When Flower saw the miserable Mrs. Fielding borne away so rudely by her
captors her tender heart swelled with pity for the unhappy woman, and
she started to run after them to beg them to be gentler with the poor
creature.
But she had not taken a dozen steps before her arm was caught in a
tight grasp by the old sexton, who whirled her about, and said, sharply:
"What would you do? Run after that mad woman, who hates you?"
Tears sprung to Flower's eyes, and she answered, sadly:
"But she loved me once, before she found out how cruelly she had been
imposed on, and I pity her now, for her last words sounded quite
rational. Perhaps she has got over her madness."
"Humph! It didn't sound like it just now when she was rating you so
soundly!" grunted the old man; and feeling her tremble as he held her
arm, he looked keenly into her face, and saw that she was deathly pale
and wan.
"You're just ready to faint, missie," he exclaimed, leading her to the
rustic seat beneath the willow, where Mrs. Fielding had been sitting a
little while ago. He brought her a draught of fresh, sparkling water,
which she drank thirstily, then, with a deep sigh, leaned her aching
head on her hands.
Divining that she wished to be alone, the kind-hearted old sexton
returned to his task of filling up the grave of Daisy Forrest, and
the loiterers about the spot slowly dispersed, with one notable
exception--that of the gray-haired English-looking stranger who had
offended the old sexton by his authoritative manner.
This man now approached, and said, in a bluff, hearty manner:
"Old man, I did not mean to offend by my speech just now; but I, too,
knew something of Daisy Forrest's history, and I was indignant at
the deed Mrs. Fielding would have done. I hope you will accept this
peace-offering from one who wishes you nothing but kindness."
The kind, gray eyes looking at him enforced the speech so emphatically
that the sexton melted at once, and replied in kindly terms, while
gratefully accepting the offered gold-piece which, like the donor, had
an English appearance.
Then the stranger moved away and sought Flower, who was sobbing
violently now in her seat under the willows. At the sound of his step
she raised to his face the beautiful eyes, all drowned in tears, like
purple-blue pansies wet with dew.
He stopped beside her, and said, gently:
"Miss Fielding, this is an opportune meeting for you and me."
"I do not understand you, sir," said Flower, in a sweet, timid voice,
and he answered, quietly:
"Perhaps not, but I will soon explain to you. Still, this may not be a
proper place to begin my story. There is my card. Will you permit me,
an old man, and the friend of yourself and your kindred, to call upon
you at your home?"
She looked at the bit of pasteboard, and read the name, scrawled in a
bold hand:
"WILLIAM R. KELSO,
"London, England."
Lifting her sad eyes to his face, she said:
"Mr. Kelso, I am staying at the Springville Hotel. I have no home.
I was driven from Mrs. Fielding's house, after she was sent to the
asylum, by the cruelty of my half-sister. I am indebted to the kindness
of a poor colored woman for the means that enabled me to reach this
place. I must now seek work that I may have the means of prolonging my
miserable existence."
Something like a smile crossed the man's lips at her concluding words,
and a grieved look came into her eyes.
Why should he smile at her sorrows, she wondered.
"I beg your pardon for smiling. I know you think me unfeeling," he
said. "But you will understand me better when you have heard the good
news I have to tell you."
She looked at him with a startled face, and murmured piteously, as she
clasped her little hands together:
"Good news, you say! Ah, if you have anything like that to tell me, do
not wait! Let me hear it now! But, alas! what good fortune could come
to me?" despondently, for the quick thought of Laurie Meredith was
turned aside by the remembrance that he was dead.
Mr. Kelso seated himself on the rustic bench beside her, and said,
earnestly:
"What if I should tell you that I came recently from England to seek
Daisy Forrest and her descendants?"
The quivering red lips parted in wonder, but Flower did not speak, and
he continued:
"I suppose you have never heard that your maternal grandfather was
English?"
Her lips quivered painfully as she answered:
"No, I know nothing, except that my birth was my mother's shame, and
the cause of her death."
