Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

“ Neither he nor Gladys had ever been told of her adoption; both believed that she was August and Alice Huntress’ own child, and, somehow, a feeling of obligation, that was almost degradation, would now and then assail him, that he was obliged to identify himself in this way.
“Geoffrey,” Gladys continued, seeing the cloud still on his face, “do not allow so slight a thing to cast a shadow over our joy to-day. I am so happy—life looks so bright to me, that I am almost afraid it is all a dream, and I shall wake up to find it all gone from my grasp.” ”

“ I can face the whole world, now that my Madge lives and loves me the same as ever. I can breathe free once more, since I know her blood ain’t on my hands—oh! it’s too good a’most to be true!” he continued, drawing a long, full breath, “and bless ye, sir, all I’ve got in the world wouldn’t pay ye what I owe ye.”
“Jack, you owe me nothing,” Geoffrey responded, grasping him heartily by the hand. “I do not forget who cared for me during the first few years of my life, and if I have helped in any way to restore peace to you and happiness to Margery, I am more than paid already.” ”

“ Geoffrey returned, bitterly; “the man is a miserable coward, and he dare not meet me; his history is doubtless one of shame and wrong—he knew that I would force it from him, and he fears to remain and confess it. But, Gladys, I shall find him yet—some day I will compel him to face me and own the truth. I will hunt him down! he shall not escape me!”
“Oh, Geoffrey, pray do not let it trouble you so—there may have been some other reason for his going,” said the young girl, laying her hand sympathetically on his arm. ”

“ Colonel Mapleson sank back white and nervous, as he listened, realizing, almost at the outset, the terrible thing which his son had so nearly accomplished.
“Do you know what you have done, Everet Mapleson?” he said, in a solemn, impressive tone, when his visitor concluded, and the young man was startled and awed in spite of his bravado. “You have been upon the brink of a fearful precipice; you have very nearly committed a dreadful crime, for which I could never have forgiven you, for which you would never have forgiven yourself; the girl whom you have sought to make your wife is your sister.” ”

“ What good will it do you? Everet,” she added, as a sudden thought came to her, “you are in love with that girl, Gladys Huntress, and you are jealous of him.”
“Well?”
“You have conceived the idea that Annie Dale disappeared because of some wrong that she had done, and that this Geoffrey Huntress may be her child, and not of honorable birth. You believe, if you can prove this, that Miss Huntress will never marry him, and you will then be able to win her.”
Mrs. Mapleson had said this looking straight into her son’s eyes, and seeming to read his soul like an open book. ”

“ Geoffrey shivered. It was dreadful to have to listen to these revelations, and to realize what a narrow escape Gladys had had, for he knew that if Everet Mapleson had succeeded in deceiving her until the steamer sailed, the shock of her discovery, when alone, and in the power of the audacious scoundrel, might have resulted in her death. Even now they might not be able to secure her release, and she would still have to remain his wife in the sight of the world, but no moral obligation bound her to him, and no power could ever compel her to live with him. ”

“ Huntress gave the signal to the ushers to throw open the church doors, while the groom, followed by his attendants, passed down one aisle, and Gladys, on her father’s arm and attended by her maids, went down another.
They all met at the altar, where the strange clergyman was already awaiting them.
Everybody wondered at the self-possession and the lovely bloom of the bride.
But the secret of it was that Gladys forgot herself and all her surroundings; forgot the crowd of witnesses behind her; the curious glances—the place—everything in the solemn moment and the vows she was plighting. ”

“ Huntress—“I can never repay.”
Geoffrey warmly grasped that extended hand.
“You have made my heart more glad than I can tell you, sir,” he said. “I can forget—I can overlook everything, now that I know my mother was your loved and honored wife. I came here fearing the worst—fearing that a dreadful stigma rested upon my birth—that I was not entitled to an honorable name.”
“You are entitled to much more than that, Geoffrey,” Colonel Mapleson returned, smiling, although his lips trembled and his eyes were full of tears; “there is a handsome fortune awaiting your disposal.” ”

“ What blind fools men and women are to sacrifice so much—love, a lifetime of innocence, purity, and happiness, for the sake of a little paltry yellow dust! If I could but live over my life, how gladly would I endure poverty, and toil, and self-denial, to secure a quiet conscience and a heart free from its burden of sin and dread! Oh, such a life as I have led is but a miserable failure from beginning to end!”
Colonel Mapleson began to be alarmed at his wife’s increasing excitement, while her remorse and her ominous allusions drove him almost distracted. ”

