speak and tell me you lied! It was not Ralph; it could not be. +Perhaps you are shielding the guilty man behind his identity. Are you? +Tell me the truth! I will not ask you to betray the criminal. I do not +wish to punish him. Only tell me it was not Ralph!" and she waited in +wild suspense for the answer. + +Fedora's evilly handsome face had on it a smile of triumph. She was +gloating over the young girl's misery. + +"So you love _my husband_?" she exclaimed, tauntingly, and the deep +color rose up over Kathleen's face at the cruel sneer. She trembled +with emotion, although she tried to appear indifferent as she answered: + +"I did not come here to discuss _that_ with you, madame." + +Fedora was regarding her with a fixed gaze. A cunning thought had +entered her mind. + +"How much is my secret worth to you?" she asked. + +"All the wealth in the world, if I had it, but I am penniless. I can +not buy your secret," Kathleen answered, sadly. + +Fedora came nearer and whispered in her ear: + +"If I tell you the truth, will you help me to escape?" + +"I could not do it if I wished to do so ever so much. It would take +money, and I have already told you I have none." + +The voice was cold and dull. Kathleen began to realize how hopeless was +her mission. The cruel, calculating woman before her had no pity for +her misery. + +But Fedora was scheming in her mind how to turn her secret to account. +She hated Kathleen too bitterly to show her any kindness; but if she +could pay for the secret she wanted so badly, why, let her have it. + +She looked at Kathleen with a cunning expression. + +"There is one condition on which I will tell you what you want to know." + +"I have already told you that I have no money." + +"I do not mean money. Listen, Miss Carew: You know Ivan Belmont?" + +"Yes," with a contemptuous gesture. + +"He is a friend of mine; and if he knew about my trouble he would try +to help me, I think. Do you know where he is? Can you send word to him?" + +"I do not know anything about his whereabouts." + +"You must find out. You must tell him that I, Fedora, have sent you +to him. Tell him I command him to come to me here. Return to me with +a letter from Ivan Belmont, and you shall hear the truth about the +diamonds. I swear it!" + +They gazed at each other--Fedora flushed and eager, Kathleen excited, +sorely tempted. + +"What say you? Is my price too great?" demanded the prisoner. + +"No," Kathleen replied. Turning to go, she said: + +"I will surely find Ivan Belmont, and bring the letter." + +The door closed. The prisoner was again alone within the grated cell. + + * * * * * + + +The hours dragged on and brought the gloomy night. With it there +hovered over the great city the black and vulture wings of a terrible +storm. It hissed, it roared, it swept with devastating, cyclonic force +through that area where the prison was situated. Trees, roofs, houses +even, yielded to its terrific fury, and flew like feathers before its +angry breath. The poor prisoners, cowering in superstitious terror +before the awful voices of the warring elements, prayed to God for +mercy; but the answer seemed far, far away, for suddenly there came a +terrible, deafening roar; the earth seemed to rock like a cradle, and +the great stone tower of the prison fell with a sound as though heaven +and hell had clashed, while lurid flames shot up from the awful ruin +into the midnight air. Sentence of death had already been pronounced on +many who were awaiting trial, and many a soul went up in that holocaust +of smoke and flame and tempest to render an account of the deeds done +in the flesh. Some few survived, some few escaped. Where was Fedora? + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. + +"YOUR FATHER IS GEORGE HARRISON, THE CONVICT!" + + + It is a common fate--a woman's lot-- + To waste on one the riches of her soul, + Who takes the wealth she gives him, but can not + Repay the interest, and much less the whole. + ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. + + +"Another letter! Gad, they come thick and fast! Ta, ta, Fedora! sorry +I haven't time to read it; but a fellow must look out for his own +neck, and mine has felt deuced uncomfortable ever since I found out +that that devil Jack Wren is on my trail. How _did_ he strike it, I +wonder; for I thought we had covered up our tracks very cleverly. But +the fellow's a sleuth-hound, they tell me, and I've got to escape him. +Poor Fedora! it's a pity to leave you to your fate, but the sooner I +pack up and be afloat on the briny, the better for my neck," muttered +Ivan Belmont, airily, as he moved about his shabby apartment, in a very +unsavory quarter of Boston, gathering together his belongings, that +were scattered about on chairs and tables. + +The letter from Fedora that he had found on coming in he tossed unread +into the fire, and as he ransacked the bureau drawers he hummed, +carelessly: + + "'Long have I been true to you, + Now I'm true no longer.'" + +It was long past midnight. The tempest had spent its force, and only +a fitful, soughing wind and gusty dashes of icy rain remained as +souvenirs of its terrific fury. Its worst force had not reached this +neighborhood, and Ivan little dreamed that the prison doors had been +hurled asunder by the blind force of nature, and that his partner in +wickedness had been released and was hastening to their rendezvous in +eager joy. + +Recklessly he flung on the floor her dainty garments and pretty +trinkets, seeking the diamonds he had given her in the days when he +loved her first--love that had long ago tired, and had now grown +heedless, indifferent. + +"But what the devil did she do with them? I'm positive she left them +here. Can they have been stolen? They are worth a pretty penny to me +now--they would help me to get away from this place that is getting too +hot to hold me." + +"Help you to get away, you coward! Who helped me, I wonder? The devil, +I suppose. They say he takes care of his own!" said a mocking voice +behind him. He turned with a start. There stood Fedora! + +Fedora or her ghost? The voice was there, the glittering, steel-blue +eyes; but where was all the prettiness, where the burnished golden +locks, the silk attire? This woman was drenched with rain, clothed +in rags, and the disheveled tresses that straggled over her brow and +shoulders had turned dead white, and their silver gleam was in awful +contrast with the drops of blood that trickled down her ashen face. + +He stared like one turned to stone. He doubted the evidence of his own +eyes. That voice, those eyes--but could it be Fedora? + +"Yes, it is I," she said, answering that mute, wondering look. "I am +here, escaped from the wreck of my prison to find you--you dastardly +thief--trying to steal my jewels, your own gift to me! You shall suffer +for this night's work! Villain! you tempted me to aid you in your +crimes, then left me to suffer the penalty alone. But I will betray +you, and you shall know how it feels to be shut within prison walls, +deserted by the one who swore fealty forever in happier days!" + +He had been so disgusted, so enraged, that he was about to retort in +angry, sneering words that would drive her forever from him; but at her +threatening words his defiant mood changed to one of cringing, abject +fear. Though inwardly shrinking from her altered looks in keen disgust, +he dared not show his feelings. He must temporize; he must turn her +from her savage purpose. + +He approached her; he held out his hand. + +"Ta, ta, Dolly; we are not going to part in this fashion, are we? +Surely you did not mind if I sold the diamonds to get you out of +prison. It was a big bribe, I know; but the guard would not listen to +a penny less. To-morrow you should have been free; but how lucky that +you escaped, and we have the jewels still!" He slipped his arm around +her, and--in spite of her anger, in spite of her suspicions of his +falsity--the woman's head dropped against his breast. + +She loved him with all the heart she had, this petted darling of the +foot-lights; she who had trifled with the hearts of nobler men had +found in this weak nature her ideal, and he led her on to lower and +lower depths until she was wrecked on the shoals of sin. + +Nestling in the arms that were so reluctant to hold her, Fedora told +the man how she had escaped from her prison in the company of an aged +prisoner--a convict under a life-sentence for murder. + +"You have often told me that your father was dead, Ivan," she said. +"Did you believe it, or was