"Poor soul!" sighed William Kelso, compassionately, then he added:
"Yes, he was the younger son of a noble English family. His eldest
brother was heir to the title and estates, the second brother was in
the army, and John Forrest, the third and last, was designed for the
church. He was young and wild, and revolted against the restraints of a
clerical life, and ran away to America."
Flower sat up, listening eagerly. This began to sound like one of her
favorite novels.
Smiling sympathetically at the lovely, startled face, Mr. Kelso
continued:
"Lord Ivon was both stern and proud. He vowed he would never forgive
his disobedient, runaway son. When letters came from him they were laid
aside unread, and poor John's fate remained a mystery to his kindred.
His mother pined, but her stern husband forbid her ever to think of
the truant again."
"He was cruel!" Flower murmured, indignantly.
"Yes, he was very hard; but Heaven punished him!" said William Kelso.
"The heir died in a few years, and the second son came home from the
army to take his place. He married late in life, and his beautiful,
delicate wife bore him two sons, and then died. Her husband was drowned
a year later on Lake Como. His two boys inherited their mother's
consumptive tendency, and one died in early boyhood, and the other just
before he attained his majority. Lord Ivon's house was left unto him
desolate."
Flower sighed, and he continued:
"There was no one to inherit the title and estates unless John Forrest
had survived his brothers, or had married and left descendants. So
the letters that had been flung aside at last were opened eagerly to
discover John Forrest's whereabouts. There were scores of them, for he
had never ceased to implore his parents for their forgiveness. He wrote
that he was here in the South, that he had married a lovely girl, then
that he had a lovely child called Daisy."
"My mother!" Flower exclaimed, sadly.
"Yes, your mother!" said Mr. Kelso.
He paused a moment, watching the long shadows of sunset as they began
to creep across the grave-stones in the old cemetery; then he resumed:
"After the letter that told of Daisy Forrest's birth, no more came to
Lord Ivon, and he supposed that his son had grown tired of writing, and
had reconciled himself to the alienation. Alas! poor John was dead."
"Dead!" exclaimed Flower.
"Yes, although his father knows it not yet," said Mr. Kelso. "You
remember all this was thirty-seven years ago, Miss Fielding. Well, to
resume my story, Lord Ivon's heart turned to his younger son when all
his other descendants were gone, and he came to me, his lawyer, and
begged me to cross the ocean and seek an heir to Ivon."
"Alas!" sighed Flower, thinking of the little dead baby she had kissed
and left in Poky's arms. Had it lived--her lovely little child--it
would have been heir to one of the finest titles and estates in old
England.
"So I came to this place," continued Mr. Kelso. "I have been here
little more than a week, but I have had no trouble in tracing John
Forrest, for many of the old people in the country about here remember
him well. It seems he had poor luck, or perhaps his training as a rich
man's son had not fitted him to encounter the hardships of life. He
drifted down here from New York, and obtained employment as an overseer
on a farm. Soon after he married the farmer's only child, a sweet girl
named Mary. A year after Daisy was born, and her father died soon
afterward with malarial fever. His wife survived until her daughter
was ten years old, and, dying, left her to take care of her farmer
grandparents. They died when Daisy was seventeen, and the farm was sold
to satisfy a mortgage, and the beautiful granddaughter was thrown upon
the world, helpless and penniless. She went into a grand family as a
nursery governess, met Charley Fielding, and--the rest you know."
Her low moan of pain attested that she did, and for a moment there was
a deep silence.
Then Mr. Kelso resumed:
"They told me that Daisy Forrest was dead, and her child, too, and I
came here this afternoon to look at her grave before I went back to
England to tell Lord Ivon with him the proud title and name must die. I
am happy that I am spared this sorrowful task, for I think that after
you have examined my credentials you will not hesitate to secure a maid
and return with me to England that I may place you in the care of your
great-grandparents."
He saw the old sexton, who had now replaced the turf and flowers on
Daisy Forrest's grave, looking at them curiously as he leaned on his
spade, and he beckoned him to approach.
Then he gave the old man a brief account of John Forrest's story,
telling him that his father had been a rich man, and that poor Daisy's
child was going home with him to live with her grandparents. He did
not tell him that this great-grandfather was a nobleman, thinking that
Flower would not wish to create too much sensation.