Bertha M. Clay

“ What sin is mine that my misery should be so great that others should be cursed by the relentless fate that pursues me? Theresa, poor little confiding Theresa! Do not look at me in that way, dear one. I will shield you from every threatening storm. You will not be disappointed, Theresa, but we cannot leave London until to-morrow night. I have not completed my business yet; I have arranged for one more interview with—with an old friend.”
She noted his hesitation, and a pang shot through her heart.
“Is it imperative, Harold?” she asked. “I hate London so much—I hate it for your sake, darling. ”

“ I shall never fail in my duty to you.”
“I know it, Harold; you are too good, too noble, too unselfish. I could never blame you; I love you too well, and my love is all-sacrificing.”
She pressed hot kisses on his brow, mingled with tears.
“Dear little Theresa,” he said, dreamily, “how you love me! Ah! sweetheart, a life’s devotion cannot repay such wonderful love as yours! To-morrow we enter upon a new life—new scenes, new aspirations, and leave the past behind.” ”

“ Lady Elaine treated the whole thing in a listless, apathetic manner.
“I have no special choice,” she said; “I shall leave the selection to my maid. I have no one to please.”
“My dear Elaine, how ridiculous you are,” exclaimed Margaret Nugent. “You know that the viscount adores you.”
“Silence!” the earl’s daughter said, sternly. “How can you speak in that way—you, who know all?”
“It is that very knowledge that makes me speak,” Miss Nugent replied, steadily. “It is that very knowledge that makes me speak, Lady Elaine. You are wasting your life for a man who never cared for you. ”

“ He was young, wealthy and famous; possessed of a splendid physique, and the representative of an old and honorable line. There was no blot on the escutcheon of the Annesleys; the men had ever been noble and brave, and the women good and virtuous.
In addition to these splendid attributes and honors, Sir Harold had won the fairest and loveliest woman in all England. Dukes and princes had sighed vainly at her feet. She had been the beauty of two seasons, and had nearly turned the brains of a score of men, but to one and all was Lady Elaine the same. ”

“ Among other treasures was a tiny bundle of letters, held together with a piece of blue ribbon, and in a secret recess the portrait of a lovely girl.
In the haughty eyes there was the soft light of love; the firm mouth was curved with love’s tender lines. The whole face was as beautiful as that of the most idealized angel. This was Lady Elaine Seabright.
[Pg 44]
“Dear God,” Sir Harold groaned, “why should woman be so fair to lure man’s soul to perdition? Who could doubt the goodness and purity of the woman who has made of my life a desolate waste by merely gazing upon this delusive picture!” ”

“ As the cab whirled away in obedience to his wild words, “Home again! Lose not a moment!” the figure of a man appeared from behind a mass of evergreens which grew in the shadow of a spreading and leafy maple. It was that of Viscount Rivington.
He took a final glance through the drawing-room window, where Lady Elaine was kneeling, her face buried in the cushions of a lounge, paused irresolute, then glided into the street, a savage imprecation upon his lips, hate in his flashing, black eyes.
“So this is why my love is spurned!” he muttered. “Why my life is to be utterly wrecked! ”

“ Lady Elaine clung to him in a passion of love, and yet he was far from being satisfied.
“I believe that I am of a jealous nature,” he said. “It is one of the misfortunes of my race.”
“I am glad that you call it a misfortune,” the girl observed, her lips trembling, “and I sincerely trust that you will never be jealous of me, Harold. Where there is jealousy there cannot be true love. You must trust me all in all, or not at all!”
He was silent for a few minutes, and gnawed his mustache impatiently.
“My darling,” he said, at last, “I have laid bare my life to you. ”

“ My darling—my beloved—I am going away from you forever—away into the unknown shadow land, where I shall be no bar to your happiness in this world. I have loved you—and shall [Pg 181] ever love you, as no other woman can love—so much that it is infinite misery to me to know that I am not all in all to you. I am the bar between you and Lady Elaine; I am even the unhappy fate that causes my king to be menaced by a cruel death! At last, Harold, my darling, my beloved, it is ended, but my spirit will be with you. Good-by. Your unhappy
Theresa. ”

“ Nothing!”
“I hate him,” said Lady Elaine, “but I cannot insult a guest whom my father honors. Why will Sir Harold be so unreasonably jealous? Why will he not trust me as I trust him?”
“You must pocket your pride, my dear. I don’t pretend to take sides with Harold, but you must admit that he never runs after any other girls. Indeed, he is barely civil to any other woman except yourself. He is a romantic sort of fellow, a modern knight-errant, full of poetry, chivalry and all that kind of thing. His friendship or his love nothing will alter when once given. ”

“ Theresa looked back once, and the baronet found himself gazing at her, he knew not why.
“Let me do what little good I can with my useless life,” he thought. “Even such a chance as this may never occur again.”
He followed the musicians, and drew from his pocket a handful of coins, but the sharp eyes of John Hamilton had observed the movement.
“You will excuse me, Sir Harold Annesley,” he said with dignity. “My child sings for money, and I employ my poor powers to assist her, when we are driven to do so by dire necessity, but we do not beg. Pray keep your money.” ”

“ As your wife, the enemy may never suspect whom she really is. If it pleases you—if it pleases Theresa, my dear boy—I am [Pg 126] agreeable to all that you may do and desire. But for myself, I shall remain here. I have enough money to buy the place—the money I have saved for Theresa, and I think that the evening of my life may be spent in comparative happiness now that I know my beloved child is well provided for. Treat her tenderly, Sir Harold, for she is like a delicate flower, that would droop and die if neglected or deprived of the sunshine of your love. ”