it a falsehood?" + +"I--I--believed it," he replied, weakly. + +"No, you did not," she replied, triumphantly. "Ah, my lord, how proud +you have been of your connection with the Carews! Yet your father is an +escaped convict under sentence for life! Have you forgotten his name? +Let me refresh your memory. George Harrison--alias Dutch Fred. Ah, you +start--you remember! Yes, he told me his whole history, and I gave him +the address of your mother--once his wife. He will go to her, he said, +and demand half her fortune!" + +Ivan Belmont was silent a moment from chagrin. Then he rose superior to +the situation. + +"Ha! ha! how the _mater_ will rave!" he laughed. "I wish papa success +in plucking the madame. The devil knows what a time I had coaxing and +wheedling pennies out of her pocket." + +The vision rising in his mind of this proud mother and sister's +consternation roused his risibilities, and he laughed loud and long. +They had discarded him--flung him off like a dog. What a glorious +retribution! + +But they turned presently from even this savory morsel to their own +affairs. Both were in peril, and it would not do to remain in reach of +the law. Yet Ivan was by no means ready to give up his cherished plans. +They sat far into the wintry dawn, exchanging confidences and plotting +new schemes, to be unraveled on Fate's dark loom. + + + + +CHAPTER LXV. + +A STARTLING DÉNOUEMENT. + + + You may bury it deep, and leave behind you + The land, the people that knew your slain; + It will push the sods from its grave and find you + On wastes of water and desert plain. + ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. + + +"Jones says there is a horrible old man down-stairs, mamma, asking for +you, and will not go away until he sees you," Alpine Belmont said, +entering her mother's _boudoir_ one rainy evening just a few days after +the cyclone. + +"I will not see him. I have just refused to see that old impostor--my +husband's brother, indeed!" contemptuously--"and I will not be annoyed +again. Tell Jones to send the old beggar away." + +Alpine was pale. Her eyes had a troubled look. + +"He says that he is not a beggar, mamma--that he has claims on you. +I am afraid you had better see him. He is making such a noise at the +door, and Jones says he is somewhat intoxicated." + +"Tell Jones to pitch him into the street." + +"He tried to, but the old man was more than a match for him. Do come, +mamma; it's so disgraceful, the sensation he is creating. People are +gathering around the house. Let us have him in and try to pacify him." + +Her arguments conquered, and Mrs. Carew sent down word to admit the old +man to a small room where the servants were accustomed to come to her +for orders. + +Alpine's trepidation had somewhat unnerved her mother, and as she swept +into the little room her air was a trifle less haughty, and her proud +eyes gazed anxiously about for the cause of this commotion. + +There he lay, sprawled upon a luxurious sofa--an old, blear-eyed man in +ragged garments, but with a very close-shaven head, and the stubble of +several days' growth upon his chin. His keen, close-set eyes devoured +with a hungry gaze the handsome face before him. + +A cry of surprise and terror burst from her blanching lips: + +"George!--George Harrison!--_you_!" + +"Yes, George Harrison--your husband!" answered the intruder, and a +hoarse cry of despair broke upon the air from the lips of Alpine, who +had glided in unheeded by both. + +She stood behind her mother, gazing with affrighted eyes at the man's +coarse, leering face. + +Mrs. Carew recoiled--she threw out her white hands, all glittering +with costly rings, as though to shut out some terrible sight. + +The man laughed at her terror and, gliding forward, seized and held her +hands. + +"Are you glad to see me, my wife? Come, give me a kiss for the old +times' sake, my beauty!" + +She struggled with him, loathing the offered caresses, and Alpine +sprung to her mother's assistance, beating him back with dainty jeweled +hands. + +He turned then and saw her for the first time. His narrow eyes dilated +with surprise. + +"Why, you pretty wild-cat, you must be my daughter Alpine! How do you +do, my dear? Give your papa a kiss, dear!" + +"You are not--not----" she choked over the word, and he answered, with +sudden gravity: + +"I am your father, George Harrison, my little girl, and I went to +prison for life for killing a man who was once my dearest friend. Why? +Well, your mother might tell you if she would. I will spare her for +your sake. You seem to love her." He seemed to have grown suddenly +sober after the first sight of his daughter's face. "Well, she has +prospered, has she not? She is rich and grand, while I have lain in +prison all these years, but a few miles from her, my heart burning +with hate for her, and aching with love for my boy and girl, Ivan and +Alpine, while she taught them to forget that they ever had a father +other than Vincent Carew, the proud millionaire. Alpine, speak to me +for once; call me father!" + +A spasm of pain contracted the worn features he raised longingly to her +face. Love shone in his eyes, poor convict that he was, and although +he had come to curse the mother and extort money from her, the memory +of it fled from him now as he gazed imploringly on Alpine's lovely, +soulless face. With outstretched hands he besought her kindness. + +Surely the fiends in hell could have had no more hateful look than the +girl turned upon the suppliant as he bowed the knee before her so +entreatingly. Angrily she struck at the outstretched, toil-worn hands, +exclaiming: + +"You have no claim on me. I hate you--hate you!" + +Could a strong man's heart break for so common a thing as a child's +hardness and ingratitude? It would seem so, for the escaped felon +turned aside with such a look on his face as it might have worn had a +dagger pierced his heart. It seemed as if he meant to go. He staggered +toward the door, tripped, and fell prostrate. His face quivered with +one or two spasms, then he lay still and dead, his white face upturned +to their startled gaze. + +"Dead!" muttered Mrs. Carew, staring down in mingled terror and relief. + +"Dead!" echoed Alpine, in a sort of awe. + +And for a few minutes there was a terrible silence. + +Then Alpine crept to her mother's side. + +"Mamma, was it true?" + +"Yes, it was true. There, you have my awful secret. Bury it deep in +your heart, Alpine, for no one must ever know. Now we must call the +servants to put the body out. We can not have anything so vulgar as a +dead tramp lying in the house!" + +She moved toward the door, but her steps were arrested by a stern voice: + +"Stay!" + +She turned with a start and shudder. + +A man had emerged from behind the curtain. At first sight it seemed to +be Uncle Ben Carew, the old man so cordially despised. + +But with a rapid hand he flung off wig, whiskers, and spectacles, +standing revealed in majestic beauty--Vincent Carew! + +"My God!" she cried, and flew to embrace him. + +He repulsed her with scorn and loathing. + +"How dare you, you Jezebel?" he cried. "Down on your knees to that dead +man there, you and your cowardly daughter, and pray his forgiveness +for the sin that wrecked his life! Vile creature that you are, you +would throw him into the street like a dog! No; let him lie there to be +buried at my expense. I heard all that was said. I know all your guilty +secrets!" + +"Oh, Vincent, forgive me, forgive me! My temptation was so great!" she +cried, frantically; but he spurned her outstretched hands. + +"Can one forgive a fiend?" he said, sternly. "I tell you I know +all--the plot that broke my Zaidee's heart, and drove her to madness +and death--perhaps you murdered her--who knows?" + +"No, no--I swear I did not! I am innocent of that charge. She was so +young, so jealous, it was easy to drive her mad. But, Vincent, it was +for love of you! Can you not forgive so great a love?" + +If scorn could have blasted her, his look would have struck her dead at +his feet. + +"Forgiveness is not possible," he answered, bleakly, and silenced her +with a gesture of his hand. "Listen," he said, looking her in the face: +"I was not lost at sea when my ship burned. I was cast away on a desert +island, where I remained until a few months ago. When I returned I took +a fancy to masquerade to see how matters were going. There is no Uncle +Ben. I never had a brother, but the disguise has served its purpose. I +know you now--you and your scheming daughter. Now listen to your fate. +No, do not speak. Hear me out. I will keep the secret of your disgrace; +and--you were to have sailed to-morrow--you two--for Europe. Your +trunks are packed--your passage taken. You will go, just the same, but +you will never return. You have no claim on me. You belong to that dead +man there. Go now to your rooms. I wish never to look on your faces +again, but the curse of a broken-hearted man will follow you to your +grave!" + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. + +"I WILL GO TO THE OLD HAUNTED MILL," SAID KATHLEEN, BRAVELY. + + + "We must love and unlove and forget, dear, + Fashion and shatter the spell + Of how many a love in a life, dear, + Ere we learn to love once and love well." + + +Kathleen Carew sat in the library of Helen Fox's home, with her cheek +bowed in the hollow of her delicate hand, and a very sad expression in +her downcast eyes. She was thinking of the tragedy of two weeks ago, by +which the prison walls had been rent asunder, sending so many wicked +souls to their account with God. + +"And in that awful wreck Fedora perished--poor guilty soul!