Three years had slipped away and Evadne still wore her cousin's ring. A
great tenderness was growing up in her heart toward him. She yearned
over him as only those can understand who know what it is to carry the
burden of souls upon their hearts by night and day but no thought of
love ever crossed her mind. To Evadne Hildreth, love was a wonderfully
sacred thing. The ring fretted her and she longed to be freed from its
presence, but Louis held her to her promise. If he only waited long
enough, he persuaded himself, his patience would be rewarded. Some day
this shy, sweet bird would nestle against his heart. In the meantime he
would keep the ungenerous advantage which his illness had given him. He
forgot that it needs more to tame a bird than merely putting it in a
cage!
Isabelle had been intensely curious but her questions had elicited no
satisfaction from her brother, and Evadne had answered simply, "Louis
took a fancy to put it on my finger: I am wearing it to please him,
that is all:" and even Isabelle found her cousin's sweet dignity an
effectual bar against her morbid inquisitiveness.
They had seen comparatively little of each other. Evadne was constantly
busy, either at private or hospital nursing, and very short were the
furloughs which she spent under her uncle's roof. Louis had spent the
first winter after his illness with his mother in the South of France,
now he was in Florida, but he wrote regularly, and Evadne answered--when
she could. Sweet, pleading letters which he read over and over and
honestly tried to be better: but it was only for her sake; he knew no
higher motive--yet.
It was a perfect day. Down by the river an alligator was sunning
himself, and the resinous breath of the pine trees swept its aromatic
fragrance over Louis as he lay at full length in a hammock with his
hands behind his head. He had thrown the magazine he had been reading on
the ground and it lay open at the article on Heredity which he had just
finished. His desultory thoughts were roaming idly over the subject,
when one, more far reaching than the rest, made him start lip with a
sudden shock of unwelcome surprise.
"By Jove! Can it be that I am a victim of it too? It looks confoundedly
like it, although even my sweet little Puritan has not felt it a sin
against her conscience to keep me in the dark."
He thrust his fingers with an impatient gesture through his hair. "Now I
come to think of it, the case grows deucedly clear. The South of France
one winter and Florida this! Simple nervous prostration would seem to
the uninitiated better fought in the exhilirating ozone of Colorado,
or--the North Pole--than in this languorous atmosphere. 'An inherited
tendency.' Is this the pleasant little legacy which my respected
ancestor has bequeathed to his only grandson? It skipped the Judge, but
it caught poor Uncle Lenox, and now it has nabbed me! What a fool I have
been not to surmise what this confounded pain meant between my
shoulders! Grandfather Hildreth kept himself alive with nostrums until
he was seventy, but he was an invalid all his life. He ought to be
cursed for his contemptible selfishness in bringing so much suffering
upon the race! There's none of the taint about Evadne, bless her! Russe
told me the Hospital examiners said they had never passed such a perfect
specimen of health."
He stopped suddenly and bit his lips in pain. Would he not follow his
grandfather's example--if he had the chance?
"What in the world is the meaning of all this?"
Louis had arrived by an earlier train than he was expected and only his
mother was at home to greet him. The hall was in confusion, workmen's
tools lay about and ladders stood against the walls. Mrs. Hildreth
laughed lightly, as she laid her hand within her son's arm.
"Oh, they are only getting ready for the floral decorations," she said,
"we give a reception to-morrow in honor of your return. How well you are
looking, Louis. I am so delighted to have you at home."
"Thanks, lady mother. I do not need to ask how you have survived my
absence. How is Evadne,--and the Judge and the girls?"
His mother laughed again as she drew him on the sofa beside her. She
seemed in wonderfully good humor. "Rather a comprehensive question," she
said. "Sit down and we will have a comfortable talk before the others
get home. Your father looks wretchedly but he says there is nothing the
matter. I suppose it is just overwork and the usual money strain.
Isabelle too is not as well as I should like her to be. Suffers from
nervousness a great deal, and depression. There is a new physician here
now, a Doctor Randolph, who we think is going to help her, although he
is very young; but she took a dislike to Doctor Russe because he
belongs to the old school. And now I have a surprise for you. Marion is
engaged!"
"Engaged! Why, you never hinted at it in your letters!"
"It has all been very sudden. I wrote you there was a young New Yorker
very attentive to her."
"Yes, but that is an old story. There were two fellows 'very attentive'
when I went away. How long since the present devotion culminated?"
"Just a week ago to-night: and they are so devoted!"
"A second Romeo and Juliet, eh?"--Louis' laugh had a bitter ring,--"By
the way, what is his name?"
"Simpson Kennard."
"Brother Simp! Rich, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes, very. In fact he is eligible in every way."
"I see," yawned Louis, "Possessed of all the cardinal virtues. It is a
good thing his wealth is not all in his pockets, for they are apt to
spring a leak. But Evadne--how is she?"
"Oh, she is always well, you know," said his mother carelessly. "There
they come now."
"These Indian famines are a terrible business," said Judge Hildreth as
they lingered over their dessert that evening. It was pleasant to have
Louis and Evadne back again. He too was glad to see his son so well. "I
don't see what the end is going to be."
"People say that about every calamity, Papa," said Isabelle, "but the
world goes on just the same."
"Of course it does, Isabelle," said her brother. "You see we can't waste
time over a few dying millions when we have to give a reception for
instance."
"But that is a necessity, Louis," said Mrs. Hildreth, "we must pay our
debts to society, you know."
"I am sure I don't see where I could economize," sighed Marion. "That
lecturer last night was splendid and I would like to have given him
thousands but I hadn't a dollar in my purse. I never have. I spent my
last cent for chocolates yesterday."
Evadne smiled and sighed but said nothing. The lecturer the night before
had felt his soul strangely stirred at the sight of her glowing face,
and the plate when it passed her seat had borne a shining gold piece,
but perhaps she had not as many temptations as Marion and Isabelle.
"I would have willingly filled you up a check with the cost of the
floral decorations, Marion," said her father with a twinkle in his eye.
"They would have purchased a good many bags of corn."
"But that is ridiculous!" said Isabelle. "What would a reception be
without flowers, I should like to know? As it is, I expect it will be a
poor affair compared to the Van Nuys' last week. We never seem to be
able to do anything in proper style. You would better put your new Worth
gown, on the collection plate, Marion, and appear in a morning dress
to-morrow night. Louis would be the first one to be scandalized if you
did!"
"Well but, Isabelle, I had to have something now. I have worn my other
dresses so many times, I am perfectly ashamed."
"Of course, sis," said Louis gravely, "it was a most imperative
expenditure. It is a strange coincidence that you should have chosen
that particular make though. It has always been a fancy of mine that the
Levite was robed in a Worth gown when he passed by on the other side."
"The sufferings must be awful," said Evadne, anxious to relieve Marion's
embarrassment. "I saw in the paper to-day that----"
Mrs. Hildreth lifted her hands in mock alarm. "Pray spare us any recital
of horrors, Evadne! I never want to hear about any of these dreadful
things. What is the use, when one cannot help in any way?"
"You forget, Mamma," said Isabelle with a laugh, "that Evadne revels in
horrors. What would be torture to our quivering nerves, to her atrophied
sensibilities is merely an occurrence of every day."
Louis gave a sudden start in his chair, but on the instant Evadne laid
her hand upon his arm, and its light touch soothed his anger as it had
been wont to soothe his pain.
Evadne Hildreth was climbing the heights of victory. She had learned to
cover her wounds with a smile.