When Edward and Zoe had retired to their own apartment on the breaking
up of the company that evening, he led her up to a pier glass asking,
“What do you think of the picture you see there, my dear?”
She gazed an instant, then, looking up at him with an arch smile and a
charming blush, “I think the gentleman is extremely handsome,” she said.
“I was thinking of the lady,” he laughed, drawing her closer to his
side and bending to kiss the ruby lips. “You make a bonny bride, my
darling; even bonnier than you did when first you gave me the right
to call you mine. Look again, and tell me if you are not entirely
satisfied with your own appearance in bridal array?”
She obeyed, again gazing intently for a moment, smiling and blushing
with gratification, for it was a very lovely face and figure she saw
reflected in the mirror.
“Wouldn’t you have liked to have me dressed just so when we were
married, dear Ned?” she asked, with another glance up into his face.
“Yes, sweet one, if it might have been. And yet it could hardly have
made us happier at the present time than we are now.”
“No; and yet I should have preferred a happier bridal than we had. I
can never think of it without remembering the bitter sorrow that came
to me at the same time. You were my only helper and comforter then,
dear, dear Ned! and oh, how kind you were! But you know you were almost
a stranger, and I couldn’t love and trust you as I have learned to do
in these years that we have lived together. I was grateful to you then
(though not half so grateful as I should have been), but half afraid of
you too. But I don’t fear you now; no, not a bit,” she concluded with a
light and happy laugh.
“I hope not, indeed,” he said, “‘perfect love casteth out fear.’ How
have you enjoyed yourself to-night?”
“Very much indeed. I think we gave mamma a pleasant surprise with our
tableaux. She hasn’t a particle of prying curiosity about her, and we
were quite successful in keeping our intentions in regard to them a
secret from her.”
“Yes, I know; and she told me it was a great treat to her to see her
three daughters in bridal attire; that in her eyes they all looked very
lovely, very bride-like.”
“It’s so nice in her to include me with the others; she is and always
has been a real mother to me ever since the day you brought me to Ion.
Well, I suppose I must doff my finery, for it is growing late.”
“Yes, for to-night; but you must don it again some time for my benefit,
if for no one else’s.”
There were new sports for the next day, and the next, in most of
which Harold and Herbert, the captain and Violet, Edward and Zoe, and
sometimes even Grandma Elsie, took part, and that in a way to make it
extremely satisfactory to the children, entering heartily into the fun
and frolic, enjoying it, apparently, if not really, as much as the
youngest of the company.
Almost entire harmony had prevailed until the last evening but one;
then there was a slight unpleasantness.
Lulu and the five girls who were her especial guests were seated about
a table engaged in playing “Letters.”
I presume the game is familiar to all my young readers. The player
who can make the largest number of words wins the game, and each
draws a letter in turn from a heap in the centre of the table, thrown
promiscuously together, and is bound to select hap-hazard, not seeing
what the letter may be till it is chosen and can not be exchanged for
another more to the player’s liking.
“Dear me!” cried Sydney Dinsmore, when the game had been going on for
some time, “Rosie is going to win for certain. Just see! she has more
words than any body else; but I’d like to know how it is that she
always hits upon a vowel, while I get nothing but consonants and of
course can’t make out my words.”
“That’s a mistake, Syd,” said Rosie, coloring deeply as she spoke. “I
don’t always get a vowel.”
“No, you don’t always want one, but when you do, you get it.”
“So might any body who was mean enough to peep and find out what the
letter is before she takes it,” remarked Lora in a half-jesting tone;
whereat the color on Rosie’s cheek deepened still more; then catching a
scornful glance from Lulu’s dark eyes, she rose hastily, pushing back
her chair.
“If I am suspected of such doings,” she said in tones trembling with
anger and chagrin, “I’ll not play any more.”
“Oh now, Rosie, sit down and finish your game,” said Evelyn
persuasively, “I’m sure no one really suspects you of such dishonesty.”
“Then let them say so,” returned Rosie. But no one spoke, and turning
haughtily away, she left them.
“Oh girls, why didn’t you speak?” exclaimed Evelyn, always inclined to
be a peacemaker. “Let me run after her and tell her that of course you
don’t suspect her of any such thing.”
“I can’t,” said Sydney, “for it wouldn’t be true. I saw her peep.”
“And so did——” began Lulu, but raising her eyes while the words were on
her tongue, and catching a glance of grave displeasure from her father,
who, noticing that something was amiss among the players, had drawn
near and was now standing opposite her on the other side of the table,
she broke off suddenly, leaving her sentence unfinished.
Her eyes fell and her cheeks flushed hotly under his glance, but he
turned and moved away without speaking, and the game went on, but with
less enjoyment than before on the part of the young players.
