Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

“ She sat quiet a few moments until Molly’s jealous love conquered her pride.
“Florine Dabol, why do you say such things to me? Do you believe that Louise has won my husband’s love from me?” she demanded.
“It is plain to be seen, madame. Such goings-on!” Florine tossed her head and shrugged her shoulders in a way that expressed volumes.
Molly gazed at her with eyes full of pain, and Florine said to herself that she was making good progress indeed.
“Madame, you are too good, you are indeed. I would not live with a man that hated me openly, and spent all his time with another woman. ”

“ Laurens could speak, and old Mrs. Barry crossed the room stiffly and stood before Cecil.
In her feeble, cracked voice, sharpened by anger, and with features distorted by fury, she exclaimed:
“Call nobody, do nothing, Cecil Laurens! Let the impostor who tricked an old woman and fooled a young man lie there and die! It is the best thing that could happen to you both!”
“Mrs. Barry, you are certainly out of your mind!” exclaimed the young man, indignantly. He had already fallen down on his knees and was chafing Molly’s cold, limp hands in both his own. ”

“ I was rich, John Keith was poor, so you threw him over for me! You see I understand it all, and nothing you can say or do can palliate your horrible treachery! I despise you, and although I have today for honor’s sake given you the shelter of my name, we shall never more be husband and wife save in name. Even in the same house I shall live apart from you, never seeing you when I can avoid it, never speaking to you unless it is forced upon me, although the world outside must never dream of our secret alienations. ”

“ Cecil Laurens gave a quick start, and looked at Molly. Her face was white and wild with agony as she sprang from the sofa and fell down at his feet.
“It is not—it is not true!” she gasped, in an agonized voice. “Cecil, Cecil, I am your wife, you are my husband! Speak, tell her she speaks falsely!”
He was blindly, madly angry at the deception that had been practiced on him. In his bitter wrath and outraged pride he caught quickly at Louise Barry’s cue.
“Get up, Molly Trueheart, do not kneel at my feet, for she speaks the truth!” he exclaimed, hoarsely. “Such a marriage would not stand in law. ”

“ It is always an actress that must break hearts. What a cruel, wretched, proud world it is,” Molly cried, with startling vehemence.
Madelon Trueheart looked at her in sad surprise.
“It is very kind of you to feel for us like that,” she said. “It was bitter, was it not! We are such an old family and so proud! But we loved Ernest so—dear mother and I—that we would have forgiven him, and made the best of his low-born bride. But, alas, father would not have it so. He forbade us sternly ever to think of the erring one again. ”

“ I sinned through my love of you, and my remorse has been so great that I have never known one happy hour. But you loved me, Cecil, and you can not unlearn your love so soon. You will make me your wife?”
Such tears as fell from her eyes were hot enough to blister the fair face, such pain as racked her heart was enough to atone for her sin, but the outraged husband was wild with wrath, and he answered in that voice of smoldering fury and indignant pride:
“Why, you are John Keith’s divorced wife. You were bound to him when you went through that farce of a marriage with me. ”

“ It was Louise Barry, handsome and smiling, in a rich costume of dark silk and velvet.
“Oh, Molly, in bed yet? Luxury has taught you bad habits,” she exclaimed with a light laugh.
“My mistress is sick, madame,” exclaimed Phebe, banging the door shut, and turning on the visitor with sharp displeasure.
“Go away, Louise! I can’t bear the sight of you!” Molly cried, fretfully; but Miss Barry sank coolly into the easiest chair in the luxurious room.
“Your manners are as bad as of old, Molly,” she retorted, insolently. “But send your maid away, please; I want to talk to you privately.” ”

“ But day by day the bonds of love grew stronger. That which she thought but a garland of roses strengthened into a chain that held her fast. A mad love made the brave, honest little girl a traitor.
The day that had been set for her marriage dawned, yet she had never spoken the words that were to save Cecil Laurens from wedding a deceiver.
“For I could not break it off without telling him the truth, and that would ruin Louise. And how could I part with him now?” she would sigh to herself when alone, and gradually her love and his made a bond that she could not break through. ”

“ The maid tossed her head.
“Ma foi, what can I do? I have tried to make her desperate, so that she would run away or kill herself, but she will do neither. Had any one told me the half I have told her, I should have gone mad with jealousy. But this girl—I never saw such sadness, such dumb humility. She means to win him back by sheer humility and patience.”
Louise shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
“I never should have believed it of Molly Trueheart, she was always so fiery, yet she was good-natured, too, at her best. I could wind her around my little finger by cajolery.” ”

