The moonlight lay on Bay View House--not the tender moonlight of June as
when we saw it first--but the cold, wintry whiteness of November. The
ground was covered with a thin, light carpeting of snow, and a wind from
the bay swept coldly across the land, almost freezing those who were so
unfortunate as to be exposed to its piercing rigor. In the sky the stars
were glittering coldly bright.
But no hint of the outdoor cold and discomfort penetrated to the
luxurious parlor where we first met our pretty, willful Irene. A bright
coal fire burned in the wide, steel bars of the grate, and diffused a
lazy, luxurious warmth through the large apartment. Basking in its
comfortable rays sat Mrs. Brooke and Bertha, the lamplight falling
softly on their black silk dresses and the delicate lisse at throat and
wrists. A white rose fastened in Bertha's silky, dark hair diffused the
pleasant fragrance of summer amid their wintry surroundings.
A dark frown disfigured the handsome face of the brunette, evoked by her
mother's words, uttered a moment ago.
"To-morrow, Bertha, we must go up to New York and sell my diamonds,"
Mrs. Brooke had said. "There is no help for it. They will have to be
sacrificed."
"A pretty appearance we shall make in society when we lay off our
mourning--no jewels to wear!" snapped Bertha, discontentedly.
"You will have your pearls and rubies; I have not asked you to part with
them," said Mrs. Brooke, soothingly.
"You needn't to, for I shall not do it--no, not if it came to starvation
with us!" declared the brunette, passionately.
"You talk foolishly, Bertha," declared her mother. "Do you not suppose
that it grieves me also to part with my jewels, the gift of your poor
dead father? Yet I make no foolish lament over it. I consider the
necessities of the case; but I also remember that if you had not forced
me to make the tour of the summer resorts this season I should have been
able to live through the winter without selling my beautiful diamonds!"
"Oh, yes, everything is my fault!" cried Bertha, angrily. "Could I help
it if Guy Kenmore went gadding off to Europe instead of going to the
summer resorts where I expected to find him? I am sure I should not have
asked you to spend the money if I had not felt perfectly sure of finding
him somewhere. And if I had found him I should have won him, I know, for
I am very sure he was in love with me last year."
"I am afraid you were mistaken, my dear. I think it was Elaine he was
smitten with. You had as well turn your attention to some one else with
money, if you can find one, for it is very important that you should
marry soon, and it is very evident that Guy Kenmore cares nothing for
you," Mrs. Brooke said, tartly.
"Elaine--always Elaine!" cried Bertha, in a passion. "Do you suppose he
could care about her after I betrayed her shameful story to him?"
Before Mrs. Brooke could reply there came a sharp peal at the door-bell
that echoed weirdly through the great, silent house. Both ladies started
violently.
"Who can this be?--at this hour?" exclaimed Bertha, glancing at the
clock, whose hands pointed to nine.
"Some one who has come by the boat or the train," exclaimed Mrs. Brooke,
nervously. "Perhaps Elaine!"
"You are always harping on Elaine--you forget that Professor Bozzaotra
has taken her to Europe to make her a _prima donna_," Bertha exclaimed,
sharply.
They heard old Faith, who was the only servant they retained now,
waddling down the hall to the door, and waited a moment silently to
learn whom their guest might be.
The heavy hall-door opened, light steps sounded on the threshold, then
suddenly a shriek of terror resounded through the house, and staid old
Faith rushed back to the parlor door, tore it wildly open, and fled to
the side of her mistress as if for protection.
"Why, Faith, you old simpleton, what ails you? Have you seen a ghost?"
exclaimed haughty Bertha.
"Yes, Miss Bertha, that's just what I saw! I opened the door and there
stood the ghost of Miss Irene, just risen from the sea," panted old
Faith, overcome with terror and exhaustion, for she was very fat, and
her flight had been sudden and rapid.
"Ridiculous," sneered Bertha, and just then light feet came pattering
along the hall, a slight figure flashed over the threshold--Irene, with
the dark hood of her cloak fallen back on her shoulders, and all her
wavy golden hair flying like an aureole around her beautiful, pale face!
She ran up to the old housekeeper and shook her laughingly by the
shoulders.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, old Faith?" she said. "_I'm_ not a
ghost--I am Irene, living and breathing! Pinch me if you don't think I'm
telling the truth. I've come to see my mother," her eager glance roving
around the room. "Oh, where is she, where is she?"