Lulu particularly, troubled by a consciousness that she was no longer
in full favor with her dearly-loved father, had almost lost her
interest in it.
Rosie was still more uncomfortable, knowing that Sydney’s and Lora’s
accusation was not undeserved, but she was far too proud to own it just.
She sauntered into an adjoining room, where the little ones were
engaged in a game of romps, and was soon in their midst apparently the
merriest of the merry, but in fact only making a determined effort to
drown the reproaches of conscience, for no one so carefully trained in
the knowledge of right and wrong as she had been, could be guilty of
even the smallest act of dishonesty and deception without suffering in
that way.
She, however, gave no sign of it till, on reaching their sleeping
apartment, her mother turned to her with the most sadly reproachful
look she had ever bestowed upon her.
Rosie’s eyes sought the floor, while her cheeks burned with blushes.
She had not thought “mamma” knew any thing about her wrong doing, yet
certainly she must, else why was her look so grieved and reproving.
Neither spoke for a moment, then, sighing deeply, Elsie said, “Can it
be true that my dear, youngest daughter has been guilty of fraud and
deception?”
“Who told—why do you have such an idea, mamma?” stammered Rosie in
confusion. “I—I never thought you’d believe any thing so bad of me!”
and she burst into a perfect passion of tears and sobs; a most unusual
thing for her.
“O Rosie, my dear child,” her mother answered in tones tremulous with
grief and affection, “I do not want to believe it; I can hardly bear to
do so, and yet I must fear it is true till I hear the assurance from
your own lips that it is not.”
“Mamma, who has been carrying tales about me to you?” cried Rosie with
great show of indignation, “I did not think any body would be so mean;
no, not even Lulu!”
“Rosie! Rosie!” exclaimed her mother in a tone that, for her, was very
severe, “How can you so wrong Lulu? She is passionate, but I have never
known her to be guilty of meanness. I have heard nothing from her to
your discredit; but I did overhear a little talk between some of the
others about your having cheated in a game, or perhaps more than one,
and growing angry and forsaking their company, when accused of it.”
“Well, mamma, hadn’t I a right to be indignant at such an accusation!”
“Not if it were just and true, my daughter.” There was no response to
the half questioning rejoinder and after waiting a moment, Elsie asked,
“Was it true, Rosie?”
“Mamma, why do you—how can you ask me such insulting questions?” sobbed
Rosie, hiding her face in her hands while a crimson tide mounted to her
very hair.
“It pains me more than I can express to do so,” sighed her mother; “but
if conscious of innocence, my dear child, say so at once, and your
mother will believe you.” She paused and waited for an answer.
For a few moments Rosie seemed to have a hard struggle with herself,
then she sobbed, “I can’t, mamma, because—because it is true; I did
peep to see what the letters were; and—and before that when we were
playing hide-and-seek, and Lulu was hiding the slipper. But oh mamma,
don’t look so dreadfully grieved! I didn’t really think how very wrong
it was.”
Tears were coursing down Elsie’s cheeks and her bosom heaved with
emotion.
“Oh mamma, dear mamma, don’t! I can’t bear to see you cry because of my
wrong-doing,” sobbed Rosie, dropping on her knees by her mother’s side
and throwing her arms around her.
“It almost breaks my heart, my child, to learn that one of my darlings
has stepped so far aside from the path of rectitude,” returned her
mother in tremulous tones, “for though you have spoken no untruthful
word, you have been both untrue and dishonest in act.”
“Mamma, mamma, how can you be so cruel as to tell me that?” Rosie
exclaimed, hiding her face in her mother’s lap and sobbing convulsively.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” her mother said tenderly, and
softly smoothing the weeper’s hair. “I must show you your sin in all
its heinousness that you may see it to be hateful, repent of and
forsake it, and go to Jesus for pardon and cleansing.”
“I am sorry, mamma, I don’t ever intend to do so again; I’ll confess it
to God, and I have confessed it to you.”
“And do you think that is enough, my daughter?”
“O mamma, don’t say I must own it to the girls!” she entreated, “I
couldn’t bear to!”
“I perceive that your conscience is telling you you ought, and I hope
it will not be necessary for me to add a must,” Elsie said very gently
and kindly.
Rosie was exceedingly reluctant; it seemed the hardest requirement her
mother had ever made, but at length a promise of obedience was won from
her and she went to bed to cry herself to sleep over the humiliation
she must submit to on the morrow.
While she and her mother were talking thus together, Lulu had made
ready for bed and received a visit from her father. She met him with a
wistful pleading look and the query, “Papa, are you displeased with me?”
