THE POWER OF LOVE.
"To look for thee--sigh for thee--cry for thee,
Under my breath;
To clasp but a shade where thy head hath been laid,
It is death.
"To long for thee--yearn for thee--burn for thee--
Sorrow and strife!
But to have thee--and hold thee--and fold thee,
It is life, it is life!"
It almost seemed as if Clifford Standish was destined to realize his
diabolical hopes of his rival's death.
When Harry Hawthorne was drawn from his perilous position at the heels
of the horses, he was found to be unconscious, and the blood pouring
from a wound on his head.
An ambulance was called to convey him to the hospital, and the
physician in charge looked very serious over the case.
"It is impossible to say yet whether he is mortally injured or not.
He may simply be stunned from the bad cut on his head, or he may have
sustained internal injuries," he said to the anxious crowd about him,
and then the wounded man was lifted carefully into the ambulance, and
driven to the Bellevue Hospital.
Clifford Standish turned away from the scene with a diabolical smile of
triumph on his thin lips, hissing cruelly:
"The Fates have played me a good turn, and I will make the most of my
opportunity. Whether Harry Hawthorne lives or dies, I will come between
him and Geraldine so effectually that when he returns to her it will be
impossible to win her from me. Of course, I shall not go near her this
evening. She must be kept in ignorance of his accident, if possible,
so that she may think he has forsaken her. Ha, ha, ha! what a weary
waiting she will have for him this evening, and how angry she will be
because he has broken his engagement."
Geraldine did, indeed, have a weary waiting for her lover, and her
disappointment was keen and bitter at his failure to come.
But so absolute was her faith in him that she did not become angry, but
thought, excusingly:
"Something has happened to detain him, surely. Perhaps he was called
out to some dreadful fire. I shall be sure to receive a note from him
to-morrow, explaining all, craving my pardon, and appointing another
date to call."
She was so anxious, too, for Cissy to see him. She felt sure that her
friend would like him better than she had liked Clifford Standish.
When she reached home that day, she rested a while, then went down to
the store, and remained until closing time, returning with Cissy, who
was cold and indifferent, for Geraldine's non-return the night before
had filled her with alarm over the fate of the willful girl.
But Geraldine, eager for her friend's sympathy, put aside her former
petulance, and poured into Cissy's ear the story of the day and
night--the accident that had deprived her of the actor's company--the
new friends she had made, her fall into the water, her rescue, her
charming time at Newburgh--except that her girlish heart had gone from
her own keeping into that of noble, handsome, tender Harry Hawthorne.
But Cissy did not need to be told the latter. She read it in the blush
and smile of the innocent girl.
"How does Love speak?
In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek,
And in the pallor that succeeds it; by
The quivering lid of an averted eye--
The smile that proves the parent to a sigh--
Thus doth Love speak.
"How does Love speak?
In the proud spirit suddenly grown meek
The haughty heart grown humble; in the tender
And unnamed light that floods the world with splendor,
In the shy touch of hands that thrill and tremble.
In looks and lips that can no more dissemble--
Thus doth Love speak!"
"Oh, Cissy, I want you to promise me to come in and see him to-night,"
pleaded Geraldine, humbly. "I am sure you will be charmed with him, he
is so good and so handsome."
"So you said of Mr. Standish," reminded Cissy.
Geraldine blushed, but answered, warmly:
"I know I did; but--Mr. Hawthorne is nicer than the actor--oh, ever so
much nicer! And"--slyly--"you will like him, Cissy, because he is as
much opposed to my going on the stage as you are."
"Then I shall cultivate his acquaintance," declared Cissy, beamingly.
And she was almost as anxious for his coming that night as Geraldine
was herself.
But, as we have seen, both were disappointed.
Harry Hawthorne lay ill and suffering at the hospital, and there was no
one to tell Geraldine the story of his accident.
Her young heart was heavy with pain and wonder all the next day, but
still no message came to explain or excuse his failure to keep his
engagement.
Only some fair young girl as loving and tender as our sweet Geraldine,
who has been disappointed as she was, can realize her silent grief that
day as she stood behind the counter, patiently waiting on exacting
customers and trying to seem cheerful and interested when she was
longing to be alone in her own room, to bury her head in the pillow and
have a good, comforting cry.
She was wretched with doubt and suspense.
And only yesterday she had been so wildly happy.
Late in the afternoon Clifford Standish came into the store to buy a
pair of gloves.
He was bright, smiling, and elegant as ever, and chatted gayly with
Geraldine.
"I have some good news for you this evening," he whispered, but the
girl scarcely smiled.
She knew that he would not bring her any tidings of Harry Hawthorne,
and it seemed to her that she cared for nothing else.
How strange is love when it enters the heart as a guest, shutting out
interest in everything else--strange, subtle, sweet, and absorbingly
selfish.
Geraldine forgot how well she had liked the actor, and how she had
quarreled with Cissy for his sake.
His attentions were repugnant to her now, and she wished ardently to be
rid of him.
But her tender, girlish heart reproached her for her fickleness, and
she thought it would seem ungrateful to snub him now.
So she only smiled at him plaintively, assuming an interest she did not
feel.
Bending across the counter, he whispered, so that Cissy could not hear:
"I beg your pardon, but did your new admirer--did he call last night?"
"No-o," faltered the girl, and she could hardly keep the tears from her
eyes.
"Why, that is strange. What prevented him from keeping his engagement?"
"I do not know."
"You have not heard from him?" he exclaimed, in surprise.
"Not a word," she sighed, then added, quickly: "But I don't think he
meant to break his engagement. Perhaps there was a fire, and he had to
go."
"Very likely--but, then, he should have sent you an apology early this
morning."
"Do you think so? Oh, I suppose he will come and explain in person,"
said Geraldine, with assumed indifference.
Another customer bustled up to claim her attention, and he bowed
himself away, secretly exultant over the fact that she was utterly
ignorant of Harry Hawthorne's fate.
"There is no one to come and tell her, and even if it gets into the
papers, she is not likely to read it. A poor working-girl has little
time for reading," he reflected.
Again his evil genius favored him.
When he went for his call on Geraldine that evening, he found a
messenger-boy in the street with a letter for her from the Bellevue
Hospital.
He took the letter from the boy, and gave him a quarter.
"I am going in to see Miss Harding now. I will deliver the letter,"
he said, affably, and the boy, who was in a hurry to get home to his
supper, thanked him for the service, and turned away, rejoicingly.
The triumphant actor hid the letter in his breast, congratulating
himself on having so easily obtained possession of it.
"I am very fortunate, for had the fickle little beauty received it, all
would have been explained between them."
Geraldine came to the door to receive him, and he saw at once how much
she had changed toward him by the simple fact that she had not adorned
herself in her best gown, as usual, but wore her simple shop-gown of
black serge.
She did not care whether she looked fair to him or not, and he quickly
realized it, for he was an adept in reading the complex nature of
woman. But he hid his chagrin, saying, admiringly:
"Perhaps you do not realize how pretty and demure you look in that
black gown."
"Thank you," Geraldine said, listlessly, as she sank into a chair
opposite, and tried to seem friendly and interested.