Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

“ With an evil smile on his face, Carey Doyle whipped up the horse and drove swiftly back to his aunt’s house, his eyes gloating on the pale, unconscious beauty of Jessie’s face as it lay across his knee where he had carefully placed it.
The man’s heart was aroused as it had never been before by this lovely girl, and he vowed to himself that she should become his own.
In the gray dusk of the November day he carried her into the house, to the dismay of Madame Barto, who exclaimed:
“So you were as good as your word! You tried to kill the poor child!” ”

“ But again she looked from his taunting face back to the grave, sad face of Noel, who now added:
“I am here to say to Cora and you all, that my marriage to her was perfectly legal as far as church and State could make it. I love her still in spite of everything, and if she will forgive me the wrong I did in making her my wife against her will, and wishes to go with me, I on my part will forgive any harm she ever did me and gladly take her to my heart. On the other hand, if she prefers to secure a divorce and marry Laurier, I will make no fight against it. Her will shall be my law!” ”

“ If I thought one drop of that woman’s blood flowed in the veins of this working girl I would hunt her out of every place she found employment. I would never rest until I had visited the sin of her—but what wild talk is this? The woman whose name I curse is living in luxury wherever she may be, and the poor little seamstress is not to blame for her remarkable resemblance to one who must be a stranger to her. Never send me there again, Clara; the sight of that girl’s face aroused all the demon within me, and awakened passions that have lain dormant for years. ”

“ All that the world held for him as dearest and sweetest was beside him here in the person of this girl almost a stranger to him, yet so fatally dear that she blotted out everything on earth beside.
The world is naught till one is come
Who is the world; then beauty wakes,
And voices sing that have been dumb.
As for Jessie, as full memory returned and she found herself alone with Laurier on the sunlit sea, under his tender care, her feelings were unenviable.
When she heard that he was on the steamer it brought back all the cruel past with a rush of pain. ”

“ The next moment the black horse, frightened by her shrieks, had the bit between his teeth and was running away, while Cora, crouched in the seat wild-eyed, pale-faced, an image of horror, resigned herself to inevitable death.
On over the frozen snow, through the whirling storm, he ran for over a mile, then—stumbling over some obstruction in the road, he came to a sudden stop, and the little sleigh overturned, throwing its occupants out into the drifted snow.
One breathless moment and Cora scrambled to her feet unhurt, but not so the companion of her wild drive. ”

“ She was in a retrospective mood, and as she shook loose the braids of dark hair over her shoulder, she gazed fixedly at her pallid face in the long mirror, muttering:
“Yet Frank Laurier doesn’t love me. How mortifying to marry a man who shrinks from one with secret aversion! Yet I will not turn back. I will marry him if only to punish him for his perfidy! And if he withholds love then he shall feel to the core of his heart what it is to trample on a woman’s love!”
Stung to fury by the indifference he could not hide, Cora was filled with the venom of “a woman scorned.” ”

“ She was opening her lips to cry out passionately that she loved only Laurier and would sue for a divorce, when Mark and Willie Lyndon rushed upon the scene, panting and excited, crying breathlessly:
“Oh, Uncle Leon, Aunt Verna, come with us! We have found our dear Cousin Jessie at last, but she is dead!”
Like a flash in the confusion of that startling announcement, Cora dropped Frank’s arm and flew to Noel’s side:
Her face was ghastly as she breathed in his ear:
“Come, Ernest, the machine is waiting! Let us fly! Fly to the other end of the world!” ”

“ Leon Lyndon had only one tie to bind him to life—this fair, loving daughter—but he knew they must be parted now, and he drew her close to the ladder, followed by Laurier, who had been most impatiently waiting, and again renewed his prayers to the men who were still crowding into the last boats.
It was a sight to touch the coldest heart to anger to see such selfishness, so many men crowded into the few boats with just a few fortunate women and children who had had husbands and fathers strong enough to force a way for them. ”

“ In the evening she grew listless and taciturn, her mind wandering from this humble abode of the poor widow to the grand mansion on Fifth Avenue, where her beautiful, stately mother reigned supreme, and where Cora was now perhaps receiving Frank and renewing their vows of love.
“Perhaps when he sees her again his heart will turn back to her with the old love. How could he help it when once he loved her so well? He will soon forget poor Jessie, and that will be the best,” she thought, but so inconsistent is love that hot tears welled to her eyes at the fancy. ”

