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MAGGIE LEE!
BAD SPELLING, DIAMONDS,
THE ANSWERED PRAYER.
—BY—
MARY J. HOLMES,
Author of Lena Rivers—Tempest and Sunshine—Meadow Brook—English Orphans,
etc.
_COMPLETE._
TORONTO:
J. ROSS ROBERTSON, 55 KING-ST. WEST, COR. BAY.
1881
CONTENTS
BAD SPELLING.
DIAMONDS.
MAGGIE LEE.
THE ANSWERED PRAYER.
BAD SPELLING.
The last notes of the bell which duly summoned to their tasks the pupils
of Madame Duvant’s fashionable seminary had ceased, and in the school
room, recently so silent, was heard the low hum of voices, interspersed
occasionally with a suppressed titter from some girl more mischievous
than her companions. Very complacently Madame Duvant looked over the
group of young faces, mentally estimating the probable gain she should
receive from each, for this was the first day of the term; then with a
few, low spoken words to the row of careworn, pale-faced teachers, she
smoothed down the folds of her heavy grey satin and left the room, just
as a handsome travelling carriage stopped before the door.
The new arrival proved to be a fashionably-dressed woman, who, with an
air of extreme hauteur, swept into the parlour, followed by two young
girls, one apparently sixteen and the other fourteen years of age. The
younger and, as some would call her, the plainer looking of the two, was
unmistakably a ‘poor relation,’ for her face bore the meek, patient look
of a dependent, while the proud black eyes and scornfully curved lip of
the other marked her as the daughter of the lady, who, after glancing
about the room and satisfying herself that the chairs, tables, and so
forth, were refined, gave her name as ‘Mrs. Greenleaf, wife of the Hon.
Mr. Greenleaf, of Herkimer Co., N. Y.’
‘I have come,’ said she, apparently speaking to Madame Duvant, but
looking straight at the window, ‘I’ve come to place my daughter Arabella
under your charge, and if she is pleased with your discipline, she will
finish her education here—graduate—though I care but little for that,
except that it sounds well. She is our only child, and, of course, a
thorough education in the lower English branches is not at all
necessary. I wish her to be highly accomplished in French, Italian,
music, drawing, painting, dancing, and, perhaps, learn something of the
old poets, so as to be able to talk about them a little, if necessary,
but as for the other branches, such as geography, history arithmetic,
grammar, and the like, she can learn them by herself, and it is not my
wish that she should waste her time over anything so common. These will
do for Mildred,’ and she glanced toward the poor relation, whose eyes
were bent upon the carpet.
‘She is the child of my husband’s sister, and we have concluded to
educate her for a teacher, so I wish you to be very thorough with her in
all those stupid things which Arabella is not to study.’
Madame Duvant bowed, and Mrs. Greenleaf continued, ‘Last term they were
at Bloomington Seminary, and, if you’ll believe it, the principal
insisted upon putting Arabella into the spelling class, just because she
didn’t chance to spell every word of her first composition correctly! I
dare say it was more Mildred’s fault than hers, for she acknowledged to
me that ’twas one of Mildred’s old pieces that she found and copied.’
An angry flash of Arabella’s large black eyes, and a bright red spot on
Mildred’s cheek, were the only emotions manifested by the young girls,
and Mrs. Greenleaf proceeded: ‘Of course, I wouldn’t submit to it—my
daughter spelling baker, and all that nonsense, so I took her away at
once. It was my wish that Mildred should remain, but husband, who is
peculiar, wouldn’t hear of it, and said she should go where Arabella
did, so I’ve brought them both.’
After little further conversation, it was arranged that Miss Arabella
should go through a course of merely fashionable accomplishments, Madame
Duvant assuring her mother that neither spelling book nor dictionary
should in any way annoy her. Mildred, on the contrary, was to be
thoroughly drilled in every thing necessary for a teacher to know. Mrs.
Greenleaf hinting that the sooner her education was completed the better
she would be pleased, for it cost a great deal to clothe, feed and
school her. Madame Duvant promised to execute the wishes of her patron,
who gathered up her flowing robes, and with a dozen or more kisses for
her daughter, and a nod of her head for Mildred, stepped into her
carriage and was driven rapidly away.
* * * * *
Just across the spacious grounds of the Duvant Seminary, and divided
from them by a wall which it seemed almost impossible to scale, stood a
huge stone building, whose hacked walls, bare floors and dingy
windows—from which were frequently suspended a cap, a pair of trousers,
or a boy’s leg—stamped it once as ‘The College,’ the veriest pest in the
world, as Madame Duvant called it, when, with all the vigilance both of
herself and Argus-eyed teachers, she failed to keep her young ladies
from making the acquaintance of the students, who winked at them in
church, bowed to them in the streets, tied notes to stones and threw
them over the ponderous wall, while the girls waved their handkerchiefs
from their windows, and in various other ways eluded the watchfulness of
their teachers. A great acquisition to the fun-loving members of the
seminary was Arabella Greenleaf, and she had scarcely been there six
weeks ere she was perfectly well acquainted with every student whom she
considered at all worth knowing. But upon only one were her brightest
glances and her most winsome smiles lavished, and that was George
Clayton, a young man from South Carolina, who was said to be very
wealthy. He was too honourable to join in the intrigues of his
companions, and when at last he became attracted by the watching eyes
and dashing manners of Arabella Greenleaf, he went boldly to Madame
Duvant and asked permission to see the young lady in the parlour.
