"I'LL BREAK HER WILL!"
Mr. Mencke here interposed. When his wife's temper was aroused she was
liable to be rash and unreasonable. He thought if they could but get rid
of Wallace they could perhaps coax Violet into a more pliable frame of
mind.
He turned to the young man, and said, sternly:
"We have had enough of this for to-night, but I will confer with you
later about this matter."
Wallace bowed a courteous, but dignified, assent to this broad hint to
take his departure.
He bade Violet good-night in a low tone, tenderly pressing her hand
before releasing it, then, after a polite bow to Mrs. Mencke, which she
did not deign to notice, he walked with a firm, manly bearing from the
house, bidding its master a gentlemanly good-evening at the door.
In spite of her rage against Violet and her poverty-stricken lover, Mrs.
Mencke could not help admiring the latter's self-possessed exit, while
she secretly confessed that "the fellow was uncommonly good-looking."
When the door had closed after him, she turned again to her sister.
"Violet, I am scandalized----" she began, when that young lady
interrupted her.
"There is no need, I assure you, Belle," she said, coldly. "I confess I
would have preferred that you did not see us just as you did, but I have
been guilty of nothing which should cause you to feel scandalized. We
may as well understand each other first as last, and you may as well
make up your mind to the inevitable, for, if I live, I shall marry
Wallace Richardson. If I cannot do so legally until I am of age, I shall
wait until then, and you know, Belle, when I take a stand like this, I
mean it."
With this parting shaft Violet, with uplifted head and flashing eyes,
walked deliberately from her sister's presence and up to her own room.
"The little vixen will do it, Belle, as sure as you live," remarked
Wilhelm Mencke, who had returned to the drawing-room in season to catch
the latter portion of Violet's remarks.
"She shall not!" cried his wife, angrily. "Marry that low-born carpenter
who has to labor with his hands for daily bread! Never!"
"I do not see how you are going to help it; you know she has the grit of
a dozen common women in that small body, and a will of iron," replied
Mr. Mencke.
"Then I'll break her will! I came of a resolute stock, too, and it will
be Roman against Roman, with the advantage on my side. She shall never
compromise herself, nor us, by any such misalliance."
Mr. Mencke looked a trifle sheepish at this spirited speech. He could
not forget, if his wife did, that some fourteen years previous he had
been as badly off, if not worse, than this young carpenter. He had been
a laborer in the employ of Miss Belle Huntington's father, and she had
not felt that she was compromising herself or her parents by marrying
him, and the wealthy pork-packer's daughter had run away with the man
whom she loved.
"What will you do to prevent it?" he asked, after a few moments of
awkward silence. "The girl can marry him any day if she takes a notion;
the will says we are to be the guardians of the property 'until she is
twenty-one or marries.' It would make it rather awkward for me if she
should, for her husband would have the right to demand her fortune,
and--Belle, the duse would be to pay if I should lose my hold on that
money."
"What is the matter, Will?" demanded Mrs. Mencke looking startled.
"Hum--nothing much, only--it is so mixed up with my own affairs it would
cripple me to have to fork it over on short notice," Mr. Mencke replied,
looking exceedingly glum.
"You may rest satisfied upon one point; you will never have to surrender
it to that fellow," his wife returned, decisively. "I will send Violet
to a convent first, and she would be kept straight enough there."
"That is well thought of Belle," said her husband, eagerly, his usually
stolid face lighting up greedily. "It would never do, though, to send
her to one here; suppose we get her off to Montreal, where there will be
no one to interfere; we can keep her there as long as we like, and
meantime I will make Cincinnati too hot to hold that youngster."
"We will do it, Will, and she shall stay there until she promises to
give up this silly love affair."
"You are a very conscientious and affectionate sister, Belle," said her
husband, with a sarcastic laugh. "What do you suppose Eben Huntington
would say to----"
"Hush!" returned Mrs. Mencke, with an authoritative gesture, "that is a
secret that must never be breathed aloud; but all things are fair in
love and war, and to Montreal and into a convent Violet shall go without
delay."
But if Mrs. Mencke could have caught a glimpse of the white, resolute
face of her young sister, as she stood at that moment just outside the
drawing-room door, she might not have felt quite so confident of her
power to carry out her project.
Violet, after leaving Mrs. Mencke, intended to go at once to her room,
but upon reaching the top of the stairs, she remembered that she had
left upon the piano, in the library, Wallace's letter, in a book that
she had been reading.
Not wishing other eyes than her own to peruse it, she stole quietly down
again to get it, and happened to pass the drawing-room door just as her
sister made her threat to send her to a convent.
