Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

“ Then she walked rapidly from the spot, and Norman Wylde and Juliette Ives stood looking at each other with angry eyes.
“Are you not ashamed of yourself?” she cried indignantly.
“Eavesdropper!” he retorted passionately, forgetting his gentlemanliness in his resentment at her conduct.
“Traitor!” she retorted defiantly, then burst out fiercely: “Call me what names you will, I have borne your trifling until I could bear no more. If you wanted to flirt, why couldn’t you have chosen some one in your own station in life, instead of that miserable tobacco-factory girl?” ”

“ I told you that I was the wife of Norman Wylde.”
“You were deceived, my poor child,” answered her mother sadly.
“Deceived!”
“Yes, Pansy. I told Mr. Finley everything. He went to Washington to find out the truth. My poor girl, that villain deceived you. There was no license taken out; there was no minister of the name you told me, and you had no marriage certificate. By your confidence in a villain against whom we all warned you, you have ruined yourself and brought disgrace upon your relations.” ”

“ She glanced out, and saw the sunset gleams lighting up, like jewels, the windows of an old-fashioned red brick mansion, set in a pretty green lawn studded with shrubbery and flowers. He looked up at the broad porch, guarded by two lions, and said, in a tone of disappointment:
“Juliette is too dignified to come out on the porch to welcome us home. She will be waiting in the hall.”
He led his lovely bride up the steps, and, with a strong effort of will, Pansy threw off her agitation and braced herself to meet Juliette Ives with pride and dignity equal to her own. ”

“ Willie was almost twenty now, with an overstrained sense of honor, sharpened in intensity by his sister’s fault. He was sensitively alive to the disgrace that rested on the family name, and had brooded over it until he had grown morbid. His handsome young face remained dark and cloudy after Mr. Finley went out, and his thoughts were so absorbed that he could scarcely wait upon the customers who came in and out of the neat store.
“Strange that he is always suggesting the thought that Pansy may be alive, after all. Perhaps he knows more than he chooses to tell,” he muttered. ”

“ But suddenly she heard her husband’s voice in the hall, and shivered.
“Oh, what am I talking of? How dare I claim my child in the face of everything that is against me?” she moaned bitterly; and just then Colonel Falconer entered, with a face full of anxiety.
“They told me you had a headache. Can I do anything for you, my darling?” he asked tenderly.
“Only love me and pity me,” the girl answered, almost despairingly, out of her hidden sorrow. ”

“ Colonel Falconer, cannot we drive faster, so as to escape this unpleasant odor?” exclaimed Pansy. He saw that her face had certainly grown very pale, while her eyes were half closed. He directed the driver to hasten out of the neighborhood.
“I am sorry it sickened you, but the odor was strong,” said Juliette. “I do not know how those poor girls endure it. Their very clothing must be impregnated with the disagreeable odor. But perhaps they do not mind it like you and I, Mrs. Falconer—useless, fine ladies that we are.” ”

“ His love for Kate made him all the more bitter in his thoughts toward Pansy.
“How dared she disgrace the family so? I hate her memory, even though believing her dead and if I knew she were alive I should be tempted to carry out my threat, and shoot her on sight,” he replied angrily to the taunt of his stepfather that day on which Mr. Finley’s mind was so engaged in plotting the best means by which to extort money from Colonel Falconer for keeping the dark secret of his wife’s past. ”

“ Juliette lay lazily back in a great crimson chair and watched Phebe, the maid, unpacking Pansy’s beautiful clothes. She was obliged to own that she had never seen such a magnificent trousseau as that with which Colonel Falconer had provided his lovely bride.
“You are a woman to be envied, Mrs. Falconer,” she said; and Pansy sighed faintly, although Juliette could not have told whether the sigh meant supreme content or some hidden sorrow. ”

“ Your goodness and sweetness have been [279] growing on me for years, although I tried to steel myself to their noble influence, and your words just now opened my eyes and showed me my heart. I repent all my wickedness toward you, and beg you to forgive me for my share in your unhappiness. Henceforth I will love you as dearly as my uncle loved you, and I will do all that I can to atone for my heartless behavior in the past.”
“Oh, Juliette!” Pansy cried gladly. For it was an exquisite satisfaction to her to feel that she had conquered Juliette’s hate at last by her gentleness and patience. ”

“ Colonel Falconer, the man whose coming was so anxiously expected by Mrs. Beach, arrived in ten days at San Diego; but the invalid had died just a few hours before his arrival.
Poor Pansy was once more alone in the world, for Colonel Falconer, though full of pity and sympathy for the friendless girl, could not be to her such a friend as he wished. He was fifty years old, and a bachelor, therefore if he had offered to divide with her the fortune that had come to him by Mrs. Beach’s death the world would have caviled. ”