“ If you tore that hope from me I should die here at your feet of my shame and my despair!”
No man ever had a tenderer heart than Laurier.
When he heard those passionate words from Cora’s lips, when he saw the burning tears in her dark eyes, he felt ashamed and remorseful that he had let his heart wander from her and fixed it on another.
“Poor girl, she loves me well, and dare I risk the breaking of my troth to her? She might be driven to suicide, and her death would lie at my door,” he thought, in painful indecision that she clearly read with her keen, feminine intuition. ”

“ When the beautiful brunette in her drive through the park met Jessie Lyndon riding by the side of Frank Laurier, all the blood in her veins seemed momentarily to turn to ice in the shock of surprise, and then to burn like liquid fire under the impulse of jealous rage.
If a look could have killed, the fierce gleam of her eyes must have slain her fair rival instantly, as by a lightning flash! ”

“ Cora Ellyson sat speechless by the side of Ernest Noel for several minutes as the sleigh rushed on through the whirling snowflakes.
Her face was as white as the snowflakes, her very lips pale, and her eyes flashed with a dangerous anger that startled her desperate lover. In their dark gleam he read, indeed, a murderous hate too deep for words—a hate that could kill, so great was its fury. Choking with grief and rage, she remained speechless, though her writhing lips struggled for words. A despair too deep for utterance possessed her soul. ”

“ Iris herself was outwardly calm, but her eyes had the wild, scared look of a hunted animal, and fixed themselves for one brief second on the face of Chester St. John, as if mutely appealing to him for aid.
The look went straight to his heart, and, leaving his place by the side of Isabel, he spoke to Iris in a tone that was tremulous with deep feeling:
“Depend on me, Iris; I shall do everything in my power to clear you of this cruel charge. There must be some bitter enemy plotting against your peace and happiness, some bold and daring enemy, since they dare accuse you of theft! ”

“ Dalrymple’s—her love, her humiliation, her despair, coupled with Cora’s heartless behavior, were impressed ineffaceably on his heart. The one had inspired pity and sympathy, the other deep disgust.
“Pity is akin to love,” and now that Jessie was dead Laurier knew that, had she lived, he could have loved her as well—aye, better—than he had ever loved proud, jealous Cora, who looked on him as a sort of slave to her caprices, to be scolded and sent away, then whistled back at will. ”

“ Jenny turned toward Iris with the words of introduction trembling on her lips, but Iris checked her by a glance, as she herself stepped forward.
“My name is Maggie Gordon, sir; I am a seamstress, like my friend.”
The abruptness of this singular introduction seemed to take the man completely by surprise, and he could only bow low in acknowledgment and hasten from the room, leaving Iris—or Maggie Gordon, as our heroine had called herself—white and trembling like one who had stood in the presence of some spirit of darkness. ”

“ In an exquisite apartment furnished with Oriental magnificence, and sweet with the breath of roses in golden jardinières, while a soft, pearly light was diffused over everything by burning wax lights, Mrs. Dalrymple lay faintly breathing on a low, white couch, wrapped in a rich, white cashmere gown, girdled at the waist by a golden cord, her long, luxuriant tresses floating loose in ebon blackness over the pillow.
When Cora entered the room she led Frank Laurier straight to the couch, saying gently:
“Are you asleep, Aunt Verna? Here is Frank come to see you.” ”

“ I must follow and cling to the boat until I can remove it and leave it with her, my darling; then no matter what becomes of me!”
The next instant he sprang over the deck rail into the sea, and, guided by the light of lurid flames, swam after the vanishing lifeboat.
“Poor fellow, I was about to propose to share with him the spar I see floating yonder, but he is doubtless crazed with excitement! I will follow and try to help him, for he cannot swim long in such a sea without support!” thought Laurier, springing into the sea and clutching the spar. ”

“ It was the first time he had ever caressed her, and the warm blood crept into her dusky cheeks until they rivaled the crimson of the rose at her breast, but she knew that the kiss was given only for Iris’ sake, and her heart grew hard and bitter toward that hapless girl.
“She shall not return to this house though she die of starvation on the street,” was Isabel’s thought, and at the very first opportunity that offered she stole quietly from the room and made her way to the apartment where she expected to find her father and the unhappy Iris. ”