“ Take heart, be of good cheer, little one, and remain where you are until I come back with Cecil. I have talked to mother and father; but in the first keenness of their trouble they are obdurate. But be patient. They will all come round in time and forgive you for the sake of what is coming, and because you were so young and ignorant. Adieu.
“Charley.”
“God bless him! God bless him for his noble heart!” Molly cried, with streaming eyes. “Oh, Phebe, is it not noble in him to befriend me when they have all forsaken me?”
“I have stood by you, too, Mrs. Laurens. ”

“ Aunt Lucy cautioned me carefully. Suppose—suppose—old Mrs. Barry should disinherit Louise for this. She wouldn’t forgive me as long as she lived, I know, and I couldn’t forgive myself, either.”
The beautiful young face wore an expression of dismay and the young heart throbbed with pain.
“Oh, how wicked I have been! How cruel to poor Louise,” she continued, springing excitedly to her feet. “My bad temper and love of fun are always leading me into mischief. But I’ll make it up, yes, I will. I’ll go and beg the old dragoness’ pardon. Not that she didn’t deserve all I said, but for Louise’s sake.” ”

“ Who does not know the story of “Lady Geraldine’s Courtship”?—the story of the poor poet’s love for a lovely, noble lady who trampled under her dainty feet the prejudices of pride and rank and wedded the young genius, her lover? Molly’s eloquent voice gave full value to the story, rose in passion, sank in pathos, thrilled and trembled alternately, while her eyes sparkled or melted to tears in sympathy. Cecil Laurens, the handsome, gifted man of the world, indolent, self-conceited, proud, gazed and listened in unfeigned astonishment. ”

“ She began to smile, her anger melting under his kindliness.
“I—I—won’t claim your friendship on the score of our families. If you promise me your friendship, it must be for what I am worth myself—and if I like you, it must be for yourself, not because you are a Laurens,” she replied, with such seriousness and earnestness that he laughed, and quoted:
“‘Kind hearts are more than coronets,’
you think, Miss Barry. Well, I own I am proud of my family, but I am willing to take your good-will on your own terms.” ”

“ I am his wife in the sight of Heaven!” the wretched wife cried out in passionate denial, and the utter agony of her face might have moved a heart of stone, but Louise Barry was pitiless.
“Nonsense!” she said, curtly. “Your marriage under a false name and identity is utterly void in law, and Cecil Laurens was quick to take advantage of the fact. You are a disgraced creature, and nothing remains to you but flight to some far secluded spot, where none who know you now can ever hear of you again.”
Molly sat upright among her pillows, and her eyes flashed resentfully. ”

“ I am not an ogre. I am not going to kill you for one little deception!” he exclaimed.
He was afraid she was going to faint, but at those kindly uttered words, the warm color rushed suddenly into her face, and she turned her eyes on him, with an expression little less than adoring.
“Cecil,” she murmured, in an indescribable tone, leaning close to his shoulder, so close that he could feel the convulsive trembling that shook her form.
He was alarmed, and exclaimed, reassuringly:
“Darling, your little deception did not matter much. You kept the secret for your sister’s sake. ”

“ Laurens,” impatiently.
“Then you are Cecil Laurens’ mother?”
“Yes.”
“I wished to see Mrs. Cecil Laurens!”
She recoiled from him in anger and reproach.
“How can you speak that name here?” she exclaimed. “You of all men ought to know that there is no longer a Mrs. Cecil Laurens! Or, perhaps, you think my son has married again?”
The handsome man before her sank back into his seat like one stunned. His face paled, his voice trembled as he said:
“Madame, I do not understand. Do you mean to tell me that your son’s wife is dead! poor, pretty Molly—dead?” mournfully. ”

“ But Molly muttered, frantically:
“I know Aunt Lucy will not be willing!”
“Lucy Everett has nothing to do with it. I shall not ask her advice, nor Cecil her consent. If you love Cecil, there is no more to do but to marry him and settle down,” proclaimed Mrs. Barry with the air of an autocrat, and she added, after a minute, sharply: “I don’t think I shall even invite Lucy Everett to the wedding, for she would want to bring that Trueheart girl, and she shall never with my consent cross the threshold of a Barry!” ”

