WEDDING BELLS OUT OF TUNE.
Let us return to Hubert Varrick, and the marriage which was the
all-absorbing topic in fashionable circles.
Mrs. Varrick had sent a note to her son at his hotel, begging for a
reconciliation, and stating that she would be at the wedding without
fail; but never a word did she say about Jessie Bain.
It seemed like a dream to Hubert--his ride in a cab through the cool
crisp air to Gerelda's home on that eventful morning.
He noticed one thing--that the sun did not shine that day; and he said
to himself that it boded ill for his wedding.
The bride-elect and her mother welcomed him effusively. Bitter anger
filled the girl's heart to see how cold and stern he looked. She noticed
that he had no word, no smile for her. If she had not loved him so
madly, her pride would have rebelled, and she would have let him go his
way even then.
She almost shrunk under the cold glance that rested upon her. She
trembled, even in that moment, as she thought how he would hate her if
he but knew how she had plotted to win him. Before she had a chance to
exchange a word with him, her maid of honor came fluttering down the
corridor, chattering in high spirits with Harry Maillard, who was to be
best man.
She was quite as dazed as Varrick himself, until she found herself
standing beside him at the altar.
It was over at last! The words had been spoken which made her Hubert
Varrick's wedded wife, through weal or through woe, till death did them
part.
Then followed the sumptuous wedding-breakfast. While the merriment was
at its height, Varrick touched her lightly on the arm.
"It wants but an hour and twenty minutes until train time. Would it not
be best to slip away now and arrange your traveling toilet?"
"Yes," said Gerelda.
No one noticed their exit, and at last they were alone together, away
from the throng of guests; but, much to the bride's disappointment, her
newly made husband did not seem to realize this fact, and Gerelda's face
flushed with disappointment.
He escorted her as far as the door of her _boudoir_, and there he left
her, saying that he would return in half an hour, hoping that would be
sufficient time to exchange her bridal robes for her traveling-dress.
She smiled and nodded, declaring that he should find her ready before
that time.
Hubert walked slowly on until he found himself at the door of the
conservatory.
"It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a cigar and return here for a quiet
smoke," he thought.
He immediately suited the action to the thought. Was it fate that led
him there? He had scarcely seated himself in one of the rustic
arm-chairs ere he heard the sound of approaching voices.
He felt slightly annoyed that the retreat he had chosen was to be
invaded at that particular moment.
He drew back among the large-leaved plants, which would effectually
screen him from the intruders, and hoped that their stay would be short.
"I tell you it will be impossible for you to see her," said a voice,
which he recognized as belonging to Gerelda's maid.
"But I must," retorted another voice which sounded strangely familiar.
"Give her the note I just gave you, and I will wager you something
handsome that she will see me. My good girl, let this plead for me with
you!"
A jingle of silver accompanied the words, and Varrick could not help but
smile at the magical effect the little bribe had.
"Of course, I'll take your note to her, sir," said the girl; "but that
isn't promising she'll see you."
Somehow the idea formed itself in Varrick's mind that it was Mrs.
Northrup for whom the man asked. Had he thought for one moment that it
was Gerelda whom the man had asked for, he would have stepped forth and
inquired of him what he wanted.
In a very few moments he heard the _frou-frou_ of a woman's garments and
the patter of hurrying feet.
"Gerelda has come instead of her mother to see what this person wants,"
he thought; adding impatiently: "This will never do; we shall be late
for the train, sure. I will have to take the man off her hands."
At that instant, Gerelda, panting with excitement sprung across the
threshold of the conservatory.
From his leafy seat Varrick could hear and see all that took place,
while no one could see him.
He had risen, and was just about to step forward, when he caught sight
of Gerelda's face. The color of it held him spell-bound. It was as pale
as death, and her eyes flashed fire. She was fairly frothing at the
mouth, and the look of venomous rage that distorted her features
appalled him.
"You!" cried Gerelda. "Have you risen from the grave to confront me?"
"I am Captain Frazier--at your service, madame," returned her companion,
with a low bow. "As for my returning from the unknown shore, why, you
flatter me in imagining that I have so much power, though I have been
known to do some miraculous things before now. I am sorry that so many
of my friends believe the ridiculous story that was set afloat regarding
my supposed death. I am--"
"Why are you here? What do you want?" cried Gerelda.
"You are inclined to be brusque, my dear," he replied, tauntingly. "If
you had asked me that question half an hour ago, I should have answered,
'I am here to stop your marriage with Hubert Varrick at whatever cost. I
have traveled by night and by day, foot-sore and hungry, to get here in
time to prevent it.' I-- I thought you had perished in the fire on the
island, until I read the article in the paper announcing your marriage."
"If this is all you have to say to me, permit me to say good-morning,"
she returned icily, turning to leave the place.
"You shall listen to me!" he cried. "I vowed in days gone by that you
should never be happy with Hubert Varrick. You promised that you would
marry me, and those words changed my whole life."
"Well, now that I am another's bride, what can you do about it?" sneered
Gerelda.
"I mean to see Varrick and have a little talk with him," he answered. "I
will tell him how, on the very night before the marriage was to have
taken place at the Crossmon Hotel, at Alexandria Bay, I threw myself on
my knees at your feet, and cried out to you to spare me; that you had
played with my heart too long, and urged you to fly with me, and that
you said, while I knelt before you, that if you decided to fly with me
you would let me know by sunrise the following morning, but that you
must have all night to think it over.
