Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

“ Death would still the aching of the weary head, the throbbing of the tortured heart, save her from tomorrow.
If she could only die, the secret of her cruel humiliation would die with her—neither Philip Desha nor Florian Gay would dare stand up in the face of the pitying world and say: “I drove poor Viola to her death.”
They would be ashamed and afraid of condemnation. Remorse would seize their hearts, their old love would return and overwhelm them with grief.
[Pg 107]
If she only could get some morphine, she could soon end her sorrow. Death would come gently, painlessly. ”

“ The light-hearted gayety of other days had faded from her brow, and a pensive shadow replaced it. She cared no more for society, declining all invitations on the score of her mourning. She spent many hours alone before the portrait of Rolfe Maxwell, that had been hung in her favorite room. Each day she placed fresh flowers on a stand before it.
Judge Van Lew and his sister looked on indulgently. They thought it was remorse that dictated these expressions of feeling; they could not believe that Viola had learned to love her husband of an hour. ”

“ Until this moment Viola had been so absorbed in her revenge that she had scarcely given a thought to the man she had married.
Yet he, gently and unobtrusively, had considered everything, planned everything, that her treasured vengeance need not go awry, while at the same time she need not pay too dear a price for the victory. Loving her with all the strong passion of manhood, he would not force his love on her sore heart. He would be patient and bide his time, though not concealing the tenderness of his hope. ”

“ I believed you had married Maxwell out of pique, while still loving Philip Desha, and when you fainted dead away on receiving his letter of repentance, my suspicions were confirmed. When I invented the stories that sent Rolfe Maxwell away, I did it for your sake, believing you would be glad to be free again to renew your vows with Desha. If I made a grave mistake, as your words imply, I can only crave your pardon in all humility. My judgment was at fault, but my heart was true, and my remorse since poor Maxwell’s death has been keen and bitter, though so silent. ”

“ Have you no mercy on the men, Viola?”
“Oh, it does not hurt. They soon go away and forget,” she replied, lightly.
“I do not think that I should soon forget if you had rejected me. I fancy it would have been a very serious matter to me,” Florian Gay replied, quite gravely; but his betrothed only laughed at him.
“Nonsense! You would have been courting another girl next day, Florian.”
“It is more likely that I should have put an end to my life, for I seem to live only in you, my darling, and if I were to lose you now after you had promised yourself to me, I could not answer for myself. ”

“ Pride when they praise thee, regret when they blame,
And tenderness always—beloved one?
“Will she watch when a cloud passes over thy brow
And strive to chase it—as I have done?
Forgetting all but the thought that now
It is hers to console thee—beloved one?”
Mrs. Maxwell raised herself on her elbow and looked at the fallen girl with her lovely face and closed eyes upturned to the light. In her alarm she did not heed Viola’s presence.
“Oh, Rolfe, what have you done?” she groaned, wildly. “You have broken dear little Mae’s heart!”
“Mother!” in bewilderment.
“You have broken Mae’s heart!” ”

“ Viola had known well that he would come. She had faith in the potency of those well-chosen words, “when I see you again.”
She smiled him a cordial welcome, and it seemed to him that never before had she looked so lovely.
Illness had softened down the exuberant vitality of her beauty, stealing a little roundness and bloom from her cheek, and a little of the mischief from her luminous eyes. There was a delicate, appealing languor in her movements, aided by the trailing house-gown whose warm red tints contrasted so well with her fairness. ”

“ Mae did not answer, for a swift pain cleft her heart, and a red flush burned her face as her lover added:
“Young, romantic girls like you may imagine that it is not possible to love twice, but indeed it is not true. If you will let me teach you the sweet lesson of love, you shall be adored as devotedly as ever Viola was.”
“Hush!” she murmured, faintly; and the tears flashed into her soft blue eyes. She was thinking, sweet Mae, of her own broken love-dream. ”

“ To his noble heart Viola had looked more beautiful with those tender tears softening the brilliance of her eyes than when sparkling with diamonds in some gala scene she had moved the cynosure of admiring glances. He thought:
“She has a true womanly heart in spite of her coquetry.”
They drove to his cousin’s home, where they were joined directly by a gay party of a dozen or so accomplished skaters, eager for the sport. Directly they sought the beautiful Potomac, whose glassy surface glittered clear as crystal beneath the deep blue sky and fitful sunshine of a cold and perfect winter day. ”

