Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

“ A moan of pain came from the lips of beautiful Azalia, and she sighed:
"Ah, love, why did you leave me, without a word, to my cruel fate? Were you false in heart? Were you only amusing yourself with the simple child who loved you so well? Was that marriage true, or only a sham, or was there treachery somewhere? Treachery! It looked at me from Jewel's eyes—treachery and murderous hate! Ah, love, you died so soon after you went away that I can not hate you in your grave, even though you doomed me to a wretched life, cursed with memories that will not die! ”

“ Now Jewel had an elegant home on the same street with the Meredith mansion, and Mrs. Wellings, as her companion and chaperon, was mistress of a home where the most elegant entertainments were given, and where life was always at its gayest, for the beautiful heiress loved to surround herself with light-hearted people, and to live always in the midst of pleasure, perhaps that she might keep at bay the pangs of remorse that must sometimes have pierced her heart if she had given herself time to think of those whose lives she had ruined. ”

“ A bitter cry broke from her lips.
"What does it matter if my hair has turned to snow? My heart changed to fire long since. Go, girl, leave me to myself!"
Jewel made no sign of obeying. She said, curiously:
"So our old nurse is dead, mamma?"
"Dead—yes! I wish she had died twenty years ago! I wish she had never been born!" Mrs. Fielding burst out, furiously.
"But I thought you were fond of her, mamma!" Jewel exclaimed, in momentary wonder. Then a sudden light broke over her mind. "Ah, I remember now! Sam said she had a secret to tell you. Was it that secret which turned you against Maria?" ”

“ Sometimes he ventured to touch the soft, white hand, and by its tremor he realized that the shy, gentle girl was not wholly indifferent to his love.
His passion began at length to find relief in that outlet for the lover's heart—poetry. Passionate "sonnets to his lady's eyebrow" began to overflow perfumed sheets of note-paper. These found their way to Flower in all the romantic methods a lover's fertile brain could invent.
Jewel was on the alert. A jealous pang had begun to tear her passionate heart. She watched her sister and Laurie Meredith with silent distrust. ”

“ These two, Jewel and Flower, as their mother persisted in calling them, had grown up so beautiful and charming that no one could decide to which belonged the palm of greater beauty. Paris himself would have been in despair, and the golden apple must have been divided, or never awarded to either.
[Pg 12]
Fancy a brunette of the most decided type with a beautiful, passionate face, a cloud of waving dark hair, and eyes of starry brightness. By her tall, queenly figure place one equally lovely, yet as different in her type as flowers from jewels, dawn from sunset, or day from night. ”

“ She had taken the greatest pains to hide her enmity to her sister. There was no one who could say she had been unkind to Flower; Laurie Meredith should never know otherwise, and from her reputed tenderness to his dead wife, and her sweet sympathy with himself, should spring up another flower of love that should bloom for her alone. Some day she would be his wife, and the secret of all she had done to part him from Flower should be buried forever in the poor girl's grave. ”

“ Jewel went on, in a thick, excited voice. "My little twin sister died, too, in a few hours after she came into the world. Then old Maria, who lived until then with Daisy Forrest, allowed her master to persuade her into a cruel wrong. In short, my dead twin sister was buried upon Daisy Forrest's breast, and you, her loving child, were imposed upon my mother as her own—my mother, who hated your mother with the bitterest hate, and who, if she had dreamed of your identity, would have gone mad with rage." ”

“ She seems almost to have grown thinner, and her eyes, though bright, have a worn, haggard look, and her expression is strange and hard. Do you observe it, Azalia?"
Azalia was obliged to answer in the affirmative. No one could deny the change that terror and unrestrained jealousy and passion had worn in distinctive lines on Jewel's beautiful lineaments. It was too plain to deny. She looked years older and graver than a few weeks ago.
Azalia had grown more grave and sad, too; but she tried to hide it from her relatives and her lover. ”

