A RUBY HEART.
The church and the home were both decorated for the wedding; the
banquet was ready, the bride and the maid of honor were spending their
last evening together.
Reggie was absent because his young friends were giving him a last
bachelor supper in the grandest style.
But one more day and Eva would be a bride!
She and Ada had come upstairs early, leaving Mrs. Hamilton chatting
with her brother in the cozy library.
“Come in, and let us look at the wedding gifts together,” Eva said,
drawing Ada into her own rooms. She could not bear to be left alone to
the companionship of her own thoughts. They kept wandering back to the
interrupted bridal of over two years ago.
A fortune in wedding gifts was arranged on tables in her boudoir. They
looked them over, admiring, while Ada said:
“How fortunate you are, my dear little girl!”
“Fortunate!” echoed Eva, but there was a world of tragic meaning in her
tone.
She took up a white satin case and opened it. The electric light
flashed on a heart pendant, set with rubies, that glowed weirdly like
blood.
“I cannot keep from looking at this over and over,” she said. “It
fascinates me. It seems symbolical. A bleeding heart! Why did Doctor
Ludington send it to me?”
“To remind you, perhaps,” Ada answered gently.
“It was cruel--as if I ever could forget!” and her bosom shook with a
long sigh as she put it from her hands again. She continued wildly:
“Oh, Ada, do you keep thinking of that other night as I do? Is it
Reggie who will really be my bridegroom and not Rupert? Somehow I
cannot realize it, now that it comes so terribly near. My brain is all
in a whirl, my thoughts are confused; I am not happy and expectant, as
on that other bridal eve. My heart feels heavy as lead in my breast! Do
you--do you think anything can happen to prevent it this time?”
“What could happen, my darling? You are nervous and fanciful. There is
nothing going to happen to mar your happiness this time. Come, let us
look out at the beautiful moonlight,” drawing her to the window; “I
have looked at jewels, and silverware, and bric-à-brac, and wedding
gowns until my eyes ache. Let me refresh them with a bit of nature.”
It was a beautiful night, late in January, clear, cold, and frosty, the
moon and myriad stars shining down from a cloudless sky. Below on the
magnificent avenue the electric lights made it bright as day.
“What a beautiful night! You will have moonlight nights on the sea,
Eva, and----” Ada broke off the sentence abruptly, beginning another
one:
“Why, there’s a carriage stopping in front of the house. Who can be
calling to-night? I thought we should be alone.”
“It is Reggie. Don’t you see him getting out of the carriage and coming
in? Why, he told me he would be at the bachelor party to-night. I--I
don’t think I want to see even him to-night. We shall be together
so much afterward!” Eva faltered, with a catch in her breath like a
stifled sob.
She sank down in a chair wearily, hopelessly, and hid her face in her
little nervous hands.
“Don’t fret, dear. We will send down word that you have retired,
and beg to be excused,” soothed Ada, wondering how Eva could be so
indifferent to such a peerless bridegroom.
“Ah, if it were only me! If I only had the chance, how I would fly down
to his dear arms!” she thought, with silent pain.
They sat silent, waiting for the summons; but minutes slipped away and
it did not come.
“He has evidently not asked for you. Perhaps he only called for a word
with his stepmother, and is going again in a minute. I will watch to
see,” exclaimed Ada, with her face glued to the window pane.
The minutes slipped away till a quarter of an hour was told. They
scarcely spoke to each other. Each had a curious air of expectancy.
Then Ada announced:
“He is going away again. To the bachelor party, I suppose.”
They watched him get into his carriage, heard the wheels as it rolled
away. Both drew a breath of relief.
“It almost seemed strange, his coming to-night,” Eva exclaimed.
There was a light tap on the outer door, and she added:
“Auntie is coming to tell us what he wanted. Come in.”
Mr. Somerville stalked in with a face as gray and hueless as the dead.
“Oh, papa, how strange you look!” the girl cried in alarm. “Are you
ill?--or--has anything happened?”
He drew her into his arms with a protecting air, groaning hoarsely:
“The worst has happened!”
“Oh, papa, I have you still--so it cannot be the worst,” she sobbed.
“Oh, my darling, how can I break the cruel truth to you? No, Miss
Winton, do not go; you must hear it also. Eva, a fiend in human form,
jealous of your happiness, has dealt you a cruel blow in the dark. The
slanderer’s poisoned tongue has breathed into Reginald Hamilton’s ears
the story of your blighted past and bitter misfortunes. He chooses to
believe the worst, to break his word, to repudiate you! There will be
no wedding to-morrow!”