After the space of five years, let us look in again upon the Van
Zandts.
Eliot Van Zandt has a guest.
Pierre Carmontelle!
For five years the noble Louisianian has been a wanderer in foreign
lands. He has returned at last cured of his passion for the girl he had
loved, strong enough now to witness her happiness with another.
Not since the day when he bid farewell to Eliot and his bride has he
heard aught of their fate until now, when, strong in the consciousness
of his conquered love, he goes to Boston, determined to visit the happy
pair before his return South.
"I shall see Van Zandt grown portly and important, the Little Nobody of
old matronly and magnificent," he said to himself, with a smile.
Fancy the shock of the reality when he found Eliot a grave, sad man,
old beyond his years through the influence of sorrow for the young wife
lost so strangely out of his life.
It was several minutes after Eliot had told him his story before he
could utter a word, so greatly was he affected by what had been told
him. Then he called down the vengeance of Heaven on the head of the
wicked woman.
Eliot's grave, sad face, with its lines of suffering, told plainer than
words all that he had endured.
"Surely you pursued them?" cried Carmontelle.
"As long as my means lasted--yes," said Van Zandt. "But that was such
a little while. You know I had so little beyond my salary, and--there
were my two sisters."
"You should have written to me."
"I did--your letter was returned to me--you had sailed for Europe."
"And not a clew in all these years?"
"None."
"I need not ask if you have taken Una's advice and procured a divorce?"
Carmontelle said, with quiet comprehension of the other's pale, grave
face that flushed slightly, as he answered:
"I am bound to Una while I live, although I have given up all hope of
ever seeing her again."
Carmontelle's steady eyes went over the worn sheet of paper on which
Una had traced her pathetic farewell to her husband.
"And Miss Hayes, whom she says here you loved before your marriage?" he
said, abruptly.
"I can not tell how she fell into such an error. Miss Hayes is my
brother's sister-in-law. She visited here often, but we were never more
than friends," Eliot answered, quietly, all unsuspicious of Sylvie's
treachery.
Then the ladies of the house came in, and the conversation drifted to
other subjects.
Sylvie was the same exquisitely dressed doll; but five years had
changed Maud and Edith from pretty, vivacious girls to quiet, dignified
young ladies. In Maud there was a greater change than in Edith, and the
secret lay in the failure of her beloved novel.
Three years ago the cherished book had been given to the world, and the
cruel critics had ridiculed the immature work of the girl, saying that
the wild flights of fancy, so fresh, so buoyant, could have emanated
from none but a young, inexperienced brain knowing nothing of the hard,
cruel world.
Pretty, tender Maud did not have the spirit of a Byron to retort on
her critics and write, despite their sneers, so she laid down her pen,
as she said, forever, and nearly broke her heart in bitter humiliation
over her cruel failure. So there lay the secret of the beauty so
ethereally frail that one fancied, in looking at her, that the spirit
would soon plume its wings for another world.
Edith was made of different metal. When the picture on which she had
spent so much time was voted as great a failure as Maud's book, she
shed a few bitter tears, brushed them away, and began again.
On her easel had stood, for some time, an unfinished portrait of Una.
Turning to this now, she made a fancy picture of it, and boldly called
it Una.
Upon this portrait rested Edith's fame. When exhibited, it created a
great sensation. She had many offers for it, but she rejected all to
present the portrait to her brother. He was deeply moved, and declared
that the gift of a fortune would not have pleased him so much.
So Edith's fame was established. A few copies of the beautiful "Una"
found ready sale. Then there came in orders for portraits. She had her
own beautiful studio now, and made money enough to buy her own dresses,
and Maud's, too; so Eliot was free now, but he had never begrudged the
manly aid he lent to his sisters. Even now he spent very little for
himself, but went on laying up his small savings carefully for Una, if
she should ever come back.
Pierre Carmontelle, who had traveled five years to get cured of an
attack of the _grande passion_, fell straight into Cupid's net again
when he encountered Maud's pensive beauty. She, on her part, was
attracted to this noble man of forty-odd years as she had never been to
younger ones who had bowed at her shrine.
Never did anything come about more suddenly; for the Southerner, who
had expected to remain in Boston only a day, stayed a month, and at the
expiration of that time Maud was his promised wife.
Of course they had talked to each other about Una, and when Maud wanted
to defer the bridal-day six months, Carmontelle said, artfully:
"Do not make it so long as that, my darling, because you and I want to
go in search of Una just as soon as we are married, do we not?"
"Yes," she answered eagerly; and thereupon agreed to get ready to be
married in two months.
Sylvie said that it was all hurried up in the worst of taste. She had
not believed Maud would be so ready to snap up a rich man; but--ah!
well, your romantic, novel-writing folks had an eye to the main chance,
like everybody else.
Edith answered daringly:
"Why not say at once, Sylvie, that you're envious because Maud is going
to be as rich as you are? Goodness knows, I'm glad one of the Van
Zandts will be rich at last, so that you will not be able always to
fling our poverty in our faces!"