“ He had been too hasty, and when the girl, whom he could have loved with his whole heart, crossed his path, it was too late.
"And he might have won her, who knows?" she thought; for her keen eyes had noted that Azalia Brooke took a secret and curious interest in Laurie Meredith.
But something must be done to soothe the excited Jewel, and after a moment's silence, the matron said, gently:
"My dear girl, I am sure that you wrong Laurie by your suspicions. He is too honorable a man to deceive you and outrage your affections in such a cruel manner. ”

“ Mrs. Fielding was not in bed at all. She was sitting bolt upright in a chair, and when Flower came gliding in, her mother's aspect struck her with such fear and horror that she could not repress a cry of distress. For a moment it appeared to her that a stranger was sitting there in her mother's chair.
At a first glance Mrs. Fielding looked like an old woman. Her handsome face was drawn, haggard, and gray, and the long tresses of hair that fell round her shoulders had turned to snowy-white since yesterday. ”

“ Fielding could not choose but regard the brave young gentleman with favor.
Jewel fell in love in the most approved novel fashion with her handsome preserver, and for a short while it seemed as if he returned the compliment. The most delicious flatteries fell from his lips, the most daring glances shone from his glorious brown eyes. He was often by her side and Flower's, and he said to himself that it would be quite in keeping with this romance if he should make dark-eyed Jewel Fielding his adored bride. ”

“ Jewel was terribly afraid of the maid who held her awful secret in possession. She ran upstairs with a wildly throbbing heart, wondering what her absence and the letter combined could mean.
But she would soon know; for her nervous fingers eagerly tore the end of the envelope across, and her blazing eyes soon devoured the contents, which stated, in an odd mélange of French and English, that the writer feared to remain any longer in her employ, as she did not consider her life secure while in the power of a lady whose deadly secret she held. ”

“ You look back with scorn upon your fickle lover. Let me teach you to forget him in a new love. Be my bride, and no wife was ever worshiped as shall be Azalia, Countess of Clive!"
"I thought you would not tease me any more when you heard my story," she said, pensively; but he vowed that this only made him more determined to win her for his own.
"You have loved before—what does it matter?" he said. "There are few who do not fancy themselves in love at an early stage of existence. ”

“ The dark eyes glanced at the short paragraph, the red lips parted in a malicious smile, and Jewel said, airily:
"It means what it says, of course."
She saw the slight, graceful form shiver with emotion, the blue eyes dilate widely.
"Oh, Jewel!" gasped the girl, pleadingly. "This Laurie Meredith—who is he?"
Jewel gave utterance to a low, mocking laugh, and answered:
"Not the dead alive, certainly; for although you have come back from your supposed grave, your old lover has not. ”

“ She saw the hue of death overspread the lovely, wasted face, the blue eyes, already dim through the tears that had washed their brightness away, dilate in wonder and horror. Oh, how sweet it was to see that look of mortal agony on the face that Laurie Meredith had loved to kiss! Jewel said to herself that in the months since he went away, she had made her successful rival shed a thousand tears for each and every kiss he had pressed on those lovely, rosebud lips. ”

“ The bitter secret, kept so long, was dragged to the light of day at last.
"Azalia!" Lady Ivon exclaimed, imploringly.
But the golden head only sunk lower in its terrible despair.
Lord Clive looked from the dark, vindictive face of Jewel Fielding to that downcast, despairing one of her persecuted half-sister. All his manhood rose to the surface, the nobility inherited from a long line of stainless ancestry shone in his clear blue eyes. ”

“ Fielding waited until she finished her light repast, then said:
"I counted the strokes, Maria, and there were just nineteen. So it is a young person whom they are going to bury. Now, tell me at once who it is; you need not be afraid of agitating me. Even if it is one of my friends, I will bear it calmly."
"Ay, Lord!" muttered the old nurse, with a grimace hidden behind her hand. Then she gave Mrs. Fielding a strange look. "Ma'am, it's none o' your friends at all, ma'am—only a poor young gal by the name o' Daisy Forrest." ”

“ She met her lover in secret until he wearied of his plaything and deserted her to the fate she had brought upon herself. When mamma found out the truth, and realized that disgrace had come to the proud name of Fielding, she went mad and had to be removed to an insane asylum. Flower ran away, and many believed that she drowned herself. I always hoped that she had, for I preferred death for my beautiful, willful young sister rather than that she should have followed her false-hearted lover into the world. ”