“ She saw a frown contract Juliette’s eyebrows, but she took no notice, and walked over to the mantel, where the first thing she saw was the handsome face of Norman Wylde smiling on her from an easel frame. It gave her a start, but she had nerved herself to meet even the original in this house, and now she merely lifted her arm to take up a piece of bric-a-brac and examine it more closely, when the hanging sleeve of her light gray wrap caught the top of the small easel, and it was instantly hurled to the floor.
“Oh, what have I broken?” she cried, in pretended dismay. ”

“ I learned that she had separated from Colonel Falconer, and was living here in strict retirement. I hurried here at once.”
“In spite of all that, I repeat my assertion: You have no wife!” answered Juliette, with savage emphasis and barbarous delight in the torture she was inflicting on his heart.
“My Heaven!” he cried, shuddering. “You do not mean to tell me that Pansy is dead!”
“No; it is worse than that.” She paused a moment, watching him keenly, the better to enjoy her triumph, then added: “She has procured a divorce from you.” ”

“ Pansy went out, but she took off her calico dress and gingham apron first, and donned her prettiest dress, an organdie lawn with a white ground sprigged with blue flowers. A pretty bow of blue ribbon fastened the white lace at her throat, and another one tied back the mass of rippling dark hair from the white temples, leaving [12] just a few bewitching love locks to curl over the white brow. Thus attired, she looked exquisitely fair, cool, and charming, and she knew well that when the boarders returned, tired and hot from the day’s amusements, they would envy her sweet, comfortable appearance. ”

“ Falconer that a man is waiting with an important message from her husband,” he said boldly.
The servant showed him into a small reception room, and disappeared, while Finley waited—rather nervously, it must be confessed, for he was by no means certain that Colonel Falconer was out. What if he should appear, and kick the lying intruder out of doors?
But fortune favored him, for in a very few moments the rustle of a woman’s garments was audible, and then Pansy appeared before him, simply clad in a pale-gray traveling dress, and with a tear-stained face and swollen eyes. ”

“ I inferred from your letter—in which you neglected to send Mrs. Falconer a single kind message—that you seriously resented my marriage. Of course you understand that my young wife is to be treated with all respect and consideration. While you have a strong claim on my love and kindness, she has a stronger one, which you must never for an instant forget. But I need hardly caution you on these points, as your own good sense will sufficiently instruct you. Besides, I expect that you will at once fall in love with Pansy’s sweet disposition and lovely face. ”

“ It was hard on them all, most especially on Pansy, who was so intelligent and refined, and who hated to leave school and toil at repulsive tasks among companions who were mostly uncongenial, for, although some of the girls were sweet and pretty as herself, others were coarse and rude, and sneered at her, calling her proud and ambitious, although they knew at heart that they were only jealous of the lovely face, so round and dimpled, with its big purplish-blue eyes, shaded by such a beautiful fringe of long black curling lashes. ”

“ One of his favorite methods was to taunt them with the disgrace that Pansy had brought upon them, and another was to keep alive in Willie’s breast the fierce resentment and murderous wrath that had taken hold of him when he first learned that his beautiful sister had gone astray.
Left to himself and to the remorseful pleadings of his mother, the young man might have got over some of his anger, more especially as poor Pansy had atoned for her fault with her life. ”

“ How beautiful, how silvery white it gleamed in the clear moonlight as it pursued its winding course toward Chesapeake Bay. The factory girl, whose soul was deeply imbued with a love of the beautiful, gazed with a sort of solemn rapture on the magnificent scene outspread before her, and as she flung her little bundle into the [64] glittering waves, lifted her sad eyes to heaven, murmuring, in a tone of awe:
“I am tempted to spring into those bright waves and end all my sorrow.” ”

“ Finley, the grocer, her feared and hated stepfather, was walking along by her side, leering wickedly down into her face with an air of recognition that almost made her heart stop its beating.
“Good afternoon, Pansy. I am glad to see that [177] you are making it up with your old lover. I was behind a tree, watching you two while you sat on that bench talking. You find the old love as sweet as ever, eh? Well, no one can blame you for not loving that old man you married for his money,” were the impertinent words that greeted her astonished ears. ”

“ Falconer and the child were so strongly attached to each other. She knew that Norman Wylde had been in trouble several years before on account of a pretty factory girl, who was reported to have drowned herself, but she had never heard that there was a child in the case. She wondered now if that unfortunate girl had looked like Mrs. Falconer.
“I mean to find out,” she resolved, just as Pansy looked up and asked pleadingly:
“Won’t you give me this child if my husband will allow me to adopt him? I will be like a mother to him, educate him, bring him up to a noble manhood, if he lives.” ”