"Do you dare face me and deny that?" continued Captain Frazier, seizing
her white wrist and holding it in an iron grip.
"No, I do not deny it," she answered. "But what of it? What do you
expect to make of it?"
"This!" he cried, furiously. "I intend to be even with you. I will have
a glorious revenge! I will see Hubert Varrick before he leaves this
house, and say to him: 'I hope you may be happy with your bride,' and I
will laugh in his face, crying out: 'She eloped with me not so very long
ago, and we went to my island home, where we kept in hiding until the
sensation should blow over. We remained there, as I can prove by all my
servants, and I was a very slave to her sweet caprices.'"
"You would not say that!" cried Gerelda. "I would tell him my side of
the story--that you kidnapped me, and held me by force on the island."
"Varrick is a man of the world," he returned, tauntingly. "Your side of
the story is too flimsy for him or any one else to believe."
"Stop! You must not--you shall not!" cried Gerelda, wildly. "I-- I will
make terms with you. I see you are shabbily dressed and in want of
money. I will give you a check, here and now, for a thousand dollars, if
you will go away, never again to return, and have nothing to
say--nothing. Your story would ruin me, false though it is."
The captain arched his eyebrows.
"I think I could bring satisfactory proof as to where you passed your
time."
Hubert Varrick, standing behind the foliage, was fairly stricken dumb by
what he heard and saw.
He did not love his bride, but he believed in her implicitly. All the
old doubt which had filled his heart and killed his love for Gerelda
came surging back like a raging torrent, sweeping over his very soul.
In that instant the thought of Jessie Bain came to him--sweet little
Jessie, whose love for him he had read in her every glance, and to whom
he had given all his heart with a deeper, stronger love than he had ever
given to Gerelda, even in those old days. How he longed to break from
the terrible nightmare which seemed to fetter him!
"Your offer of a thousand dollars is a very fair one; but it will take
double that sum to purchase my silence. You are quite right in your
surmise. I am in need of money. With one fell swoop I have lost every
dollar of my fortune, and now that all romance and sentiment are over
between us, I have no compunction in showing you the mercenary side of
my nature. Make it two thousand, and I will consent to hold my peace,
seeing that I can not mend matters by undoing the marriage."
"Come with me. We will settle this now and forever. I have but five
minutes to devote to you. Step this way," said Gerelda.
The next instant they had disappeared, and Hubert Varrick was left
standing there alone.
How long he stood there he never knew. His valet came in search of him.
He found him at the end of the conservatory, standing motionless as a
statue among the shrubbery.
"Master," he said, "your bride bids me say to you that you have barely
time to get into your traveling clothes."
He was shocked at the horrible laugh that broke from Varrick's lips.
Had his master gone mad? he wondered.
He followed the man without a word, and five minutes later, with a firm
step, he was walking down the corridor toward his bride's apartments.
But ere he could knock upon the door, it was opened by Gerelda. He
offered his arm to Gerelda, and walked slowly by her side through the
throng of friends to the carriage in waiting; and, amid showers of rice,
peals of joyous laughter, and a world of good wishes, they were whirled
away.
During the entire ride Varrick spoke no word. Gerelda watched him
narrowly out of the corner of her eye, wondering why he looked so
unusually angry.
They were barely in time to catch the train, and it was not until they
were seated in their own compartment that Varrick ventured a remark to
the beautiful girl he had just made his wife, and who was looking up
into his face with such puzzled wonder in her great dark eyes.
"I should like your attention for a few moments, Mrs. Varrick," he said,
turning to her with a haughty sternness that was new to him.
"You are my wife," he went on; "the ceremony is barely over which made
you that, yet I would recall it if I could."
"What do you mean, Hubert?" she cried, piteously.
"We will not have any theatricals, if you please," he said, waving her
back. "A guilty conscience should need no accuser. It is best to speak
plainly to you, and to the point. Suffice it to say I was in the
conservatory at the time you entered. I heard all that passed between
Captain Frazier and yourself. Now, here is what I propose to do: We were
to take a wedding-trip to Montreal. We will go there, but when we reach
our destination, you and I will part forever. I shall institute
proceedings for a divorce at once, and I shall never know another happy
moment until the divorce is granted. You shall be wife of mine but in
name until we reach Montreal; then we part forever."
"Oh, Hubert, Hubert, you will not do this!" she sobbed, wildly. "It
would ruin my life--kill me!"
"You did not stop to think that marriage with you would ruin my life,"
he interposed, bitterly. "What have you to say for yourself? Was
Captain Frazier's story false or true? Remember, I heard him say that he
could furnish proof of all he charged."
"It is useless to hide the truth from you," she whispered, hoarsely. "I
see that you know all. Give me a chance to think--only to think of some
way out of it. It would kill me, Hubert, to part from you. Better death
than that. You are my world, the sunshine of my life. I would pine away
and die without you. Oh, Hubert, you must not leave me!"
"The words are easily said," he replied, "but they do not sound sincere.
I may as well make a clean breast of the whole matter," he went on, "and
tell you the truth, Gerelda. I do not love you. I-- I--love another,
though that love has never been confessed to the one I love. I--
I--married you because I felt in honor bound to do so, and in doing so I
crushed all the love that was budding in my heart. But was it worth the
sacrifice of two lives? You can not answer me. I shall not intrude upon
you again until we reach Montreal. You can send for your mother; it
would be best for me to leave you in her charge. Telegraph back to her
from the next station we arrive at. The moment we reach Montreal we part
forever!"
But at that instant a strange event happened.