“I LOVED YOU BEST.”
Lady Annesley, having worked much evil, had wiped it out. Yet her
stepdaughter never saw her after that day in court. A few lies, a scrap
of india-rubber, had cost two men’s lives, and a woman’s good name.
Levallion “had been kind,” had died indirectly because he chose to
marry her. Ravenel turned from the dock and went away with Tommy and
the duchess, knowing that in a way the dead man had been dear to her,
neither as lover nor husband, but as a friend whose love had passed
knowledge.
And Adrian Gordon let her go; let time pass till Tommy was in the
service and Mr. Jacobs fighting with all the dogs in Aldershot. And one
day in May could wait no more.
By the lake at Avonmore she was sitting when, at the sound of his step
on the gravel, she looked up and saw him.
“Adrian!” she said, forgetting that for this many a day he had been
Lord Levallion. But she got no further, for the look in his eyes that
were on her face.
“May I come and speak to you?” he asked quite simply, as a child does,
but his mouth had the same look as his eyes. “You’ve traveled a long
way without me, Nel. Won’t you--come home?”
And she knew what he meant. There was only one home in the world for
her, in Adrian Gordon’s arms. Perhaps she had no pride, for without a
word she went there.
In the May sun he looked at her, as in one May two years past.
There was no change--but there was! He had never dreamed she was so
beautiful. But as he would have kissed her she pushed him away.
“It isn’t fair to you!” she cried. “People will say things if you marry
me.”
“We won’t hear them,” he returned, and in so much the manner of the
dead and gone Levallion that she cried out.
“You never half-knew him, Adrian! He was good to me.”
“My sweetheart,” he said, with a queer understanding of her loyalty to
the dead.
“He was a better man than you,” she cried, and her eyes filled with
tears. “But, oh, Adrian, I loved you best.”
THE END.
No. 1175 of the NEW EAGLE SERIES is “They Met by Chance,” by Ida Reade
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intrigue you.
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Transcriber’s Notes:
Originally serialized in _Street & Smith’s New York Weekly_ from Apr.
21, 1900 to Aug. 11, 1900 under the title _The Girl of His Heart; or,
Levallion’s Heir_.
Some chapter titles have been changed in this edition from the original
serial; for example, chapter VI was originally called “THE TENDER
MERCIES OF THE WICKED.” In the original, chapter XXIV had no title and
began with the poetic quotation: “My blood is chill; his blood is cold;
His death is full, and mine begun.”
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
This sentence was garbled in the book edition and has been restored
here from the original serial appearance: “After three years of freedom
her master had found her out, had come to her with a heavy hand and a
story she knew was a lie.”
Table of contents has been added and placed into the public domain by
the transcriber.
Inconsistent hyphenation (e.g. upstairs vs. up-stairs) is preserved
from the original text.