His request was granted, and during the two years he remained at
college, he continued occasionally to call upon Arabella, who, each time
he saw her, seemed more pleasing, for she was beautiful, and when she
chose to be so was very courteous and agreeable. One evening when George
called as usual and asked to see her, he waited a long time, and was
about making up his mind to leave, when a fair, delicate looking girl,
with deep blue eyes and auburn hair, entered the room, introducing
herself as Miss Graham, the cousin of Arabella, who, she said, was
indisposed and unable to come down.
‘She bade me say that she was very sorry not to see you,’ added Mildred,
for she it was, blushing deeply as she met the eager, admiring eye of
George Clayton.
Gladly would he have detained her, but with a polite good evening, she
left him in a perfect state of bewilderment. ‘Strange that I never
observed her before, for I must have seen her often,’ he thought, as he
slowly wended his way back to his rooms, ‘and stranger still that
Arabella never told me she had a cousin here.’
The next time he met Arabella his first inquiry was for her cousin, and
why she had never mentioned her. With a heightened colour Arabella
answered, ‘Oh, she’s a little body, who never cares to be known—a
perfect bookworm and man-hater.’
The words bookworm and man-hater produced upon George Clayton a far
different effect from what Arabella had intended, and he often found
himself thinking of the soft blue eyes of Mildred Graham. Unlike some
men, there was nothing terrible to him in a bookish woman, and he might,
perhaps, have sought another interview with Mildred, but for a
circumstance which threw her entirely in the shade.
The annual examination of Madame Duvant’s seminary was drawing near.
Arabella was to graduate, while both she and Mildred were competitors
for a prize offered for the best composition. There was a look of wonder
on Mildred’s face, when she saw her cousin’s name among the list, for
composition was something in which Arabella did not excel. Greatly then
did Mildred marvel when day after day she found her, pencil in hand, and
apparently lost in thought, as she filled one sheet after another, until
at last it was done.
‘Now, Milly,’ said Arabella, ‘You correct the spelling and copy it for
me—that’s a good girl.’
Mildred had acted in this capacity too often to refuse, and with a
martyr’s patience she corrected and copied the manuscript, wondering the
while from whence came the sudden inspiration which had so brightened
Arabella’s ideas. But if she had any suspicions of the truth she kept
them to herself, handing her own composition in with that of her cousin,
and calmly waiting the result.
* * * * *
The examination was over. Arabella, who knew exactly what questions
would be put to her, had acquitted herself with great credit, and her
proud lady mother, who was one of the numerous visitors, fanned herself
complacently as she heard on all sides the praises of her daughter.
And nothing remained but the evening exhibition, at which music and the
prize compositions formed the chief entertainment. At an early hour the
large school-rooms were densely crowded. Among the first who came was
George Clayton—securing a seat as near as possible to the stage, so that
he should not lose a single word. He himself had graduated but two weeks
previously, and was now about to make the tour of Europe together with
his father, who was present. They were to sail the next night, and at
nine o’clock this evening they were to leave for New York. During the
examination Arabella had risen greatly in George’s estimation, and if
she had seemed beautiful to him then, she was tenfold more so now, when,
with flowing curls and simple white muslin dress, she tripped gracefully
across the stage, and seating herself at the piano, played and sang with
exquisite skill the well-known song entitled, ‘No More, Never More.’
Then followed the reading of the compositions, Mildred being called upon
first. In a clear peculiarly sweet voice she read, chaining to perfect
silence her audience, which, when she was done, greeted her with noisy
cheers, whispering one to another that she was sure to win. Arabella, at
her own request, was the last. With proud, flashing eyes and queenly
air, she coolly surveyed the mass of heads before her, caught an
admiring glance from George Clayton, and then, with a steady hand
unrolled her manuscript and read. Her subject was ‘The Outward and the
Inward Life,’ and no gray-haired sage ever handled it more skilfully
than she. When she finished one universal burst of applause shook the
building to its centre, while her name was on every lip as she
triumphantly left the room. Just then a distant bell struck the hour of
nine, and George Clayton arose to go. He was sure of Arabella’s success,
and in the hall below, whither she had gone to bid him adieu, he shook
her hand warmly, telling her how happy it made him to see her thus
victorious, and winning from her a promise to write to him when he
should be over the sea.
Half an hour later and the night express was bearing him far away. Half
an hour later, and with flushed brow Arabella stood up and received the
prize, which consisted of two elegantly bound volumes of Wordsworth and
Coleridge.
Forty minutes later, and from the seat by the door, a little bent,
weird-looking woman arose, and making her way through the crowd,
advanced until she stood upon the stage, then stretching her long, bony
finger toward Arabella, who had returned, she said, ‘I am a lover of
justice, and should I hold my peace, the very stones would cry out
against me. Yonder young lady has no right to the prize, for the piece
which she has palmed off as her own appeared in the _Woodland Gazette_,
a paper published in an obscure New Hampshire village. How she came by
it, she can, perhaps, explain, but I cannot.’