“ But Rolfe Maxwell had heard of her coquetries long before, and had always made excuses for her in his heart.
It seemed to him that one so rarely gifted by nature and fortune could not be entirely to blame. Royally dowered with beauty and fascination, she commanded love without seeking it; and perhaps, in her youth and innocence, she did not indeed value the emotion at its true worth. Had she not confessed to him her dismay at her father’s lecture, and the changed life she had led afterward, save for her cowardice in confessing the truth to Florian? ”

“ But when death so soon snapped that bond, I resolved to try my fate again, holding myself loyally bound to her if she cared to take me. I still loved her madly until—those days when you gave me the sittings for your portrait, when I found my allegiance wavering under the spell of your charms, until I saw that to be true to Viola I must avoid you. I did so until her year of widowhood was so nearly ended that I thought I might propose without giving offense. ”

“ Viola took out the fine cabinet photograph of Rolfe Maxwell and handed it to him in silent emotion, while both men gazed with interest at the handsome rival who had seized the prize they had let slip from their grasp.
Florian’s heart throbbed with keen jealousy of the dead man, and Desha uttered a cry of recognition and surprise.
“What is it?” cried Viola, turning eagerly to him; and he answered:
“I thought I had never seen the man you married, but I recognized him instantly as the young man who saved your life the day you skated through the ice. But of course he told you?” ”

“ CHAPTER XXXVI. STARTLING NEWS.
Viola paused with quivering lips, the tears hanging heavily on the curling fringe of her long black lashes. How beautiful, how unattainable, she looked to the man who had loved and lost her in so strange a fashion, who had only himself to blame for the thorn in his heart!
A long, labored sigh heaved his breast, and smote reproachfully on her ears.
She murmured, faintly:
“Is there not some one else you can love? Florian soon found consolation.”
“I am not Florian. There will never be any one else for me to love but you, Viola. ”

“ But from today I wish you to turn over a new leaf, and give up this despicable flirting that has so nearly ended in a terrible tragedy that must have lain heavily on your conscience forever. You must promise me today that you will never again lead any man on, to gratify your love of conquest at the expense of his happiness.”
His words and looks were so solemn that she exclaimed, almost petulantly:
“Papa, you talk of a tragedy. Do you call a harmless flirtation with George Merrington a tragedy?”
“A harmless flirtation, Viola! Wait till you hear all,” he exclaimed. ”

“ Behind this flippant announcement lay a thrilling romance of beauty, coquetry, love, and pride that may interest the amiable reader whose heart is yet young and warm enough to admire the good traits, excuse the follies, and sympathize with the dire misfortunes of a beautiful, thoughtless young girl.
If there was any excuse in the world for what Viola did, it lay in her youth and her thoughtlessness, and because she did not understand at all what a terrible force love is at its best or worst. ”

“ You have broken a good man’s heart by your accursed fickleness, and disgraced me forever, and I will disown and disinherit you, leaving you nothing but an outraged father’s curse on my [Pg 141] death-bed!” stormed Judge Van Lew, in a fury that was dangerous to his life, so purple grew his face, while the knotted veins stood out like whip-cords on his brow.
Viola’s own quick temper blazed up at his charges, her pale cheeks flamed, and the tears dried up in her eyes as she answered, spiritedly:
“I came to ask you to forgive me, papa, not to listen to abuse! ”

“ Maxwell, working diligently among her father’s books, lifted his dark, finely shaped head to listen, and the voice sounded to him like an angel’s, it was so clear and sweet.
“It is Miss Van Lew, I suppose. How rarely she is gifted—queen of song and love and beauty!” he thought; for although he was a stranger to Viola, he had seen her more than once, and the story of her coquetry had reached his ears. ”

“ He would entreat her to consent to a quiet marriage and go abroad with him.
“If she loves me half as well as I love her she will be willing to do as I wish, rather than face a separation of uncertain duration,” he said to himself, and plunged boldly into the subject, encouraged by the dismay and sympathy with which she received his news.
“You will miss me a little, Viola, my darling?” he cried, eagerly, when he saw the bright eyes softened with the dew of tears.
“More than a little, dear Florian!” she cried, warmly, for her really tender heart was softened by his grief. ”

