EAGLE SERIES NO. 448
WHEN LOVE DAWNS
BY
ADELAIDE STIRLING
[Illustration]
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=Quo Vadis= (New Illustrated Edition) =By Henryk Sienkiewicz=
1--Queen Bess By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
2--Ruby’s Reward By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
7--Two Keys By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
12--Edrie’s Legacy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
44--That Dowdy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
55--Thrice Wedded By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
66--Witch Hazel By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
77--Tina By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
88--Virgie’s Inheritance By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
99--Audrey’s Recompense By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
111--Faithful Shirley By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
122--Grazia’s Mistake By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
133--Max By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
144--Dorothy’s Jewels By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
155--Nameless Dell By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
166--The Masked Bridal By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
177--A True Aristocrat By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
188--Dorothy Arnold’s Escape By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
199--Geoffrey’s Victory By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
210--Wild Oats By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
219--Lost, A Pearle By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
222--The Lily of Mordaunt By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
233--Nora By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
244--A Hoiden’s Conquest By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
255--The Little Marplot By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
266--The Welfleet Mystery By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
277--Brownie’s Triumph By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
282--The Forsaken Bride By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
288--Sibyl’s Influence By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
291--A Mysterious Wedding Ring By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
299--Little Miss Whirlwind By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
311--Wedded by Fate By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
339--His Heart’s Queen By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
351--The Churchyard Betrothal By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
362--Stella Rosevelt By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
372--A Girl in a Thousand By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
373--A Thorn Among Roses By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
Sequel to “A Girl in a Thousand”
382--Mona By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
391--Marguerite’s Heritage By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
399--Betsey’s Transformation By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
407--Esther, the Fright By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
415--Trixy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
419--The Other Woman By Charles Garvice
433--Winifred’s Sacrifice By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
440--Edna’s Secret Marriage By Charles Garvice
451--Helen’s Victory By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
458--When Love Meets Love By Charles Garvice
476--Earle Wayne’s Nobility By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
511--The Golden Key By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
512--A Heritage of Love By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
Sequel to “The Golden Key”
519--The Magic Cameo By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
520--The Heatherford Fortune By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
Sequel to “The Magic Cameo”
531--Better Than Life By Charles Garvice
537--A Life’s Mistake By Charles Garvice
542--Once in a Life By Charles Garvice
548--’Twas Love’s Fault By Charles Garvice
553--Queen Kate By Charles Garvice
554--Step by Step By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
555--Put to the Test By Ida Reade Allen
556--With Love’s Aid By Wenona Gilman
557--In Cupid’s Chains By Charles Garvice
558--A Plunge Into the Unknown By Richard Marsh
559--The Love That Was Cursed By Geraldine Fleming
560--The Thorns of Regret By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
561--The Outcast of the Family By Charles Garvice
562--A Forced Promise By Ida Reade Allen
563--The Old Homestead By Denman Thompson
564--Love’s First Kiss By Emma Garrison Jones
565--Just a Girl By Charles Garvice
566--In Love’s Springtime By Laura Jean Libbey
567--Trixie’s Honor By Geraldine Fleming
568--Hearts and Dollars By Ida Reade Allen
569--By Devious Ways By Charles Garvice
570--Her Heart’s Unbidden Guest By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