He did not answer immediately, but sitting down drew her to his knee,
smoothed the hair back from her forehead and kissed her gravely. “Not
very seriously, daughter,” he said at last, “but what was the trouble
between Rosie and the rest of you? Sydney seemed to be accusing her of
some unfair dealing, and you, I thought, were beginning a sentence of
the same import.”
“Yes, papa, I was; and I’m glad you stopped me before I’d said what I
was going to,” Lulu answered, coloring and dropping her eyes.
“And a moment before she left your circle I saw you give her a very
scornful look. Do you think that was right or kind? especially
remembering that she is your guest?”
“No, sir,” acknowledged Lulu. “But, papa, I will try to do better if
you just won’t be vexed with me.”
“I can ask nothing more than that promise, and am not at all vexed with
you now, my darling,” he said, repeating his caress.
“Oh, I’m glad!” she exclaimed, hugging him and returning his kiss.
“Papa, do you think I would ever cheat at play, and so win the game
unfairly? and if I should, wouldn’t you think I was every bit as bad as
if I flew into a passion?”
“Yes, quite as bad, quite as deserving of punishment; but I do not
think you would be guilty of any thing of the kind, and it has always
been a great comfort to me to be able to believe my little daughter
Lulu a perfectly honest and truthful child.”
“Dear papa, thank you!” she said, her face lighting up with joy and
love.
“It is a great pleasure to me to speak words of commendation to you,”
he responded; “as great a pain to have to reprove and punish you. So,
dear child, if you love your father, try to be good.”
“Don’t you know that I love you, papa?” she asked, smiling into his
eyes.
“Yes,” he said, holding her close, “I haven’t the least doubt of it.
Now, good-night. Get to bed and to sleep as soon as you can.”
“There, now; I know papa wouldn’t think Rosie a bit better child than
I am if he knew all I do about her,” Lulu said to herself, with great
satisfaction, as he went from the room and the door closed upon him.
Rosie seemed strangely quiet and depressed the next morning, and to
avoid meeting the glance of her mates.
“I guess she’s ashamed of herself,” remarked Sydney, in an aside to
Lora, “and she ought to be.”
“Of course she ought,” said Lora. “Who would ever have believed that a
child of Cousin Elsie’s would cheat at play? I think Rosie has always
had a very good opinion of herself, and perhaps it will do her good to
find out that she’s no better than other folks, after all. She’s been
hard on Lu Raymond, about her temper, you know; but I must say I like
Lu best, though she is no kin to me.”
She involuntarily glanced toward Rosie, standing by a window on the
farther side of the room, as she spoke, and their eyes met.
Rosie’s instantly sought the floor, while her cheeks flushed crimson.
It was shortly after breakfast and family worship, and they were in
the parlor where the trouble began the night before; just the girls
themselves and no one else; and Rosie perceived that there could be no
better time than the present for her acknowledgment.
But how should she make it? “Oh,” she thought, “it’s the very hardest
thing I ever had to do!”
Then summoning all her courage, she spoke in low, faltering tones, her
head drooping, her whole face and even her neck crimson with blushes.
“Girls, I—I own that Syd was right in what she said last night; Lora
too; and that besides, I did look when I was supposed to be hiding my
eyes in the other games.”
She ended with a burst of tears, half turning her back upon her
companions, as if too much mortified to meet their glances.
There was a moment of surprised silence, in which no one either moved
or spoke; then Eva said, in a kindly, sympathizing tone:
“It is noble in you to own it, Rosie; so I think we should all love you
more than ever.”
“Yes,” said Lulu, hurrying to Rosie’s side, and putting her arms
affectionately about her, “so we will, Rosie, dear; so don’t cry. I’m
sure you don’t intend ever to do any thing of the kind again, and we’ll
all forget about it directly, won’t we, girls?”
“We’ll try,” they answered, Sydney adding, “So dry your eyes, coz, and
don’t let us spoil our good times by fretting over what’s done and
can’t be helped.”
“It will do for you to feel that way,” sobbed Rosie, “all of you that
haven’t been doing wrong; but I ought to be ashamed and sorry whenever
I think about it.”
“Don’t think about it, then,” said Sydney, in a jesting tone, “I
wouldn’t.”
“And we won’t,” added Lulu, squeezing Rosie’s hand affectionately.
“Lu, you’re very good,” murmured Rosie, close to Lulu’s ear, “and I
haven’t been kind and charitable to you when you were in disgrace, even
when it was partly my fault that you had done wrong.”
“Never mind; I hope we are not going to vex each other any more,”
returned Lulu; and just then Zoe came running in to say that some new
tableaux had been thought of, in which they were all to have more or
less part, and they were wanted at once in Violet’s boudoir.