A STARTLING DÉNOUEMENT.
You may bury it deep, and leave behind you
The land, the people that knew your slain;
It will push the sods from its grave and find you
On wastes of water and desert plain.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
"Jones says there is a horrible old man down-stairs, mamma, asking for
you, and will not go away until he sees you," Alpine Belmont said,
entering her mother's _boudoir_ one rainy evening just a few days after
the cyclone.
"I will not see him. I have just refused to see that old impostor--my
husband's brother, indeed!" contemptuously--"and I will not be annoyed
again. Tell Jones to send the old beggar away."
Alpine was pale. Her eyes had a troubled look.
"He says that he is not a beggar, mamma--that he has claims on you.
I am afraid you had better see him. He is making such a noise at the
door, and Jones says he is somewhat intoxicated."
"Tell Jones to pitch him into the street."
"He tried to, but the old man was more than a match for him. Do come,
mamma; it's so disgraceful, the sensation he is creating. People are
gathering around the house. Let us have him in and try to pacify him."
Her arguments conquered, and Mrs. Carew sent down word to admit the old
man to a small room where the servants were accustomed to come to her
for orders.
Alpine's trepidation had somewhat unnerved her mother, and as she swept
into the little room her air was a trifle less haughty, and her proud
eyes gazed anxiously about for the cause of this commotion.
There he lay, sprawled upon a luxurious sofa--an old, blear-eyed man in
ragged garments, but with a very close-shaven head, and the stubble of
several days' growth upon his chin. His keen, close-set eyes devoured
with a hungry gaze the handsome face before him.
A cry of surprise and terror burst from her blanching lips:
"George!--George Harrison!--_you_!"
"Yes, George Harrison--your husband!" answered the intruder, and a
hoarse cry of despair broke upon the air from the lips of Alpine, who
had glided in unheeded by both.
She stood behind her mother, gazing with affrighted eyes at the man's
coarse, leering face.
Mrs. Carew recoiled--she threw out her white hands, all glittering
with costly rings, as though to shut out some terrible sight.
The man laughed at her terror and, gliding forward, seized and held her
hands.
"Are you glad to see me, my wife? Come, give me a kiss for the old
times' sake, my beauty!"
She struggled with him, loathing the offered caresses, and Alpine
sprung to her mother's assistance, beating him back with dainty jeweled
hands.
He turned then and saw her for the first time. His narrow eyes dilated
with surprise.
"Why, you pretty wild-cat, you must be my daughter Alpine! How do you
do, my dear? Give your papa a kiss, dear!"
"You are not--not----" she choked over the word, and he answered, with
sudden gravity:
"I am your father, George Harrison, my little girl, and I went to
prison for life for killing a man who was once my dearest friend. Why?
Well, your mother might tell you if she would. I will spare her for
your sake. You seem to love her." He seemed to have grown suddenly
sober after the first sight of his daughter's face. "Well, she has
prospered, has she not? She is rich and grand, while I have lain in
prison all these years, but a few miles from her, my heart burning
with hate for her, and aching with love for my boy and girl, Ivan and
Alpine, while she taught them to forget that they ever had a father
other than Vincent Carew, the proud millionaire. Alpine, speak to me
for once; call me father!"
A spasm of pain contracted the worn features he raised longingly to her
face. Love shone in his eyes, poor convict that he was, and although
he had come to curse the mother and extort money from her, the memory
of it fled from him now as he gazed imploringly on Alpine's lovely,
soulless face. With outstretched hands he besought her kindness.
Surely the fiends in hell could have had no more hateful look than the
girl turned upon the suppliant as he bowed the knee before her so
entreatingly. Angrily she struck at the outstretched, toil-worn hands,
exclaiming:
"You have no claim on me. I hate you--hate you!"
Could a strong man's heart break for so common a thing as a child's
hardness and ingratitude? It would seem so, for the escaped felon
turned aside with such a look on his face as it might have worn had a
dagger pierced his heart. It seemed as if he meant to go. He staggered
toward the door, tripped, and fell prostrate. His face quivered with
one or two spasms, then he lay still and dead, his white face upturned
to their startled gaze.
"Dead!" muttered Mrs. Carew, staring down in mingled terror and relief.
"Dead!" echoed Alpine, in a sort of awe.
And for a few minutes there was a terrible silence.
Then Alpine crept to her mother's side.
"Mamma, was it true?"
"Yes, it was true. There, you have my awful secret. Bury it deep in
your heart, Alpine, for no one must ever know. Now we must call the
servants to put the body out. We can not have anything so vulgar as a
dead tramp lying in the house!"
She moved toward the door, but her steps were arrested by a stern voice:
"Stay!"
She turned with a start and shudder.
A man had emerged from behind the curtain. At first sight it seemed to
be Uncle Ben Carew, the old man so cordially despised.
But with a rapid hand he flung off wig, whiskers, and spectacles,
standing revealed in majestic beauty--Vincent Carew!
"My God!" she cried, and flew to embrace him.
He repulsed her with scorn and loathing.
"How dare you, you Jezebel?" he cried. "Down on your knees to that dead
man there, you and your cowardly daughter, and pray his forgiveness
for the sin that wrecked his life! Vile creature that you are, you
would throw him into the street like a dog! No; let him lie there to be
buried at my expense. I heard all that was said. I know all your guilty
secrets!"
"Oh, Vincent, forgive me, forgive me! My temptation was so great!" she
cried, frantically; but he spurned her outstretched hands.
"Can one forgive a fiend?" he said, sternly. "I tell you I know
all--the plot that broke my Zaidee's heart, and drove her to madness
and death--perhaps you murdered her--who knows?"
"No, no--I swear I did not! I am innocent of that charge. She was so
young, so jealous, it was easy to drive her mad. But, Vincent, it was
for love of you! Can you not forgive so great a love?"
If scorn could have blasted her, his look would have struck her dead at
his feet.
"Forgiveness is not possible," he answered, bleakly, and silenced her
with a gesture of his hand. "Listen," he said, looking her in the face:
"I was not lost at sea when my ship burned. I was cast away on a desert
island, where I remained until a few months ago. When I returned I took
a fancy to masquerade to see how matters were going. There is no Uncle
Ben. I never had a brother, but the disguise has served its purpose. I
know you now--you and your scheming daughter. Now listen to your fate.
No, do not speak. Hear me out. I will keep the secret of your disgrace;
and--you were to have sailed to-morrow--you two--for Europe. Your
trunks are packed--your passage taken. You will go, just the same, but
you will never return. You have no claim on me. You belong to that dead
man there. Go now to your rooms. I wish never to look on your faces
again, but the curse of a broken-hearted man will follow you to your
grave!"