“ A happy light was burning in the large dark eyes, for her rival was going away to-morrow, never to cross her path in life again, she hoped.
Mrs. Wellings, in rich black velvet and point lace, was in attendance as chaperon.
Jewel slipped her gloved hand through the arm of her betrothed.
"Let us go to the conservatory, dear Laurie," she whispered, fondly. "I have a fancy that you shall choose the flowers I wear to-night." ”

“ Who could have believed that lovely, gentle little Flower could be so heartless and wicked? Will she dare [Pg 145] to marry him, knowing herself bound to me? Yet she told him her lover had proved false, and that she had heard that he was dead. What if there has been treachery somewhere? Jewel—she has loved me always, and there has been something of the tiger-cat in her jealousy of Azalia Brooke. ”

“ Else why did she grow older and stranger with such awful rapidity that her daughters shuddered sometimes, fearing from her fits of rage alternating with fearful moodiness that she was going mad.
Poor Flower, in spite of her own sorrows, felt an added pang when she heard that the ghost of her old black nurse was walking about her old home. She shed some bitter tears, and ventured to express a timid fear lest Maria had had something on her mind before she died which made her spirit restless now.
Mrs. Fielding scowled furiously and snarled angrily. ”

“ Jewel choked with anger at the thought of the despised Flower attaining such lofty heights, but even that was better than to reveal herself to Laurie Meredith.
"Yes, far better, for I would rather have him than a king!" she thought, that stormy love of hers always rising superior to every other ambition. She decided that she would go to Washington, seek an interview with Flower, and tell her that she recognized her, but would keep her secret if she would return at once to England and marry Lord Clive. ”

“ I am a traitor to Jewel in thus cherishing a mad passion for one whom she instinctively dreaded from the first as a rival. Flower is dead, dead; and this girl, with her face and voice, is but a stranger. ”

“ In the elegant and luxurious library of the Clinton mansion the young lady referred to as Lord Ivon's great-granddaughter was standing alone at a window, looking out, with wistful, azure eyes, at the whirling flakes of snow that filled the air, for it had been snowing since early morn, and the earth was already covered in the short space of three hours with a deep, glistening, white carpet.
None of the reports regarding Azalia Brooke's beauty were in the least exaggerated, for she was, indeed,
"Perfectly beautiful, faultily faultless." ”

“ Why should I care? He is nothing to me! If you choose to take a heartless flirt for your husband, and run the risk of having him desert you for some other fair face, as he deserted me for you, why, you have my consent!" Jewel answered, proudly, and with such well-acted carelessness that Flower told herself that her lover was right. Jewel would soon forget her disappointment.
She hung around her sister several moments, but Jewel took no notice, and at length Flower asked, timidly:
"Where is mamma?"
"She has gone over to Mammy Maria's house," Jewel replied, composedly. ”

“ But she had not taken a dozen steps before her arm was caught in a tight grasp by the old sexton, who whirled her about, and said, sharply:
"What would you do? Run after that mad woman, who hates you?"
Tears sprung to Flower's eyes, and she answered, sadly:
"But she loved me once, before she found out how cruelly she had been imposed on, and I pity her now, for her last words sounded quite rational. Perhaps she has got over her madness." ”

“ She would rather have died than confess the truth to her proud mother, now that the marriage-certificate was lost, for she feared that her story would not be believed, having an intuitive knowledge that Jewel would, through the weight of her influence, be against her—Jewel, who had taken no pains to conceal the fact that she had hated her blue-eyed sister ever since that rivalry for Laurie Meredith's love, in which Flower had been the winner. ”

“ Jewel gazed into the tear-wet, suppliant face, with anger and consternation. It was worse than she thought. [Pg 159] Her sister actually dared to love Laurie Meredith still! Why, she was courting her doom by that candid avowal!
And, as if to incense her still further, the unhappy girl continued, wildly:
"I know I ought to hate him, but I can not do it, no matter how hard I try; and I think it is because I can never seem to comprehend him as he really is. My love seems to glorify him and make him better than other men, while in reality he is worse. ”