ROSY DREAMS.
"The child is a woman, the books may close over,
For all the lessons are said."--JEAN INGELOW.
The summer night had fallen softly at Rosemont, and all were asleep
save the beautiful sisters in whose hearts burned the restless fire of
love.
Precious was alone in her airy white room, with the fragrant breeze
straying into her windows with the moonlight--the moonlight so clear
and white that Precious could read by its silvery rays the letter Bruce
Conway had given her clandestinely to-day.
It was from Lord Chester, and Precious had read it a dozen times before
she retired and placed it beneath her pillow.
She lay there all lovely and restless in the moonlight, her whole being
flooded with a shy, ecstatic rapture over her first love-letter. At
last she lifted the golden head and slipped the little white hand under
the pillow, and drew it out to read again.
"She took it in her trembling hands
That poorly served her will,
The wave of life on golden sands
Stood for a moment still!"
Lord Chester had written impulsively:
"My darling little Precious, you remember _that_ day, _that_ night! I
feared you hated me for my boldness, and I have not dared to venture
near you since! But my heart urges me to write, for I am _free_
now--Ethel has jilted me--and my irrepressible love for you is no
longer a wrong to your sister. Ah, Precious, will you let me love
you--will you love me in return? My heart is thrilling with a mad
hope of success, for something tells me you will be mine! To-morrow
evening I shall call on you to know my fate. Ah, love; love, love,
be kind to me, for unless I win you for my worshiped bride the world
will be a great dreary blank to me, and life not worth the living.
Ah, Precious, the kiss I took that day when you lay senseless in my
arms burns on my lips still. You were angry, and I could not blame
you. Perhaps it only made it worse when I confessed that evening all
my hopeless love for you. But I meant no wrong; I was leaving you
forever! Ah, how changed is everything! I am glad Ethel found out she
did not love me and broke our bonds of her own free will. Now she
will not care for our love, now you will forgive me, now you will
promise to be mine, will you not, my little darling? ARTHUR."
The happy blue eyes wandered lovingly over the tender words, and then
Precious kissed the letter and placed it again beneath the pillow. Then
she started, as a shadow fell across the bed.
It was Ethel, tall and white and spirit-like, hovering over her in the
flood of white moonlight.
"Sister!" cried Precious in surprise, then with, a swift fear: "Oh,
what has happened? Earle?"
"There is no bad news of Earle. Do not be frightened, dear," and Ethel
knelt down by the white bed, crying shudderingly: "Oh, Precious, I am
so unhappy I shall die unless I find some comfort!"
Her face was convulsed with pain. Some burning tears fell on the
younger girl's cheek as Ethel leaned above her, sobbing wildly, her
pallid face half-hidden by the long veil of dark, flowing tresses.
She felt white arms reach out and draw her close; warm lips kissed the
burning tears from her cheeks.
"Ah, Ethel, I know, I understand, for I heard to-day," whispered
Precious fondly. "You think he loves me best--papa, I mean. But, Ethel,
no, it is not that. I will tell you how it is. He loves me because I
have mamma's face--mamma whom he worships so tenderly. Ethel, do not
let it grieve you. He loves you well, and I----"
"Hush, child, you madden me!" cried Ethel hoarsely. She was silent a
moment, then resumed passionately:
"Precious, you pretend to love me, and now I will prove your love.
All your life you have robbed me with those sunny blue eyes of the
love that should have been mine. Do you wish to atone, to press all
this jealous anger from my breast and make me happy again? Then I will
tell you how. You know that I have lost my lover, that I discarded him
rashly, unjustly, in pride and anger. He is too proud to sue for a
reconciliation, yet I cannot live without him. It was jealous madness
that made me throw him over, and now I repent my folly, I yearn to be
reconciled to my darling."
Her burning hand clasped her sister's icy fingers.
"He loves me, I know he loves me, but he is too proud to come back to
me unless I send for him. And I--oh, I am proud, too; I would fain be
forgiven without the asking! Oh, what shall I do?"
There was no answer. Precious sat upright with her elbow on the pillow.
It seemed to her that she could hear beneath it her lover's letter
rustling like a live thing under her touch, like a human heart. Words
failed her, she was speechless with a hovering despair.
Ethel flung back the heavy masses of her rich black hair from her pale,
convulsed face, crying wildly:
"Don't let me frighten you, Precious, but I must confide in you or
my heart will break. Oh, what a night of anguish I have spent! Not a
moment have I slept, and all the while suffering anguish inconceivable
in my bitter jealousy of another girl."
She saw the wild start that Precious gave, and continued:
"They tell me Arthur is calling on another girl--a dark-eyed beauty
down in the village. It is only in pique, I know; but what if this Aura
Stanley wins him from me? Hearts are often caught in the rebound, they
say. Oh, Precious, how I should hate any girl that won Arthur's heart
from me! I should hate her, and in my despair and jealousy I would be
certain to commit suicide."
"Oh, sister, sister!" cried Precious, horrified; but Ethel persisted
wildly:
"I should be sure to do it, for I could not lose my love and live. But
I will not give him up. He is mine, mine, and he must forgive me and
come back to me."
Precious saw the great dark eyes flash luridly, and shuddered with the
consciousness of the love-letter under her pillow.
"You can help me, Precious," cried Ethel coaxingly. "You can send for
Lord Chester to come to you. You are such a child still that it will
not seem strange for you to plead your sister's cause with him. You
can tell him all I have confessed to you--my love, my jealousy, my
repentance. You can beg him to return to me and save my heart from
breaking. Will you do this for me, my little sister? Then we shall be
at peace with each other."