At the commencement of this strange speech, Arabella arose as if to defy
the woman, who was thus blasting her good name, but at the mention of
the _Woodland Gazette_ she fainted and was carried from the room. Madame
Duvant now came forward and addressed a few, low spoken words to the
woman, who answered aloud, ‘I have the best of reasons for what I have
said. My son, who lives in New Hampshire, occasionally sends me the
_Gazette_, and in one number, which came nearly a year ago, appeared
this very article, taken originally from an old English paper.’
‘Prove it! Produce the paper!’ fiercely ejaculated Mrs. Greenleaf, as
she left the room in quest of her daughter.
‘I can do so,’ answered the woman; ‘I never tore up a newspaper in my
life, and if the audience will wait for the space of ten minutes, I can
show them the very article’—saying which she glided noiselessly from the
room.
She was a strange, half-crazy old creature, of wonderful memory, who
occupied a small cottage in the suburbs of the village, and many doubts
were expressed as to the veracity of her statement. But these were soon
put to flight by her reappearance. Unfolding the dingy yellow paper, she
read aloud to her astonished hearers the article which proved to have
been taken from the _London Examiner_. There was no longer a shadow of
doubt, and the prize was withdrawn from the treacherous Arabella, and as
Mildred’s composition was pronounced the next in order, it was bestowed
upon her.
Mortified, indignant and almost frantic at this public disgrace,
Arabella finally confessed to having stolen the piece from a paper sent
her some months before by a former schoolmate. The next morning she left
the village, heaping her pent-up wrath upon the head of her innocent
cousin, who was destined in more ways than one to rival her.
* * * * *
Three months had passed away since the night of the exhibition, and in a
private parlour at a London hotel sat George Clayton, rather impatiently
awaiting the return of his servant from the post-office. As yet he had
received no letter from Arabella, for though she had written it had
failed to reach him, and while in the Old World was marvelling at her
long delay, she in the New was wondering why he did not answer. The
mortification which she had endured affected her deeply, bringing on at
last a slow fever, which confined her to her bed, where for weeks she
lay, carefully attended by Mildred, who once, when she complained of
George’s neglect, suggested the possibility of his not having received
the letter. This was a new idea to Arabella, and as she was herself
unable to write, she persuaded Mildred to do it for her, and strange to
say, the two letters reached their destination at the same time.
With eager haste George took them from his servant, who soon went out
leaving him alone. The handwriting of both was not alike, and in some
trepidation the young man broke the seal of the one bearing the more
recent date. It was beautifully written, and mentally complimenting the
fair writer, George opened the other, uttering an exclamation of
surprise ere he had read a dozen lines. It was sickly, sentimental
affair, taken partly from an old letter writer, and containing many
high-flown sentences concerning the ‘pearling rill,’ the ‘silvery
starlite’ and the ‘rozy mora,’ which, being spelled as they were,
presented a most formidable aspect to the fastidious young man.
Although Arabella had taken much pains with her letter, at least
one-fourth of the words were misspelt, and by the time George had
finished reading, he entertained no other feeling towards the writer
than the one of disgust, to think that, with all her showy
accomplishments, she had neglected what to him was the most important of
all, for in nothing is the ignorance of a young lady more apparent than
in a badly-spelled letter. It was a long time ere he answered it, and
then the few lines which he wrote were so cold, so different from his
first, that in a fit of anger Arabella tossed it into the fire,
repenting the act the moment after, and, as if to make amends, writing
in return a long letter, to which there came no response, and thus the
correspondence ended.
Eighteen months later, and again Madame Duvant’s rooms were crowded to
overflowing, but this time Arabella Greenleaf was not there, though
George Clayton was, eagerly watching each word and movement of Mildred
Graham, whose uncle had insisted upon her remaining at school until she,
too, should graduate, and who now, justly, received the highest honours
of her class. Very beautiful looked the young girl, and as she modestly
received the compliments of her friends, George Clayton’s was not the
only admiring eye which rested upon her, for many now paid her homage.
That night George asked to see her alone. His request was granted, and
when next she parted from him it was as his betrothed. Immediately after
George’s return from Europe, he had heard the story of Arabella’s
perfidy, and if no other circumstances had interposed to wean him from
her entirely, this alone would have done it, for he could not respect a
woman who would thus meanly stoop to deception. He had lingered in G——
for the purpose of renewing his former acquaintance with Mildred, the
result of which we have seen.
Mortified beyond measure, Arabella heard of her cousin’s engagement, and
when George came at last to claim his bride, she refused to see him,
wilfully absenting herself from home that she should not witness the
bridal, which took place one bright October morning, when the forest
trees, as if in honour of the occasion, were dressed in their most
gorgeous robes, and the birds were singing their farewell songs.
New misfortunes, however, awaited poor Arabella, for scarcely was
Mildred gone to her southern home when the red flag of the auctioneer
waved from the windows of Mr. Greenleaf’s luxurious house, which, with
its costly furniture, was sold to the highest bidder, and the family
were left dependent upon their own exertions for support. When the first
shock was over, Mr. Greenleaf proposed that his daughter should teach,
and thus bring into use her boasted accomplishments. For a time Arabella
refused, but hearing at last a situation which she thought might please
her, she applied for it by letter. But alas, the mistake she made when
she abandoned the spelling book for the piano, again stood in the way,
for no one would employ a teacher so lamentably ignorant of orthography.
