Sir William Becomes Guardian.
Very distressing were the thoughts of the young baronet, who had so
suddenly returned to his home and been stricken with illness.
He had been sick at Alexandria when he received the document notifying him
that Virgie was seeking a divorce.
He was absolutely paralyzed as he read it, and saw by the date that it
would be utterly impossible for him to reach America in time to stay the
proceedings.
He could not even reach England in season to cable for that purpose, and
he was so overcome by the knowledge and his own helplessness, as to render
him unable to travel for a couple of weeks longer.
One thing gave him some satisfaction. He at least knew that Virgie was in
San Francisco, and that she must have been residing in the State for some
time to allow her the right to apply for the divorce there. She must have
been there even while he was there searching for her, and it seemed
terribly cruel to him that he should have missed her.
But he resolved that he would find her yet, if she lived. Poor darling!
what a bitter lot had been hers during this last year, believing what she
must of him. It should not go on, however; he would seek her and vindicate
himself; he would prove to her that he had never wavered in his truth to
her in spite of all the evidence against him. He would prove his love for
her, and he would win her again, even though the dread decree had been
pronounced, bring her back with him to Heathdale, and they would be happy
yet.
And his child—the precious little one whom he had never seen—his heart
cried out for her with an uncontrollable yearning—his baby! his miniature
Virgie!
Thus, as we already know, he went directly to Heathdale where he arrived
on the very evening that Lady Linton had received the papers announcing
that his wife had secured a decree of divorce.
He was very wretched in spite of his sister's hearty welcome and efforts
to render him comfortable; and during her absence from the room to see
that something unusually nice should be prepared for him, anxious, bitter
thoughts crowded his mind, and he rebelled against the arbitrary weariness
and lassitude that bound him, as with chains of iron, and compelled him to
rest.
Gradually, however, his glance began to wander over the familiar room,
lingering now upon some picture, now upon some rare article of virtu, each
endeared by peculiar associations, until at length it rested upon the
table and that document, which his sister had dropped and forgotten in her
surprise at his appearance.
Its likeness to the one he had previously received startled him.
He arose and went forward to examine it. Its postmark told him at once
whence it had come.
A deathly paleness overspread his face; a horrible numbness fell upon his
heart.
With trembling hands he tore it open, and one glance was sufficient to
tell him the nature of its contents.
It was the one bitter blow too much, even though he had half-expected it,
and, with a despairing cry that would have melted the hardest heart,
"Lost! lost! Virgie, my love! my love!" he fell prone upon the floor,
clutching that fatal paper in his grasp.
Long weeks of watching and anxiety followed—weeks during which Lady
Linton began to fear that she was paying dearly for her plotting and
treachery, even though her son might become the master of Heathdale in the
event of her brother's death.
But he did not die. His constitution was naturally rugged, and by the end
of winter, after many alternations of hope and fear, he slowly began to
rally.
As soon as he was able to be dressed and sit up he began to talk of going
again to America.
Of course Sir Herbert Randal vetoed such a proposition at once.
"You are not to stir outside the grounds of Heathdale for three months at
least," he said, decidedly.
"But I must, Sir Herbert. You have no idea how much is at stake," the sick
man pleaded.
"You must not. I cannot help how much there is at stake," returned the
physician, firmly. "I have had hard work to get you up, even so far, from
this nervous prostration and the least excitement or imprudence will cause
a dangerous relapse."
And so, with despair at his heart, Sir William was obliged to submit.
He tried to write to Virgie, intending to send the letter to her through
the lawyer whom she had employed and whose name had appeared in connection
with the papers he had received, but he could not; he found that his brain
was too weak to permit of the framing of even a sentence, and he knew that
he could never plead his cause successfully in such a state.
He shrank from asking any one else to write for him; his sister he knew
was not in sympathy with him, and he would not confide in her.
When his mind had become strong enough to realize what was going on about
him, he had one day asked Lady Linton to bring him both documents that had
come to him from America.
She obeyed him, making no comment, though her manner betrayed that she
knew well enough their character.
He told her to lock them in a certain drawer which no one was ever allowed
to open save himself.
She did so in his presence, and earnestly hoped, as the key clicked upon
them, that that episode in her brother's life was buried for all time.
But she was not long in finding that she was to be disappointed
As summer advanced Sir William gained more rapidly and by August he was
pronounced comparatively well, although he was still but the ghost of his
former self.
Then he announced his determination of again crossing the Atlantic, and
Lady Linton's heart failed her. Would he never relinquish his chase after
that miserable girl?
She earnestly pleaded that he would not leave home again.
"I must," he replied, sternly. "I must find my wife."
"Your wife!" she retorted, losing all patience; "you have no wife."
"Be still, Miriam," he commanded, growing frightfully pale. "I see that
you know what has occurred, and though the law may have succeeded in
breaking the tie between us, yet in my heart I claim Virgie as my wife
just as truly to-day as she ever was. I will search the world over for
her; if I find her the law will give her to me again, for I believe that
she is still true to me, whatever she may think of me; if I do <i>not</i> find
her, I shall live and die cherishing her image alone."
