GERALDINE'S CHOICE.
"Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tis only noble to be good;
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood."
TENNYSON.
"Fair maiden, let me say to you,
Mark well the man who comes to woo;
Select the one as true as steel,
With brain to think and heart to feel."
FRANCIS S. SMITH.
When Mrs. Fitzgerald had dismissed Standish, she returned to her
daughter and recounted all that had passed.
She was vastly amused at the actor's boastfulness, and said:
"It is only low-bred people, 'beggars on horseback,' as the saying
goes, who brag of their possessions or their expectations. Really
high-toned people--and they may be high-toned even if poor--can never
tolerate purse-proud vulgarity."
Geraldine laughed and said:
"Clifford Standish's story of his rich mother has always been his trump
card in social life. I have often been secretly disgusted at hearing
him tell it to new acquaintances."
"He probably sets a very low estimate on his own merits when he has to
resort to such silly boasting to curry favor," returned her mother,
adding: "I have met people of his stamp before, and, as a rule, their
statements were untruthful. I dare say, if the facts were known, the
fellow's mother takes in washing or goes out scrubbing."
"Thank Heaven, I am rid of him at last! I do not believe he will ever
dare to cross my path again since finding out that I have such a strong
defender in my noble mother," declared Geraldine, gladly, for she did
not yet comprehend with what an evil nature she had to deal.
Believing herself rid of Clifford Standish forever, her longing
thoughts returned to the true lover from whom she had been so cruelly
torn.
"Oh, my love! my love! I cannot give you up," she thought, tenderly,
and after a moment's hesitancy she cried:
"Oh, mamma, you said just now that a person may be high-toned even
though poor, and it made me think of my lover Harry. If you should meet
him, mamma, not knowing his obscure station, you would think him not
less than princely. He has the bearing, the speech, and the heart of a
gentleman--of one of nature's noblemen. Then why should you despise him
for his poverty?"
Mrs. Fitzgerald's fair brow clouded with annoyance at her daughter's
words and she said, quickly:
"I do not despise him for his poverty--I do not despise him at all. I
said that you could not marry him because almost from your cradle you
have been promised to another."
"What nonsense!" said the girl, petulantly, to herself but she asked,
with seeming calmness:
"To whom, mamma?"
"To a splendid young gentleman of wealth and rank in England."
"How romantic! Tell me all about it, dear mamma!" cried Geraldine,
anxious to know the worst.
"You are laughing at me, Geraldine," her mother cried, doubtfully.
"No, no, mamma; I was only smiling at my transformation. Such a little
while ago I was simply a poor shop-girl in a New York dry-goods store,
and engaged to marry a fireman, who was considered an exceedingly good
match for me. Now I find myself a rich young heiress, betrothed to an
English nobleman. It is quite startling."
"I believe you regret your good fortune!" cried the lady.
Geraldine answered with a burst of tears.
For a few moments she sobbed vehemently; then calming herself, she
sighed.
"Dear mamma, I can never regret that I have found you, but I can never
cease to deplore your hardness of heart that would part me from my
heart's chosen one!"
"Hardness of heart," echoed the mother, reproachfully.
"Oh, mamma, you do not know how fondly I love him!" sobbed the
daughter, and for a little while there was a painful silence.
Mrs. Fitzgerald was a woman of strong will and high ambition.
She could not forego her plans for Geraldine.
So presently she said, soothingly:
"My darling girl, I know you would not wish to have me break my
plighted word. When I was in Europe, at the time when you were two
years old, I spent two months at the home of a New York cousin of mine
who had married a rich lord. They had a son seven years old--a bright,
manly little lad--who fairly worshiped you; and one day his mother
said, gayly: 'Leland, why don't you ask little Geraldine to be your
wife when she grows up?'
"The pretty blue-eyed boy laughed and knelt down by your side,
repeating the question his mother had prompted, and you kissed him and
lisped 'yes.'"
"But I was only a baby, mamma. Of course, such a betrothal was not
binding," remonstrated Geraldine, though she was touched at the pretty,
childish betrothal.
"Wait till I have finished, darling. Lady Putnam, my cousin, smiled at
me with tears in her eyes, and said that she hoped that the childish
love would endure till they were grown, and that they might indeed
marry. I agreed to this, and we solemnly betrothed the children next
day, buying a tiny diamond ring on purpose to fit your finger. Little
Leland was delighted with his promised bride, and grieved bitterly when
we left him and returned to New York."
Geraldine was about to speak, but her mother interrupted:
"Wait, dear, till I have finished the story I began. Then I will listen
to your objections."