--and +with her died the secret I would have risked so much to know. Now I +shall never know it; but Ralph, dear Ralph, I must trust you blindly. +I must not let this dark cloud of suspicion drift between us. But, +oh, Heaven! that it might have been lifted!" she half sobbed, in her +self-absorption. + +In those two weeks many things had transpired of interest to Kathleen. +The Carews had gone abroad, and, although Kathleen knew it not, they +had faded forever out of the life that they had done so much to wreck +and ruin. Uncle Ben, as he still called himself, had not yet disclosed +his identity to his daughter, but kept up his _incognito_ for reasons +best known to himself. The grand Carew mansion remained closed and +silent, and people said that Mrs. Carew and Miss Belmont intended to be +absent for years. + +Ralph Chainey, under the magical influence of renewed hope, was fast +recovering his health again. Kathleen and Helen had been to see him +several times, and, although no tender words had been uttered between +them, Ralph no longer feared and dreaded handsome Teddy. He fancied +that all would come right between him and his darling. + +But Kathleen was very sad at heart. She had the greatest esteem and +regard for her betrothed, and shrunk from telling him the unflattering +truth that her heart belonged to another man. + +"He has been so good and kind to me, how can I grieve him so?" she +thought. + +The ring of the door-bell startled her from her sad thoughts. + +Several letters were handed in. On one she recognized the writing of +her cousin Chester. She broke the seal with eager impatience, and as +she read on smiles began to dimple her scarlet lips. + +Helen, who was reading her own letters, was startled at a gay +exclamation from her friend. + +"Oh, Helen! good news! Chester and Daisy are--engaged!" + +"But I thought it was you he loved, my dear." + +"Oh, a mere fancy! It is that dear, darling Daisy Lynn he loves. And +she--there's a little note from her, too--she has forgotten or outlived +that old love--gives her whole tender heart to Chester. Listen, Helen, +how he writes me--apologetically, you know, fearing I may think him +fickle." + +She read aloud, with a mischievous smile playing round her lips: + + "'Both born of beauty at one birth, + She held o'er hearts a kindred sway, + And wore the only form on earth + That could have lured my heart away.'" + +Helen smiled in sympathy. + +"Poor boy! I'm glad he's to be made happy," she said. Then she +nervously fingered a letter she held. + +"_Mine_ is from Loyal," she said, bashfully. + +"From Loyal? Oh, Helen, is he ever coming back to America? You cruel +girl! why did you send him away?" + +"I did not know my own mind," the beautiful young girl answered, in a +low voice, and then she added, softly: "You remember those sweet lines +of Jean Ingelow? + + "'Thou didst set thy foot on the ship, and sail + To the ice-fields and the snow; + Thou wert sad, for thy love did not avail, + And the end I could not know. + How could I tell I should love thee to-day + Whom that day I held not dear? + How could I know I should love thee away, + When I did not love thee anear?'" + +"Oh, you darling, I'm so glad!" cried Kathleen, springing to her +friend's side and giving her a girlish hug. "That dear Loyal Graham! +I always thought he was perfectly grand, and I know you will be happy +with him. Does he _know_ yet, darling?" + +"Yes; and he is coming home to _me_;" and her soft blue eyes drooped +with a loving smile to the dear letter. + +Ah, the gladness, ah, the madness, ah, the magic of a letter! + +And Helen recalled the beautiful lines of Adelaide Proctor: + + "Dear, I tried to write you such a letter + As would tell you all my heart to-day. + Written Love is poor; one word were better-- + Easier, too, a thousand times, to say. + + "I can tell you all: fears, doubts unheeding, + While I can be near you, hold your hand-- + Looking right into your eyes, and reading + Reassurance that you understand. + + "Yet I wrote it through; then lingered, thinking + Of its reaching you--what hour, what day; + Till I felt my heart and courage sinking + With a strange, new, wondering dismay. + + "Then I leant against the casement, turning + Tearful eyes towards the far-off west, + Where the golden evening light was burning, + Till my heart throbbed back again to rest. + + "And I thought: 'Love's soul is not in fetters, + Neither space nor time keep souls apart; + Since I cannot--dare not--send my letters, + Through the silence I will send my heart. + + "'She will hear, while twilight shades infold her; + All the gathered Love she knows so well-- + Deepest love my words have ever told her, + Deeper still--all I could never tell. + + "'Wondering at the strange, mysterious power + That has touched her heart, then she will say: + "Some one whom I love, this very hour + Thinks of me and loves me far away."' + + "So I dreamed and watched the stars' far splendour + Glimmering on the azure darkness start, + While the star of trust rose bright and tender + Through the twilight shadows of my heart." + +"I must go and tell mamma that I shall marry Loyal, after all," said +the blushing Helen, gliding from the room; and then Kathleen turned to +her other letter. + +It was superscribed in a strange hand--feminine, yet bold and dashing. + +"It is a strange hand," Kathleen said to herself, as she tore it open; +but stranger yet were the words it contained--strange, few, mysterious: + + "If you wish to have full proof of the guilt or innocence of the + man you love, come alone at twilight this evening to the old Cooper + saw-mill, where I am dying. I can not survive the night. Do not + hesitate about coming. I know that a beautiful young girl like you + will do and dare all for love and happiness, and it is all-important + that you should know what I have to tell you. If I die with the secret + untold, you will forever rue it. Come without fail, secretly and + _alone_. Destroy this letter. + + "ONE WHO KNOWS ALL." + +Kathleen read and reread this strange letter with fascinated eyes. + +"I know the old Cooper saw-mill," she murmured. "It is on the old +country road where we used to drive so often, near the glen and the +waterfall. I have seen old Myron Cooper, too, that strange old man with +his long gray duster. People said he wrote poetry as wild and gloomy +as the glen where he lived. Yes, I will go, although they say the old +mill is haunted after nightfall. But my unknown correspondent is right. +A young girl will do and dare much for love--love, that mighty passion +that moves the whole world." + +She spent the remainder of the day in restless thought, longing for the +hour to come when she should go upon her strange mission, and yet half +ashamed of the longing to know all the truth about her lover. + +"Why is it that I can not trust him wholly?" she asked herself; but +the reckless curiosity of a woman's nature drove her forward on that +perilous quest fraught with mystery and danger. "I must _know_!" she +declared, passionately, to herself. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. + +TEDDY'S LOVE LETTERS. + + + "Closely shut within my chamber, + Where the fire is burning bright, + All these letters, long since written, + I must read and burn to-night." + + +"I wonder what has detained Jack Wren? He promised to be here this +evening at five o'clock sharp. Here it is six," Teddy Darrell said, +impatiently, as he looked at his watch, then lingered dreamily a moment +over the fair face of Kathleen smiling up at him from within the golden +lid. + +"Sweet darling! in a few more days she will be mine," he murmured, and +forgot Jack Wren in sweet anticipations of his wedding-day now near at +hand. + +Teddy was waiting in his rooms for the detective; and now, to beguile +the time, he took some letters from his inside pocket and began to run +over their perfumed contents, smiling softly now and then to himself. + +Then he got up, walked about the room, shook himself together and +sighed, then laughed. + +"Poor little dears! it's hard to give you up, after all." + +The "little dears" probably referred to Teddy's old sweethearts, +whose names were "legion"--such a string of them there was: Hatties, +Helens, Lauras, Gussies, Saras, Emmies, Roses, Fredas, Annies, Nellies, +Katies, Lenas, Noras, Mauds, Nannies, and so on through a list of the +belles and beauties of several seasons, whose letters and photographs +were treasured in Teddy's desk, soon to be ruefully sacrificed to the +fire-fiend; for "Benedict, the married man," must not carry any of +these sentimental mementoes of the past into his new life. + + "Here a dainty school-girl's letter + Still retains its faint perfume, + But the little hand that wrote it + Molders in a foreign tomb. + Close beside it lies another + In an awkward, girlish hand, + Desperately sentimental-- + Ah! I now can understand + Just how silly two such lovers + As we were then must have been-- + She about a year my junior, + I a youngster just nineteen!" + +Teddy unlocked a drawer of his desk and brought out a miscellaneous +pile of letters, photographs, faded flowers, and locks of hair of every +shade known to woman's head. I am ashamed to record it of Kathleen's +prospective bridegroom that he cast glances of unfeigned regret +at these treasures as he prepared to devote them to the flames--a +sacrifice on the altar of his love for Kathleen. + +How he lingered over those pretty photographs!--over Rose, the +beautiful actress, in the dress she had worn as Iza in "The Clemenceau +Case." + +"Ah, Rose was a model girl!" he laughed, as he laid it down and turned +to stately Laura in the two-thousand-dollar gown, the very envy of all +her feminine friends when she wore it to Madame Frivolity's ball. Next +to it was Gussie, with her sweet and serious face, the dark curls lying +softly against her temples, the dimpled white shoulders peeping above +the little sleeves of that simple white lace dress in which Teddy had +liked her best. He gazed long and earnestly at the girlish face, and a +memory came to him of that moonlight evening in the vine-covered arbor +when Gussie's arms had clung about his neck, drawing his dark, handsome +face down close to hers while the blue-gray eyes gazed tenderly into +his dark ones as she whispered, in answer to his question, "My dear old +Dark Eyes, I love _you_!" + +"Upon my soul, I believe that flirtation hit me hard! She was the +sweetest of them all, and I was almost sorry I let her marry Bob. Ah, +well, Gussie, dear, I too shall be married soon, and these bitter-sweet +memories of ours must be tossed into the rag-bag of the past!" + +He sorted out _her_ letters, and placed them with her picture in a +secret drawer, for he had a lingering fondness for his old sweetheart, +pretty Gussie, the famous novelist. + +"I will just keep these," he said. "I don't believe Kathleen would +care, for she reads and loves Gussie's novels. And if anything should +happen that I do not marry Kathleen--and it was strange the way she +acted about Chainey--I should like to know I have these still." + +He gathered all his mementoes and, with a genuine sigh, flung them upon +the glowing blaze. + +"It is but just to Kathleen," he said, trying to stifle his regret. + + "Back the mists of years are rolling + As these relics of the past, + With a wondrous fascination, + Have their spells around me cast. + Crowds of tender recollections + Fill my eyes with unshed tears; + Dimmer grows the glowing future-- + Dimmer till it disappears." + +Teddy had a warm heart, and it was no disloyalty to Kathleen that made +him sigh so sadly. He would not have exchanged her for any other girl +he had ever loved; but somehow the thought of Gussie haunted him. She +had been his first love, and it was a lover's quarrel that had driven +them asunder. That was several years ago, and now she was married and a +shining literary light: but it was quite certain that if ever Kathleen +had a rival in Teddy's thoughts, it would be this one lost love. + +A loud rap at the door startled him. It was Jack Wren, who entered in +haste with an excited face. + +"I had quite given you up, Mr. Wren," said Teddy, startled out of his +tender recollections. + +"Darrell, come with me. We have no time to lose. I have made a +startling discovery. I have a cab waiting below, and you must come with +me to the rescue of one you love, for she is at this moment in peril of +her life! I have been on Ivan Belmont's track ever since I saw you, and +he and Fedora, who escaped from the prison when the cyclone shattered +it, are together now at Cooper's saw-mill, in Wild Cat Glen, plotting a +terrible crime!" breathlessly answered Jack Wren. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. + +IN MORTAL PERIL. + + + Listen to the water-wheel + All the live long day-- + How the clinking of the mill + Wears the hours away. + --_Old Song_. + + +People always wondered why old Cooper ever built his saw-mill in +so wild a place as that lonely glen; but the scene, the crazy old +building, and the strange old man, all seemed to chime together, and +no one was surprised that when he died he expressed the wish to be +buried in the glen, close to the old mill, that his dreamless rest +might be soothed by the sound of the grinding wheel day by day. Madame +Rumor said that the old man's ghost haunted the wild, forbidding gorge, +and Kathleen shuddered with dread as she climbed up the rocky path, +with the cascade tumbling wildly beneath, on her rendezvous with her +unknown correspondent. She had come within half a mile in a cab, which +she left waiting for her while she made the rest of the journey on +foot. To escape Helen's kind inquiries, she had said she was going to +spend the night with Mrs. Stone, which she really intended doing on her +return. + +How gloomy the old mill looked in the pallor of the swiftly falling +night! All winter the snows had held it bound in an icy thrall, but now +the April sun had sent the mass of foaming, dashing water tumbling over +the falls, and turned the old saw. What a scene for a crime! thought +Kathleen, with a thrill of superstitious dread, as she hurried on in +the deepening gloom, casting furtive glances about her, as though she +expected to see Cooper's disembodied spirit hovering near. Frightened +and nervous, she half regretted that she had come, and at the hooting +of an owl in the tree near by, she uttered a frightened scream which +rang through the gloomy glen in hollow, reverberating echoes, and fell +prostrate on the ground. + +An icy fear seemed to clutch her heart. It seemed to her that she had +no strength to rise to go on. The gloom, the darkness, coupled with the +mystery of the whole affair, began to weigh with crushing force upon +her spirits. + +She laid her fair golden head down on the rough stones, and prayed +piteously: + +"Dear God! give me strength to go on, to bear whatever is before me! +For, oh! I love him so, I love him so! and I _must_ know if he is +worthy of that love! If he is not--if they tell me he is guilty of that +sin with which Fedora accused him, dear God, let me die! I can not +live and know him false and wicked! I would sooner throw myself over +those rocks down into the terrible cascade, and end my wretched young +life!" + +New courage came with that incoherent prayer, and struggling to her +feet, she tottered on, murmuring faintly: + +"Oh, Ralph, dear Ralph, how much I must love you to risk so much for +your sake!" + +She gained the threshold at last. With a hopeful glance upward at the +feeble glimmering light in the window, she knocked upon the door. It +was jerked rudely open on the instant, and Kathleen saw before her a +frowsy-looking old woman with a short clay pipe in her mouth. + +This repulsive old woman thrust out a hand and dragged the trembling +girl into the mill. + +"What made you so long? I've been expecting you more than an hour!" she +exclaimed, in a tone of savage