“ Molly answered: “Mrs. Laurens, his mother.”
“Oh, how cruel!” the maid cried warmly. “They have deceived you, madame. I have taken pains to find out their plans and now I will give them to you. It is not Mr. Cecil who will take you home. You are to go with the old folks and the daughters. He—your husband—remains behind with the Barrys, and they all three go immediately to Paris. Ah, madame, Paris is so wicked! And the aunt, the chaperone, she is so old, blind, deaf, she will see but little of the goings-on!”
Florine’s shrugs and glances conveyed even more evil than her words. ”

“ He thinks he is only to marry you again for the sake of the child that is coming to bear his name, but I am sure that underneath the crust of his anger and resentment his love for you lives yet.”
Her head drooped sadly to her breast, and she sighed heavily while he continued:
“It must be your task, my sister, to win this wounded heart back to you. Cecil is hard and proud, but he is just. When he sees your remorse and repentance he will be sorry for you, he will pity you, and with the coming of your child the cloud will pass from your lives, and you will be happy again.” ”

“ But Molly cried out in terror that not for worlds would she treat Cecil’s mother with such indignity.
“I can not blame her for being angry with me. I deserve it all for my treachery and it is very good of her to stay here, as you say she does, to keep my secret from the world,” she sighed, in sad humility and remorse. “So let her come when she will, Phebe, and never tell her how her cold looks frighten me and make me worse.” ”

“ Cecil said, when he had bidden John Keith farewell and God-speed. “I must lose no time in seeking my wife, and revealing to her my knowledge of the treachery that parted us.”
It touched him to see his stately mother sobbing forlornly in Dot’s sympathizing arms. He knew it was sorrow and remorse for her hardness to his wife.
“Do not fret, mother. She was such a loving little soul, I am sure she will forgive you when she finds that you are sorry,” he said, gently.
“I will write to her, Cecil, as soon as you find her. I will humble myself as I deserve to do until I win her pardon,” she sobbed. ”

“ Molly flushed, but finished her breakfast in silence, and then ran upstairs to arrange an impromptu riding-habit.
By letting out the tucks in her red cashmere dress she made a very presentable habit, combined with the velvet-trimmed jacket, and setting a little red-plumed turban on her mop of curls she ran down-stairs in the gayest spirits.
“I’m ready, Aunt Thalia.”
“Whew! You’re like a whirlwind, Louise,” exclaimed Mrs. Barry; but she summoned old Abe at once, and said:
“Miss Barry wants a ride, Abe, and you must go with her as she is not accustomed to riding. ”

“ Molly’s head popped up from the pillow like a cork.
“Indeed she won’t then! Marry me off, indeed! I should like to see any one try it!” she blazed, indignantly.
“Hi, honey, doane you want get married?” Ginny Ann inquired, in amazement.
“No, I don’t! I hate men, every one of them—deceitful prigs!” cried Molly, violently, adding to herself that the man she had seen tonight she hated worst of all. ”

“ Every one had run out into the hall to look after the maniac, and they were for a moment alone.
Molly whispered, anxiously:
“Dear Cecil, don’t you pity that poor fellow? He is not rich like you, and he can not find work enough to support a wife! She is growing tired of waiting, and he will lose her, unless something happens in his favor. You will help him, Cecil? You’ll find him some work?”
So earnest was the plaint that tears rushed into the dark eyes, and Cecil, moved to sympathy, answered ardently:
“I believe you are an angel, Louise, as I once heard that unlucky fellow call you. ”

“ He came hurriedly, believing that Molly had summoned him, eager, like himself, for a reconciliation.
He stepped quickly across the threshold, and Florine panted, wildly:
“Ah, monsieur! what does it mean? She—my mistress—is not here!”
She ran into the dressing-room and bath-room and back again, followed by Cecil, startled and anxious.
“Ma foi, I have feared this—that she would run away!” Florine muttered, just loud enough for him to overhear.
He turned on her fiercely.
“Woman, you must be mad! She can not have left the house. Go and seek her at once.” ”

“ So Cecil’s carriage rolled down Park Lane one day and a vision of beauty stepped therefrom, and held up her rosy lips for Cecil’s parting kiss, careless of the coachman’s stare and the footman’s grin.
“Bye-bye, Cecil; call for me in an hour,” she said, smiling, and after waiting until she had entered the house, he went away.
The baronet was out, and Lady Trueheart was shut up with her maid and a headache. Molly went at once to Miss Trueheart’s boudoir and happily found her alone. ”