EDITH AT HOME.
It was too late for Grace to call, and bidding her companion good-
bye, she galloped down the hill, while Edith, in a meditative
mood, suffered her favorite Bedouin to walk leisurely up the
carriage road which led to the rear of the house.
"Victor Dupres!" she exclaimed, as a tall figure emerged from the
open door and came forward to meet her. "Where did you come from?"
"From New York," he replied, bowing very low, "Will Mademoiselle
alight?" and taking the little foot from out the shoe he lifted
her carefully from the saddle.
"Is HE here?" she asked, and Victor replied,
"Certainement; and has brought home a fresh recruit of the blues,
too, judging from the length and color of his face."
"Why did he go to New York?" interrupted Edith, who had puzzled
her brain not a little with regard to the business which had taken
Richard so suddenly from home.
"As true as I live I don't know," was Victor's reply. "For once
he's kept dark even to me, scouring all the alleys, and lanes, and
poor houses in the city, leaving me at the hotel, and taking with
him some of those men with brass buttons on their coats. One day
when he came back he acted as if he were crazy and I saw the great
tears drop on the table over which he was leaning, then when I
asked 'if he'd heard bad news,' he answered, 'No, joyful news. I'm
perfectly happy now. I'm ready to go home,' and he did seem happy,
until we drove up to the gate and you didn't come to meet him.
'Where's Edith?' he asked, and when Mrs. Matson said you were out,
his forehead began to tie itself up in knots, just as it does when
he is displeased. It's my opinion, Miss Edith, that you humor him
altogether too much, You are tied to him as closely as a mother to
her baby."
Edith sighed, not because she felt the bonds to which Victor had
alluded, but because she reproached herself for not having been
there to welcome the blind man home when she knew how much he
thought of these little attentions.
"I'll make amends though, now," she said, and remembering the
story of his disappointment, her heart swelled with a fresh
feeling of pity for the helpless Richard, who, sitting before the
blazing fire in the library, did not hear the light step coming so
softly toward him.
All the way from the station, and indeed all the way from New
York, he had pictured to himself Edith's sylph-like form running
down the steps to meet him; had felt her warm hands in his, heard
her sweet voice welcoming him home again, and the world around him
was filled with daylight, but Edith was the sun which shone upon
his darkness. She was dearer to him now, if possible, than when he
left Collingwood, for, during his absence he had learned that
which, if she knew it, would bind her to him by cords of gratitude
too strong to be lightly broken. SHE owed everything to him, and
he, alas, he groaned when he thought WHAT he owed to her, but he
loved her all the same, and this it was which added to the
keenness of his disappointment when among the many feet which
hastened out to meet him, he listened for hers in vain. He knew it
was very pleasant in his little library whither Victor led him;
very pleasant to sit in his accustomed chair, and feel the fire-
light shining on his face, but there was something missing, and
the blue veins were swelling on his forehead, and the lines
deepening about his mouth, when a pair of soft, white arms were
wound about his neck, two soft white hands patted his bearded
cheeks, and a voice, whose every tone made his heart throb and
beat with ecstasy, murmured in his ear,
"Dear Mr. Richard, I am so glad you've come home, and so sorry I
was not here to meet you. I did not expect you to-night. Forgive
me, won't you? There, let me smooth the ugly wrinkles away, they
make you look so cross and old," and the little fingers he vainly
tried to clasp, wandered caressingly over the knit brows, while,
for the first time since people began to call her Miss Hastings,
Edith's lips touched his.
Nor was she sorry when she saw how beautiful the lovelight broke
all over the dark, stern face, irradiating every feature, and
giving to it an expression almost divine.
"Kiss me again, Birdie," he said. "It is not often you grant me
such a treat," and he held her arms about his neck until she
pressed her lips once more against his own.
Then he released her, and making her sit down beside him, rested
his hand upon her shining hair, while he asked her how she had
busied herself in his absence, if she had missed the old dark
cloud, a bit, and if she was not sorry to have him back.
He know just what her answer would be, and when it was given, he
took her face between his hands, and turning it up toward him,
said, "I'd give all Collingwood, darling, just to look once into
your eyes and see if---" then, apparently changing his mind, he
added, "see if you are pleased with what I've brought you, look;"
and taking from his pocket a square box he displayed to her view
an entire set of beautiful pearls. "I wanted to buy diamonds, but
Victor said pearls were more appropriate for a young girl like
you. Are they becoming?" and he placed some of them amid the
braids of her dark hair.
Like all girls of seventeen, Edith was in raptures, nor could he
make her sit still beside him until, divested of her riding habit,
she had tried the effect of the delicate ornaments, bracelets,
ear-rings, necklace and all.
"I am so glad you like them," he said, and he did enjoy it very
much, sitting there and listening to her as she danced about the
room, uttering little girlish screams of delight, and asking
Victor, when at last he came in--"if she wasn't irresistible?"
