TWO RINGS.
Love and hope had such patent power for good that Lelia had an almost
miraculously swift recovery from the effects of the drug she claimed to
have taken in her despair at Laurie’s obstinacy.
In her joy at his restoration to her sovereignty, and her anxiety to
keep a tight rein upon him hereafter, she exerted all her will-power to
restrain her imperious nature and fairly astonished the young man with
her sweetness and humility.
Within a few hours she was seated by his side on the long, Colonial
porch, exquisitely dressed, and sparkling with animation, trying
to dazzle him with her rare blond beauty, and provoke him to some
manifestation of reviving tenderness.
But Laurie remained gravely and courteously cold, with a constrained
air that was secretly maddening to her love and pride alike.
“Oh, Laurie, my darling, how strange you seem--how cold, how altered.
Will you never smile on me again?” she sighed gently.
“It is scarcely a time for smiles, Lelia, with dear Aunt Cyrilla lying
in her room at the point of death,” he gravely replied.
“Oh, forgive me, Laurie, I deserve your rebuke! But, indeed, I am not
forgetting our dear old aunt. Yet--yet my whole being is jubilant with
the joy of winning you once more, dear Laurie! Oh, you cannot guess all
I suffered after you left me, the despair, the remorse, the yearning
to have you back again. I could have groveled at your feet praying
your pardon for my jealous madness! And then, when you returned and
repulsed me in bitter pride and anger, it broke my heart. I could not
live without you, I determined to end my life. You would have been
sorry for your cruelty when you looked on my poor, dead face, would you
not, darling? But mama, uneasy over me, came to my room and found out
in time what I had done in my desperation. She raised the alarm and
brought the doctor. But I would not take his antidotes. I had quite
determined on death. I declared to her frankly I would not live except
as your dear wife. She went to you, and in your goodness of heart you
came and saved me to life and love and happiness again. Oh, Laurie, I
will never be jealous and naughty again as long as I live. I will be so
grateful and so good you will love me again better than ever before!”
Soft, white hands clinging to his, golden locks pressed against his
shoulder, upturned blue eyes full of adoration, rose-red lips inviting
caresses, how could any man’s heart withstand such charms?
Yet every word fell on his heart coldly as drops of winter rain, and
he felt a mad impatience to thrust away the soft hands and the golden
head and to avert his face from the fair one upturned in such tender
pleading. He asked himself impatiently how he had ever fancied himself
in love with his beautiful, artful cousin.
Suddenly she held up her white hand before his face.
“Do you miss anything?” with tender archness.
“No, I do not,” carelessly.
“Oh, Laurie, my ring! I have missed it so much! Please let me have it
back again.”
He was so agitated himself he did not notice how her voice trembled
and her eyes drooped as she spoke; he was seeing again a blushing,
mignonne face, with dark-fringed lashes sweeping to a crimson cheek, as
he slipped Lelia’s diamond on a dear little, tremulous hand. My God,
was he never to hold that little hand again, never to gaze on that
exquisite face until he met her in the Great Beyond among the radiant
angels?
“My ring, please, Laurie dear,” Lelia murmured again, and, rousing
himself, he muttered:
“The ring? I--oh, yes, Lelia, you shall have another as soon as I go to
town; but--but I have lost that one.”
He was startled when she faltered, tenderly:
“You must buy two rings this time, please, dear Laurie--another diamond
as big as the one you lost, and--and a plain gold one--my wedding-ring.”
“A wedding-ring!” he started, and recoiled like one stung.
“Yes, Laurie dear, for I have one dear wish that I am ashamed almost
to breathe aloud. I want to be your wife, Laurie, very soon; for, oh,
I have been so frightened when I had so nearly lost you that I cannot
ever be quite happy again until you are mine tight and fast, bound by
the wedding-ring! Oh, Laurie, will you humor my fancy, because I love
you so? Will you ride into Lewisburg to-morrow for the rings, and the
license, and the minister; and let us be quietly married to-morrow
evening in the parlor, with no guests but just our family?” pleaded
Lelia, winding her white arms about his neck and pressing her warm, red
lips to his own.
If it had been a blow instead of a caress Laurie could not have
recoiled more sharply, or answered more bitterly:
“You shall have your own way, Lelia.”