The time passed slowly enough to the impatient Vinton while the
boy-of-all-work was gone on his mission to Mrs. Bowers. He paced up and
down impatiently, now and then casting surly looks of hatred and revenge
upon the honest farmer who had dared to defy him and protect his
trembling victim.
Mrs. Thorn, seeing that Queenie was better and did not need her
attention, busied herself in setting the neglected breakfast upon the
table. She put on the smoking coffee, the hot corn-cakes, the fried
bacon and eggs, the fresh butter and milk, and invited her visitors to
partake of the homely fare.
Leon Vinton declined the invitation by a surly nod, but Queenie, who had
been watching her movements eagerly, readily signified her consent.
"I am very hungry," she declared, "for owing to the wickedness of yonder
man, I have not tasted food for several days."
"Oh, my poor, demented little sister," exclaimed the hypocritical
Vinton, "would to God your reason might be restored!"
Queenie only cast a look of scorn upon him as she took her place at the
breakfast-table. Her heart was infused with fresh courage owing to the
noble conduct of the farmer and his wife in repelling the persecutions
of Leon Vinton.
She determined to get the farmer to go into town for her father, and she
resolved that these kind people should be most liberally rewarded for
the resolute course by which they had secured her happiness. So inspired
was she by this brilliant hope, and so strengthened by the warm coffee,
that a faint flush came into her cheek, and her blue eyes sparkled with
excitement and animation.
"Your breakfast has set you up quite a bit, ma'am," exclaimed Mrs.
Thorn, admiringly. "You don't hardly look like the same woman we took up
for dead in the road."
"Your kindness has put new life in me, madam," answered Queenie,
gratefully. "It is the hope of escape from this man that fills me with
joy and lights up my face with gladness."
"Poor dear!" exclaimed the woman, turning a look of scorn on Vinton as
he still moodily paced the floor.
"Ah, madam," exclaimed he, catching that look, "in a little while, when
my sister arrives and corroborates my story, you will see how much you
have wronged me in giving credence to the senseless ravings of this poor
lunatic."
Even as he spoke there was a stir and a bustle at the door. The farmer
hastened to open it, and Mrs. Bowers, elegantly dressed and visibly
excited, rushed in. Leon Vinton sprang to meet her.
"Oh, my dear sister!" he exclaimed, "I have found our poor little one!"
Mrs. Bowers took the cue at once.
"Oh, brother!" she cried, theatrically, "you fill me with joy! What
tortures, what agonies I have endured in the fear that she was dead!"
She rolled her eyes around the room, and seeing Queenie sitting near the
fire, ran up and vigorously embraced her.
"Oh, my poor, unhappy darling," she cried, "how could you grieve your
poor old sister so?"
Queenie pushed her off frantically like the mad creature they accused
her of being.
"You are not my sister," she cried, angrily. "Go away Mrs. Bowers. You
cannot impose on these good people with your shameless lies! They would
not believe Leon Vinton and they will not believe you. They are friends
to me, and they will help me back to my husband."
Mrs. Bowers threw up her hands and looked at her coadjutor in villainy
sadly.
"You see she is still as mad as a March hare," he answered, "and would
you believe it, Alice, dear, our little sister has so imposed on these
good people with her cunning insanity, that they actually believe her
stories, and look upon me, her devoted brother, as a perjured villain
seeking her destruction. They will not even permit me to remove my poor,
demented sister home without proof of my assertion."
Mrs. Bowers looked around at the farmer and his wife with an air of
indulgent pity.
"Oh, my good people, is it possible that you have been so weak as to let
this cunning maniac deceive you? But no wonder--for insanity has baffled
wiser heads than yours or mine. It is quite natural she should deceive
you, as I do not suppose you ever saw a crazy person before. But now let
me assure you that my brother has told you the simple truth. This is our
own sister, and she has been a year insane. She escaped from us this
morning before daylight, and he has been seeking her everywhere. I have
come in the carriage, and I suppose you will not now raise any further
objection to our removing her to her home."
"I will not go with you!" exclaimed Queenie, filled with terror lest the
woman's specious acting should deceive the simple country people. "Every
word you have uttered is a base falsehood! I am nothing to either of
you--nothing! Go away and leave me in peace!"
