In an elegant boudoir, all crimson and gold, some hours later, sat
Pluma Hurlhurst, reclining negligently on a satin divan, toying idly
with a volume which lay in her lap. She tossed the book aside with a
yawn, turning her superb dark eyes on the little figure bending over
the rich trailing silks which were to adorn her own fair beauty on the
coming evening.
"So you think you would like to attend the lawn fête to-night, Daisy?"
she asked, patronizingly.
Daisy glanced up with a startled blush,
"Oh, I should like it so much, Miss Pluma," she answered, hesitatingly,
"if I only could!"
"I think I shall gratify you," said Pluma, carelessly. "You have made
yourself very valuable to me. I like the artistic manner you have
twined these roses in my hair; the effect is quite picturesque." She
glanced satisfiedly at her own magnificent reflection in the
cheval-glass opposite. Titian alone could have reproduced those
rich, marvelous colors--that perfect, queenly beauty. He would have
painted the picture, and the world would have raved about its beauty.
The dark masses of raven-black hair; the proud, haughty face, with
its warm southern tints; the dusky eyes, lighted with fire and
passion, and the red, curved lips. "I wish particularly to look my
very best to-night, Daisy," she said; "that is why I wish you to
remain. You can arrange those sprays of white heath in my hair
superbly. Then you shall attend the fête, Daisy. Remember, you are not
expected to take part in it; you must sit in some secluded nook
where you will be quite unobserved."
Pluma could not help but smile at the ardent delight depicted in
Daisy's face.
"I am afraid I can not stay," she said, doubtfully, glancing down in
dismay at the pink-and-white muslin she wore. "Every one would be sure
to laugh at me who saw me. Then I would wish I had not stayed."
"Suppose I should give you one to wear--that white mull, for
instance--how would you like it? None of the guests would see you,"
replied Pluma.
There was a wistful look in Daisy's eyes, as though she would fain
believe what she heard was really true.
"Would you really?" asked Daisy, wonderingly. "You, whom people call
so haughty and so proud--you would really let me wear one of your
dresses? I do not know how to tell you how much I am pleased!" she
said, eagerly.
Pluma Hurlhurst laughed. Such rapture was new to her.
The night which drew its mantle over the smiling earth was a perfect
one. Myriads of stars shone like jewels in the blue sky, and not a
cloud obscured the face of the clear full moon. Hurlhurst Plantation
was ablaze with colored lamps that threw out soft rainbow tints in all
directions as far as the eye could reach. The interior of Whitestone
Hall was simply dazzling in its rich rose bloom, its lights, its
fountains, and rippling music from adjoining ferneries.
In an elegant apartment of the Hall Basil Hurlhurst, the recluse
invalid, lay upon his couch, trying to shut out the mirth and gayety
that floated up to him from below. As the sound of Pluma's voice
sounded upon his ear he turned his face to the wall with a bitter
groan. "She is so like--" he muttered, grimly. "Ah! the pleasant
voices of our youth turn into lashes which scourge us in our old age.
'Like mother, like child.'"
The lawn fête was a grand success; the _élite_ of the whole country
round were gathered together to welcome the beautiful, peerless
hostess of Whitestone Hall. Pluma moved among her guests like a queen,
yet in all that vast throng her eyes eagerly sought one face. "Where
was Rex?" was the question which constantly perplexed her. After the
first waltz he had suddenly disappeared. Only the evening before
handsome Rex Lyon had held her jeweled hand long at parting,
whispering, in his graceful, charming way, he had something to tell
her on the morrow. "Why did he hold himself so strangely aloof?" Pluma
asked herself, in bitter wonder. Ah! had she but known!
While Pluma, the wealthy heiress, awaited his coming so eagerly, Rex
Lyon was standing, quite lost in thought, beside a rippling fountain
in one of the most remote parts of the lawn, thinking of Daisy Brooks.
He had seen a fair face--that was all--a face that embodied his dream
of loveliness, and without thinking of it found his fate, and the
whole world seemed changed for him.
Handsome, impulsive Rex Lyon, owner of several of the most extensive
and lucrative orange groves in Florida, would have bartered every
dollar of his worldly possessions for love.
He had hitherto treated all notion of love in a very off-hand,
cavalier fashion.