Victor FELT that she was, and in his polite French way he
complimented her, until Richard bade him stop, telling him "she
was already spoiled with flattery."
The pearls being laid aside and Victor gone, Edith resumed her
accustomed seat upon a stool at Richard's feet, and folding both
hands upon his knee, looked into his face, saying, "Well,
monsieur, why did you go off to New York so suddenly? I think you
might tell me now unless it's something I ought not to know."
He hesitated a moment as if uncertain whether to tell her or not;
then said to her abruptly, "You've heard, I believe, of the little
child whom I saved from drowning?"
"Yes," she answered. "Don't you know I told you once how I used to
worship you because you were so brave. I remember, too, of praying
every night in my childish way that you might some day find the
little girl."
"Edith, I have found her," and the nervous hands pressed tenderly
upon the beautiful head almost resting in his lap.
"Found her!" and Edith sprang to her feet, her large eyes growing
larger, but having in them no shadow of suspicion. "Where did you
find her? Where is she now? What is her name? Why didn't you bring
her home?" and out of breath with her rapid questioning, Edith sat
down again, while Richard laughingly replied, "Where shall I begin
to answer all your queries? Shall I take them in order? I found
out all about her in New York."
"That explains your scouring the alleys and lanes as Victor said
you did," interrupted Edith, and Richard rejoined rather sharply,
"What does HE know about it?"
"Nothing, nothing," returned Edith, anxious to shield Victor from
his master's anger. "I asked him what you did in New York, and he
told me that. Go on--what is her name?"
"Eloise Temple. Her mother was a Swede, and her father an
American, much older than his wife."
"Eloise--Eloise--Eloise."
Edith repealed it three times.
"Where have I heard that name before? Oh, I know. I heard Kitty
Maynard telling the story to Mrs. Atherton. Where is she, did you
say, and how does she look?"
"She is with the family who adopted her as their own, for her
mother is dead. Eloise is an orphan, Edith," and again the broad
hand touched the shining hair, pityingly this time, while the
voice which spoke of the mother was sad and low.
Suddenly a strange, fanciful idea flashed on Edith's mind, and
looking into Richard's face she asked, "How old is Eloise?"
"Seventeen, perhaps. Possibly, though, she's older."
"And you, Mr. Harrington--how old are you, please? I'll never tell
as long as I live, if you don't want me to."
She knew he was becoming rather sensitive with regard to his age,
but she thought he would not mind HER knowing, never dreaming that
SHE of all others was the one from whom he would, if possible,
conceal the fact that he was thirty-eight. Still he told her
unreservedly, asking her the while if she did not consider him
almost her grandfather.
"Why, no," she answered; "you don't look old a bit. You haven't a
single grey hair. _I_ think you are splendid, and so I'm sure did
the mother of Eloise; didn't she?" and the roguish black eyes
looked up archly into the blind man's face.
Remembering what Grace had said of his love affair in Europe many
years since, and adding to that the evident interest he felt in
little Eloise Temple, the case was clear to her as daylight. The
Swedish maiden was the girl who jilted Richard Harrington, and
hence his love for Eloise, for she knew he did love her from his
manner when speaking of her and the pains he had taken to find
her. He had not answered her last question yet, for he did not
understand its drift, and when at last he spoke he said,
"Mrs. Temple esteemed me highly, I believe; and I admired her very
much. She had the sweetest voice I ever heard, not even excepting
yours, which is something like it."
Edith nodded to the bright face on the mirror opposite, and the
bright face nodded back as much was to say, "I knew 'twas so."
"Was she really handsome, this Mrs. Temple?" she asked, anxious to
know how Richard Harrington's early love had looked.
Instinctively the hands of the blind man met together round
Edith's graceful neck, as he told her how beautiful that Swedish
mother was, with her glossy, raven hair, and her large, soft,
lustrous eyes, and as he talked, there crept into Edith's heart a
strange, inexplicable affection for that fair young Swede, who
Richard said was not as happy with her father-husband as she
should have been, and who, emigrating to another land, had died of
a homesick, broken heart.
"I am sorry I cursed her to-day," thought Edith, her tears falling
fast to the memory of the lonely, homesick woman, the mother of
Eloise.
"Had she married Richard," she thought, "he would not now be
sitting here in his blindness, for SHE would be with him, and
Eloise, too, or some one very much like her. I wish she were here
now," and after a moment she asked why he had not brought the
maiden home with him. "I should love her as much as my sister,"
she said; "and you'd be happier with two of us, wouldn't you?"
"No," he answered; "one young girl is enough for any house. I
couldn't endure two."
"Then _I_ ought to go away," said Edith promptly, her bosom
swelling with a dread lest she should eventually have to go.
"Eloise has certainly the best right here. You loved her mother,
yon know, and you'd rather have her than me, wouldn't you?"