“ Tall, athletic, with fine, clear-cut features, eyes like deep, blue pools under thick-fringed lashes, brown, [18] clustering locks of silken gloss and softness, he was a man to look at twice with frank admiration, and when you added to nature’s gifts the best efforts of the tailor, a man to set any girl’s heart throbbing wildly in her breast.
“I wish to see Madame Barto, please,” he said, in a voice of such strong agitation that Jessie looked at him in wonder at the deep pallor of his handsome young face and the lines of pain between his knitted brows. ”

“ The girl snatched her hand away and arose, furious with passion, crying:
“Woe be unto that girl! She had better never been born than come between me and my lover!”
“There are other men to love you!” consoled madame.
“What do I care for them? I want only him! And I have been so foolish, I have driven him from me! But no one else shall have him! I swear it!” cried the brunette, her dark eyes flashing wildly, as she paid the fortune teller, adding, “Come, tell me all you told Frank Laurier, and all this is yours!” ”

“ They did not know how she had schemed and sinned for that honor, nor that the sweets of victory had turned to dead sea fruit upon her lips.
His short-lived passion was dead, and in spite of his honorable efforts to disguise his indifference, Cora realized his patient misery, and knew that the day of their wedding was secretly unwelcome to his heart.
A nobler woman would have given him his freedom unasked, too proud to accept the hand without the heart. ”

“ If Jessie had turned her fair head to look back as she drove off so triumphantly with her handsome escort, she would have seen Carey Doyle scrambling up from the gutter where he had landed after his animated encounter with Laurier, and shaking his fist after her malevolently, while curses low and deep shrilled over his lips, and his eyes blazed with a baleful light that boded no good to those who had aroused his jealous anger. ”

“ Not for worlds would he have betrayed the whispers he had heard of the proud bride’s fury at her lover on that cruel wedding day when she had turned away from the altar, a bride without a bridegroom, a stricken creature who in her wrath hated the whole world, and felt revengeful enough to have plunged a knife into the heart of the man who had disappointed her and made her the sensation of an hour. ”

“ Several men lifted and cast out of the boat into the sea the white-robed form of a woman that immediately sank! Shrieks and cries as of horror echoed from the boat upon the morning air! Then the rowers bent to their oars, the boat shot away, and Laurier knew that his efforts to save Jessie Lyndon had all been in vain—the heartless fiends, fearful for their own safety, had overpowered the more merciful minority and cast the unwelcome passenger into the ocean. ”

“ The beautiful Episcopal service was read, the mother’s farewell kiss pressed on the cold, white brow, the casket closed, and borne out to the white-plumed hearse, the carriages were filled with the mother and friends, and the solemn cortège moved away to Greenwood, where the grim family vault had been opened to receive another scion of the old house of Van Dorn, the fairest of all its fair daughters.
At the same time only a block away, on the same avenue, a bridal train was leaving the Van Dorn mansion for the church.
Life and death jostling each other almost side by side! ”

“ After this time, as day followed day, and Iris heard nothing further from Charles Broughton, she began to experience a sense of peace and security in her new and humble life. She became a great favorite with Madam Ward, and by her diligent attention to everything that was shown to her, bade fair to learn the trade by which she hoped to earn her livelihood in a very short time.
There was not a girl in Madam Ward’s employ who did not love the beautiful young apprentice, who never assumed any airs of superiority, although her every act and word proclaimed her a true lady. ”

“ And one looking once at Jessie Lyndon could not help looking twice.
Of that rarest, most exquisite type, a dark-eyed blonde, she was possessed of most alluring beauty that not even want and poverty had sufficed to dim.
A little above medium height, slight and graceful, with perfect features, an oval face, a skin as delicate as a rose leaf, pouting, crimson lips, large, dark, haunting eyes, and a mass of curling golden hair, she would enchant any lover of beauty. ”

“ Could it be he had fallen in love with her? This rich, handsome young man—in love with the face that she could not help knowing was very fair. Madame must be mistaken thinking that his strange agitation came from a quarrel with his sweetheart. He could not have had any sweetheart, surely.
Her dark eyes beamed with joy, her cheeks glowed crimson as a sea shell, and her heart throbbed wildly with suspense. Madame Barto came in presently with the young man, and said blandly:
“I have consented to your taking an hour’s drive in the park with this gentleman, my dear, if you wish.” ”