“ Mapleson, that you should have said this to me,” she returned, in a low, pained tone, “for I cannot respond as you desire; my answer must be a decided refusal of your suit.”
“Do not say that!” he burst out in an agonized tone. “Oh, my darling, you must not ruin my life with one fatal blow. Let me wait—ever so long, if I may only hope that some day you will be mine.”
“I cannot let you hope,” Gladys replied, greatly agitated, “what I have said must be final. I do not love you—I can never become your wife.” ”

“ Everet Mapleson saw her the moment that she entered the room; indeed, he had been watching her for a half-hour or more, and his eyes glowed with admiration.
“She is a hundred fold more lovely than I thought her this afternoon,” he said, under his breath. “I shall love that girl, if I allow myself to see much of her. And why not? I believe I will set myself regularly at work to win her; thus I shall not only secure a charming little wife, but accomplish my revenge, also, for the indignity that I have received from his hands.” ”

“ Gladys stole one little hand confidingly into his, under cover of her opera cloak.
“Never mind, Geoff, now that I have you here; I will tell you some other time,” she whispered, as she involuntarily turned her still flashing eyes toward young Mapleson, while a slight shiver ran through her frame.
Geoffrey’s glance followed hers, and his face clouded.
“Has he dared——” he began, sternly.
“Hush!” she returned; “it is all past; he will never dare again.” ”

“ Then, with an evident effort, he looked up in Geoffrey’s face, and said:
“I know that you might have all, had you chosen to take it, and in that case I would have been a beggar. You have led me to believe—and not by this act alone, either—that there is at least one truly noble, unselfish man in the world. If you do not utterly despise me, will you henceforth recognize me as a friend?”
He extended his hand as he spoke, but it shook visibly, and he was very pale. It had not been an easy thing for this proud young Southerner to make such a confession and appeal. ”

“ Geoffrey smiled wisely.
“You have guessed too much and too little, my sunbeam,” he said.
“What a paradoxical statement, my learned Bachelor of Arts! I expected better things of you,” retorted Gladys, merrily.
“You have yet to find my statement true, in spite of the seeming paradox,” he replied, with mock dignity. “Somebody is going to Europe—we are not all going, however.”
“Oh, Geoff! you are not to be left at home, are you?” cried his betrothed, in a disappointed tone, her face paling at the thought. ”

“ But he managed to station himself where he could watch the young couple incessantly, and not a movement, not a smile or glance escaped him.
“They love each other,” he muttered, “at least he loves her, and it would not take much to make them acknowledged lovers. I shall be both watchful and diligent. I wish I knew the secret of the fellow’s life. It can’t be possible that he is anything to our family, and yet I am dusedly annoyed by the mystery.”
When he went later, to claim Gladys’ promise to dance with him, he exerted himself more than he had ever done to be entertaining and agreeable. ”

“ Margery exclaimed, in a tone of startled amazement. “I never saw a man fonder of his wife than Captain Dale was of your mother; and he had reason to be fond of her, too, for she worshiped the very air he breathed, and was always so sweet and merry that a man would have been a brute not to have loved her. But——”
“Well?” queried Geoffrey, eagerly, the hot blood surging to his brow, with a feeling of dread, as she stopped, a note of sudden conviction in her tone. ”

“ Do you imagine that you would enjoy a fashionable life, Gladys?”
“I think I would enjoy social life, to a certain extent, but I would not care to devote all my time to keeping up style, or to live in a fashionable whirl continually,” she replied, thoughtfully.
“And yet you are eminently fitted for just that kind of a life,” Geoffrey said, thinking how few there were who could compare with her.
“How so?” she asked, flushing slightly.
“You are beautiful and graceful; you have winning manners and a cultivated mind; you would shine anywhere,” he answered, an earnest thrill in his voice. ”

“ Huntress, a sly smile curling the corners of his mouth, “how it would do to let Gladys go with you; she has always been sighing for European travel.”
Geoffrey sat erect in his chair, as if suddenly galvanized, and shot a look of astonishment at his companion.
“Uncle August! you know that wouldn’t do at all, unless—Aunt Alice should accompany us,” he said, in confusion.
Mr. Huntress burst into a hearty laugh.
“I imagine it could be managed without depriving me of my wife as well as my daughter. How would it do to have that young lady go along as—as Mrs. Geoffrey Dale Huntress?” ”