She held both his hands now within her own. She bent her face upon
them, and he felt her tears trickling through his fingers. Surely
he was not to blame if, forgetting himself for the moment, he
wound his arms about her and hugging her to his bosom, told her
that of all the world SHE was the one he most wanted there at
Collingwood, there just where she was now, her head upon his
shoulder, her cheek against his own. 0nce she felt slightly
startled, his words were so fraught with tender passion, but
regarding him as her father, or at least her elder brother, she
could not believe he intended addressing her save as his sister or
his child, and releasing herself from his embrace, she slid back
upon her stool and said, "I'm glad you're willing I should stay.
It would kill me to go from Collingwood now. I've been so happy
here, and found in you so kind a FATHER."
She WOULD say that last word, and she did, never observing that
Richard frowned slightly as if it were to him an unwelcome sound.
Presently Edith went on, "I think, though, this Eloise ought to
come, too, no matter how pleasant a home she has. It is her duty
to care for you who lost your sight for her. Were I in her place,
I should consider no sacrifice too great to atone for the past. I
would do everything in the world you asked of me, and then not
half repay you."
"Every thing, Edith? Did you say every thing?" and it would seem
that the blind eyes had for once torn away their veil, so lovingly
and wistfully they rested upon the bowed head of the young girl,
who, without looking up, answered back,
"Yes, every thing. But I'm glad I am not this Eloise."
"Why, Edith, why?" and the voice which asked the question was
mournful in its tone.
"Because," returned Edith, "I should not care to be under so great
obligations to any one. The burden would be oppressive. I should
be all the while wondering what more I could do, while you, too,
would be afraid that the little kindnesses which now are prompted
in a great measure by love would be rendered from a sense of
gratitude and duty. Wouldn't it be so, Mr. Richard?"
"Yes, yes," he whispered. "You are right. I should be jealous that
what my heart craved as love would be only gratitude. I am glad
you suggested this, Edith; very, very, glad, and now let us talk
no more of Eloise."
"Ah, but I must," cried Edith. "There are so many things I want to
know, and you've really told me nothing. Had she brothers or
sisters? Tell me that, please."
"There was a half sister, I believe, hut she is dead," said
Richard. "They are all dead but this girl. She is alive and happy,
and sometime I will tell you more of her, but not now. I am sorry
I told you what I have."
"So am I if I can't hear the whole," returned Edith, beginning to
pout.
"I DID intend to tell you all when I began," said Richard, "but
I've changed my mind, and Edith, I have faith to believe you will
not repeat to any one our conversation. Neither must you tease me
about this girl. It is not altogether an agreeable subject."
Edith saw that he was in earnest, and knowing how useless it would
be to question him further, turned her back upon him and gazing
steadily into the fire, was wondering what made him so queer, when
by way of diverting her mind, he said, "Did Victor tell you that
Mr. St. Claire came with us all the way from New York?"
"Mr. St. Claire, no," and Edith brightened at once, forgetting all
about Eloise Temple. "Why then didn't Mrs. Atherton and I see him?
We went over the house this afternoon. It's a splendid place, most
as handsome us Collingwood."
"How would you like to live there?" asked Richard, playfully. "One
of the proposed conditions on which I consented to receive you,
was that when Mr. St. Claire had a home of his own he was to take
you off my hands; at least, that was what he said, standing here
where you sit; and on my way from New York he reminded me of it,
inquiring for little Metaphysics, and asking if I were ready to
part with her."
"Do you wish me to go and let Eloise come?" Edith asked,
pettishly, and Richard replied,
"No, Edith, I need you more than Arthur ever can, and you'll stay
with me, too, stay always, won't you? Promise that you will."
"Of course I shall," she answered. "I'll stay until I'm married,
as I suppose I shall he sometime; everybody is."
Richard tried to be satisfied with this reply, but it grated
harshly, and it seemed to him that a shadow deeper, darker than
any he had ever known, was creeping slowly over him, and that
Arthur St. Claire's was the presence which brought the threatening
cloud. He knew this half jealous feeling was unworthy of him, and
with a mighty effort he shook it off and saying to Edith, calmly,
"Mr. St. Claire asked many questions concerning you and your
attainments, and when I spoke of your passion for drawing,
lamenting that since Miss Chapin's departure, there was in town no
competent instructor, he offered to be your teacher, provided you
would come up there twice a week. He is a very sensible young man,
for when I hesitated he guessed at once that I was revolving the
propriety of your going alone to the house of a bachelor, where
there were no females except the servants, and he said to me 'You
can come with her, if you like.'"
"So it's more proper for a young lady to be with two gentlemen
than with one, is it?" and Edith laughed merrily, at the same time
asking if Richard had accepted the offer.
"I did, provided it met your approbation," was the reply, and as
Victor just then appeared, the conversation for the present
ceased.
But neither Eloise nor Arthur left the minds of either Richard or
Edith, and while in her sleep that night the latter dreamed of the
gentle Eloise, who called her sister, and from whom Arthur St.
Claire strove to part her, the former tossed restlessly upon his
pillow, moaning to him-self, "I am glad I did not tell her. She
must answer me for love and not for gratitude."