She had always had a horror of convent life, and though Mrs. Mencke had
been educated at one, Violet would never consent to go to one, and had
attended the public schools of the city, until she graduated from the
high school, after which she spent a year at a noted institution in
Columbus, "to finish off."
She was greatly agitated as she listened to the conversation of her two
guardians, and she wondered how they could scheme so against her. It was
cruel, heartless. There had never been open warfare between them before,
though Violet had not always been so happy as young girls usually are.
There was much about her home-life that was not congenial, but she was
naturally gentle and affectionate, and, where principle was not at
stake, she would yield a point rather than create dissension.
Occasionally, however, there would arise a question of conscience, and
then she had shown the "grit" and "will of iron" of which Mr. Mencke had
spoken.
Mrs. Mencke arose as she made her last remark, and Violet, fearing to be
found eavesdropping, sped noiselessly on into the library, where she
secured her book and letter; then fleeing by a door opposite the one she
had entered, and up a back stair-way, she reached her own room without
exciting the suspicion of any one that she had overheard the plot
concerning her.
Locking herself in, she sat down at once and wrote all that she had
overheard to Wallace, telling him that she should certainly grieve
herself to death if she was immured in a convent, and asking him what
she should do in this emergency.
She informed him that she should take a German lesson at three the next
afternoon, and begged him to meet her in the pupils' reception-parlor of
the institute at four o'clock.
She was so wrought up that she could not sleep, and tossed restlessly
most of the night, while she wondered why Belle and Wilhelm were so
cruel to her, and what the secret was to which Belle had referred; she
had not, until then, been aware that there was anything mysterious
connected with their family history.
She arose very early the next morning, and stole forth to post her
letter, long before any of the household were astir, after which she
crept back to bed and fell into a heavy, dreamless slumber, which lasted
until late in the forenoon.
Wallace received Violet's letter by the morning post, and was greatly
exercised over it.
At four o'clock precisely he entered the pupils' reception-room at the
institute where Violet took German lessons, and was thankful to find no
one there before him.
Presently Violet entered, looking pale and unhappy. She sprang toward
her lover, and laid two small hot hands in his, while she lifted a pair
of sad, appealing eyes to him.
"What shall I do, Wallace?" she cried, with quivering lips. "I will not
go to Montreal, and yet I know they are determined to make me."
"Your sister or her husband has no right to insist upon your going into
a convent, if you do not wish to do so," Wallace returned, gravely.
"But they are my guardians; I have no other home, no other friends; they
have the care of my money and I have to go to them for everything I
want. I do not expect they will tell me that they are going to take me
to a convent unless I will submit to them--they are too wise for that;
they will plan to go on a journey, say they are going to shut up the
house, and I must of course go with them; then when they get to Montreal
they will force me into a convent," Violet said, excitedly.
"I cannot believe that they would do anything so underhanded and
dishonorable," said Wallace, greatly shocked.
"They will," Violet persisted, excitedly. "Belle said 'anything was fair
in love and war,' and when she gets aroused, as she was last night, she
stops at nothing. Then, too, she hinted at some secret, and I am greatly
troubled over it."
"Violet," began Wallace, solemnly, as he bent to look into her face,
while he held her hands in almost a painful clasp, "are you sure that
you love me--that you will never regret the promise that you made me
last night? You are very young, you have seen but little of the world,
and a larger experience might cause you to change by and by."
Violet's delicate fingers closed over his spasmodically.
"Wallace! you are not sorry! Oh, do not tell me that you regret, and
that I am to lose you," she pleaded, almost hysterically.
"My darling," he answered, with gentle fondness, "you are all the world
to me, and if I should lose you, I should lose all that makes life
desirable; but I wish you to count the cost of your choice and not make
enemies of your only friends, to regret it later."
"No, Wallace--no! I shall not regret it. I love you with my whole heart,
and--I shall die if we are separated," Violet concluded, with a pathetic
little sob that went straight to her lover's heart.
His face grew luminous with a great joy; he knew then that she belonged
to him for all time.
"Then listen, love," he said; and bending, he placed his lips close to
her ear, and whispered for a minute or two.
Violet listened, while a strange, wondering expression grew on her fair
face, and a burning blush mounted to her brow and lost itself among the
rings of soft, golden hair that lay clustering there.
She was very grave, almost awe-stricken, when he concluded, and then she
stood for a moment silently thinking.
"Yes," she said, softly, at last, and dropped her face upon the hands
that were still clasping hers.
They stood thus for another moment, then Wallace led her to a seat, and
sitting down beside her, they conversed in repressed tones for some time
longer.
Violet reached home just as her sister returned from making calls.
