With the tragic story that surrounded their birth, and the tragic
elements that lay slumbering in their own natures, it was most
unfortunate that Jewel and Flower should have lost their heart to the
same man.
Laurie Meredith was a handsome young man of about twenty-three years,
tall, and finely proportioned, with a very attractive face. He had
a broad, intellectual white brow, crowned by wavy, dark-brown hair,
glorious, brown eyes that could look dangerously tender, and his firm
yet sweet lips were half hidden beneath a silky-brown mustache, whose
long ends curled around a well-formed chin cleft by a charming dimple.
He was spending his vacation from college at the sea-side resort where
the Fieldings lived, and he had made the acquaintance of Jewel and
Flower in a most romantic fashion, having saved the life of Jewel one
day when her pretty little boat had overturned in deep water. Swimming
boldly out to the sinking girl, he had succeeded in saving her just
as the pretty dark head was disappearing for the last time under the
treacherous waves. Then, righting the overturned boat, he succeeded in
getting into it with his exhausted companion, and rowed back to shore.
This little incident had made Laurie Meredith a hero in the eyes of the
beautiful twin sisters. They vied with each other in gratitude, and
even the cold, indifferent Mrs. Fielding could not choose but regard
the brave young gentleman with favor.
Jewel fell in love in the most approved novel fashion with her handsome
preserver, and for a short while it seemed as if he returned the
compliment. The most delicious flatteries fell from his lips, the most
daring glances shone from his glorious brown eyes. He was often by her
side and Flower's, and he said to himself that it would be quite in
keeping with this romance if he should make dark-eyed Jewel Fielding
his adored bride.
Then a change came gradually over him. He began to grow impartial
in his attentions to the two girls; he began to think in secret of
Flower's beautiful blue eyes and golden hair. When he parted from her
he would press the white hand tightly in his own, and from thinking
that he could not decide which was more beautiful, he began to perceive
that if one must decide he should say it was Flower. Then the situation
began to grow embarrassing. He wanted to make love to Flower, but
he realized that he had been too imprudent with her sister. He had
responded too readily to her coquettish advances, and he was afraid of
the lightning that could flash upon occasion from those night-black
eyes.
"Confound my luck! The girl thinks that I belong to her because I saved
her life. I wish it had been blue-eyed Flower who owed me that sweet
debt of gratitude," he thought, uneasily.
He was frank and noble, and he despised anything underhand or mean, but
he could no more help making surreptitious love to Flower than he could
help breathing. When in the presence of both girls he tried to be quite
impartial in his words and looks, that Jewel might not have the pain
of seeing her sister preferred before her, but if the dark-eyed beauty
left the room for one moment, he would be sure to make some excuse to
get by Flower, that he might gaze into her eyes with that long, sweet
look before which her glance fell so shyly, while the lovely color
flushed up high in her cheeks. Sometimes he ventured to touch the soft,
white hand, and by its tremor he realized that the shy, gentle girl was
not wholly indifferent to his love.
His passion began at length to find relief in that outlet for the
lover's heart--poetry. Passionate "sonnets to his lady's eyebrow" began
to overflow perfumed sheets of note-paper. These found their way to
Flower in all the romantic methods a lover's fertile brain could invent.
Jewel was on the alert. A jealous pang had begun to tear her passionate
heart. She watched her sister and Laurie Meredith with silent distrust.
Little by little the bitter truth began to dawn on her mind.
A very fury of wrath swept over her, and she found it impossible to
conceal her anger. So one day, when they were walking together by the
sea-shore, the gathering storm burst fiercely upon her sister's golden
head.
"Cruel, deceitful girl, you are trying to take my lover from me! Are
you not ashamed of your treachery?"
"Jewel! Sister!"
"Do not call me your sister unless you are going to stop trying to win
Laurie from me, unless you are going to give him back to me!" Jewel
cried, angrily, flying into a passion, her dark eyes blazing with
jealousy.
Her sister's answer only added fuel to the fire of her wrath, although
it was spoken gently, pleadingly:
"Dear, I did not know he belonged to you. I thought you were only
friends."
Jewel stamped her little foot furiously upon the sand.
"Only friends! Why, he saved my life--and afterward he fell in love
with me! But you have tried to win him from me! Ah, I have watched you,
you artful girl, and I hate you--hate you for what you have done!"
Flower stood still, her fair face paling in the afternoon sunshine, her
sweet, red lips beginning to quiver.
"Sister, dear, you wrong me bitterly. Not for worlds would I have tried
to take him from you. But he told me there was nothing between you,
that he was free to love me--"
"A lie! a lie!" Jewel cried out, furiously. "He won my heart by his
tender looks and words; he let me believe him all my own, and--oh!"
she cried, choking with rage and grief, and clapping her hands to her
convulsed throat.
Flower sprung forward to throw caressing arms about her, but was so
rudely repulsed that she staggered, and would have fallen upon the
sands had not Laurie Meredith suddenly appeared upon the scene and
caught her in his arms, clung to him convulsively a moment, then
drew back and stood apart from him with a look of proud pain on her
beautiful face.
"Ladies, I think I heard my name mentioned? May I ask--" he began,
courteously; but Jewel, who was gazing at him with burning eyes,
sprung between him and her sister, and cried out, in passionate,
defiant tones:
"Yes, we were speaking of you, Laurie Meredith! We were saying that
you had tried to trifle with both our hearts. Call me unwomanly if you
will, but I must speak out now. This cruel farce can go on no longer.
You have made love to my sister and you have made love to me. You
have in this cruel fashion won both our hearts. Now choose between
us--between Jewel and Flower!"
If she had cherished one lingering hope that he would turn to her, she
was cruelly disappointed. He went over to Flower and silently took her
hand. Jewel gave them one furious look, then walked silently from the
scene.