571--Two Wild Girls By Mrs. Charlotte May Kingsley
572--Amid Scarlet Roses By Emma Garrison Jones
573--Heart for Heart By Charles Garvice
574--The Fugitive Bride By Mary E. Bryan
575--A Blue Grass Heroine By Ida Reade Allen
576--The Yellow Face By Fred M. White
577--The Story of a Passion By Charles Garvice
579--The Curse of Beauty By Geraldine Fleming
580--The Great Awakening By E. Phillips Oppenheim
581--A Modern Juliet By Charles Garvice
582--Virgie Talcott’s Mission By Lucy M. Russell
583--His Greatest Sacrifice; or, Manch By Mary E. Bryan
584--Mabel’s Fate By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
585--The Ape and the Diamond By Richard Marsh
586--Nell, of Shorne Mills By Charles Garvice
587--Katherine’s Two Suitors By Geraldine Fleming
588--The Crime of Love By Barbara Howard
589--His Father’s Crime By E. Phillips Oppenheim
590--What Was She to Him? By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
591--A Heritage of Hate By Charles Garvice
592--Ida Chaloner’s Heart By Lucy Randall Comfort
593--Love Will Find the Way By Wenona Gilman
594--A Case of Identity By Richard Marsh
595--The Shadow of Her Life By Charles Garvice
596--Slighted Love By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
597--Her Fatal Gift By Geraldine Fleming
598--His Wife’s Friend By Mary E. Bryan
599--At Love’s Cost By Charles Garvice
600--St. Elmo By Augusta J. Evans
601--The Fate of the Plotter By Louis Tracy
602--Married in Error By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
603--Love and Jealousy By Lucy Randall Comfort
604--Only a Working Girl By Geraldine Fleming
605--Love, the Tyrant By Charles Garvice
606--Mabel’s Sacrifice By Charlotte M. Stanley
608--Love is Love Forevermore By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
609--John Elliott’s Flirtation By Lucy May Russell
610--With All Her Heart By Charles Garvice
611--Is Love Worth While? By Geraldine Fleming
612--Her Husband’s Other Wife By Emma Garrison Jones
613--Philip Bennion’s Death By Richard Marsh
614--Little Phillis’ Lover By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
615--Maida By Charles Garvice
617--As a Man Lives By E. Phillips Oppenheim
618--The Tide of Fate By Wenona Gilman
619--The Cardinal Moth By Fred M. White
620--Marcia Drayton By Charles Garvice
621--Lynette’s Wedding By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
622--His Madcap Sweetheart By Emma Garrison Jones
623--Love at the Loom By Geraldine Fleming
624--A Bachelor Girl By Lucy May Russell
625--Kyra’s Fate By Charles Garvice
626--The Joss By Richard Marsh
627--My Little Love By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
628--A Daughter of the Marionis By E. Phillips Oppenheim
629--The Lady of Beaufort Park By Wenona Gilman
630--The Verdict of the Heart By Charles Garvice
631--A Love Concealed By Emma Garrison Jones
633--The Strange Disappearance of Lady Delia By Louis Tracy
634--Love’s Golden Spell By Geraldine Fleming
635--A Coronet of Shame By Charles Garvice
636--Sinned Against By Mary E. Bryan
637--If It Were True! By Wenona Gilman
638--A Golden Barrier By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
639--A Hateful Bondage By Barbara Howard
640--A Girl of Spirit By Charles Garvice
641--Master of Men By E. Phillips Oppenheim
642--A Fair Enchantress By Ida Reade Allen
643--The Power of Love By Geraldine Fleming
644--No Time for Penitence By Wenona Gilman
645--A Jest of Fate By Charles Garvice
646--Her Sister’s Secret By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
647--Bitterly Atoned By Mrs. E. Burke Collins
648--Gertrude Elliott’s Crucible By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
649--The Corner House By Fred M. White
650--Diana’s Destiny By Charles Garvice
651--Love’s Clouded Dawn By Wenona Gilman
652--Little Vixen By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
653--Her Heart’s Challenge By Barbara Howard
654--Vivian’s Love Story By Mrs. E. Burke Collins
655--Linked by Fate By Charles Garvice
656--Hearts of Stone By Geraldine Fleming
657--In the Service of Love By Richard Marsh
658--Love’s Devious Course By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
659--Told in the Twilight By Ida Reade Allen
660--The Mills of the Gods By Wenona Gilman
661--The Man of the Hour By Sir William Magnay
662--A Little Barbarian By Charlotte Kingsley
663--Creatures of Destiny By Charles Garvice
664--A Southern Princess By Emma Garrison Jones
666--A Fateful Promise By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
667--The Goddess--A Demon By Richard Marsh
668--From Tears to Smiles By Ida Reade Allen
670--Better Than Riches By Wenona Gilman
671--When Love Is Young By Charles Garvice
672--Craven Fortune By Fred M. White
673--Her Life’s Burden By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
674--The Heart of Hetta By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
675--The Breath of Slander By Ida Reade Allen
676--My Lady Beth By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
677--The Wooing of Esther Gray By Louis Tracy
678--The Shadow Between Them By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
679--Gold in the Gutter By Charles Garvice
680--Master of Her Fate By Geraldine Fleming