“ He answered, scathingly:
“Was it for my sake, then, you drove young George Merrington to suicide?”
“Merciful Heaven! how came you by that knowledge, Philip?” she groaned.
“No matter how, Viola, so that you do not deny it. For a week that knowledge has lain heavy as a [Pg 101] stone on my heart. I have asked myself how I could wed a woman with so cruel a nature that she drove men mad just to gratify her insatiate vanity. You must know that my ideal of true womanhood is based on angelic sweetness, tenderness, and compassion, and the knowledge of your faults was a shock I could barely endure. ”

“ Hyer. I pitied her so much, poor thing! tumbling about on the ice till she must have been black and blue with bruises. Then, of course, you never thought of my skating out so far alone—neither did I, indeed—but I’ll tell you why I did it when I see you again.”
Much brooding over the last sentence persuaded him that he owed Viola a duty call.
Evidently she expected it, and—besides, his curiosity was aroused. What reason had she had for skating out so far indeed?
“I will go—just once. Then I must certainly put the little beauty out of my thoughts. One can not play with fire. ”

“ He had realized that the interest he took in the fair coquette was deep and painful—painful because he deemed it no less than a calamity to lose his heart to one like Viola, who only played at love, and seemed to have no conception of its depth and sacredness.
Although he was in his dignified way a very attractive man, he did not have enough personal vanity to suppose that he could succeed in winning her heart where so many others had failed—even Florian Gay, so young and handsome, and much richer than himself. ”

“ Will you try to forgive me for disappointing your wishes about Mae, and be kind to my precious Viola?”
“Of course I will, Rolfe,” she answered.
But he persevered:
“She will need more than kindness—she will need real motherly tenderness and sympathy, for she is nervous and troubled over the shock she has given her father, and is likely to be very unhappy for some time. You will know how to comfort her, will you not, dear mother?”
His voice was so eager and anxious that she answered yes, promising her heart to do her duty by Rolfe’s wife, in spite of her secret resentment for poor Mae’s sake. ”

“ An hour later her father was en route for New York, eagerly interested in his mission, and most anxious to do all he could to restore peace and happiness to Viola’s heart.
As for her, she could not sleep for hours. She spent the night reclining on a low couch drawn near to Rolfe’s portrait, where her eyes could rest on it every time they opened from wakeful dozing.
“Oh, is it true—is it true, my darling? Do you really live?” she cried over and over to the silent portrait, whose dark eyes seemed to rest on her in passionate love. ”

“ He knew that he had carried things with a high hand against the young man who had really behaved very nobly toward Viola, and merited better than a summary dismissal.
But he believed that he was acting in the best faith toward Viola, for it did not occur to him that Rolfe had any chance of winning her love.
Her fainting spell on reading Desha’s letter of repentance had convinced him that she still loved the man who wrote it. He felt that the greatest kindness he could do his willful daughter was to help her undo the fetters she had forged in her momentary madness of despair. ”

“ I had a right because I did not love him!” cried Viola, gaining courage again.
“You did not love him, you say, Viola; then why [Pg 54] did you lead him to believe that you did? Why did you flirt with the poor young fellow till he felt sure of you, and ventured to lay his honest heart at your feet?” angrily.
“Papa, no man has a right to be sure of a woman’s heart until he has asked for it and been answered,” she replied, uneasily, seeing that he was in deadly earnest.
“You are wrong,” he answered, earnestly. “A true man and woman, when truly in love, may always be sure of each other. ”

“ I am to blame for fostering such hopes in you. Will you forgive me, dear, and try to be happy without Rolfe?” pleaded Rolfe’s mother.
“I can not be happy without him. I have loved him more than a year, and all my hopes centered on him. That proud beauty can never love him as dearly as I love him!” sobbed Mae, casting pride to the winds in the shock of her grief, and refusing all pacification as she cast herself, weeping, back among her pillows, so that the perturbed aunt had perforce to excuse herself presently and go away to look after the comfort of her unwelcome guest. ”