Lady Linton knew that he meant what he said.
"That will be bad for Sadie's hopes," she thought; "but doubtless Percy
will be the gainer, unless he succeeds in finding that girl. I never
believed his pride would let him go chasing after her like this."
The last of August found him again on the ocean.
The voyage proved beneficial, and he was in much better health and
strength when he landed in New York than when he left England.
He proceeded directly to San Francisco as fast as steam and wheels could
take him, determined to seek out Mr. Templeton, Virgie's lawyer, who, he
believed, would tell him where she could be found.
But a terrible disappointment awaited him there.
Mr. Templeton had retired from business at the beginning of summer, and,
with his family, had gone abroad for an indefinite period.
He could not even obtain his address, and was thus prevented from
communicating with him by letter.
Then he began another wearisome search. Day after day he haunted the
streets of the city. He inquired, he advertised, and used every method he
could think of to ascertain where his darling was, but without avail, for,
as we know, she had gone into the country on little Virgie's account,
while Mr. Knight was away on a trip to British Columbia, or he might have
seen Sir William's advertisements, and helped him in the matter so near,
his heart.
About the middle of October he decided to go once more to her old home
among the mountains of Nevada, hoping to learn something of her there.
But, of course, he did not, and he finally came to the conclusion that she
must have left California after obtaining her divorce. At least he thought
she would leave San Francisco, for he knew that there were unpleasant
associations connected with her past life there, and he did not believe
she would like to make her home in that city, where disagreeable rumors
might still exist. But, still resolving to find her at any cost, he turned
his face in another direction, and began anew his wanderings up and down
the land.
Three weary years he spent thus, following every clew, but all to no
purpose. Then, saddened and disheartened he was compelled to give up the
chase and return to Heathdale, for his estate demanded his personal
attention.
Mrs. Farnum and her daughter were full of hope, after learning that the
decree of divorce had been granted, that the beauty and belle would at
last succeed in securing the prize she had so long coveted.
Every art was made use of to captivate the wealthy baronet, but it was
evident that his heart was irrevocably fixed—that he had no intention of
ever marrying again. Finally the disappointed girl gave her hand to a
rich, but aged and feeble lord, and tried to satisfy her heart and
ambition with the golden husks thus achieved.
Mrs. Farnum lost her husband soon after her return from America, and
afterward made her home mostly with her daughter. But she was far from
being a happy woman, even though she had everything which unlimited wealth
could purchase. Her conscience never ceased to trouble her for the part
she had played in helping to ruin the life of that beautiful wife and
mother whom she had met in New York. She was ever haunted by that sad,
sweet face. She had been half-tempted, many times, to confess everything
to Sir William, hoping thus to atone in part for what she had done, and
because, after she found that Sadie's cause was hopeless, she began to
pity that poor, injured girl; but her fear of Lady Linton, and also of Sir
William's righteous anger, prevented her doing so.
Thus five years passed.
It was now ten years since Sir William Heath's marriage with Virgie, but
he was still true to the one love of his youth. He continued to cherish
her image in his heart, even as he had vowed to do, and though he had come
to believe her lost to him forever, he had determined that no other should
occupy the place he had once given to her.
But about this time something occurred to create a pleasant change in his
saddened life.
A dear friend of his youth died, leaving to his care his fine, manly
little son, now in his twelfth year, who had been the pride of his
father's heart, the comfort of widowered, lonely years.
Major Hamilton had been in Her Majesty's service for many years, and at
the time of his death was serving on an important appointment abroad.
During this service he had acquired many honors and great wealth. His wife
was the second daughter of Lord Shaftonsberry, but she had lived only one
short month after the birth of their only son, Rupert, who was now to
become the ward of Sir William Heath.
He was a noble little fellow, and it was not long before the baronet
became fondly attached to him, and believed that perhaps he had at last
found, in rearing this child of promise to manhood, something that would
add interest and zest to his dreary and monotonous life.
Lady Linton, who was still at Heathdale, and nominally its mistress,
received the orphaned stranger with great kindness.
He was heir presumptive to the title and estates of Shaftonsberry, if
death should remove the present incumbent who as yet had no children of
his own, and this circumstance, in addition to the great wealth which
young Rupert inherited from his father, made him a person of considerable
consequence.
Her ladyship's mind, with its habitual cunning, leaped forward eight or
ten years, and planned a union of the houses of Linton and Shaftonsberry,
by the marriage of her daughter, Lillian, now eleven years of age, with
her brother's ward.
She argued that everything was in her favor for accomplishing this, for
the children would be reared beneath the same roof, and it would be
comparatively easy to educate them to consider themselves destined for
each other.
Of course this arch plotter kept all this to herself, for she well knew
that her brother would sternly oppose all match-making of this sort; but
it became a dearly cherished plan with her, and she bent all her energies
toward its accomplishment.