"MY PRETTY MAID."
There was not a more nervous, startled maiden in all New England that
night than Liane as she flew along the beach, haunted by a fear of
drunken men, of whom Stonecliff had its full quota.
And, indeed, she had not gone so very far before her fears took shape.
She heard distinctly, above her frightened heartbeats and her own light
steps, the sound of a man's tread gaining on her, while his voice
called out entreatingly:
"Elinor, Elinor! wait for me!"
The sea's voice, with the wind, seemed to echo the call.
"Elinor, Elinor! wait for me!"
But Liane did not wait. She only redoubled her speed, and she might
have escaped her pursuer but that her little foot tripped on a stone
and threw her prone upon the sands.
Before she could rise a man's arms closed about her tenderly, lifting
her up, while he panted:
"Elinor, what girlish freak is this? Why wouldn't you wait for me,
dear?"
Liane gasped and looked up at him in terror, but that instant she
recognized him, and her fears all fled.
"Oh, Mr. Clarke, you have made a mistake, sir. You don't know me,
although I know what your name is. I am Liane Lester!" she cried
breathlessly.
He dropped her hand and recoiled in surprise, answering:
"I beg a hundred pardons for my apparent rudeness. I saw you flying
along as I smoked my cigar above the hill, and your figure looked so
exactly like my wife's that I flew after you. I hope you will find
it easy to forgive me, for you do resemble my wife very much, and,
although you are young and fair, you may take that as a compliment, for
my wife is very beautiful."
"I thank you, sir, and forgive you freely. I have never seen Mrs.
Clarke, but I have just come from your house, and was running home
every step of the way because I had to stay till after dark, and
I feared my grandmother would be uneasy over me!" faltered Liane,
blushing at his intent gaze, for the wind had blown her veil aside,
and her lovely features, pure as carven pearl, shone clearly in the
moonlight.
"And I am detaining you yet longer! Excuse me, and--good night," he
said abruptly, smiling kindly at her, lifting his hat and turning back
toward Cliffdene, while he thought with pleasure:
"What a lovely girl! She reminded me of Elinor when she was young."
Liane thought kindly of him, too, as she hurried along.
"What a noble face and gracious voice! Miss Roma Clarke is blessed in
having such a splendid father."
She had only granny, poor child; coarse, ugly, repulsive, cruel granny.
She could not even remember her parents or any other relation. A lonely
childhood, whose only bright memories were of its few school days, a
toilsome girlhood, robbed of every spark of youthful pleasure; coarse
scoldings and brutal beatings. It was all a piteous life--enough, as
Sophie, the maid had said, to make the very angels weep in pity.
Strange, as she hastened on, how Jesse Devereaux's eyes and smile
haunted her thoughts with little thrills of pleasure; how she wondered
if she should ever see him again.
"Perhaps Dolly Dorr will make him fall in love with her, she is so
pretty, with her fluffy yellow hair and big torquoise-blue eyes," she
thought, with a curious sensation of deadly pain, jealous already,
though she guessed it not.
The night was still and calm, and suddenly the dip of oars in the water
came to her ears. She looked, and saw a little boat headed for the
beach, with a single occupant.
The keel grated on the shore, the man sprang out, and came directly
toward her, pausing with hat in hand--a tall fellow, dark and
bewhiskered, with somber, dark eyes.
"Ah, good evening, my pretty maid. Taking a stroll all alone, eh? Won't
you have a moonlight row with me?"
"No, thank you, sir; I am in a hurry to get home. Please stand aside,"
for he had placed himself in her way.
"Not so fast, pretty maid. It is good manners, I trow, to answer a
stranger's courteous questions, is it not?" still barring her way.
"Well, show me the way to Cliffdene."
The trembling girl pointed mutely back the way she had come.
"Thank you--and again: Do you know Miss Roma Clarke?"
"I have just seen her at Cliffdene," she answered.
"So she is not married yet?"
"Oh, no," Liane answered, trying to pass, but he caught her hand,
exclaiming mockingly:
"Not married yet? Well, that is very good news to me. I will give you a
kiss, pretty one, for that information."
