Flower stayed up until midnight waiting for her mother's return and for
news of old Maria, but at last she succumbed to anxiety and weariness,
and fell asleep on the sofa. The house-maid found her here presently
and carried her off to bed.
The first thing she heard next morning was that old Maria had died at
the turn of the night, and that her mother had come home soon after and
retired to her room, giving orders that she was not to be disturbed in
the morning.
Pretty Flower shed some bitter tears over the death of the dearly loved
old nurse, then she began to long to comfort her mother in her sorrow.
"Poor dear, she must have loved Mammy Maria very much. I will just peep
in and see if she is sleeping soundly," she thought, and went on tiptoe
to her mother's door.
Mrs. Fielding was not in bed at all. She was sitting bolt upright in a
chair, and when Flower came gliding in, her mother's aspect struck her
with such fear and horror that she could not repress a cry of distress.
For a moment it appeared to her that a stranger was sitting there in
her mother's chair.
At a first glance Mrs. Fielding looked like an old woman. Her handsome
face was drawn, haggard, and gray, and the long tresses of hair that
fell round her shoulders had turned to snowy-white since yesterday. The
only attribute of youth remaining was in her large, brilliant dark
eyes that burned with an unnatural and feverish glitter, betokening a
terrible inward excitement.
Her lips were working nervously, and low, incoherent words issued from
them like the ravings of a lunatic.
At that awe-struck cry from Flower's lips the terribly changed woman
looked quickly up, and her face grew, if possible, more ghastly than
before. She threw out both hands, crying hoarsely:
"Go out of my sight this moment!"
"But, mamma--" began the startled girl.
"Go, I say--and at once!" Mrs. Fielding cried out, in such harsh and
threatening accents that poor Flower fled affrighted from the room.
In the hall she encountered Jewel, dressed for walking. She ran up to
her eagerly, crying out:
"Oh, sister, our black mammy died last night, and poor mamma is almost
crazed with grief. Her beautiful black hair has turned white as snow,
and her face is like an old woman's. And," with a choking sob, "she
drove me out of her room."
"I will go to her!" cried Jewel, turning toward her mother's room.
The next moment she was gazing with horrified eyes at the terrible
physical wreck that had so startled poor Flower, who was now cowering
at the door, afraid to enter.
"Go, leave me!" Mrs. Fielding cried, angrily, to Jewel.
"Mamma!"
"Go!" she reiterated, wildly; but Jewel stood her ground like a statue.
"I am not going until I know the meaning of this," she replied, firmly.
"Why, mamma, your black hair has turned snowy-white in a few hours! You
have become an old woman since last night!"
Mrs. Fielding caught up a loose tress of hair from her shoulder and
stared at it with dilated eyes. A bitter cry broke from her lips.
"What does it matter if my hair has turned to snow? My heart changed to
fire long since. Go, girl, leave me to myself!"
Jewel made no sign of obeying. She said, curiously:
"So our old nurse is dead, mamma?"
"Dead--yes! I wish she had died twenty years ago! I wish she had never
been born!" Mrs. Fielding burst out, furiously.
"But I thought you were fond of her, mamma!" Jewel exclaimed, in
momentary wonder. Then a sudden light broke over her mind. "Ah, I
remember now! Sam said she had a secret to tell you. Was it that secret
which turned you against Maria?"
Mrs. Fielding gave a startled look, and muttered:
"Sam is a fool! There was no secret!"
"And she had nothing to tell you, mamma?"
"Nothing of any consequence. The old woman was in her dotage, and
since she joined the Methodist Church she had persuaded herself that
she was the vilest of sinners, and that she must confess all the petty
sins of her life to me, or she would go to perdition. But there was
nothing--nothing."
"But you said just now that you wished she had never been born, and
your hair is white all in a few hours. There must be some awful reason
for that," persisted Jewel, her curiosity thoroughly aroused; but Mrs.
Fielding turned upon her defiantly.
"There is nothing, I tell you, except that I have been maddened with
neuralgia all night, and that is reason enough for the change in my
hair. Now go, and remember, no more questions about Maria's foolish
secrets. Let them be buried in her grave!"
Jewel saw that the excited woman could bear no more, and retreated,
muttering as she went:
"Shall I send for the doctor?"
"No; oh, no! I only want rest. I shall be all right presently. Flower,
why are you hanging about the door? Go at once, as I bid you just now!"
The door closed between her and her startled, wounded daughters, and
she flung herself back in her chair, muttering, fiercely:
"Oh, how horrible it is! He was a fiend, no less; and all that he did
before seems light in comparison to this! Ah, to think how I have been
fooled and wronged--it is enough to turn a saint into a devil! There
is only one comfort left. Let me find out the truth, and I will take
vengeance on them in their graves by torturing her--I will; I swear it!"
* * * * *
Jewel had been on her way to a clairvoyant's when Flower met her in the
hall. On leaving her mother's room she went on to seek the wonderful
woman who was reputed to be able to read the past and the future.
The beautiful girl had spent a sleepless night, brooding over what
she chose to consider her wrongs, and she was determined to thwart
Laurie Meredith's design of marrying her sister if she could possibly
accomplish it. Thinking that some knowledge of future events might be
of assistance in her aims, she decided to consult the clairvoyant.
She remained almost two hours at the humble home of the fortune-teller,
and when she came out her face was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with
a hopeful light.
The strange woman had said to her:
"Your mother has a carefully hidden secret. Find it out, and you shall
triumph over your enemies."