681--In Full Cry By Richard Marsh
682--My Pretty Maid By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
683--An Unhappy Bargain By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
684--Her Enduring Love By Ida Reade Allen
685--India’s Punishment By Laura Jean Libbey
686--The Castle of the Shadows By Mrs. C. N. Williamson
687--My Own Sweetheart By Wenona Gilman
688--Only a Kiss By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
689--Lola Dunbar’s Crime By Barbara Howard
690--Ruth, the Outcast By Mrs. Mary E. Bryan
691--Her Dearest Love By Geraldine Fleming
692--The Man of Millions By Ida Reade Allen
693--For Another’s Fault By Charlotte M. Stanley
694--The Belle of Saratoga By Lucy Randall Comfort
695--The Mystery of the Unicorn By Sir William Magnay
696--The Bride’s Opals By Emma Garrison Jones
697--One of Life’s Roses By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
698--The Battle of Hearts By Geraldine Fleming
700--In Wolf’s Clothing By Charles Garvice
701--A Lost Sweetheart By Ida Reade Allen
702--The Stronger Passion By Mrs. Lillian R. Drayton
703--Mr. Marx’s Secret By E. Phillips Oppenheim
704--Had She Loved Him Less! By Laura Jean Libbey
705--The Adventure of Princess Sylvia By Mrs. C. N. Williamson
706--In Love’s Paradise By Charlotte M. Stanley
707--At Another’s Bidding By Ida Reade Allen
708--Sold for Gold By Geraldine Fleming
710--Ridgeway of Montana By William MacLeod Raine
711--Taken by Storm By Emma Garrison Jones
712--Love and a Lie By Charles Garvice
713--Barriers of Stone By Wenona Gilman
714--Ethel’s Secret By Charlotte M. Stanley
715--Amber, the Adopted By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
716--No Man’s Wife By Ida Reade Allen
717--Wild and Willful By Lucy Randall Comfort
718--When We Two Parted By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
719--Love’s Earnest Prayer By Geraldine Fleming
720--The Price of a Kiss By Laura Jean Libbey
721--A Girl from the South By Charles Garvice
722--A Freak of Fate By Emma Garrison Jones
723--A Golden Sorrow By Charlotte M. Stanley
724--Norna’s Black Fortune By Ida Reade Alien
725--The Thoroughbred By Edith MacVane
726--Diana’s Peril By Dorothy Hall
727--His Willing Slave By Lillian R. Drayton
728--Her Share of Sorrow By Wenona Gilman
729--Loved at Last By Geraldine Fleming
730--John Hungerford’s Redemption By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
731--His Two Loves By Ida Reade Allen
732--Eric Braddon’s Love By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
733--Garrison’s Finish By W. B. M. Ferguson
734--Sylvia, the Forsaken By Charlotte M. Stanley
735--Married for Money By Lucy Randall Comfort
736--Married in Haste By Wenona Gilman
737--At Her Father’s Bidding By Geraldine Fleming
738--The Power of Gold By Ida Reade Allen
739--The Strength of Love By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
740--A Soul Laid Bare By J. K. Egerton
741--The Fatal Ruby By Charles Garvice
742--A Strange Wooing By Richard Marsh
743--A Lost Love By Wenona Gilman
744--A Useless Sacrifice By Emma Garrison Jones
745--A Will of Her Own By Ida Reade Allen
746--That Girl Named Haze By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
747--For a Flirt’s Love By Geraldine Fleming
748--The World’s Great Snare By E. Phillips Oppenheim
749--The Heart of a Maid By Charles Garvice
750--Driven from Home By Wenona Gilman
751--The Gypsy’s Warning By Emma Garrison Jones
752--Without Name or Wealth By Ida Reade Allen
753--Loyal Unto Death By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
754--His Lost Heritage By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
755--Her Priceless Love By Geraldine Fleming
756--Leola’s Heart By Charlotte M. Stanley
757--Dare-devil Betty By Evelyn Malcolm
758--The Woman in It By Charles Garvice
759--They Met by Chance By Ida Reade Allen
760--Love Conquers Pride By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
761--A Reckless Promise By Emma Garrison Jones
762--The Rose of Yesterday By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
763--The Other Girl’s Lover By Lillian R. Drayton
764--His Unbounded Faith By Charlotte M. Stanley
765--When Love Speaks By Evelyn Malcolm
766--The Man She Hated By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
767--No One to Help Her By Ida Reade Allen
768--Claire’s Love-Life By Lucy Randall Comfort
769--Love’s Harvest By Adelaide Fox Robinson
770--A Queen of Song By Geraldine Fleming
771--Nan Haggard’s Confession By Mary E. Bryan
772--A Married Flirt By Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller
773--The Thorns of Love By Evelyn Malcolm
774--Love in a Snare By Charles Garvice
775--My Love Kitty By Charles Garvice
776--That Strange Girl By Charles Garvice
777--Nellie By Charles Garvice
778--Miss Estcourt; or, Olive By Charles Garvice
779--A Virginia Goddess By Ida Reade Allen
780--The Love He Sought By Lillian R. Drayton
781--Falsely Accused By Geraldine Fleming
782--His First Sweetheart By Lucy Randall Comfort
783--All for Love By Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller
WHEN LOVE DAWNS
OR,
DARK MAGDALEN
BY
ADELAIDE STIRLING
AUTHOR OF
“Nerine’s Second Choice,” “The Purple Mask,”
“Lover or Husband?” etc.