"You shall not! Release me at once, you hound!" cried the girl,
struggling to free herself.
But the insolent stranger only clasped her closer and drew her to him,
the fumes of his liquor-laden breath floating over her pure brow as he
struggled to kiss her shrieking lips.
And, absorbed in the conflict, neither one noticed a third person
coming toward them from the town--an exceedingly handsome young man,
who hurried his steps in time to comprehend the meaning of the scene
before him, and then shot out an athletic arm, and promptly bowled the
wretch over upon the wet sands.
"Lie there, you cur, till I give you leave to rise!" he thundered,
planting his foot on the fellow's chest while he turned toward the
young lady.
"Why, good heavens! Is it you, Miss Lester?" he cried, in wonder.
"Yes, Mr. Devereaux. I was hurrying home from an errand to Cliffdene
when this man jumped out of his boat, and threatened to kiss me."
"Apologize to the lady on your knees, cur!" cried Jesse Devereaux,
helping him with a hand on his coat collar.
The wretch obeyed in craven fear.
"Now tell me where you came from in the boat."
"From the nearest town," sullenly.
"Then get into that boat and go back to it as fast as you can row, and
if you are ever caught in Stonecliff again, I promise to thrash you
within an inch of your life."
The defeated bully obeyed in craven silence, but the gleam of his
somber eyes boded no good to the man who had so coolly mastered him.
Devereaux and Liane stood side by side, watching the little boat shoot
away over the dancing billows, leaving ripples of phosphorescent light
in the wake of the oars. Then he turned and took her hand.
"You had quite an adventure," he said. "Why, you are trembling like a
leaf, poor child!"
He felt like drawing her to his breast, and soothing her fears; but
that would not be conventional. So he could only regard her with the
tenderest pity and admiration, while clasping the trembling little hand
as tight as he dared.
Liane was so nervous she could not speak at first, and he continued
gently:
"It was rather imprudent for a young girl like you to be walking out
alone after nightfall. Did you not know it, Miss Lester?"
She faltered nervously:
"Oh, yes, I knew it! I was frightened almost to death, but I--I could
not help it!"
"Why?"
"My employer sent me on an errand to Cliffdene, and I was detained
there until after dark."
"They should have sent some one to see you safely home."
"Yes," Liane answered, shivering, but not making any explanation. She
hated in her simple, girlish pride to have him know how she had been
treated by Roma Clarke.
"I--I must be going now. Thank you ever so much for coming to my
rescue," she added, stooping to gather her roses, that lay scattered on
the sands.
Jesse Devereaux helped her, and kept them, saying as he drew her little
hand closely within his arm:
"I will carry them and see you safe home."
Arm in arm they paced along under the brilliant moonlight, with the
solemn voice of the ocean in their ears. But they were heedless. They
heard only the beating of their own excited hearts.
The mere presence of this man, whom she had never met till to-day,
filled Liane's innocent heart with ecstasy.
To be near him like this, with her arm linked in his so close that she
felt the quick throbbing of his disturbed heart; to meet the glances of
his passionate, dark eyes, to hear the murmuring tones of his musical
voice as he talked to her so kindly--oh, it was bliss such as she had
never enjoyed before, but that she could have wished might go on now
forever!
He made her tell him all that the stranger had said to her, and Liane
felt him give a quick start when Roma's name was mentioned, although
he said lightly:
"He must be some discarded lover of Miss Clarke."
"Yes," she answered, and, raising her eyes, she saw near at hand the
wretched shanty she called her home.
How short their walk had been--barely a minute it seemed to the girl!
But now they must part.
She essayed to draw her hand from his clasping arm, murmuring:
"I--I cannot let you go any farther with me, please! Granny does not
allow me to walk out with--with gentlemen! She told me to come home
alone!"
Jesse Devereaux protested laughingly, but he soon saw that Liane was in
terrible earnest, her face pale, her great eyes dilated with fear, her
slender form shaking as with a chill.