Nor is it at all probable she will ever rise higher than her present
position—that of a plain sewer—until she goes back to first principles,
and commences again the despised column beginning with ‘baker!’
THE END.
DIAMONDS.
‘The boys mustn’t look at the girls, and the girls must look on their
books,’ was said at least a dozen times by the village schoolmaster, on
that stormy morning when Cora Blanchard and I—she in her brother’s
boots, and I in my father’s socks—waded through drift after drift of
snow to the old brown school-house at the foot of the long, steep hill.
We were the only girls who had dared to brave that wintry storm, and we
felt amply repaid for our trouble, when we saw how much attention we
received from the ten tall boys who had come—some for fun—some because
they saw Cora Blanchard go by—and one, Walter Beaumont, because he did
not wish to lose the lesson of the day. Our teacher, Mr. Grannis, was
fitting him for college, and every moment was precious to the
white-browed, intellectual student, who was quite a lion among us girls,
partly because he never noticed us as much as did the other boys. On
this occasion, however, he was quite attentive to Cora, at least,
pulling off her boots, removing her hood, and brushing the large
snow-flakes from her soft wavy hair, while her dark brown eyes smiled
gratefully upon him, as he gave her his warm seat by the stove.
That morning Cora wrote to me slily on her slate:—‘I don’t care if
mother does say Walter Beaumont is poor as poverty—I like him best of
anybody in the world—don’t you?’
I thought of the big red apple in my pocket, and of the boy who had so
carefully shaken the snow from off my father’s socks, and answered,
‘no’—thinking, the while, that I should say yes, if Walter had ever
treated me as he did my playmate and friend Cora Blanchard. She was a
beautiful young girl, a favourite with all, and possessing, as it
seemed, but one glaring fault—a proneness to estimate people for their
wealth rather than their worth. This in a measure was the result of her
home-training, for her family, though far from being rich, were very
aristocratic, and strove to keep their children as much as possible from
associating with the ‘vulgar herd,’ as they styled the labouring class
of the community. In her secret heart Cora had long cherished a
preference for Walter, though never, until the morning of which I write,
had it been so openly avowed. And Walter, too, while knowing how far
above him she was in point of position, had dared to dream of a time
when a bright-haired-woman, with a face much like that of the girlish
Cora, would gladden his home, wherever it might be.
That noon, as we sat around the glowing stove, we played as children
will, and it came my turn to ‘answer truly whom I intended to marry.’
Without a thought of the big apple, the snowy socks, or of any one in
particular, I replied unhesitatingly—‘The one I love best,’ and the
question passed on to Cora, who was sitting by the side of Walter
Beaumont. He had not joined in our sport, but now his eye left his book
and rested upon Cora with an expression half fearful, half expectant.
She, too, glanced at him, and as if the spirit of prophecy were upon
her, she said—‘I shall not marry the one I love the best, but the one
who has the most money, and can give me the handsomest diamonds. Sister
Fanny has a magnificent set, and she looks so beautiful when she wears
them.’
Instantly there fell a shadow on Walter Beaumont’s face, and his eye
returned again to the Latin lettered page. But his thoughts were not of
what was written there; he was thinking of the humble cottage on the
borders of the wood, of the rag-carpet on the oaken floor, of the plain
old-fashioned furniture, and of the gentle, loving woman who called him
‘her boy,’ and that spot her home. There were no diamonds there—no
money—and Cora, if for these she married, would never be his wife. Early
and late he toiled and studied, wearing his threadbare coat and coarse
brown pants—for an education, such as he must have, admitted of no
useless expenditure, and the costly gems which Cora craved were not his
to give. In the pure, unselfish love springing up for her within his
heart, there were diamonds of imperishable value, and these, together
with the name he would make for himself, he would offer her, but nothing
more, and for many weeks there was a shadow on his brow, though he was
kind and considerate to her as of old.
As the spring and summer glided by, however, there came a change, and
when, in the autumn, he left our village for New Haven, there was a
happy, joyous look upon his face, while a tress of Cora’s silken hair
was lying next his heart. Every week he wrote to her, and Cora answered,
always showing to me what she had written, but never a word of his.
‘There was too much love,’ she said, ‘too much good advice in his
letters for me to see,’ and thus the time passed on, until Walter, who
had entered the junior class, was graduated with honour, and was about
to commence a theological course at Andover, for he had made the
ministry his choice. He was twenty-one now, and Cora was sixteen.
Wondrously beautiful was she to look upon, with her fair young face, her
soft brown eyes, and wavy hair. And Walter Beaumont loved her devotedly,
believing too, that she in turn loved him, for one summer afternoon, in
the green old woods which skirted the little village, she had sat by his
side, and with the sunbeams glancing down upon her through the
overhanging boughs, she had told him so, and promised some day to be his
wife. Still, she would not hear of a positive engagement—both should be
free to change their mind if they wished, she said, and with this Walter
was satisfied.
‘I have no diamonds to give you, darling,’ he said, drawing her close to
him; and Cora, knowing to what he referred, answered that ‘his love was
dearer to her than all the world besides.’ Alas, that woman should be so
fickle!