[Illustration: S AND S NOVELS]
NEW YORK
STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS
79-89 SEVENTH AVENUE
Copyright, 1900
By STREET & SMITH
When Love Dawns
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Why? Because Americans, as a rule, are better educated and more
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with our paper-covered novels. If a man likes adventure or detective
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than he can among the cloth books. If a woman wants love, society, or
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no matter how much he has to spend for his reading matter.
Here are a few suggestions:
BOOKS FOR MEN.
The Nick Carter stories in the NEW MAGNET LIBRARY.
The Howard W. Erwin stories in the FAR WEST LIBRARY.
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The Dumas stories in the SELECT LIBRARY.
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The Mrs. Mary J. Holmes stories in the EAGLE and SELECT LIBRARIES.
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The Burt L. Standish stories in the NEW MEDAL LIBRARY.
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Send for our complete catalogue and look these stories up. It will pay
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Why Take a Chance?
Most everybody thinks that the public library is a mighty fine
institution--teaches people to read, and all that. Well, so it does,
but does any one ever think of the great risk that a person, who takes
a book out of a public library, runs of catching some contagious
disease?
Every time a bacteriological examination is made of the public-library
book, germs of every known disease are found among its pages. Probably,
from your own experience, you know that lots of people never think of
taking a book from the public library, until some one in their family
is sick and wants something to read.
As records prove that ninety per cent of the demand for books at the
public libraries is for works of fiction, it strikes us that the
reading public would do better to patronize the S. & S. novel list
which contains hundreds of books to be found in the public libraries,
and many hundreds of others just as good and interesting.
The price of the S. & S. novels is a low one indeed to pay for
protection from disease-laden literature. Why run the risk, then, when
you can get a fresh, clean book for little money and thus insure your
health?
STREET & SMITH, _Publishers_
NEW YORK
WHEN LOVE DAWNS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. PROFITS OF A PAST.
CHAPTER II. WHEN THE PRESENT’S QUESTIONABLE.
CHAPTER III. EYES THAT LOOKED INTO EYES.
CHAPTER IV. AN OUTCAST.
CHAPTER V. “I NEVER KNEW HIM.”
CHAPTER VI. A GOLDEN FUTURE.
CHAPTER VII. ACROSS CLYDE WATER.
CHAPTER VIII. MAGDALEN DREAMS.
CHAPTER IX. DOLLY’S PREDICAMENT.
CHAPTER X. BETWEEN TWO EVILS.
CHAPTER XI. THE EYES BEHIND THE GLASS.
CHAPTER XII. IN THE CHAPEL.
CHAPTER XIII. STRATHARDEN “SEES THEM OFF.”
CHAPTER XIV. “MURDER!”
CHAPTER XV. DOLLY SEES DAYLIGHT.
CHAPTER XVI. “DARK MAGDALEN.”
CHAPTER XVII. FOR THE HOUSE OF BARNYSDALE.
CHAPTER XVIII. EYES TO THE BLIND.
CHAPTER XIX. “GOOD LORD, DELIVER US!”
CHAPTER XX. DOLLY TAKES FEAR BY THE THROAT.
CHAPTER XXI. IN DISGUISE.
CHAPTER XXII. WHEN LOVE DAWNS.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE NAKED FOOTSTEP.
CHAPTER XXIV. AT AUNT MANETTE’S.
CHAPTER XXV. “BUFF OGILVIE!”
CHAPTER XXVI. A CURTAIN AND A SHADOW.
CHAPTER XXVII. “WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOU?”