“ Sometimes they walk hand in hand to the graveyard where poor Theresa lies, and her last resting place is kept fresh and fragrant with flowers, not by their hands alone, but by those of a repentant woman who passes by on the other side—Margaret Nugent! And when Sir Harold and his wife think of all these things, and bless Heaven for bringing them together at last, the sorrows of the past grow less and less, merged into the fullness and beauty of the present. ”

“ Colonel Greyson listened like a man in a stupor, but he had no suspicion of the nature of Sir Harold’s trouble until it was revealed to him in words that seemed to quiver with agony.
“Only a lovers’ quarrel,” he interjected.
“No, colonel, it is no ordinary affair. Mine is no ordinary love; it is life or death to me. I have not shaped my life in any stereotyped pattern. I have always been afraid of linking my fate with another, because I am so intense in all that I profess. ”

“ I do not suppose that Lady Elaine will care one jot.”
“You wrong her,” Colonel Greyson retorted, a little angrily. “I have known Lady Elaine from childhood. She is as good as she is beautiful.”
“I admit that. But, oh, the agony of knowing that she is soulless!”
“I will not listen to such nonsense!” fumed the colonel. “I will see her myself. It is a duty I owe to both of you, for, in a measure, I brought you together. Curse Viscount Rivington! I say—though I have no doubt that your own insane jealousy is at the root of all the trouble. No young woman of spirit would put up with it. ”

“ She sank into the lounge that the gentlemen had just left, and covered her eyes with her hands, while her lovely bosom rose and fell with the bitter pangs of her emotion.
The merry strains of the waltz were maddening, and the laughter of the happy people in the brilliantly illuminated ballroom made only more apparent her own misery.
“He has met his fate in Lady Elaine Seabright, and I had thought him all my own!” she continued, inaudibly. “I have never liked my proud and haughty friend, and I now hate her with an undying hatred! She shall not take from me the man I love! ”

“ In short, Sir Harold, she is in love with you, as romantic girls will be with handsome young men.”
Sir Harold was surprised. “I had never dreamed of this,” he said. “Poor Theresa!”
“Do not pity her; I cannot bear it, but go—go!”
“Why should I leave her to unhappiness?” Sir Harold mused. “I love her as a very dear sister. I have never cared for woman in any other way, and Theresa has first claim upon me. Mr. Hamilton,” he added aloud, “why should I throw away the priceless gift of Theresa’s love?” ”

“ A woman’s instincts rarely err!” Theresa replied.
“I like your candor,” Margaret laughed, a little bitterly, “but it is a poor return for my efforts to warn you against the shipwreck of this love of yours. You profess to love my cousin, but it is a selfish love. It is this which makes me doubt you.”
“You speak in riddles, Miss Nugent,” Theresa said, angrily. “I would willingly lay down my life for my husband. My love is richer than pearls or rubies. For his sake I would willingly walk barefooted through life. ”

“ On second thought, I will not go back to Annesley Park until I can meet Sir Harold, and see the light of hope and happiness once more in his face. My dear, he will be at your side within an hour of receiving your message, if horse-flesh can carry him. You will rescue a man from the brink of inferno—a man who loves you as woman was never loved before! Good-by! Every moment is precious, and I will not be the cause of one being lost. ”

“ One word, my boy; deal gently with her. She is very young, and has never yet been thwarted. ‘Happy’s the wooing that’s not long a-doing,’ you know, but these sudden engagements are apt to be as quickly broken.”
Sir Harold could not forget the words of the earl for some days. The impression left from them was far from pleasant. He was giving all to the woman he loved—the past, the present, and the future—and he expected an undivided return.
So rapid had been the wooing that the plans of Margaret Nugent and Viscount Rivington had not been permitted formation. ”

“ I know that I no longer belong to myself, and that my life is a living death—all for what?—Money! Money! And when I have humbled myself to these birds of prey, whose talons are red with the blood of human hearts, I have to turn toward that old dotard—the Duke of Rothwell, and lie and fawn to him—for what?—Money! Money!”
He ground his teeth with impotent fury, sprang into a cab, and ordered the driver to take him to Oxford Circus, where we will leave him.
In the course of a few days Lady Elaine Seabright was comfortably installed in her new home, and then commenced a weary time of waiting. ”

“ Theresa, you shall be judge. It seems that everything is conspiring to keep us in London.”
He gave the letter to her, and she perused it with mixed feelings.
“I think we ought to stay,” she said. “Oh, Harold, what misery, what danger I have surrounded you with! I am terrified for your sake. If one of the men is caught a score may be ready to spring up and avenge him.”
“My dear, the English law will not tolerate anything of this kind. I will root out the fiends at any cost. It is a duty I owe to ourselves and society in general. ”

“ Sir Harold has been in good hands,” Hamilton said. “Will you follow me, sir?”
“Wait!” the colonel commanded. “I have not quite done with you, Mr. Hamilton. Never let it be said that I condemn a man unheard, and if you are as innocent as you strive to appear, you will not be afraid to answer one or two questions which, to save time, I will put to you in categorical order. As a man of sense, it must at once be apparent to you that you are guilty of a serious misdemeanor in the eyes of the law for retaining a titled and wealthy man without making a single effort to restore him to his friends. ”

“ Lady Elaine said.
“Oh, my love, this is terrible for me to bear!”
“You think only of yourself, Sir Harold.” Her lips quivered. “You think only of yourself. I have been too childish and yielding.”
“It is the duty of woman to yield,” he retorted. ”