The same train which carried Walter away, brought Mrs. Blanchard a
letter from her daughter, a dashing, fashionable woman, who lived in the
city, and who wished to bring her sister Cora ‘out’ the coming winter.
‘She is old enough now,’ she wrote, ‘to be looking for a husband, and of
course she’ll never do anything in that by-place.’
This proposition, which accorded exactly with Mrs. Blanchard’s wishes,
was joyfully acceded to by Cora, who, while anticipating the pleasure
which awaited her, had yet no thought of proving false to Walter, and in
the letter which she wrote informing him of her plan, she assured him of
her unchanging fidelity, little dreaming that the promise thus made
would so soon be broken! Petted, caressed, flattered and admired, how
could she help growing worldly and vain, or avoid contrasting the plain,
unassuming Walter, with the polished and gayly-dressed butterflies who
thronged Mrs. Burton’s drawingroom. When the summer came again, she did
not return to us as we had expected, but we heard of her at Saratoga,
and Newport, the admired of all the admirers; while one, it was said, a
man of high position and untold wealth, bid fair to win the beauteous
belle. Meantime, her letters to Walter grew short and far between,
ceasing at length altogether; and one day, during the second winter of
her residence in the city, I received from her a package containing his
miniature, the books he had given her, and the letters he had written.
These she wished me to give him when next I saw him, bidding me tell him
to think no more of one who was not worthy of him.
‘To be plain, Lottie,’ she wrote, ‘I’m engaged, and though Mr. Douglass
is not a bit like Walter, he has a great deal of money, drives splendid
horses, and I reckon we shall get on well enough. I wish, though, he was
not quite so old. You’ll be shocked to hear that he is almost fifty,
though he looks about forty! I know I don’t like him as well as I did
Walter, but after seeing as much of the world as I have, I could not
settle down into the wife of a poor minister. I am not good enough, and
you must tell him so. I hope he won’t feel badly—poor Walter, I’ve kept
the lock of his hair. I couldn’t part with that, but, of course, Mr.
Douglass will never see it. His hair is gray! Good-by.’
This was what she wrote, and when I heard from her again, she was Cora
Douglass, and her feet were treading the shores of the old world,
whither she had gone on a bridal tour.
* * * * *
In the solitude of his chamber, the young student learned the sad news
from a paragraph in the city paper, and bowing his head upon the table,
he strove to articulate, ‘It is well,’ but the flesh was weak, warring
with the spirit, and the heart which Cora Blanchard had cruelly trampled
down, clung to her still with a death-like fondness, and followed her
even across the waste of waters, cried out—‘How can I give her up?’ But
when he remembered, as he ere long did, that ’twas a sin to love her
now, he buried his face in his hands, and called on God to help him in
this his hour of need, wept such tears as never again would fall for
Cora Blanchard.
* * * * *
The roses in our garden were faded and the leaves of autumn were piled
upon the ground, ere he came to his home again, and I had an opportunity
of presenting him with the package which many months before had been
committed to my care. His face was very pale, and his voice trembled as
he asked me—‘Where is she now?’
‘In Italy,’ I answered, adding that ‘her husband was said to be very
wealthy.’
Bowing mechanically, he walked away, and a year and a half went by ere I
saw him again. Then he came among us as our minister. The old,
white-haired pastor, who for so long had told us of the Good Shepherd
and the better land, was sleeping at last in the quiet graveyard, and
the people had chosen young Walter Beaumont to fill his place. He was a
splendid-looking man—tall, erect, and finely formed, with a most winning
manner, and a face which betokened intellect of the highest order. We
were proud of him, all of us—proud of our clergyman, who, on the third
Sabbath in June, was to be ordained in the old brick church, before
whose altar he had years ago been baptized, a smiling infant.
On the Thursday afternoon preceding the ordination, a large travelling
carriage, covered with dust and laden with trunks, passed slowly through
our village, attracting much attention. Seated within it was a portly,
gray-haired man, resting his chin upon a gold-headed cane, and looking
curiously out at the people in the street, who stared as curiously at
him. Directly opposite him, and languidly reclining upon the soft
cushions, was a white, proud-faced lady, who evidently felt no interest
in what was passing around her, for her eyes were cast down, and her
thought seemed busy elsewhere. I was sitting at my chamber window,
gazing out upon them, and just as they drew near the gate, the lady
raised her eyes—the soft, brown eyes, which once had won the love of
Walter Beaumont, and in which there was now an unmistakeable look of
anguish, as if the long eyelashes, drooping so wearily upon the
colourless cheek, were constantly forcing back the hidden tears. And
this was Cora Douglass, come back to us again from her travels in a
foreign land. She knew me in a moment, and in her face there was much of
the olden look as, bending forward, she smiled a greeting, and waved
toward me her white, jewelled hand, on which the diamonds flashed
brightly in the sunlight.
The next morning we met, but not in the presence of the old man, her
husband. Down in the leafy woods, about a quarter of a mile from Mrs.
Beaumont’s cottage, was a running brook and a mossy bank, overshadowed
by the sycamore and elm. This, in the days gone by, had been our
favourite resort. Here had we built our playhouse, washed our bits of
broken china in the rippling stream—here had we watched the little
fishes as they darted in and out of the deeper eddies—here had we conned
our daily tasks—here had she listened to a tale of love, the memory of
which seemed but a mocking dream, and here, as I faintly hoped, I found
her. With a half-joyful, half-moaning cry, she threw her arms around my
neck, and I could feel her tears dropping upon my face as she whispered,
‘Oh, Lottie, Lottie, we have met again by the dear old brook.’