"Love is fate," he had always said. He knew Pluma loved him. Last
night he had said to himself: The time had come when he might as well
marry; it might as well be Pluma as any one else, seeing she cared so
much for him. Now all that was changed. "I sincerely hope she will not
attach undue significance to the words I spoke last evening," he
mused.
Rex did not care to return again among the throng; it was sweeter far
to sit there by the murmuring fountain dreaming of Daisy Brooks, and
wondering when he should see her again. A throng which did not hold
the face of Daisy Brooks had no charm for Rex.
Suddenly a soft step sounded on the grass; Rex's heart gave a sudden
bound; surely it could not be--yes, it was--Daisy Brooks.
She drew back with a startled cry as her eyes suddenly encountered
those of her hero of the morning. She would have fled precipitately
had he not stretched out his hand quickly to detain her.
"Daisy," cried Rex, "why do you look so frightened? Are you displeased
to see me?"
"No," she said. "I--I--do not know--"
She looked so pretty, so bewildered, so dazzled by joy, yet so
pitifully uncertain, Rex was more desperately in love with her than
ever.
"Your eyes speak, telling me you _are_ pleased, Daisy, even if your
lips _refuse_ to tell me so. Sit down on this rustic bench, Daisy,
while I tell you how anxiously I awaited your coming--waited until the
shadows of evening fell."
As he talked to her he grew more interested with every moment. She
had no keen intellect, no graceful powers of repartee, knew little of
books or the great world beyond. Daisy was a simple, guileless child
of nature.
Rex's vanity was gratified at the unconscious admiration which shone
in her eyes and the blushes his words brought to her cheeks.
"There is my favorite waltz, Daisy," he said, as the music of the
irresistible "Blue Danube" floated out to them. "Will you favor me
with a waltz?"
"Miss Pluma would be so angry," she murmured.
"Never mind her anger, Daisy. I will take all the blame on _my_
shoulders. They are unusually broad, you see."
He led her half reluctant among the gay throng; gentlemen looked at
one another in surprise. Who is she? they asked one of the other,
gazing upon her in wonder. No one could answer. The sweet-faced little
maiden in soft, floating white, with a face like an angel's, who wore
no other ornament than her crown of golden hair, was a mystery and a
novelty. In all the long years of her after life Daisy never forgot
that supremely blissful moment. It seemed to her they were floating
away into another sphere. Rex's arms were around her, his eyes smiling
down into hers; he could feel the slight form trembling in his
embrace, and he clasped her still closer. With youth, music, and
beauty--there was nothing wanting to complete the charm of love.
Leaning gracefully against an overarching palm-tree stood a young man
watching the pair with a strange intentness; a dark, vindictive smile
hovered about the corners of his mouth, hidden by his black mustache,
and there was a cruel gleam in the dark, wicked eyes scanning the face
of the young girl so closely.
"Ah! why not?" he mused. "It would be a glorious revenge." He made his
way hurriedly in the direction of his young hostess, who was, as
usual, surrounded by a group of admirers. A deep crimson spot burned
on either cheek, and her eyes glowed like stars, as of one under
intense, suppressed excitement.
Lester Stanwick made his way to her side just as the last echo of the
waltz died away on the air, inwardly congratulating himself upon
finding Rex and Daisy directly beside him.
"Miss Pluma," said Stanwick, with a low bow, "will you kindly present
me to the little fairy on your right? I am quite desperately smitten
with her."
Several gentlemen crowded around Pluma asking the same favor.
With a smile and a bow, what could Rex do but lead Daisy gracefully
forward. Those who witnessed the scene that ensued never forgot it.
For answer Pluma Hurlhurst turned coldly, haughtily toward them,
drawing herself up proudly to her full height.
"There is evidently some mistake here," she said, glancing scornfully
at the slight, girlish figure leaning upon Rex Lyon's arm. "I do not
recognize this person as a guest. If I mistake not, she is one of the
hirelings connected with the plantation."
If a thunderbolt had suddenly exploded beneath Rex's feet he could not
have been more thoroughly astounded.
Daisy uttered a piteous little cry and, like a tender flower cut down
by a sudden, rude blast, would have fallen at his feet had he not
reached out his arm to save her.
"Miss Hurlhurst," cried Rex, in a voice husky with emotion, "I hold
myself responsible for this young lady's presence here. I--"
"Ah!" interrupts Pluma, ironically; "and may I ask by what right you
force one so inferior, and certainly obnoxious, among us?"
