"She does not mean it, she could not be so cruel. Never to see you
again, not even to hear from you while you are away! Oh, Laurie, I can
not bear it! I will go down upon my knees to mamma and beg her to have
mercy upon me, for I should die if I were parted from you!" Flower
wept, impetuously.
"Darling!" he cried, passionately, and clasped her in his arms, raining
fondest kisses on the fair face and golden hair.
Mrs. Fielding's strange looks and words had inspired him with the
belief that she was crazed by some mysterious trouble, and he trembled
at the thought of leaving his loving little Flower to her doubtful
care. He was angry, too, at the scorn with which she had treated him,
and a mad resolve was forming swiftly in his mind.
"Darling, you say that you will speak to her. Perhaps she will listen
to you and consent to make us happy. But she has forbidden me to come
here again, or to join you in your daily walks. So how am I to find out
her decision?" he whispered, fearful lest his ordinary voice might be
overheard, and it was well that he took that precaution, for Jewel was
near at hand, listening with bated breath to catch every word.
Flower whispered softly back.
"Perhaps I could send you a note, Laurie, dear."
"It might be intercepted," he replied, as cautiously.
"Could you not manage to meet me for a few minutes, Flower, without any
one knowing?"
She thought a moment, then agreed to his request, and an appointment
was made to meet for a few minutes that evening in the garden. Flower
was the most obedient of daughters, but feeling that her mother was
entirely too severe in this case, her impetuous young spirit prompted
her to rebellion.
When her lover had gone Flower sought her mother's room, and with all
her powers of persuasion tried to move that hard heart. But she might
just as well have cried to a rock. Mrs. Fielding remained harsh and
unyielding, and at last ordered the unhappy girl from her presence.
Longing for sympathy in her trouble, Flower sought her twin sister and
poured out the story with which Jewel was already acquainted through
her eavesdropping propensities.
Jewel listened in cold silence, and her dark eyes beamed with triumph
as she said at last:
"So you and Laurie Meredith did not gain anything by your treachery to
me!"
Flower started and looked at Jewel. Her beautiful features were
transformed by a malicious sneer.
"Oh, Jewel! did you do it? Did you prejudice mamma against Laurie, and
make her refuse his request?" she exclaimed, piteously.
"No, I did not do that, Flower. So, you see, I am not so bad as you
think me; for I am as much puzzled as you can be over mamma's strange
declaration," Jewel said, truthfully, for she was indeed amazed, though
overjoyed, at the firm stand her mother had taken.
She said to herself, with a sneer, that when she chose to marry she
would do so, in spite of all the mothers in the world; but she believed
that Flower was formed in a gentler mold than she was, and that she
would not dare transgress her parent's command.
Perhaps she might not, if she had been left to herself; but she had a
fervent, impassioned lover, who could not endure the thought of leaving
his sweet little love behind him, in the care of a mother who had shown
herself so heartless and unnatural; and when Flower met him that night,
in the odorous stillness and darkness of the flower-garden, he proposed
that she should elope with him.
"You could slip out some time and go to the next village with me, could
you not?" he entreated. "Then we could be privately married, and you
could go back to your mother's and stay with her until the time for us
to steal away, my darling."
She was startled and frightened.
"Oh, Laurie! I could not--I am afraid!" sighed the poor child.
"Then we may as well say farewell forever," Laurie Meredith answered,
sorrowfully.
"But you will come back in a year, Laurie; perhaps mamma will change
her mind in that time," she whispered.
"Oh, yes, she may," he answered, bitterly. "But it is much more likely,
Flower, that she will spirit you away from here, and cover up her
tracks so cleverly that I shall never find you again. Do you realize
that, my darling?"
A frightened sob told that she did, and in the fear of losing her lover
forever Flower was at length persuaded to do as he wished.
They made all their plans for the marriage and elopement, and then
Flower stole back to the house to spend a sleepless night thinking of
the rebellious step she was about to take, and trembling at the thought
of her mother's and sister's anger when they should find that she had
fled with her handsome lover.