For a few moments she sobbed as if her heart would break, then suddenly
drying her tears, she assumed a calm, cold, dignified manner, such as I
had never seen in Cora Blanchard. Very composedly she questioned me of
what I had done during her absence, telling me, too, of her travels, of
the people she had seen and the places she had visited, but never a word
said she of him she called her husband. From the bank where we sat, the
village graveyard was discernible, with its marble gleaming through the
trees, and at last, as her eye wandered in that direction, she said,
‘Have any of our villagers died! Mother’s letters were never very
definite.’
‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘Our minister, Mr. Sumner, died two months ago.’
‘Who takes his place?’ she asked; and as if a suspicion of the truth
were flashing upon her, her eyes turned toward me with an eager,
startled glance.
‘Walter Beaumont. He is to be ordained next Sabbath, and you are just in
time,’ I replied, regretting my words the next instant for never saw I
so fearful a look of anguish as that which swept over her face, and was
succeeded by a cold, hard, defiant expression, scarcely less painful to
witness.
She would have questioned me of him I think, had not an approaching
footstep caught our ear, sending a crimson flush to Cora’s hitherto
marble cheek, and producing on me a most unpleasant sensation, for I
knew that the gray-haired man now within a few paces of us, was he who
called that young creature his wife. Golden was the chain by which he
had bound her, and every link was set with diamonds and costly stones,
but it had rusted and eaten to her very heart’s core, for the most
precious gem of all was missing from that chain—love for her husband,
who, fortunately for his own peace of mind, was too conceited to dream
how little she cared for him. He was not handsome, and still many would
have called him a fine looking, middle-aged man, though there was
something disagreeable in his thin, compressed lips and intensely black
eyes—the one betokening a violent temper, and the other an indomitable
will. To me he was exceedingly polite—rather too much so for my perfect
ease, while toward Cora he tried to be very affectionate.
Seating himself at her side, and throwing his arm around her, he called
her a ‘little truant,’ and asked ‘why she had run away from him?’
Half pettishly she answered, ‘because I like sometimes to be alone,’
then, rising up and turning toward me she asked if ‘the water still ran
over the old mill dam in the west woods just as it used to do,’ saying
if it did, she wished to see it. ‘You can’t go,’ she continued,
addressing her husband, ‘for it is more than a mile, over fences and
plowed fields.’
This was sufficient, for Mr. Douglass was very fastidious in all matters
pertaining to his dress, and had no fancy for soiling his white pants,
or patent leathers. So Cora and I set off together, while he walked
slowly back to the village. Scarcely was he out of sight, however, when
seating herself beneath a tree, and throwing herself flat upon the
ground, Cora announced her intention of not going any further.
‘I only wished to be alone. I breathe so much better,’ she said, and
when I looked inquiringly at her, she continued, ‘never marry a man for
his wealth, Lottie, unless you wish to become as hard, as wicked and
unhappy as I am. John Douglass is worth more than half a million, and
yet I would give it all if I were the same little girl who, six years
ago, waded with you through the snowdrifts to school on that stormy day.
Do you remember what we played that noon and my foolish remark that I
would marry for money and diamonds! Woe is me, I’ve won them both!’ and
her tears fell fast on the sparkling gems which covered her slender
fingers.
Just then I saw in the distance a young man whom I knew to be Walter
Beaumont. He seemed to be approaching us, and when Cora became aware of
that, she started up and grasping my arm, hurried away, saying, as she
cast backward a fearful glance, ‘I would rather die than meet him now. I
am not prepared.’
For the remainder of the way we walked on in silence, until we reached
her mother’s gate, where we found her husband waiting for her. Bidding
me good morning she followed him slowly up the gravelled walk and I saw
her no more until the following Sabbath. It was a gloriously beautiful
morning, and at an early hour the old brick church was filled to
overflowing, for Walter had many friends, and they came together gladly
to see him made a minister of God. During the first part of the service
he was very pale, and his eye wandered very often toward the large,
square pew where sat a portly man and a beautiful young woman, richly
attired in satin and jewels. It had cost her a struggle to be there, but
she felt that she must look again on one whom she had loved so much and
so deeply wronged. So she came, and the sight of him standing there in
his early manhood, his soft brown hair clustering about his brow, and
his calm, pale face wearing an expression almost angelic, was more than
she could bear, and leaning forward she kept her countenance concealed
from view until the ceremony was ended, and Walter’s clear, musical
voice announced the closing hymn. Then she raised her head, and her
face, seen through the folds of her costly veil, looked haggard and
ghastly, as if a fierce storm of passion had swept over her. By the door
she paused, and when the newly-ordained clergyman passed out, she
offered him her hand, the hand which, when he held it last, was pledged
to him. There were diamonds on it now—diamonds of value rare, but their
brightness was hateful to that wretched woman, for she knew at what a
fearful price they had been bought.
They did not meet again, and only once more did Walter see her; then,
from our door, he looked out upon her as with her husband she dashed by
on horseback, her long cloth skirt almost sweeping the ground, and the
plumes of her velvet cap waving in the air.
