Edgar Fawcett

“ Lord Albert soon paid another visit to Poplar House, and with unerring keenness Mrs. Apthorpe detected its motive. After he had come and gone the second time, she said, while closeted with her cherished friend, Mrs. Beale:
"Have you noticed, Augusta, how our Wanda seems to fascinate him?"
Mrs. Beale nodded. She had a plump, genial face, in strong contrast with her friend's firm and sedate one.
"Of course I've noticed, Ellen. Isn't it strange?"
"Strange? Oh, I don't know. I've sometimes thought that the thing men cared least for in women was their power of speech." ”

“ Apthorpe's lips quivered, then tightened. With a sudden, wistful, pathetic smile she exclaimed:
"I gave my sacred oath, and I got the child. I broke my oath, but I saved Wanda from the forlornest fate. Was I not right? Are there not times when even perjury ceases to be a sin?"
Lord Albert rose from his chair, and took one of the lady's delicate, faded hands, and touched it with his lips. This was the young man's answer.
"Thanks," Mrs. Apthorpe faltered. Then, after a moment: "Well, his hardness did not soften. I brought him the child each Christmas afternoon till she was five years old. ”

“ Lord Albert was. ... Five minutes later Mrs. Apthorpe sat beside him, on the prim hair-cloth parlor sofa, in the winter twilight of Christmas-eve.
"You're angry, of course," she began. "But I believe your heart will soften when I've told you the real story of Wanda's life. A few people know she isn't deaf and dumb, but not many, when all are named. I've lived so quietly out here ever since my husband died, and that was before she was born. My brother, Marcus, never knew, and I shrank from telling him. ”

“ Apthorpe came he had determined to tell her that her services were now ended, and that he and Wanda would soon start for Europe, though she might accompany them if so inclined.
Grief sometimes makes us insane, and there is slight doubt that Mrs. Apthorpe's fear lest her brother might become a madman when the horror of his wife's desertion first broke on him, was in no sense idle apprehension. Alston Van Brugh had for years been a monomaniac ”

“ Van Brugh's brother. He lives ever so far away, in a country-house on the banks of the East River. But you could easily be driven there, and you'd find him very agreeable. I perfectly recollect hearing of your father's visit to this country, long ago as it was. No wonder that he admired and liked Alston Van Brugh then. But a great change has come over him—a great sorrow has befallen him. Perhaps his brother, Marcus Van Brugh, will tell you all about it. ”

“ She had never been a woman of society, and she had chosen to let few of her small circle of friends catch more than a glimpse of Wanda. A very accomplished and even erudite lady, named Mrs. Beale, had lived with her for certainly fifteen years. And it was generally understood that Mrs. Beale had had large previous experience in the rearing and training of deaf mutes.
The Apthorpe abode was called Poplar House, because of two poplar trees that sentineled its porch. Lord Albert's visit here was hailed most hospitably by its proprietress. ”

“ One crime does not excuse another. ... And fate, destiny, God, Alston—whatever you choose to call the power—has swept from you all means of actualizing your design. Even if I had kept faith with you, Emily's death, as it now happens, would have left poor Wanda cursed for all her coming life. ”

“ On the next Christmas day, when she had turned seven, I felt so doubtful of her that I went alone to my brother, there in that dreary, darkened house which had once brimmed with hospitality, bubbled with mirth. I told him that Wanda was ill—too ill for me to bring her that day. He believed me, after a long look straight into my eyes, which I tried to make the soul of sincerity and truth. 'I hope she will not die,' he answered, the words ending a long pause; 'I want her to live, you know . . I want her to live.' . . When the next Christmas came I brought her ”

“ Then the speaker, in a few vivid words, referred to the great bereavement which had wrecked her brother Alston's life. . . . "When I went to Wanda's father, after the blow had fallen on him," she pursued, "I felt almost sure that he would soon become mad. His loathing of little Wanda was so great that he terrified me half to death by saying that he had an impulse to kill the poor innocent babe. ... Then his mood grew sullen. Oh, no; the child should live, and should be his living vengeance as well! ”

“ A certain boyish frankness and gentleness in him completely won his new elderly friend. And soon Marcus Van Brugh became quite confidential to him regarding the strangely secluded owner of the Beaver Street abode. ”