"YOU SHALL NOT MARRY RALPH CHAINEY!" UNCLE BEN CRIED, VIOLENTLY.
Adown my cheeks in silence
The tears came flowing free,
And, oh! I can not believe it--
That thou art lost to me.
H. HEINE.
While Kathleen was still weeping over Ralph Chainey's appealing letter
her uncle was announced.
She dried her tears and went down to welcome the old man.
Mrs. Stone had taken the children out for the morning, so Kathleen had
a long interview with her new-found relative.
He was so much like her dead father in his voice and looks that he won
Kathleen's heart at once, and when he expressed his love and sympathy
for her in moving terms, the unhappy young girl gave him her confidence
in the fullest measure.
She told him the story of her young life from the beginning--her
step-mother's cruelty, Alpine's unkindness, and Ivan's attempts at
courtship, which she had repelled with scorn.
Then her indignant voice softened as she murmured over the story of her
happy love-dream--her first romantic meeting with Ralph Chainey, when
he had saved her life, and her later acquaintance with him, down to the
moment when she had repulsed him with scorn, and, in a fit of pique,
engaged herself to Teddy Darrell.
"I was wrong--all wrong!" she cried, self-upbraidingly, and gave him
Ralph's letter to read.
Benjamin Carew listened in dead silence to all that Kathleen told him
of the young actor, and if she had observed him closely, she would have
seen that his brows were drawn together by a heavy frown.
Once or twice he seemed about to speak to her, but checked himself
abruptly and waited.
Kathleen, as soon as he had finished the letter, cried out, eagerly:
"Do you not see that I was wrong to judge him so hardly?"
Uncle Ben looked gravely into his niece's face and answered, almost
sternly:
"No; you were right, for appearances were against him."
"But, dear Uncle Ben, all that is explained away now, and I know that I
was wrong not to trust my lover," cried the girl, anxiously.
But he answered, firmly:
"You must not call that actor your lover. You are betrothed to Mr.
Darrell."
"But Teddy will release me if I ask him."
"Would you wound your true lover so cruelly?" asked the old man, almost
angrily.
The beautiful dark eyes were raised to his, swimming in tears.
"Oh, how unhappy I am!" cried poor Kathleen. "I am the most wretched
girl in the whole world! Every one is against me!"
The old man did not answer. He regarded her with sad, troubled eyes
through his smoky glasses.
"You, too, Uncle Ben, have turned against me just when I thought you
would be such a comfort to me," sobbed his niece.
"You are willful and unjust, my child, if you expect me to counsel you
to throw over your lover for the sake of a man who has a wife already,"
was the mild reply.
"But he will be divorced, uncle, and then we will be free to love each
other."
"And this honorable young man, Mr. Darrell, will be thrown over
remorselessly for the world to laugh at as a jilted man!"
"Uncle Ben, I can explain it all to Teddy. He is so good and kind he
will forgive me. He would not want to marry me if he knew that I loved
another man."
Her heart, thrilling with the intensity of her love, lent fire to her
eyes and passion to her voice. She felt that it would be a sin to marry
Teddy with her heart so full of Ralph.
But the old man she had thought so kind and gentle rose up angrily and
caught her hand.
"You are mad--mad, girl, to think of throwing over Teddy Darrell for
this miserable actor! You shall not do it!" he cried, violently.
Kathleen tore her little white hand from his clasp in haughty amazement.
"You have no right to control my actions!" she exclaimed; and he sunk
back into his chair and covered his face with his hand.
"True, true!" she heard him murmur, dejectedly. "I have no authority
over my brother's child. I am only a poor, humble old farmer, and my
advice is not desired, even though I would save my brother's only child
from wrecking her life for the sake of an unwise love! So be it. I will
go now, a sadder, wiser old man."
The pitiful words touched the girl's heart, melting her resentment.
She knelt by him and drew the hand away from his moist eyes, murmuring,
remorsefully:
"Dear Uncle, forgive me. I was hasty, and am sorry that I wounded you.
What would you have me do?"
"To marry Mr. Darrell," he replied, firmly.
"How can I?" she moaned, wearily.
"At least say nothing to any one of your change of mind just yet,
Kathleen. Think a moment. Ralph Chainey may not get his divorce. Then,
were it not better, child, for you not to compromise yourself by
declaring your love for him?"
"Perhaps so," she replied, dejectedly.
"Then you promise me not to have anything to say to Ralph Chainey until
the divorce is secured?" he went on, eagerly.
"I promise," answered the girl, with a long, heart-breaking sigh. "Oh!"
she thought, "how cold and cruel old people are! Surely they forget
they were ever young, or that they ever loved!"
But she could not bear to grieve the poor old man, and so she gave him
her promise.
"It is not for long, anyhow," she consoled herself with thinking, for
she thought it could not be long before Ralph secured the divorce.
"Then nothing on earth shall keep us apart," she thought, blissfully.
"Poor Teddy! he will soon get over his disappointment and love some
other girl."
Mrs. Stone came in at this juncture, and Kathleen began to feel quite
conscience-stricken over the treachery she was meditating to the kind
lady's cousin.
Strangely enough, after she had cordially welcomed Uncle Ben
Carew, Mrs. Stone plunged into the subject of which they had been
speaking--Ralph Chainey.
"I've just met the young actor," she said; "and congratulate me, my
dear, for he likes my plot, and I am to write him a play. Won't that be
nice? For he will make it famous. Teddy has been begging me to create
a part in it for him, and to ask Mr. Chainey to take him into the
company. Isn't it ridiculous in that spoiled boy? Why, he will be a
married man then, with no time for acting."
Kathleen turned the subject as quickly as she could, and then Mrs.
Stone devoted herself to Uncle Ben, persuading him to become her guest
for a week.
"I shall be delighted to have you, and Teddy will be glad to have the
pleasure of showing you the great sights of Boston," she declared.
So it was arranged, and Mr. Darrell manfully fell into the line of
duty, escorting Uncle Ben to all the places of interest in the city,
feeling fully rewarded for all his trouble by the murmured thanks of
his beautiful betrothed.
So three days passed by peacefully, and although Kathleen wept bitter
tears, when alone, over the dear letter her uncle had forbidden her to
answer, she managed to preserve a calm aspect before her friends, and
they did not guess how her heart was aching with its secret pain. It
grieved Teddy that she seemed to shrink from him a little, but he kept
on hoping he would win her love in the end.
Toward the middle of the week a great surprise came to Kathleen.
The long-hoped-for letter came at last.
The Southern relatives, so long deaf to her loving appeals, wrote at
last to say that they wanted Kathleen to come and live with them. They
were rich now, and could make her life as gay and luxurious as it was
before her father's death.
"I should like to go and visit them. My heart always yearned for my
mother's people," Kathleen said, wistfully.
Uncle Ben was thoughtfully perusing the letter. He answered:
"I will take you to them, my dear. I should not like for you to travel
alone any more."
"Oh, how good you are, dearest uncle!" cried the girl, gladly. "But do
you see they want me to come right away? They want me to be there at
the celebration of my grandmother's birthday, which, she says, will
be quite an event in the Franklyn family, so that all the clan will be
gathered at the old homestead, and I can see all of them."
"We can start for Richmond to-morrow," her uncle answered, smilingly.