‘Mrs. Douglass is a fine rider,’ was all Walter said, and the tone of
his voice indicated that she was becoming to him an object of
indifference. Desperately had he fought with his affection for her,
winning the victory at last, and now the love he once had felt for her
was slowly and surely dying out. The next week, tiring of our dull
village life, Cora left us, going to Nahant, where she spent most of the
summer, and when in the winter we heard from her again, she was a
widow—the sole heir of her husband who had died suddenly, and generously
left her that for which she married him—his money.
‘Will Walter Beaumont marry Cora now?’ I asked myself many a time,
without, however, arriving at any definite conclusion, when a little
more than a year succeeding Mr. Douglass’s death, she wrote, begging me
to come to her, as she was very lonely, and the presence of an old
friend would do her good. I complied with her request, and within a few
days was an inmate of her luxurious home, where every thing indicated
the wealth of its possessor. And Cora, though robed in deepest black,
was more like herself, more like the Cora of other days, than I had seen
her before since her marriage. Of her husband she spoke freely and
always with respect, saying he had been kinder far to her than she had
deserved. Of Walter, too, she talked, appearing much gratified when I
told her how he was loved and appreciated by his people.
One morning when we sat together in her little sewing room she said, ‘I
have done what you perhaps, will consider a very unwomanly act. I have
written to Walter Beaumont. Look,’ and she placed in my hand a letter,
which she bade me read. It was a wild, strange thing, telling him of the
anguish she had endured, of the tears she had shed, of the love which
through all she had cherished for him, and begging of him to forgive her
if possible, and be to her again what he had been years ago. She was not
worthy of him, she said, but he could make her better, and in language
the most touching, she besought of him not to cast her off, or despise
her because she had stepped so far aside from womanly delicacy as to
write to him this letter. ‘I will not insult you,’ she wrote in
conclusion, ‘by telling you of the money for which I sold myself, but it
is mine now, lawfully mine, and most gladly would I share it with you.’
‘You will not send him this?’ I said. ‘You cannot be in earnest?’
But she was determined, and lest her resolution should give way, she
rang the bell, ordering the servant who appeared to take it at once to
the office. He obeyed, and during the day she was unusually gay, singing
snatches of old songs, and playing several lively airs upon her piano,
which for months had stood unopened and untouched. That evening, when
the sun went down and the full moon rose over the city, she asked me to
walk with her, and we, ere long, found ourselves several streets distant
from that in which she lived. Groups of people were entering a church
near by, and from a remark which we overheard, we learned that there was
to be a wedding.
‘Let us go in,’ she said, ‘it may be some one I know,’ and entering
together, we took our seats just in front of the altar.
Scarcely were we seated when a rustling of satin announced the approach
of the bridal party, and in a moment they appeared moving slowly up the
aisle. My first attention was directed toward the bride, a beautiful
young creature, with a fair sweet face, and curls of golden hair falling
over her white, uncovered neck.
‘Isn’t she lovely?’ I whispered; but Cora did not hear me.
With her hands locked tightly together, her lips firmly compressed and
her cheeks of an ashen hue, she was gazing fixedly at the bridegroom, on
whom I, too, now looked, starting quickly, for it was our minister,
Walter Beaumont! The words were few which made them one, Walter and the
young girl at his side, and then the ceremony was over. Cora arose, and
leaning heavily upon my arm, went out into the open air, and on through
street after street, until her home was reached. Then, without a word,
we parted—I going to my room, while she, through the live-long night
paced up and down the long parlours where no eye could witness the
working of the mighty sorrow which had come upon her.
The next morning she was calm, but very, very pale, saying not a word of
last night’s adventure. Neither did she speak of it for several days,
and then she said, rather abruptly, ‘I would give all I possess if I had
never sent that letter. The mortification is harder to bear even than
Walter’s loss. But he will not tell of it, I’m sure. He is too good—too
noble,’ and tears, the first she had shed since that night, rained
through her thin, worn fingers. It came at last—a letter bearing
Walter’s superscription, and with trembling hands she opened it,
finding, as she had expected, his wedding card, while on a tiny sheet
was written, ‘God pity you, Cora, even as I do—Walter.’
‘Walter! Walter!’ she whispered, and her quivering lips touched once the
loved name which she was never heard to breathe again.
From that day Cora Douglass faded, and when the autumnal days were come,
and the distant hills were bathed in the hazy October light, she died.
But not in the noisy city, for she had asked to be taken home, and in
the pleasant room where we had often sat together, she had bade me her
last good-by. They buried her on the Sabbath, and Walter’s voice was sad
and low as with Cora’s coffin at his feet he preached from the words, ‘I
am the Resurrection and the life.’ His young wife, too, wept over the
early dead, who had well-nigh been her rival, and whose beautiful face
wore a calm, peaceful smile, as if she were at rest.
There was a will, they said, and in it Walter was generously remembered,
while to his wife was given an ivory box, containing Cora’s
diamonds—necklace, bracelets, pin and ear-rings—all were there; and
Walter, as he looked upon them, drew nearer to him his fair girl-wife,
who but for these, might not, perchance, have been to him what she
was—his dearest earthly treasure.
THE END.