"Do you mean to say that you cannot have the privilege of receiving me
sometimes as a visitor under your own roof?" he asked, more seriously
then; but the girl suddenly uttered a low moan of alarm, and shrank
from him, turning her eyes wildly upon an approaching grotesque form.
Granny had worked herself into a fury over Liane's long stay, and at
last hobbled forth to meet her, armed with a very stout cane, that
would serve the double purpose of a walking stick and an instrument of
punishment.
And, in spite of her age, she was strong and agile, and Liane would
have cause to rue the hour she was born when next they met.
She strained her malevolent gaze all around for a sight of the truant,
and when they lighted on Liane and Devereaux, arm in arm, a growl of
fury issued from her lips.
Before Liane could escape, she darted forward with surprising agility,
and lifted her stout cane over the girl's shrinking head.
A start, a shriek, and Devereaux saw, as suddenly as if the old hag had
arisen from the earth by his side, the peril that menaced Liane.
That descending blow was enough to kill the frail, lovely girl, the
object of granny's brutal spite!
Another instant and the stick would descend on the beautiful head!
But Devereaux's upraised arm received the force of the blow, and
that arm fell shattered and helpless by his side, but the other hand
violently wrenched the old woman away from her victim, as he demanded:
"You vile beast! What is the meaning of this murderous assault?"
They glared at each other, and the old woman snarled:
"I have a right to beat her! She disobeyed my orders, and she belongs
to me. She's my granddaughter."
"Heaven help me, it is true!" moaned Liane, as he looked at her for
confirmation.
"Let me get at her! Let me get at her!" shrieked granny, intent on
punishing the girl, and writhing in Devereaux's clutch.
But Devereaux, with one arm hanging helpless at his side, held her
firmly with the other.
"You shall not touch her!" he said sternly. "You shall go to prison for
this outrage."
At that both the old woman and the girl uttered a cry of remonstrance.
Devereaux looked at Liane inquiringly, and she faltered:
"The disgrace would fall on me!"
"Yes, yes, she is my granddaughter," howled granny eagerly, seeing her
advantage. Devereaux comprehended, too. He groaned:
"But what can you do? You must not be exposed again to her fury!"
Granny glared malevolently, while Liane bent her eyes to the ground,
meditating a moment ere she looked up, and said timidly:
"I think you are right. I cannot live with granny any more, for she
would surely kill me some day. Let her go home, and I will go and spend
the night with Dolly Dorr, who lives not far from here."
"You hear what Miss Lester says? Will you go home peaceably, while she
goes to her friend for safety?" demanded Devereaux, eager to close the
scene, for he was faint from the pain of his broken arm.
Granny saw that she was cornered, and cunningly began to feign
repentance, whimpering that she was sorry, and would never do so any
more if Liane would only come home with her now, for she was afraid to
spend the night alone.
"She shall not go with you, you treacherous cat," he answered sternly,
releasing her and bidding her angrily to return home at once.
Cowed by his authority, she could not but choose to obey, but as she
started, she flung back one shaft:
"Better come with me, Liane, than stay with him, my dear. Remember my
warnings about rich young men and pretty, poor girls! A beating is
safer than his love!"
Liane's cheeks flamed at the coarse thrust, but Devereaux said
earnestly:
"Do not mind her taunt, Miss Lester. I will always be a true friend to
you, believe me!"
"You are a true friend already. From what horrors have you saved me
to-night?" Liane cried, bursting into tears. "Your poor arm, how
helpless it hangs! Oh, I fear it has been broken in my defense," and
suddenly sinking on her knees, in an excess of tenderest gratitude, she
pressed her warm, rosy lips to the hand that had so bravely defended
her from insult and injury.
"Oh, you are a hero, you have saved my life, and I can never forget
you!" she sobbed hysterically.
"Yes, my arm is broken; I must hurry back to town and have it set," he
answered faintly. "I must let you go on to Miss Dorr's alone, but it is
not far, and you are safe now. Good night," he murmured, leaving her
abruptly in his pain.