"Where have you been, Violet?" Mrs. Mencke asked, suspiciously.
"To take my German lessons," the girl responded, with a sigh.
Her heart was heavy and sore, and she longed for love and sympathy
instead of sour looks and words.
"Your term is nearly ended, isn't it?" Mrs. Mencke continued, as they
entered the house together.
"I have one lesson more," said Violet.
"Come in here; I want to talk with you," her sister rejoined, as she led
the way into the drawing-room.
Violet followed, with flushing cheeks and eyes that began to glitter
ominously. Her spirit was leaping forth to meet the trial in store for
her.
"I have been thinking," Mrs. Mencke began, throwing herself into a chair
and trying to speak in an offhand way, "that another little trip would
do us all good. Will has business that calls him to Canada, and he
thinks he would like company on the journey; so we have decided to
combine business and pleasure, and take in all the sights on the way. He
is to start a week from Wednesday, and we can easily be ready to
accompany him by that time. What do you say, Vio?"
Violet thought a moment, then meeting her sister's eye with a steady
glance, she briefly replied:
"I do not wish to go."
Mrs. Mencke flushed. She did not like that quiet tone.
"I am sorry," she returned, "for we have decided to shut up the house
during our absence, and I could not think of leaving you behind."
"Nevertheless, Belle, I shall not go with you to Montreal," Violet
answered, steadily.
"Who said anything about Montreal?" quickly demanded Mrs. Mencke, and
regarding her sharply.
"I may as well be straightforward with you, Belle," Violet continued,
"and tell that I know just what you have planned to do, and I am not
going to Montreal to be placed in a convent!"
"Violet!" ejaculated the startled woman, with a crimson face.
"You need not attempt to deny anything," the young girl continued,
calmly, "for I overheard you and Will planning it last night. I came
down to get something that I had left in the library, and as I was
passing through the hall I heard you say you would send me to a convent.
Of course, having learned that much, I was bound to hear all I could of
the plan."
Mrs. Mencke looked blank over this information for a moment; then her
temper getting the better of her, she burst forth into a torrent of
reproaches and abuse.
Violet sat with quietly folded hands and did not attempt to interrupt
her; but finally the woman grew ashamed of the sound of her angry voice
and words and ceased.
"Are you through, Belle?" Violet then inquired, in a cold, strangely
calm tone.
"Well, you have driven me nearly to distraction by the way you have
carried on of late," Mrs. Mencke said, apologetically.
"I think I have had something to bear as well from you," the young girl
returned; "but I am no longer a child to be taken hither and thither
against my will. If you and Will wish to take a trip to Canada you can
do so by yourselves. I shall not accompany you."
"What will you do--remain in Cincinnati and meet that vulgar carpenter
on the sly, I suppose," retorted her sister, angrily.
"I can go to Mrs. Bailey's. Nellie has long been wishing me to spend a
few weeks with her."
"And she will aid and abet you in your love-making, perhaps you
imagine," sneered Mrs. Mencke. "No, miss; you will go with us, whether
you want to or not, and you will also go into a convent, where you will
remain until you give me your solemn promise to relinquish all thoughts
of ever marrying that low-born Yankee."
Violet arose at this point and stood pale and erect before her sister.
"Belle, I shall not go to Montreal. I will not be forced to go anywhere
against my inclination," she said, with a resoluteness that betrayed an
unalterable purpose. "I know that you and Will were appointed my
guardians, and that I shall not reach my majority for three years yet;
but I know, too, that there is some redress for such abuse of authority
as you are attempting to exercise, and if you persist in this
course--much as I shall dislike the notoriety of such a proceeding--I
shall appeal to the courts to set you aside and appoint some one in your
place. You said last night that it would be 'Roman against Roman' in
this matter. You said truly; and hereafter, Belle, you will have to meet
me in an entirely different spirit before you and I can ever be upon the
old footing again. I hope, at least, that you now understand, once for
all, that I shall not accompany you and Wilhelm upon any trip."
She turned and walked with quiet dignity from the room as she ceased
speaking, leaving Mrs. Mencke looking both startled and confounded by
the resolute and unexpected stand that she had taken regarding her
guardianship.
"Where on earth can she have found out about that point of law?" she
muttered, angrily. "Some more of that carpenter's doings, I suppose."
She sat for some time absorbed in thought; but finally her face cleared,
and rising she rang the bell.
The housemaid answered it almost immediately.
"Tell James to put the horses back into the carriage as quickly as
possible, as I have forgotten something and must go immediately to the
city again," she commanded, as she rearranged her wrap.
In less than ten minutes she was on her way, not back to the city, but
to call upon an intimate friend in Eden Park.