CHAPTER XXVIII. ONLY A BIT OF GOLD FILIGREE.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE GREEN BAIZE DOOR.
CHAPTER XXX. LORD STRATHARDEN BEGINS.
CHAPTER XXXI. THE BLIND GUIDE.
CHAPTER XXXII. IN THE HOUSE OF AH LEE.
CHAPTER XXXIII. IN THE HOUSE OF HER DREAM.
CHAPTER XXXIV. ONE THAT WAS LOST.
CHAPTER I.
PROFITS OF A PAST.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” The girl had her back turned on the
extravagant, luxurious room and its one other occupant. Her voice was
full of anger and she stared out of the window as though she had not
patience to meet the other woman’s eyes.
“What good would it have done?” Mrs. Arden lay stretched full length on
the sofa, her untidy dressing-gown disposed gracefully about her.
“I could have done something?”
“What? Gone without meat on Fridays and had bread without butter? You
may as well turn round, Magdalen! I know you’re raging.”
“I’m not.” She wheeled slowly. “It wasn’t my money, it was yours. But
if I’d known I wouldn’t have helped you waste it, I’d have worked, I
wouldn’t have lived on you. Oh, Doll!” hotly, “can’t you see it’s been
madness? What have you ever got for all you’ve thrown away?”
“We’ve had a good time,” calmly. “What’s the use of talking about it?
My money’s s-p-e-n-t, spent--and that’s the end of it. Now we’ve got to
live on our wits.”
Magdalen Clyde looked at her stepsister curiously, as though she saw
her for the first time--her fragile, waxen prettiness; her careless
mouth! her eyes, half tired and half mocking. For all the soft lines of
her face there was something reckless in it this morning.
“Don’t stare at me,” cried Dolly petulantly. “You’ve seen me before and
I’m not looking my best on this delightful occasion. And what you’re
thinking is a waste of time! I’m not going to look for a place as
housekeeper while you go out as a nursery governess. I’m thirty years
old and the world owes me a living. It wasn’t my fault that I came into
it.”
“Why did you take me on your shoulders? I could have worked for myself.”
A curious expression flitted across Dolly’s face. But whatever caused
it she kept to herself. Perhaps for only one second had she meant to
tell why she had taken Magdalen.
“Don’t talk rubbish!” she said shortly. “Mother died--I had the money.
You went to school and I got married; not for long, thank the powers!
And anyhow, here we are without one penny. Your assets, I believe,”
and she laughed, “are two black frocks, three indifferent hats and a
red head. Mine are: Item--one husband, kindly removed by desertion;
item--one small boy of three and _ad infinitum_--do you like my
delicate wit?--debts, debts and duns. My looks I will leave out of
the question; perhaps they are a little frayed around the edges. But
my reputation, thanks to your eternal vigilance, is good! You’ve been
quite worth your keep, my beloved!”
“What does your reputation matter?” hastily; with sense enough not
to say what was on her tongue. Dolly Arden’s reputation! A hundred
lucky slides over cracking ice, a habit of knowing no women who could
talk about her escapades or her parties, a childlike callousness that
thought the world both deep and blind. If these things build up a
good reputation, Dolly Arden had one. The girl dismissed the long
list of men who had adorned her stepsister with various jewelry and
vanished--though their presents stayed--and asked her question over
again scornfully:
“What does your reputation matter?”
“Everything,” returned Mrs. Arden calmly. “It’s my stock in trade. I’m
going to become a British matron; well-dressed, too. I’m going to drive
through the rest of my life in a carriage and have bishops’ wives to
tea.”
“You don’t mean”--there was never much color in Magdalen’s face, but
now it was as white as paper--“he isn’t--you’re not going to dare to
get married again?”
“On the contrary, I’m going to become a widow! You don’t look pretty
with your mouth open like a codfish, my child, and your horror’s
wasted. He,” significantly, “is not going to marry me. It’s my previous
history that will enable me to consort with bishops’ wives when
convenient, not my future.”
“Do you mean the kind who abide in asylums?” trenchantly. “For
goodness’ sake, Doll, speak out! What do you mean? I know something’s
happened. Last night you walked the floor, for I heard you, and this
morning you’re a different creature.”
“Last night I saw no resource for us but to turn costermongers on
half a crown capital! This morning”--a queer look, half excitement,
half determination, came on her face; she stood up with her torn
dressing-gown let hang as it liked--“this morning, Magdalen, Lord
Barnysdale’s dead!”
