RIVALS AND FOES.
"We meet where harp and violin
Were singing songs of mirth,
Where creatures floated in the space
Almost too fair for earth.
He moved amid the surging crowd,
And by one single glance
My heart was lost, forever lost,
While swinging in the dance."
Oh, how Geraldine enjoyed the first two hours of the ball!
It was one of the most brilliant affairs ever given in Newburgh.
The dazzling lights shone on an animated scene, adorned with rich
floral garnitures, and brightened by the rich uniforms of the firemen,
mixed with the sober black of the ordinary citizen, and the gay gowns
of the beautiful women.
Geraldine, with her golden fluff of hair, bright brown eyes, and
shining white attire, was the cynosure of all eyes, and many a gallant
fireman envied Harry Hawthorne, who was her partner so often in the
joyous dance.
True, she would dance with any of them to whom he introduced her, but
each one saw by the wandering glances of her brown eyes that Hawthorne
was first in her heart and thoughts.
So the first two hours passed by like a dream of bliss.
Geraldine loved music and dancing and gayety, with all her heart. She
loved, too, the congenial new friends she had made, and lost in the
delightful present, she forgot for a time her feverish ambition to
become an actress and shine upon the stage.
What exquisite rapture may be crowded into two hours--rapture that will
linger in the memory till death blots out all. So it was with Geraldine.
When Hawthorne pressed her hand in the dance, and looked into her eyes,
drinking in deep draughts the intoxication of her beauty and sweetness,
the girl thrilled with a rapture akin to pain, and those moments of
dizzy, subtle bliss so dazzling in their brightness, returned to
Geraldine through all her life as her happiest hours--that hour in a
woman's life when First Love "is a shy, sweet new-comer, and Hope leads
it by the hand."
"New hopes may bloom, and days may come,
Of milder, calmer beam;
But there's nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dream."
How sad that a shadow should fall so suddenly over Geraldine's
happiness!
But as she stood at a window, panting from the dance, rosy and smiling,
as she talked to Harry Hawthorne, a shadow suddenly came between her
and the light, pausing by her side till she looked up and saw--Clifford
Standish!
Alas! that his shadow should ever come between her and the dawning
happiness of her life!
Alas! that she had ever met him, the handsome, unscrupulous actor, who
stood there scowling at his splendid rival!
"Mr. Standish!" she exclaimed, with a violent start, and a strange
feeling of annoyance, and he answered, impressively:
"How glad I am that I have found you at last!"
"Have you been looking for me?" she asked, coldly.
"Everywhere! And I beg ten thousand pardons for my seeming desertion
of you. It was wholly an accident, and the fault of my friend, who
detained me talking one minute too long. I followed you on the next
steamer, but it was several hours late, and all the time my mind was
distracted over what would become of you. Of course I knew you would
find friends--a beautiful girl alone in a crowd will always find a
protector; but," sneeringly, "not always a safe one!"
"I beg your pardon. It was I who protected Miss Harding," began Harry
Hawthorne, wrathfully, and the girl started, and exclaimed:
"Mr. Standish, this is Mr. Hawthorne, a very kind gentleman who paid
my fare on the boat after you left me without a ticket, and afterward
jumped into the river and saved my life when I fell overboard. I owe
him a debt of gratitude that I can never repay."
They bowed coldly, trying not to glare, each seeing in the other a
dangerous rival.
Clifford Standish was not pleasant to look at with that steely glare in
his large, light-blue eyes, and that angry compression of his shaven
lips as he said, coldly:
"I thank you, sir, for your care of my friend during my enforced
absence from her side. I will repay you the boat fare, and remain
deeply indebted to you for saving her life. Of course it goes without
saying that I shall now be honored with her company again, thus
relieving you of her care."
Harry Hawthorne, with a dangerous flash in his dark-blue eyes,
retorted, calmly:
"I beg your pardon. Her engagement with me for this evening gives me a
right that I shall not relinquish unless at her desire."
Both looked at the beautiful, flushed face of the girl. She
comprehended the sudden hate between them, and said, tremblingly, but
with the sweet tones of the peacemaker:
"I think Mr. Hawthorne is right. My engagement with you was for to-day,
and we were to have returned to-night, you know. But after you left me
alone on the boat, I made new friends, and a very sweet, kind lady,
well-known to Mr. Hawthorne, took charge of me and invited me to be
her guest while I staid in Newburgh. It was under her chaperonage I
came to the ball, and, with her consent, I accepted the escort of Mr.
Hawthorne. I cannot break my engagement with him, and I have promised,
also, to go back to New York in his care to-morrow."
Every word she uttered maddened him with secret fury. His face was
livid as he almost hissed:
"I should like to see this lady who chaperoned you here. How do I know
that she is a proper person!" he began, insolently, but at that moment
a lady tapped him smartly on the arm with her fan, exclaiming:
"Ha, ha, ha! I like that, Mr. Standish! A proper person indeed. Well,
I'm the person, and if you have any fault to find with me, my husband,
Captain Stansbury, will settle it with you."
"Miss Odell!" he exclaimed, recoiling in surprise from the sight of the
face of an old acquaintance.
"Mrs. Stansbury, please," she corrected him, then went on, gayly: "Do
you remember our flirtation at Asbury Park three years ago? I haven't
seen you since, have I? Well, I've been married two years now to the
finest man in New York. But my sisters are single yet. Come with me and
pay your respects to them before the german begins."
She dragged him reluctantly away, and then Hawthorne said, angrily:
"That fellow was inclined to be insolent, and I could scarcely refrain
from pitching him neck and heels through this window!"
"Oh, please, please, do not get into any trouble with him on my
account!" pleaded Geraldine. "He has been very kind to me, really, and
I should not wish to offend him!"
"Do not tell me he is your lover--that you care for him!" exclaimed the
young man, jealously.
"N-n-o, he is only a friend!" she faltered, and was glad when her
partner for the next dance came to claim her hand.
She knew in her heart that Clifford Standish regarded her with more
than a friendly liking, but she was not prepared to own it to impetuous
Harry Hawthorne, so she was glad to get away from his inquisitive looks
and words.
But the joy of the evening was ended now for pretty Geraldine.
Clifford Standish soon escaped from the Odell girls, and haunted
Geraldine the rest of the time, not offensively, but with the assurance
of a favored lover, torturing the poor girl who could not bear to wound
his feelings, but whose reserved and distrait manner did not discourage
his persistent gallantry, for he stood his ground, debarring the lovers
from any pleasure in each other's society.
Once Hawthorne whispered to her, fiercely:
"There comes that cad back. He is annoying you. I see it by your
altered looks. Will you not allow me to pitch him out of the window?"
"No--oh, no, you must not make a scene!" she shuddered, apprehensively.
"Then tell him yourself that you are weary of his persistent
following," he urged.
"Oh, no, I cannot wound him so. He has been kind to me, and means
no harm," she said, trying to make excuses that she felt he did not
deserve.
But she escaped from the ball as soon as she could, glad to be rid of
him, and spent a restless night, repenting the encouragement she had
given Standish before she met Hawthorne.
"They both love me, and I can see that they will be bitter foes," she
thought, in terror of some unknown evil.
The next morning Standish came at an early hour to call. He was
acquainted with the girls, and they tried by merry banter to drive the
threatening gloom from his brow; but all their efforts were dismal
failures. He had eyes only for Geraldine, who was pale and perturbed
under his reproachful glances, that seemed to say, bitterly:
"You are a cruel little coquette. You encouraged me to love you until
you met that other fellow, and now you wish to throw me over."