MAGGIE LEE.
The usually quiet little village of Ellerton was, one June morning,
thrown into a state of great excitement by the news that the large stone
building on the hill, which, for several years had been shut up, was at
last to have an occupant, and that said occupant was no less a personage
than its owner, Graham Thornton, who, at the early age of twenty-eight,
had been chosen to fill the responsible office of judge of the county.
Weary of city life, and knowing that a home in the country would not
materially interfere with the discharge of his new duties, particularly
as Ellerton was within half an hour’s ride of the city, young Thornton
had conceived the idea of fitting up the old stone house, bequeathed to
him by his grandfather in a style suited to his abundant means and
luxurious tastes. Accordingly, for several weeks, the people of Ellerton
were kept in a constant state of anxiety, watching, wondering and
guessing, especially Miss Olivia Macey, who kept a small store in the
outskirts of the village, and whose fertile imagination supplied
whatever her neighbours lacked in actual knowledge of the proceedings at
“Greystone Hall,” as Judge Thornton called his place of residence.
At last, every thing was completed, and the day appointed for the
arrival of the Judge, who, disliking confusion, had never once been near
his house, but after a few general directions, had left the entire
arrangement of the building and grounds to the management of one whom he
knew to be a connoisseur in such matters. As was very natural, a great
deal of curiosity was felt concerning the arrival of the distinguished
stranger, and as his mother, a proud, stately woman, was to accompany
him, Miss Olivia Macey, who boasted of having once been a school mate of
the haughty lady, resolved upon meeting them at the depot, thinking she
should thereby show them proper respect.
‘So Maggie,’ said she to her niece, a dark-haired, white-browed girl of
fifteen, who, at noon, came bounding in from school, ‘so Maggie, you
must watch the store, for there’s no knowing how long I shall be gone.
Miss Thornton may ask me home with her, and it would not be polite to
refuse.’
For an instant Maggie’s dark brown eyes danced with mischief as she
thought how improbable it was that the lofty Mrs. Thornton would seek to
renew her acquaintance with one in Miss Macey’s humble position, but the
next moment they filled with tears, and she said, ‘Oh, aunt, must I stay
from school again? It is the third time within a week. I never shall
know anything!’
‘Never mind, Mag,’ shouted little Ben, tossing his cap across the room
and helping himself to the largest piece of pie upon the dinner-table.
‘Never mind. I’ll stay with you, for I don’t like to go to school
anyway. And we’ll get our lessons at home.’
Maggie knew how useless it would be to argue the point, so with a
dejected air she seated herself at the open window and silently watched
her aunt until she disappeared in the distance—then taking up her book,
she tried to study, but could not, for the heavy pain at her heart which
kept whispering of injustice done to her, unconsciously, perhaps, by the
only mother she had ever known. Very dear to Miss Macey were the orphan
children of her only sister, and faithfully did she strive to fulfil her
trust, but she could not conceal the partiality for fun-loving
curly-haired Ben, nor the fact that the sensitive and ambitious Maggie,
who thirsted for knowledge, was wholly unappreciated and misunderstood.
Learning—learning was what Maggie craved, and she sat there alone that
bright June afternoon, holding upon her lap the head of her sleeping
brother, and watching the summer shadows as they chased each other over
the velvety grass in the meadow beyond, she wondered if it would be ever
thus with her—would there never come a time when she could pursue her
studies undisturbed, and then, as the thought that this day made her
fifteen years of age, her mind went forward to the future, and she said
aloud—‘Yes—three years from to-day and I shall be free—free as the air I
breathe!’
But why that start, sweet Maggie Lee? Why that involuntary shudder as
you think of the long three years from now? She cannot tell, but the
shadows deepened on her fair, girlish face, and leaning her brow upon
her hand, she thinks long and earnestly of what the three years may
bring. A footstep on the floor—the first which has fallen that
afternoon—and Maggie looks up to see before her a tall, fine looking
man, who, the moment his eyes fell upon her, checked the whistle,
intended for his dog, which was trembling on his lip, and lifting his
hat deferentially, he asked if ‘this were Miss Macey’s store?’
‘Yes, sir,’ answered Maggie, and laying Bennie gently down, she went
around behind the counter, while the young man, gazing curiously at her,
continued, ‘You surely are not Miss Macey?’
There was a most comical expression in the brown eyes which met the
black ones of the stranger, as Maggie answered, ‘No sir, I am nobody but
Maggie Lee.’
There must have been something attractive either in the name or the
little maiden who bore it, for long after the gentleman had received the
article for which he came, he lingered, asking the young girl numberless
questions and playing with little Ben, who, now wide awake, met his
advances more than half way, and was on perfectly familiar terms both
with the stranger and the dog Ponto, who had stretched his shaggy length
before the door.
‘Mag cries, she does, when Aunt Livy makes her stay home from school,’
said Ben, at last, beginning to feel neglected and wishing to attract
attention.
Showing his white, handsome teeth, the gentleman playfully smoothed the
silken curls of little Ben, and turning to the blushing Maggie, asked
‘if she were fond of books?’
‘Oh, I love them so much,’ was the frank, impulsive answer, and ere ten
minutes had passed away, Judge Thornton, for he it was, understood
Maggie’s character as well as if he had known her a lifetime.