In her wild excitement she sprang up and shook her hands violently at
Mrs. Bowers. Her loose, disheveled hair, her flashing eyes, her waving
hands made her look like a wild creature. Mrs. Bowers pointed at her
triumphantly.
"You see for yourselves that she is mad," she said. "She is going off
into one of her violent and dangerous fits, and she is just as apt as
not to catch up a knife from the table there and kill one of you. Oh,
for God's sake, brother, take her and put her in the carriage!"
Leon Vinton advanced to do her bidding, but Queenie fought him off like
a young lioness at bay.
"Oh, good people!" she cried, "help me, for Heaven's sake! Do not suffer
this villain to take me!"
"I have given you full proof now that this is my sister," exclaimed Leon
Vinton to the farmer. "I warn you if you interfere with me further it
will be at your peril!"
The farmer and his wife had been completely deceived by the spirited and
natural acting of Mrs. Bowers. They began to believe that they had
indeed been deceived into believing the artful ravings of a violent
maniac.
Therefore, when Queenie called on them for help they only stood aloof,
regarding her frightened, excited aspect with newly-awakened fear.
"Ha! so you are now convinced of the truth," exclaimed Leon Vinton,
triumphantly, seeing that they made no effort to molest him.
"Yes, sir, we are," said the farmer, in a conciliatory tone; "and I wish
to make my apology to you for the trouble I've put you to. The young
girl's acting was very nat'ral, but I see now that you told the truth
about her."
"I told you so, father!" exclaimed Jennie, triumphantly.
"Tut, tut, Jen--hold your tongue, you impudent girl!" exclaimed Mrs.
Thorn, sharply.
Queenie had dropped into a chair at the farmer's renunciation of her
claims, and, hiding her face in her hands, burst into a passionate fit
of weeping. Mrs. Bowers stood by her making a pretended effort at
consoling her, but her pretended brother paid no heed to the wretched
girl. He looked at Jennie's bright, pretty face, and then turned to her
father.
"I think you said your daughter was out of a place, at present," he
said, blandly. "Do you wish to secure another one for her?"
"Yes, we do," was the ready answer. "We have to put her out to service,
for we cannot afford to keep her at home. She must earn her clothes and
a bit more to help us along at home."
"I think my sister needs just such a girl about the house, to help her
with the housekeeping," said Leon Vinton; and, turning to Mrs. Bowers,
he said: "Do you think Miss Jennie would suit you?"
The woman stared at him in surprise for a moment, but he gave her a
significant glance, and she answered with apparent frankness:
"Yes, I think I should like to have her very much."
"Very well, then," and, turning to the farmer he inquired if his sister
could have Jennie, naming a liberal, but not too large compensation, for
fear of exciting suspicion. He did not ask the girl, herself, for he had
already read her consent in her beaming eyes. She was perfectly
fascinated by the handsome stranger, and was ready to go anywhere that
she might daily see him and hear his voice.
Before the farmer could speak, Queenie sprang to his side, and laid her
delicate white hand, all sparkling with jewels, on his coarse sleeve,
lifting her blue eyes pleadingly to his face.
"Oh! sir," she said, "you think me mad, but for Heaven's sake be warned
by me! Do not suffer your pretty, simple girl to stray into the snare
this man and woman are setting for her. If you give your consent you
will rue it in dust and ashes, when you see her innocence betrayed and
her virtue lost."
Leon Vinton glared at her fiercely as the farmer hesitated.
"Come, decide, at once," he said. "The carriage is waiting, and she can
accompany us if you are willing. Of course you need pay no attention to
the ravings of that poor maniac."
Mr. Thorn looked at his daughter. Her face was bright with smiles, for
the artful villain, with his tender glances, had made her believe that
he was deeply enamored of her charms.
"Do you want to go, Jennie?" he asked, doubtfully.
"Oh, yes, father, if you'll let me," she said.
"She may go for a month, then, and if she don't like the place she may
come home again," said the farmer.
Queenie said no more. She saw that her enemies had triumphed over her
this time, and her heart was almost broken. She made an ineffectual
struggle to escape through the door, but was captured and borne
struggling to the carriage, followed by her pretended sister and the
pretty Jennie, who was falling so unconsciously into the pit spread for
her unwary feet.