“Oh, sit down,” wrathfully. “You look like Crazy Ann. I’m too tired for
jokes. I never heard of Lord Barnysdale when he was alive; what does
his being dead matter to us?”
Mrs. Arden laughed; then pirouetted with a childish, careless grace.
“Everything!” she cried. “Barnysdale’s dead, I’m a widow--a widow!” and
she waltzed round the room.
“Dolly, for Heaven’s sake!” said Magdalen furiously, yet her pale face,
with its level black brows and somber eyes, might have been a picture
in black and white for all the life there was in it as she caught the
small dancing figure gently enough. “Are you demented or do you think I
am?”
“Neither,” panting. “I mean Barnysdale’s dead and I’m rich!”
“You don’t mean he was--Arden?” blankly.
For all she knew about her stepsister’s marriage was that it had been
unhappy, that the man had deserted her and that Dolly, in a moment of
unwonted frankness, had once said his name was not Arden; though what
it was she had not disclosed. For all her gaiety and her recklessness
there was never a more secretive woman on earth--about her own
affairs--than Dolly.
“Yes, I do.” Dolly’s lips grew very pale, her eyes defiant. “Let go
of me and sit down while I tell you. But for Heaven’s sake poke the
fire first! I’m frozen,” with a shiver, as if all her dancing had not
quickened her blood.
“This is the last of the coal.” Magdalen’s hand dropped from her
stepsister’s arm, but she did not move to the ugly, dull fire.
“The last? You idiot, I’m a countess! I’ll never worry about coal again
as long as I live.”
“Dolly,” said Magdalen slowly, “I don’t believe you!”
For one second there was on Dolly Arden’s face a look that might have
been terror. The next her small, fair head went back defiantly; if she
found her voice by an effort it was imperceptible.
“You’ll have to,” she returned. “Look here,” pointing to the morning
paper she had calmly taken from the door of the next flat, “Barnysdale
died last night; there’s the notice. And here’s the rest!” she pulled
an envelope from her pocket and threw it to Magdalen.
As the girl took out the three papers that were in it Mrs. Arden
looked, not at her, but at her own stone-cold hands. Her small face
was bloodless; every fine line time--or other things--had marked on it
showed out in the gray November light. If she were thirty and owned to
it she looked forty, with that dreadful tenseness on her face as if she
were trying an experiment she dared not watch.
But Magdalen had no eyes for her.
There, in black and white, staring her in the face, was the marriage
certificate of Dorothy Deane and John Ogilvie, Earl of Barnysdale,
Viscount Stratharden; the baptismal register of Ronald, their only son.
“Doll!” she exclaimed, “why did you never tell me? And why did you
worry like you’ve been doing? Why didn’t you go to him while he was
alive? He would have had to do something for you.”
“I couldn’t,” hoarsely. “Read the last paper and you’ll see why!” but
her mouth had grown suddenly lax as if with relief, and as she looked
up her beautiful, shallow eyes were for the first time steady.
“Was he out of his mind?” said Magdalen, gathering the sense of that
third paper incredulously.
“No,” doubtfully, hesitating, “only tired, I--I think. He----” She gave
herself an angry little shake. Why was she telling her story as though
it were that of some one else?
“Here,” she cried roughly, “give me the papers. I’ll tell you the whole
thing! You know when mother died I went on the stage. Well, I wasn’t a
success--that’s the long and short of it! And I got ill. I went down
to Hastings to a good hotel, with the last money I had. I thought I
would eat and drink that, and then, if nothing turned up, the sea would
be convenient. You were at that convent; you were only a girl I hardly
knew. Anyhow”--as if she were defending herself--“you’ve never known,
as I have, what it was to be afraid of life because you were poor.”
“Poor! But you’d mother’s money.”
“Not then,” impatiently. “Can’t you remember? When she died there was
just a lump sum and some stock in a mine that hadn’t paid for eight
years; but of that lump sum I paid the money down for the rest of
your education; you were only fifteen then and I didn’t want you with
me, and the rest I kept for myself. It was only a hundred pounds and
it went like that”--snapping her fingers--“and I went to Hastings. I
didn’t care a straw for you in those days.”
The girl nodded. She remembered that well enough.
“Well, I met him there!” with a hard breath through pinched nostrils.
