A NEW-FOUND RELATIVE.
As I came through the Valley of Despair,
As I came through the valley, on my sight,
More awful than the darkness of the night,
Shone glimpses of a past that had been fair.
E. W. WILCOX.
Uncle Ben Carew stared in surprise at his niece when she made her
strange declaration; but she continued, sadly:
"Uncle Ben, you must not blame papa for his seeming cruelty to you and
me when I tell you all. But--but dear papa, when he died, disinherited
me, and left his wealth to these two heartless women here."
"Good land! my child, what had you done to turn Vince against you?"
"Nothing, dear uncle! but I believe that cunning arts were employed
by some other people to turn my father's heart against his child,"
answered Kathleen, spiritedly.
"Mamma, will you permit Kathleen to belittle us in our very presence,
and in our own house?" exclaimed Alpine, angrily.
Kathleen looked at her step-sister, who stood at the back of the chair
into which she had assisted the pale and trembling Ivan.
"I have no desire to remain in your house a moment longer than is
necessary," she said, proudly. "I am going at once, and I will take my
uncle with me as a guest in my friend's house. But before I go, Mrs.
Carew, please give me my diamond necklace."
"There is some mistake. I know nothing about your diamonds. I did not
take them from the jewellers," answered Mrs. Carew, angrily; but there
was such a ring of truth in her voice that Kathleen believed her for
once.
She turned to Alpine.
"Perhaps _you_ have the diamonds?" she said, interrogatively.
"I have _not_. I thought you took them with you when you went away,
and that they were stolen from you when you were robbed that night,"
answered Alpine, earnestly.
"I believe you," said Kathleen, and her burning glance fell on Ivan
Belmont as he cowered before her in his seat.
"It is you," she said, shaking a disdainful finger in his face; "it is
you to whom I must look for my jewels! Where are they? What have you
done with them?"
He tried hard to stammer a weak denial of all knowledge of them, but
even his own mother and sister knew that he was lying. Kathleen's great
flashing eyes surveyed him in bitter scorn.
"Do not deny it--I can see that you are speaking falsely," she said.
"You can not deny it in the face of the jewelers' assertion. Perhaps
you have sold them to get money to go on with your dissipated habits.
Listen: I will give you one week in which to return the diamonds, or
four thousand dollars in lieu of them." She paused, and he muttered
another disclaimer, but Kathleen persisted: "I can not afford to lose
the small fortune that is all that remains to me of my father's gifts
for a scruple of pity to those who have been pitiless to me. So unless
you return the jewels or their value in a week's time, I shall hand you
over to the law."
With a heightened color she took the old man's arm.
"Come, Uncle Ben, let us go," she said, and swept from the room with
the air of a dethroned princess, Uncle Ben following humbly in her wake.
Jones let her out with an air of distinct approval, having hovered near
the library door and heard all that transpired within.
Kathleen, going down the steps with her shabby, newly found relative,
came face to face with a man going up--Ralph Chainey. A start on either
side, a cold, stiff bow, then Kathleen stepped into the carriage and
sunk half-fainting against the cushions.
"Who was that, my dear?" inquired her uncle, observing her agitation.
Kathleen stifled a sob, and answered:
"It was Ralph Chainey, the great actor."
"Um-hum! I have heard of him. But what made you feel so bad at seeing
him, honey?"
"Oh! uncle, I used to love him, and expected to marry him; but, alas!
that is all over now," sighed the young girl; and there came into her
mind some of the words of Laura Jean Libbey's sweet, sad song:
"Lovers once, but strangers now,
Though pledged by many a tender vow;
Still I'd give the world to be
All that I was once to thee."
She leaned her bright head lovingly against the old man's kindly
shoulder and sobbed out all the pain in her heart.
"Tell me all about it, dearie," said the old farmer, gently.
But Kathleen's heart was too full. The sight of her handsome, perjured
lover, fascinating Ralph Chainey, was too much for her. Her tears
flowed unrestrainedly until Mrs. Stone's house was reached.
But here Kathleen's uncle decidedly declined her invitation to enter.
"No, honey; not just now. I'm shabby looking by the side of fine city
folks, and I'll go and buy me some better clothes--a new hat and a
white shirt--then to-morrow I'll come back here and see your friend and
yourself," he replied, and left her at the door.
Kathleen told her friend all about the morning's events, and received
her very sincere sympathy.
"I always felt that those Carews were mean, especially Ivan," she said.
"But, never mind, dearie. When your uncle comes to-morrow we will make
him remain for a long visit."