THE CUP OF HAPPINESS.
Six weeks later, when the world of fashion was ringing with the praises
of Lady Auchester's beauty and amiability, and the society papers were
prophesying that the future Duchess of Rothbury would become the most
popular of the leaders of ton, Leslie and Yorke drove in a hansom to
St. John's Wood.
They were very silent during the journey, and when they stopped at the
house in which the famous Finetta of the Diadem had held so many merry
parties, Leslie got out of the cab alone.
She was inside the house nearly an hour, and when she came out with her
veil down and re-entered the cab she did not speak for some time, but
held her husband's hand in eloquent silence.
"Well, dearest?" he said at last.
"Yes, I am glad I came," she said, in a low voice. "Very glad. Oh,
Yorke, how changed she is! I scarcely knew her. You remember how strong
and self-reliant she was? Now----," she stopped with a little sob. "And
yet she is so happy and cheerful. She spends all her time thinking and
working for others; the poor girls at the theater where she was, come
and see her, and she helps them in all sorts of ways. While I was there
the clergyman came in, and he spoke a few words to me outside her room.
He said that if there ever was a really good woman she was one."
"Poor Fin!" said Yorke, under his breath.
"No, no," said Leslie; "not pity, Yorke. She does not need that, for
she is happier now lying there, than ever she was in the old days of
her strength and triumph. I told her all about you, and Lucy and Ralph,
and she wants me to take Lucy to see her. She and Lucy will just suit
each other. And Yorke----," she paused and held out her tiny fist to
him. "She has given me something; for a wedding present, she said.
Guess what it is."
"I give it up," he said quietly.
She opened her hand and showed him the diamond pendant.
"'I thought you would come some day,' she said, Yorke, and if you could
have seen her face when she said it! 'And so I kept it for you.'"
* * * * *
One day Lord Auchester and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Duncombe
were staying at a country house in the North. It was an extremely
pleasant party, of which those two ladies were, by general consent,
admitted to be the belles, and the hostess, not unnaturally proud of
having the famous Lady Auchester under her roof, decided to give a big
dance which should include all the neighboring county families and
their guests.
Half an hour before the opening of the ball, while Leslie was dressing,
the hostess, Lady Springmore, came in to her in a great flush of
excitement and distress.
"Oh, my dear Lady Auchester, I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, when Leslie
had sent her maid away. "I am heartbroken about it, and I don't know
what to do."
"What is it, Lady Springmore?" asked Leslie, more amused than
frightened at her hostess' fluster. "Has the floor fallen in, or the
ices gone wrong?"
"No, no, my dear! It's--it's something concerning you and Lord
Auchester," and she clasped her hands and sank into a chair.
"Then I'd better call my husband," said Leslie, looking toward the next
dressing-room, where Yorke was brushing his hair and whistling "like a
ploughboy," as Leslie often declared.
"No, no. And yet--oh, I'd better tell you at once. My dear Lady
Auchester, the Marlows have got Lady Eleanor Dallas staying with
them--and she's coming here to-night!"
Leslie blushed, but she said quietly, "Well?"
"Well!" echoed the hostess in a kind of despair. "Don't you see, dear?
She doesn't know you are here, and--and--oh, what shall I do?"
"Do nothing," replied Leslie, as quietly as before.
"But--but will it not be awkward and unpleasant for you, dear Lady
Auchester?"
"Yes," said Leslie, in her old, downright way. "Yes; it will be both
awkward and unpleasant, but if we ran away from all the awkwardness and
unpleasantness in life we should spend our time in perpetual flight. I
see you know our story, Lady Springmore."
"Oh, every one does, my dear," murmured that lady apologetically.
"Just so," said Leslie calmly. "Well, if you are kind enough to ask my
advice, it is: Do nothing. The world is so small that Lady Dallas and
we are sure to meet sometimes, and--well," she smiled, "do you think
that we shall make a scene in your pretty ballroom? Wait!"
She opened the door of the dressing-room an inch or two and called to
Yorke.
"Hallo!" he called back. "What is it? Want me to come and admire you in
your warpaint, I suppose? Shan't! Tired of admiring you!"
"Oh, hush, hush!" said Leslie, blushing like a rose. "Lady Springmore
is here, Yorke. She has come to tell us that--that Lady Eleanor Dallas
is coming to-night."
"The devil!"
"No, dear, Lady Eleanor," said Leslie, sweetly and naively.
He came to the door and poked his head round; then he saw by her face
what he was expected to say, and said it like a good and docile husband.
"Delighted to see any guest of yours, Lady Springmore!" he said,
bobbing his head at her, and promptly disappeared.
An hour or two later, when the ball was in full swing, Leslie heard the
footman announce Lady Eleanor Dallas.
She had been waiting for it, and was prepared. Lady Eleanor entered.
She was thinner, and looked pale, and rather listless, and the air of
pride and hauteur were more pronounced than of old.
Superbly dressed, she moved through the crowd with a faint smile of
greeting for her acquaintances; then suddenly she saw Leslie. She
stopped for just one instant, and the blood rushed to her face; then
she came toward her, and, Leslie coming forward too, they met each
other half way, so to speak.
The few conventional words were spoken, and by that time Lady Eleanor
had recovered her presence of mind, and was once more the stately,
haughty patrician who suffers and is silent.
"Your husband is here, Lady Auchester?" she said, quite calmly.
"I will bring him to you," said Leslie, promptly.
She found Yorke, and put her arm through his, pressing it to give him
courage, for in all cases like this the bravest man is as like as not
to prove an arrant coward.
"She is here, Yorke! Now, mind!"
"Oh, Lord!" he groaned. Then he pulled himself together quite suddenly.
"If she can go through it, I can!" he said, grimly.
In another moment they were facing each other--Yorke with an
unconsciously stern face, Lady Eleanor with a faint smile which masked
more than pen can tell.
"How do you do, Lord Auchester?" she said, giving him her hand.
Yorke took it, and for a moment he found that it trembled; but he said
afterwards that he thought it was only fancy.
Then, without another word, she turned and moved away.
They met--they were bound to meet--often in the after years, but it was
never more than "How do you do, Lord Auchester?" "I hope you are well,
Lady Eleanor?" until Leslie's first girl was born.
There had been a good deal of fuss--as the duke said, who made more
fuss than any one else--over the birth of the son and heir; but this
child, the first girl, was hailed as if she were the most wonderful
production the world had ever seen, and Lucy was regarded with
boundless envy because she was chosen as godmother.
But the day before the christening Leslie received a magnificent set of
pearls, inclosed in a box of white ivory, inside which was a slip of
paper, bearing, in Lady Eleanor's handwriting, this inscription:
"To my godchild, Leslie Eleanor Auchester."
Yorke was amazed and bewildered, but Leslie understood in an instant.
"What does it mean?" he demanded, staring at her, and almost letting
the casket drop.
"It means that she is going to transfer her love to our--no,
your--little one, Yorke," she said. "Oh, don't you see? And we thought
she hated us!"
She caught up her baby and kissed it, and laughed and cried over it, in
her joy and thankfulness, for every time she had met Lady Eleanor her
tender heart had ached. But now this little mite had removed the only
thorn in Leslie's bed of roses.
"Yes, she shall have her," she said.
"Eh?" exclaimed Yorke, staring. "What! Altogether? I say!"
"Oh, not altogether!" said Leslie, with a little gasp, and clutching
her baby tighter. "No, not altogether, but--but nearly! Oh, Yorke,
Yorke, my cup of happiness is full now. Quite, quite full!"
[THE END.]
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
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original spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been left intact.