anger. + +Not waiting for an answer, she dragged the girl rudely along with her +into a small room, and, turning quickly, slipped the bolt into the lock. + +Kathleen gave a startled glance around the room. No one was there +but the old hag, who was gazing at her with malicious eyes, in whose +tigerish gleam of hate there was something so strangely familiar that +she shuddered with terror, and a name leaped to her lips: + +"Fedora!" + +"Yes, Fedora; but you have keen eyes to see through this disguise," +cried the woman. "Do you remember, I told you I would murder you if I +ever got out of prison? Well, I shall keep my vow!" She sprung savagely +toward her, but at the cruel grasp of her foe Kathleen uttered a moan +of horror and slipped limply to the floor like one already dead. + +"Is she dead so easily? I hope not, for I want to torture her first!" +hissed Fedora, spurning the prostrate body with her foot. + +She tore open the door at a slight tap upon it, and stood face to face +with Ivan Belmont. + +He spoke hurriedly: + +"Ralph Chainey is coming, Fedora! Quick! lock the girl in, and come out +and meet him alone. I must not be seen yet." + +Fedora obeyed him, and Kathleen, coming back to life with a shuddering +gasp, found herself alone, locked in, and heard outside the voice of +her lover, and the words spoken held her spell-bound. + +"Kathleen? Where is Kathleen? She told me to meet her here." + +With a hissing laugh of savage hate, Fedora flung off the hood that +she wore and stood revealed, scarred, hideous, gray-haired, but Fedora +still--the woman who held his honor in her light keeping and bore his +name. + +"Kathleen is dead!" she laughed. "Dead, and I killed her without a +blow! My weapon was a lie. It slew her as fatally as a dagger!" + +He could not speak. He could only stare at her in dumb horror as she +continued: + +"Do you see these diamonds flashing in my ears? They are the ones that +were stolen from Kathleen Carew the night of the attempted murder, when +you found and saved her at Lincoln Station. I told her that you, my +husband, did that foul deed, and robbing her of her money and jewels, +brought them to me. A fiendish lie, you say? Ha! ha! but it killed her, +all the same. Do you want to know the real thief? It was Ivan Belmont, +my lover; and she was slain by a lie!" + +Kathleen had struggled with difficulty to her feet. She tottered to +the little window that looked into the mill; she saw her noble lover's +handsome face, and uttered a piercing cry: + +"Ralph! Ralph! I am here! Save me! Save me!" + +He sprung toward the voice. The movement was fatal. + +Ivan Belmont had stolen up softly behind him, bearing a heavy mallet in +his hand. A moment more, and it was lifted high in air, and Kathleen's +anguished eyes beheld her darling struck down before her into apparent +death! + +Kathleen would never forget the horror of that moment. It seemed +to her that she went mad with grief and terror. Shriek after shriek +burst from her lips, and she beat her little hands wildly against +the smoky little window-pane, struggling wildly to get free. But the +fiends before her did not heed her cries. Between them they lifted the +inanimate form of their victim, and bearing it a short distance away, +but in full view of the window, they laid it on a plank upon a table +in front of the large steel circular saw. Kathleen saw his arms fall +limply to his side, and the dark curly head drop back heavily. The +death-white face, the closed eyes, assured her that he was either in a +deep swoon or already dead from the terrible blow that had felled him +to the ground. + +Hushing the piercing shrieks upon her blanched lips, Kathleen watched +in terrible suspense the movements of the two fiends. + +Perhaps they doubted whether their victim was already dead, for they +bent over him, feeling his pulse and listening for his heart. + +"He lives," Ivan Belmont said, with fiendish joy. "Let us bind him hand +and foot, and leave him on the plank till he revives. I want to enjoy +his agony when he realizes the awful death that lies before him. He +must know that Kathleen is here, that she will witness his death, and +then meet the same horrible fate." + +It was a scene on which the devils in hell might have gloated: the +old mill, with its dim lights and strange, flickering shadows; the +prostrate man, with his death-white face; the two fiends binding him +with strong cords, lest he should recover and escape their vengeful +fury; and looking on with anguished eyes at the doom of her beloved was +our beautiful Kathleen. + +"He revives!" hissed Fedora. + +"Good!" laughed Ivan, hoarsely; and he looked back over his shoulder at +Kathleen's convulsed, almost supernaturally pale face at the window. + +"Ha! ha! my proud lady, you would send me to prison for stealing your +diamonds, would you? But I foiled your game! It was I that decoyed +you to Richmond with a lying letter; I that flung you into the deep, +dark river to perish. Well, you escaped then, but you will not be so +fortunate now. Do you realize the fate that lies before you? I decoyed +both you and your lover here. Why, you ask? For revenge upon you both. +Do you see yonder glittering saw, with its hungry teeth, waiting to cut +your delicate body to atoms and drink your life-blood? Well, we are +only waiting for you to see your lover dead before we devote you to the +same torture. He is dead already, you say? No; he is reviving. See that +tremor creep along his frame! See his eyelids tremble! Ha! his eyes +open! he sees! he understands! Oh, the anguish on his face! How happy +it makes me! Look, Fedora, at his tortures. Are we not already avenged?" + +Her answer was a laugh of fiendish triumph. + +"Oh, yes; it is glorious--glorious! I am in no haste for their death. I +like to see them suffering like this. I want to prolong their torture!" +she exclaimed. "What do you say, dear Ivan? Shall we let them live a +few hours yet to realize the horrors that surround them? What avails +their love, their beauty, their wealth now? To-morrow they will be +lifeless clods, and I the rich widow, Mrs. Chainey!" + +"Baffled!" said a hoarse, triumphant voice, and, turning, she met +Ralph Chainey's burning gaze. "You mistake," said her victim, faintly +but audibly. "I made my will weeks ago, and divided my whole fortune +between my mother and Kathleen." + +A scream of baffled fury escaped her lips; but Ivan said, quickly: + +"You can contest the will, Fedora." + +"Yes; I will fight for my rights to the bitter end!" she shrieked, then +sprung toward him in a fury. "Let us end this farce; let us show them +no further mercy. He dies now, Ivan! Go, set the saw in motion!" + +He moved forward in eager obedience to her order, and Ralph Chainey +realized that his moments were indeed numbered, and that death in the +most horrible and soul-sickening shape was approaching. He made an +almost superhuman effort to burst the bonds that held him fast, but +the attempt was useless. He was weakened by the illness through which +he had just passed, and could not move. With a prayer in his heart +to Heaven, he turned his dark, despairing eyes toward the beautiful, +anguished face at the window. + +"Courage, my own love!" he called to her, bravely. "Death is but a +fleeting pang, and then it will be life forever. Turn your sweet eyes +away, my own Kathleen; do not torture yourself with the sight of my +fate. You will come to me soon, and we----" His voice broke, drowned by +the whir of the wheel as it began its revolutions, slowly drawing the +plank with its doomed victim within its jaws. + +Oh, God, what a moment! + +Surely the pitying angels, who know and see all things, hovered near +and aided weak, despairing Kathleen in her frantic struggle for liberty. + +As Ivan Belmont stepped out to open the water-chute, she sprung with +a strength born of despair against the door. The rusty lock yielded +to her onslaught, the door fell crashing beneath her weight, and +staggering, tottering, her loosened golden hair flying like a banner +behind her, Kathleen fled across the moonlit space, the torturing sound +of the revolving wheel grating on her ears, the flying sawdust blinding +her eyes, and gained his side. Brave Kathleen, noble Kathleen, you are +not one-half a second too soon! The swift revolutions of the saw are +drawing your doomed lover closer to the encroaching steel! Throw out in +an agony those fair white arms, gifted with such momentary, wondrous +strength, grasp your loved one wildly, eagerly, and draw him madly from +his couch of deadly peril! Saved! And watching angels weep joyful tears +at the victory of love over hate and revenge. + +Fedora, dazed with wonder, mad with rage, darted forward to thwart +Kathleen's angelic purpose. But Heaven had interposed. Ere she reached +them, Kathleen's frenzied hands had dragged Ralph from the fatal plank. +His falling body struck the fiend, tripping and throwing her violently +upon the cruel saw. Blindly she threw up her arms, shrieked in demoniac +fear, and then--there came a horrible, grating sound, the sickening +smell of fresh blood spurting into the air, and--Fedora's headless body +fell with an awful thud upon the floor, while from the gloom beyond +there followed upon her dying shriek the sound of pistol-shots and +men's angry voices! Jack Wren and Teddy Darrell had arrived upon the +scene; but only that the heavenly hosts had helped Kathleen, they would +have come too late. + +Ivan Belmont, in the midst of his exultation over his terrible crime, +had met a swift retribution. Turning to rejoin Fedora, and gloat +with her over the destruction of their victims, he was confronted by +the detective and Teddy Darrell. Snatching a pistol from his breast, +he fired at the foremost one, and received in return a fatal bullet +from the ready weapon of the dashing detective. He fell dead, and his +crime-stained soul wandered forth on the wings of the night, with that +of Fedora, to the realms of darkness and eternal gloom. + + * * * * * + +Hastening into the mill in search of Kathleen, the two men were +horrified to find upon the floor the ghastly, decapitated body of +Fedora. + +In another moment they saw near at hand the inanimate forms of Ralph +and Kathleen. + +"Oh, Heaven, we are too late! They are all dead!" exclaimed Teddy in +anguish; but a low moan from Kathleen arrested him. + +He stooped over his beautiful betrothed and lifted her in his arms. +She opened her eyes, but they gazed blankly into his, and Kathleen +murmured, gladly: + +"Ralph, darling! I have saved you from a terrible death. Thank God! +thank God! for I love only you, and had you died, I should have gone +mad with grief!" + +Teddy Darrell started and shivered, but the arms that held Kathleen +did not let her fall, only pressed her closer to his throbbing heart. + +"She loves Ralph Chainey. That is the key to the mystery of her +coldness for me," he murmured, sadly. "Oh, my beautiful love! must I +then lose you? I loved you so, and I would have tried to make you so +happy. Must I give you up?" And only the pitying angels knew the pang +that rent his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. + +"I'LL TAKE YOU HOME AGAIN, KATHLEEN." + + + I know you love me, Kathleen, dear, + Your heart was ever fond and true, + I always feel when you are near + That life holds nothing dear but you. + Oh, I will take you back, Kathleen, + To where your heart will feel no pain, + And when the fields are fresh and green + I'll take you to your home again. + THOMAS P. WESTENDORF. + + +But true love is never selfish. Teddy Darrell's heart bore that cruel +wrench gravely and in silence. They took Ralph and Kathleen home; and a +few days later, when the girl was stronger and better, her noble young +betrothed came to her and bravely gave her back her promise. + +"I know all your love for Ralph," he said. "I know how bravely you have +held to your promise to me. I have not one unkind thought of you, dear, +and I give you back your vow, for I know you would be happier with him +than me. But think sometimes of me, Kathleen, for I shall always love +you." + +He meant what he said, and he thought it would be so, but something +happened just a few weeks later that changed all the world to handsome +Teddy Darrell. + +Far away, in a beautiful Southern home, where the magnolias bloomed and +the orange groves drooped their white blossoms down on her dark head, a +beautiful young widow laid aside her pen too often to dream of one who +had been her lover in the dear old days, before that fatal quarrel had +driven her into a marriage for pique with the proud, rich man who had +now been lying for more than a year beneath a costly granite shaft in +Howard Cemetery. + +To-day, in a magazine that she had been reading, some sweet, sad lines +had touched her heart. Obeying an uncontrollable impulse, she drew pen +and ink toward her, exclaiming: + +"What if I copy these sweet, sad verses and send them to my dear old +Dark Eyes? He is not married yet, I know, and I will send him the +notice of Bob's death with the verses; for I love Ted still, and I +would give the world to win him back!" + +And so the letter came to Teddy from that far-off Southern home, and he +read with tender eyes the little poem, entitled "Dark Eyes," which it +contained: + + Which eyes do I love the best, + Dark or blue or gray? + Each are beautiful and blest + In their way. + But I think if some sweet soul + Dearer to us than the rest + Shone through light or dark, we'd love + _That_ color best. + + One I loved in happier days, + Under happier skies, + One whose looks breathed only praise, + Had _dark_ eyes. + Darkly radiant eyes that rest + Nevermore to wake, + And I love _dark_ eyes the best + For _his_ sake. + + Dark eyes, oh, you haunt me yet + With your magic splendor! + All my heart holds one regret + Deep and tender. + Oft you come as all sweet things, + Memory-saddened, come; + As the scent of roses brings + Dead perfume. + + As the sadly dying strain + Of a song we used to know + Stirs the heart to sudden pain, + You come and go; + Shining on me in my dreams + With the light you used to wear, + Deepening with your starlight beams + My despair, + Till the sad heart in my breast + Throbbing seems to break, + And I love dark eyes the best + _For his sake_! + +Teddy's dark eyes grew dim, but he smiled as he exclaimed: + +"Bob had blue eyes, so she must mean _me_, for she used to call me her +'Dark Eyes.' Poor fellow! I'm sorry he died; but I do believe all the +old love for Gussie is coming back again. I'll take the first 'flier' +for the South." And, sure enough, it was only a few months later that +he bore away from the Crescent City the fairest flower of the Magnolia +State, his bonny bride. + +But it was long before Teddy's wedding-day that he had cards to attend +a grand reception at the Carew mansion on Commonwealth Avenue. + +It seemed that Mrs. Carew really meant to stay abroad for years, for +Madame Rumor said, in a week after their departure, that the handsome +old house had been rented to a rich and eccentric old man, a relative +of the late Vincent Carew. Kathleen herself was surprised when she +received that letter from Uncle Ben, far away in his country home, +telling her all about it. + +"I wanted to give you a big party on your betrothal to that grand young +actor, Ralph Chainey, my dear, so I rented the house from the agent, +and I want you to be sure to come, Kathleen," he wrote. "Never mind +about buying a new dress, dear. Uncle Ben is not as poor as he looks, +and you must come in your every-day dress. Go up to your own old room, +and you will find there a new dress and jewels, a gift from Uncle Ben." + +To know that Uncle Ben was rich was surprise enough, but when Helen and +Kathleen arrived with Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Stone at the mansion, she was +transported with joy to meet in the hall her aunt, Mrs. Franklyn, her +cousin Chester, and beautiful, happy Daisy Lynn. + +"Uncle Ben invited us on a long visit," they exclaimed, and hurried her +upstairs to the beautiful rooms once her own, but to which, for almost +two years, Kathleen had been a stranger. + +Kathleen, now the happy promised bride of noble Ralph Chainey, could +not keep back the tender tears as she crossed the threshold of the +familiar rooms; but Daisy wiped them away, begging her to look at her +new dress. + +"The people will be coming presently, and you don't want Mr. Chainey +to see you with pink rims around your beautiful dark eyes," she said, +gayly, and hurried her into the beautiful white dress costly enough for +a bride. + +"And here are these diamonds, Kathleen, that he gave you to replace +those that you lost by the villainy of Ivan Belmont," continued Daisy, +lifting a set of glorious diamonds from their white velvet bed. + +They slipped through her white fingers like rivers of light, and +Kathleen uttered a cry of rapture. + +"They are worth a fortune! Oh, how good Uncle Ben is to me! I must put +them on and go down to him, Daisy." + +But when she was