Rex Lyon's handsome face was white with rage. "Miss Hurlhurst," he
replied, with stately dignity, "I regret, more than the mere words
express, that my heedlessness has brought upon this little creature at
my side an insult so cruel, so unjust, and so bitter, in simply
granting my request for a waltz--a request very reluctantly granted.
An invited guest among you she may not be; but I most emphatically
defy her inferiority to any lady or gentleman present."
"Rex--Mr. Lyon," says Pluma, icily, "you forget yourself."
He smiled contemptuously. "I do not admit it," he said, hotly. "I have
done that which any gentleman should have done; defended from insult
one of the purest and sweetest of maidens. I will do more--I will
shield her, henceforth and forever, with my very life, if need be. If
I can win her, I shall make Daisy Brooks my wife."
Rex spoke rapidly--vehemently. His chivalrous soul was aroused; he
scarcely heeded the impetuous words that fell from his lips. He could
not endure the thought that innocent, trusting little Daisy should
suffer through any fault of his.
"Come, Daisy," he said, softly, clasping in his own strong white ones
the little fingers clinging so pitifully to his arm, "we will go away
from here at once--our presence longer is probably obnoxious.
Farewell, Miss Hurlhurst."
"Rex," cried Pluma, involuntarily taking a step forward, "you do not,
you can not mean what you say. You will not allow a creature like that
to separate us--you have forgotten, Rex. You said you had something to
tell me. You will not part with me so easily," she cried.
A sudden terror seized her at the thought of losing him. He was her
world. She forgot the guests gathering about her--forgot she was the
wealthy, courted heiress for whose glance or smiles men sued in
vain--forgot her haughty pride, in the one absorbing thought that Rex
was going from her. Her wild, fiery, passionate love could bear no
restraint.
"Rex," she cried, suddenly falling on her knees before him, her face
white and stormy, her white jeweled hands clasped supplicatingly, "you
must not, you shall not leave me so; no one shall come between us.
Listen--I love you, Rex. What if the whole world knows it--what will
it matter, it is the truth. My love is my life. You loved me until she
came between us with her false, fair face. But for this you would have
asked me to be your wife. Send that miserable little hireling away,
Rex--the gardener will take charge of her."
Pluma spoke rapidly, vehemently. No one could stay the torrent of her
bitter words.
Rex was painfully distressed and annoyed. Fortunately but very few of
the guests had observed the thrilling tableau enacted so near them.
"Pluma--Miss Hurlhurst," he said, "I am sorry you have unfortunately
thus expressed yourself, for your own sake. I beg you will say no
more. You yourself have severed this night the last link of
friendship between us. I am frank with you in thus admitting it. I
sympathize with you, while your words have filled me with the
deepest consternation and embarrassment, which it is useless longer to
prolong."
Drawing Daisy's arm hurriedly within his own, Rex Lyon strode quickly
down the graveled path, with the full determination of never again
crossing the threshold of Whitestone Hall, or gazing upon the face of
Pluma Hurlhurst.
Meanwhile Pluma had arisen from her knees with a gay, mocking laugh,
turning suddenly to the startled group about her.
"Bravo! bravo! Miss Pluma," cried Lester Stanwick, stepping to her
side at that opportune moment. "On the stage you would have made a
grand success. We are practicing for a coming charade," explained
Stanwick, laughingly; "and, judging from the expressions depicted on
our friend's faces, I should say you have drawn largely upon real
life. You will be a success, Miss Pluma."
No one dreamed of doubting the assertion. A general laugh followed,
and the music struck up again, and the gay mirth of the fête resumed
its sway.
Long after the guests had departed Pluma sat in her boudoir, her heart
torn with pain, love, and jealousy, her brain filled with schemes of
vengeance.
"I can not take her life!" she cried; "but if I could mar her
beauty--the pink-and-white beauty of Daisy Brooks, which has won Rex
from me--I would do it. I shall torture her for this," she cried. "I
will win him from her though I wade through seas of blood. Hear me,
Heaven," she cried, "and register my vow!"
Pluma hastily rung the bell.
"Saddle Whirlwind and Tempest at once!" she said to the servant who
answered her summons.
"It is after midnight, Miss Pluma. I--"
There was a look in her eyes which would brook no further words.
An hour later they had reached the cottage wherein slept Daisy Brooks,
heedless of the danger that awaited her.
"Wait for me here," said Pluma to the groom who accompanied her--"_I
will not be long!_"