“We were married; not a soul knew but the registrar. He had his yacht
there and we went away in her, and I was never called anything but Mrs.
Arden! I didn’t care, because I had good clothes and enough to eat, but
he told me plainly enough he didn’t mean to announce his marriage. He
said he was sick of the people he lived among and--well, I suppose I
wasn’t much like them,” bitterly, yet somehow with the bitterness of
the actress she once had been. “We left the yacht and lived in London.
My God! how dull it was! He was out all day long. I never knew a
creature except my own maid.”
She moistened her lips, stiff and dry; it was harder to tell all this
than she had thought. “Then Ronald was born and he--he was furious!
I can see him now raging up and down. He wouldn’t have the child
christened--wouldn’t look at him. But when I got better”--every word
seemed dragged out of her and, seeing the humiliation of her story,
Magdalen could not wonder--“I had it done; and the next week he left
me. That charming document,” pointing to the largest of the three
papers on her lap, “was what he left behind him. You see that it’s to
the point, genuine; no one,” with a crooked smile, “would ever think of
making up or inventing a letter like that!”
Magdalen read it once more, this time aloud. It was scrupulously signed
and dated, but it began with neither formality nor affection:
“When this is handed to you I shall be gone. To my regret I find the
atmosphere of middle-class domesticity even less bearable than my
former surroundings. I have no fault to find with either your conduct
or your character, which are flawless to the utmost boredom--at least
they have produced that in me. I leave in your hands, chiefly because
I cannot avoid it, irrefragable proofs of your marriage to me; and I
rely on your affection and your honor not to use them.
“My heir I leave to your care, and I also leave you a sufficient
amount of money for present expenses. When that is done, you
understand that there will be no more, nor do I mean to acknowledge
you in any way. You may say that you can force me to do so, which is
perfectly true; but you doubtless know me well enough by this time to
realize what the consequences of that course of action would be.
“If, on the contrary, you obey my instructions--and I think I do not
build too greatly on your wifely and motherly affection--I make you
the following offer: At my death you are free to claim your rights
for yourself and your son. As I am nearly thirty years your senior,
you may not have long to wait. I will leave a letter, written at
the same time as this, with my lawyers, acknowledging the legality
of your marriage and the legitimacy of my son’s birth. If I seemed
annoyed at the latter event it was merely momentary. I married you
for a purpose which I find you cannot fulfil. My son’s existence is,
during my lifetime, of no importance; after my death, very much the
reverse; but during my life I have no desire to be hampered with
either you or him. I leave you--since you are a woman, and must have
reasons--because you can neither please, interest nor amuse me.
Kindly let me know your decision on this matter by a telegram to the
enclosed address. Any letter will only be returned to you.
“I have, madam, the honor to remain,
“Your husband,
“BARNYSDALE.
“P. S.--I should advise you to dismiss your maid, who deserves a
less confined sphere for her delightfully outspoken tongue. As for
your livelihood I have no fears, remembering how many times you have
assured me that it would gratify you to be allowed to return to your
profession.”
“Of all the wicked letters!” began Magdalen Clyde slowly, and sat
looking at the unspeakable document. “What did you do? I would
have”--her beautiful mouth straightened, her eyes grew veiled and
evil--“I would have made him acknowledge me that very day or I’d have
killed him!”
“You didn’t know him,” sharply. “I did. And nothing, not Ronald’s
future nor starvation, would have made me live with him a single day
when I’d once got rid of him! I sent the telegram.”
“You agreed! To be thrown over like that?”
“I did. I wired that in accordance with his wishes I would make no
claim on him during his lifetime. I hated him. I was thankful, thankful
to have him out of my sight.”
“And you never heard from him?”
“I never heard.” All her old lightness had come back to her and a
certain something her stepsister had never seen in her. “He’s dead!”
she cried with dreadful, venomous joy. “He’s cold, and they’ll put him
in the ground. And I’m alive and warm and a countess!”
“Hush! Stop! It’s unlucky,” Magdalen said sharply. “You’re not a
countess yet.”
“It’s all the same. We’re made, Magdalen! I need never worry again
about what my clothes cost. And now you can lend me your black hat and
I’ll hasten to my defunct John’s lawyers. John was his name. Fancy an
earl named John!”
“You’d better not go while you look like you do, wild with joy,”
bluntly.
But Dolly only kissed her hand as she went out.