going along the hall in the beautiful, bride-like +robes, she paused suddenly at the library door. + +"Daisy, I must go in alone to see papa's portrait first," she said, and +tears came into the lovely eyes as she crossed the threshold. + +Again she knelt before the portrait, weeping for the loved and lost, +but suddenly Uncle Ben came in and stood by her side. + +"He wronged you, my darling, and left you to fight the bitter battle +of poverty alone. How can you forgive him?" + +She put her hand in his, and answered, sweetly: + +"My step-mother was to blame, I'm sure, Uncle Ben, and so I have never +harbored one unkind thought of my dear, dead father; and, oh, what +would I not give if he were alive to-night to bless Ralph and me in our +happiness!" + +"My angel daughter!" cried the old man, and he flung aside the +disfiguring disguises in which he had masqueraded while unmasking his +wicked wife. There he stood, tall, dark and handsome, although with a +sadness that would never leave his face--Vincent Carew, her beloved +father! + +She flew to his arms, and they had a blessed half hour of sacred +rejoicing and love. Then there came a light rap on the door. + +It was Ralph Chainey, handsome as a prince in his evening suit. + +"They told me to come here for you, my darling! Oh, how beautiful you +are!" he cried, taking her into his arms. + +Vincent Carew came forward into the light. + +"See, papa has come back to me," she said; and he smiled on the pair +of lovers. He had had a rooted antipathy to actors, but for Kathleen's +sake he was willing to accept Ralph Chainey for a beloved son-in-law. +Kathleen had whispered to him that she was to marry her lover soon, and +he shook hands most cordially now with the young man ere he turned away +and left them together for a few sweet moments before they joined the +guests. + +Ralph took beautiful Kathleen in his fond arms, and kissed that radiant +face with adoring love. + +"My love, my bride so soon to be," he whispered; and then she drew him +away. + +"We must go, although I had rather stay here with you, dear love," she +whispered; and they went along the hall arm in arm, happiest lovers the +world ever knew. + +Daisy Lynn was singing at the piano when they entered the crowded +drawing-room. It was a song that Vincent Carew had chosen. The words +rang out in sweet and jubilant echoes on the air: + + "I'll take you home again, Kathleen, + Across the ocean wild and wide, + To where your heart has ever been + Since first you were my bonny bride. + To that dear home beyond the sea + My Kathleen shall again return; + And when thy old friends welcome thee + Thy loving heart will cease to yearn!" + + +THE END + + + + +THE HART SERIES + + Laura Jean Libbey Miss Caroline Hart + Mrs. E. Burke Collins Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller + Charlotte M. Braeme Barbara Howard + Lucy Randall Comfort Mary E. Bryan Marie Corelli + + Was there ever a galaxy of names representing such authors offered + to the public before? Masters all of writing stories that arouse the + emotions, in sentiment, passion and love, their books excel any that + have ever been written. + + +NOW READY + + 1--Kidnapped at the Altar, Laura Jean Libbey. + 2--Gladiola's Two Lovers, Laura Jean Libbey. + 3--Lil, the Dancing Girl, Caroline Hart. + 5--The Woman Who Came Between, Caroline Hart. + 6--Aleta's Terrible Secret, Laura Jean Libbey. + 7--For Love or Honor, Caroline Hart. + 8--The Romance of Enola, Laura Jean Libbey. + 9--A Handsome Engineer's Flirtation, Laura J. Libbey. + 10--A Little Princess, Caroline Hart. + 11--Was She Sweetheart or Wife, Laura Jean Libbey. + 12--Nameless Bess, Caroline Hart. + 13--Della's Handsome Lover, Laura Jean Libbey. + 14--That Awful Scar, Caroline Hart. + 15--Flora Garland's Courtship, Laura Jean Libbey. + 16--Love's Rugged Path, Caroline Hart. + 17--My Sweetheart Idabell, Laura Jean Libbey. + 18--Married at Sight, Caroline Hart. + 19--Pretty Madcap Dorothy, Laura Jean Libbey. + 20--Her Right to Love, Caroline Hart. + 21--The Loan of a Lover, Laura Jean Libbey. + 22--The Game of Love, Caroline Hart. + 23--A Fatal Elopement, Laura Jean Libbey. + 24--Vendetta, Marie Corelli. + 25--The Girl He Forsook, Laura Jean Libbey. + 26--Redeemed by Love, Caroline Hart. + 28--A Wasted Love, Caroline Hart. + 29--A Dangerous Flirtation, Laura Jean Libbey. + 30--A Haunted Life, Caroline Hart. + 31--Garnetta, the Silver King's Daughter, L. J. Libbey. + 32--A Romance of Two Worlds, Marie Corelli. + 34--Her Ransom, Charles Garvice. + 36--A Hidden Terror, Caroline Hart. + 37--Flora Temple, Laura Jean Libbey. + 38--Claribel's Love Story, Charlotte M. Braeme. + 39--Pretty Rose Hall, Laura Jean Libbey. + 40--The Mystery of Suicide Place, Mrs. Alex. Miller. + 41--Cora, the Pet of the Regiment, Laura Jean Libbey. + 42--The Vengeance of Love, Caroline Hart. + 43--Jolly Sally Pendleton, Laura Jean Libbey. + 44--A Bitter Reckoning, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 45--Kathleen's Diamonds, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 46--Angela's Lover, Caroline Hart. + 47--Lancaster's Choice, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 48--The Madness of Love, Caroline Hart. + 49--Little Sweetheart, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 50--A Working Girl's Honor, Caroline Hart. + 51--The Mystery of Colde Fell, Charlotte M. Braeme. + 52--The Rival Heiresses, Caroline Hart. + 53--Little Nobody, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 54--Her Husband's Ghost, Mary E. Bryan. + 55--Sold for Gold, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 56--Her Husband's Secret, Lucy Randall Comfort. + 57--A Passionate Love, Barbara Howard. + 58--From Want to Wealth, Caroline Hart. + 59--Loved You Better Than You Knew, Mrs. A. Miller. + 60--Irene's Vow, Charlotte M. Braeme. + 61--She Loved Not Wisely, Caroline Hart. + 62--Molly's Treachery, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 63--Was It Wrong? Barbara Howard. + 64--The Midnight Marriage, Mrs. Sumner Hayden. + 65--Ailsa, Wenona Gilman. + 66--Her Dark Inheritance, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 67--Viola's Vanity, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller. + 68--The Ghost of the Hurricane Hills, Mary E. Bryan. + 69--A Woman Wronged, Caroline Hart. + 70--Was She His Lawful Wife?, Barbara Howard. + 71--Val, the Tomboy, Wenona Gilman. + 72--The Richmond Secret, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 73--Edna's Vow, Charlotte M. Stanley. + 74--Hearts of Fire, Caroline Hart. + 75--St. Elmo, Augusta J. Evans. + 76--Nobody's Wife, Caroline Hart. + 77--Ishmael, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. + 78--Self-Raised, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. + 79--Pretty Little Rosebud, Barbara Howard. + 80--Inez, Augusta J. Evans. + 81--The Girl Wife, Mrs. Sumner Hayden. + 82--Dora Thorne, Charlotte M. Braeme. + 83--Followed by Fate, Lucy Randall Comfort. + 84--India, or the Pearl of Pearl River, Southworth. + 85--Mad Kingsley's Heir, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 86--The Missing Bride, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. + 87--Wicked Sir Dare, Charles Garvice. + 88--Daintie's Cruel Rivals, Mrs. Alex. McV. Miller. + 89--Lillian's Vow, Caroline Hart. + 90--Miss Estcourt, Charles Garvice. + 91--Beulah, Augusta J. Evans. + 92--Daphne's Fate, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 93--Wormwood, Marie Corelli. + 94--Nellie, Charles Garvice. + 95--His Legal Wife, Mary E. Bryan. + 96--Macaria, Augusta J. Evans. + 97--Lost and Found, Charlotte M. Stanley. + 98--The Curse of Clifton, Mrs. Southworth. + 99--That Strange Girl, Charles Garvice. + 100--The Lovers at Storm Castle, Mrs. M. A. Collins. + 101--Margerie's Mistake, Lucy Randall Comfort. + 102--The Curse of Pocahontas, Wenona Gilman. + 103--My Love Kitty, Charles Garvice. + 104--His Fairy Queen, Elizabeth Stiles. + 105--From Worse than Death, Caroline Hart. + 106--Audrey Fane's Love, Mrs. E. Burke Collins. + 107--Thorns and Orange Blossoms, Charlotte Braeme. + 108--Ethel Dreeme, Frank Corey. + 109--Three Girls, Mary E. Bryan. + 110--A Strange Marriage, Caroline Hart. + 111--Violet, Charles Garvice. + 112--The Ghost of the Power, Mrs. Sumner Hayden. + 113--Baptised with a Curse, Edith Stewart Drewry. + 114--A Tragic Blunder, Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron. + 115--The Secret of Her Life, Edward Jenkins. + 116--My Guardian, Ada Cambridge. + 117--A Last Love, Georges Ohnet. + 118--His