“ Mrs. Falconer’s blue eyes flashed, and the color rushed back into her pale cheeks. She answered, with a flash of girlish spirit:
“You and I, Miss Ives, are made of the same clay as those factory girls. We are more fortunate, that is all.”
“Goodness, Uncle Falconer, I hope your wife isn’t a socialist!” exclaimed Juliette, shrugging her shoulders. ”

“ Faithfully had she kept the secret of her marriage, but the time was coming when it must be declared, or she would have to bear the burden of a bitter shame. Unless Norman Wylde returned soon, she would be the mother of a child on whom the world would frown in scorn, while she, poor girl, would never be able to lift up her head again. ”

“ THE ENEMY AT WORK.
Norman Wylde seemed almost petrified with amazement at the scene before him. He gazed in wonder at Pansy and the child, and from them to Mrs. Meade.
The old housekeeper, on her part, was surprised, too. She scarcely knew what to make of finding Norman Wylde here with Mrs. Falconer, but she knew not what to say. She could only stand and stare with a look of wonder on her fat face, which was flushed crimson from walking in the hot sun. ”

“ Pansy saw that she had betrayed herself by her vehemence, and, hanging her head bashful she sighed:
“Yes, I had a lover once, and he proved false to me. No one else shall ever make love to me again.”
“Poor child!” said the lady compassionately. She remained silent a few moments, then said: “I hope you will not think me a meddlesome old lady, Pansy, but I have been thinking of your [75] future. If I should die, what would become of you?”
Pansy burst into passionate tears. “I should never find such a noble friend again,” she sobbed. ”

“ She, the honored wife of the proud Colonel Falconer, must never own herself to be that Pansy Laurens whom the man before her had deceived and betrayed. She would be brave and proud for her husband’s sake, as well as for her own. ”

“ And she gazed with silent admiration at her noble husband, who loved her so devotedly, and who had not been too proud to marry a simple working girl and lift her to his own station in life. Although she did not love him in a romantic fashion, she admired his noble, manly nature more and more daily. ”

“ Falconer is without doubt a charming woman, and Juliette’s suspicions of her deceitfulness have their sole origin in nothing but envy and jealousy.”
While Juliette, alone in her own room, was saying bitterly:
“Oh, yes, they have fallen in love with her, have they? That is because she is the rich Mrs. Falconer. They have no admiration to spare for Norman’s sweetheart, the poor little tobacco-factory girl, who was quite as beautiful, innocent, and charming as my uncle’s proud wife.” ”

“ He never offered to disobey me before,” exclaimed Rosalind, frowning, and she removed him by force from Pansy’s lap, for he screamed and struggled to stay.
“Oh, please let me keep him. I love children!” exclaimed Pansy pleadingly; but just here Mrs. Wylde chimed in:
“You do not quite understand, Mrs. Falconer. The child belongs to my housekeeper, who adopted him in infancy. She has her orders to keep him in her own part of the house, but occasionally he slips away and intrudes upon us, although this is the first time he has ever ventured into the drawing-room.” ”

“ The happiness you speak of could not be mine, for if I left you for Norman the thought of you would always sadden me so that I should suffer from remorse and anxiety. I love you, though not with the wild passion I felt for my first love. ”

“ After all, my kindness to you is only a species of selfishness, for I wish to have you with me. It brightens my lonely life to have the beautiful face of a young girl about me all the time.”
They stayed in San Diego a year, and every month made the exquisite place more dear to them. Pansy worked industriously at her typewriting machine, and became quite proficient; but she did not neglect her kind benefactress.
It was both her duty and her pleasure to add as much of happiness as possible to the life of the suffering invalid. ”

“ And so, in the little room where Pansy lay, pale with pain and despair, the story of her girlhood [230] was told to the husband she had deceived—told kindly and gently by her mother’s lips, yet without abating one jot of the truth.
“If she had taken her mother’s advice, sir, she would never have come to this pass. I told her that a rich young man like Mr. Wylde wouldn’t think of marrying a poor little factory girl, but she didn’t believe my warning. She wouldn’t heed me,” sighed poor Mrs. Finley, when she had told, in her pitiful little way, the story of Pansy’s willfulness and disobedience. ”

“ He did not know how Pansy was touched by his kindness and friendship. She was very lonely, for the few acquaintances she had made during Mrs. Beach’s life did not trouble themselves about her now that she was poor and friendless. They were rich, fashionable people, too, who had no time, if they had had the inclination, to look after any one not in society. They were very gracious to Colonel Falconer, but that little typewriter girl to whom he was so attentive—that was altogether different. ”