Angel, Henry Herman. + 119--Pretty Miss Bellew, Theo. Gift. + 120--Blind Love, Wilkie Collins. + 121--A Life's Mistake, Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron. + 122--Won By Waiting, Edna Lyall. + 123--Passion's Slave, King. + 124--Under Currents, Duchess. + 125--False Vow, Braeme. + 126--The Belle of Lynne, Braeme. + 127--Lord Lynne's Choice, Braeme. + 128--Blossom and Fruit, Braeme. + 129--Weaker Than a Woman, Braeme. + 130--Tempest and Sunshine, Mary J. Holmes. + 131--Lady Muriel's Secret, Braeme. + 132--A Mad Love, Braeme. + + The Hart Series books are for sale everywhere, or they will be sent by + mail, postage paid, for 30 cents a copy by the publisher; 6 copies for + $1.00. Postage stamps taken the same as money. + + + THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +This story was originally serialized in the _New York Fireside +Companion_ story paper from December 19, 1891 to April 16, 1892. + +Thanks to Deidre Johnson, Joseph Rainone and Northern Illinois +University for assistance in locating story paper installments in order +to restore text omitted from the Westbrook edition. + +Some inconsistent hyphenation retained (e.g. bedroom vs. bed-room). + +Italics are represented with _underscores_. + +Page 3, changed "Darrel" to "Darrell" (twice). + +Page 5, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 7, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 11, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and changed "heydey" to "heyday." + +Page 12, changed "drooping lips" to "drooping lids." + +Page 15, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 19, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 22, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 27, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 28, changed ? to ! after "having saved your life." + +Page 33, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 37, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 40, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and changed single quote to double quote after "again." + +Page 43, changed comma to period after "getting off, sir." + +Page 45, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 46, restored omitted poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 50, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 53, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and added missing second "for" to "after being vainly looked for for +more than two days." + +Page 57, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and removed unnecessary comma after "throwing." + +Page 63, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 66, changed period to comma in "Now, listen to me." + +Page 70, the Westbrook edition was missing the poetry from Daisy Lynn's +book. This text has been restored from the original Fireside Companion +serialization along with the chapter head poem. + +Page 73, changed "Watnut" to "Walnut." + +Page 74, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 79, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 83, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 88, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 89, removed unnecessary comma from "dry, eyes." + +Page 91, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 93, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and changed "recontre" to "rencontre." + +Page 97, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 101, the Westbrook edition was missing the word "put" in "put me +into a lunatic asylum." The word has been restored by checking the +original _Fireside Companion_ appearance of the text. + +Page 102, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version; +in Fireside Companion, this chapter is entitled "TURNED OUT INTO THE +STORM TO PERISH." + +Page 105, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 107, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 111, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 113, restored poetry and introductory paragraph ("Some burning +words...") from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 115, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 118, changed "grimmace" to "grimace." + +Page 119, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 122, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 124, restored lengthy passage of Teddy reading poetry from +Fireside Companion version; removed unnecessary comma in "Teddy +Darrell, came." + +Page 126, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 128, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 132, restored missing poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 133, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 135, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 138, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 142, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 146, Page 146, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside +Companion version and changed "money-moon" to "honey-moon." and changed +"money-moon" to "honey-moon." + +Page 147, restored two omitted poems from the Fireside Companion version. + +Page 148, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 153, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 157, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 160, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 162, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 167, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 171, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 173, the Westbrook edition omits some poetry on this page; it has +been restored from the original Fireside Companion appearance. + +Page 175, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 179, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and changed "a animated" to "an animated." + +Page 180, restored poetry and introductory paragraph ("Some touching +verses...") omitted from the Westbrook edition. + +Page 181, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 184, restored start-of-chapter poem found in Fireside Companion +edition but omitted from Westbrook reprint. + +Page 185, restored poetry omitted from Westbrook edition. + +Page 188, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 189, removed unnecessary comma after "romantic heart." + +Page 192, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 194, changed period to comma after "Never." + +Page 195, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 197, restored song lyrics removed from Westbrook edition. + +Page 198, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 200, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 205, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +and changed "subtile" to "subtle." + +Page 207, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 210, restored poetry and related paragraph to end of chapter LV +and restored chapter head poetry to chapter LVI. + +Page 212, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 214, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version +along with several song lyrics and accompanying text + +Page 217, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 218, restored poetry cut from Westbrook edition. + +Page 221, restored poetry and introductory text cut from Westbrook +edition. + +Page 223, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 225, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 227, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 231, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 234, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 238, changed "you passage" to "your passage." + +Page 239, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 240, added missing close quote after "fickle" and restored poetry +cut from Westbrook edition. + +Page 242, restored missing poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 244, restored poetry missing from Westbrook edition. + +Page 252, restored chapter head poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 253, restored "Dark Eyes" poetry from Fireside Companion version. + +Page 256, changed "you heart" to "your heart." + +Back cover, changed "Barabara" to "Barbara"; changed "Heart's of +Fire" to "Hearts of Fire"; changed "Gorvice" to "Garvice."; changed +"Daphane's" to "Daphne's."; changed "Passions Slave" to "Passion's +Slave." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Kathleen's Diamonds, by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44819 *** |