“ Why can’t people always love the right ones, and escape all this jealousy and disappointment? Nannie Davenport’s story is likely to be repeated in this generation. Oh, Gladys, why couldn’t you have loved me instead of that mysterious personage who seems to have won your favor? I could have given you an honorable name, wealth, and a proud position in life, while he has literally nothing to offer you. But,” his face assuming a stony expression, “I will not give you up even now! I will move mountains to accomplish my purpose, and you shall yet be Gladys Mapleson!” ”

“ I broke up my home, gave away what I could not sell of the furniture, and we left the place, the Henlys taking you, Geoffrey, to California, where I planned to visit you when I could. I returned to my interests in the other mines where I tried to drown my grief by working as a common miner. But time, instead of healing my wound, only made it rankle worse. I grew bitter and antagonistic; the happiness of others maddened me; the fortune I had before been so willing to release, for the sake of her I loved, I now vowed I would keep out of spite for my loss. I resolved to keep my marriage a secret. ”

“ She knew that it was Geoffrey Huntress from some trifling difference in his dress, although, even to her keen mother’s eye, it was almost impossible to otherwise distinguish him from her son.
But after a passing glance at him, her attention was riveted upon the exquisitely beautiful girl at his side, whose face was all aglow with health and happiness.
“They are lovers,” Mrs. Mapleson said to herself, as she saw how oblivious they were of all save each other. “I wonder who the young girl is? How graceful she is in every movement! ”

“ I love her as a man loves the woman whom he wishes to make his wife,” said Geoffrey, with a very pale face, for the die was cast now, and he waited the result with fear and trembling.
“Humph! and this is your confession?”
“Yes, sir; I hope you will not regard me as a viper that turns and stings the hand that nourishes it,” the young man pleaded, with emotion.
August Huntress did not reply for a moment. ”

“ He drew her close to his wildly bounding heart and laid her head upon his breast.
“My own darling! that means that you love me even as I love you! Oh, Gladys, how I have longed to hear this confession from your lips, and yet I have never dared to betray the affection that has become a part of my very life.”
“Haven’t you, Geoff?” Gladys asked, a mischievous smile wreathing her red lips, which, however, he could not see.
“No; for I felt that it would not be right to do so. I feared that Uncle August would feel that I had betrayed his confidence, and taken an unfair advantage of his kindness. ”

“ No wonder Robert Dale buried himself here and ate his heart out with grief and jealousy at losing her. Poor old man! I reckon I know something of your feelings, but I shall never sit tamely down and bear it. I’ll conquer or die in the struggle,” he concluded, between his set teeth.
Then he grew deadly pale.
“Perhaps he didn’t give up either until after she was married,” he said, “and then he couldn’t help himself. Bah! Gladys Huntress shall never marry Geoffrey Dale!” ”

“ I have often looked at myself with amazement to think it was possible for any one to conceal so effectually the corruption and wretchedness and duplicity of one’s nature. I believe I have realized, as no one else ever did, what the Saviour meant by a ‘whited sepulcher full of dead men’s bones.’ William!” turning upon her husband, with a wild, glittering eye, and searching his face with a glance of pitiful appeal, “I expect that you will despise and hate me, that our son will loathe me, when you learn what I have to tell you.” ”

“ GEOFFREY ENTERS COLLEGE. August Huntress and his gentle wife, Alice, deserved to be happy, for they had devoted the best of their lives to the work of rearing the two children who had been so strangely thrown upon their care.
Of course it was but natural that their love for Gladys should be deeper, stronger, and more sacred than for Geoffrey, for they had taken her to their hearts as their very own when she was but a tiny babe, and having had no other children sent them to share their affection, their every hope had long been centered in her. ”

“ Geoffrey had been much disturbed inwardly to see how devotedly attentive young Mapleson appeared to Gladys.
He did not bear him any ill-will on account of the hazing to which he had been subjected so long ago, but he instinctively felt that he could not be a very noble-minded man to allow himself to be so controlled by passion as he had been at that time, and Gladys was too precious a treasure to be willingly yielded to one unworthy of her. ”

“ THE WEDDING. Gladys went to her room with a sweet and tender gravity on her beautiful face.
Every passing moment made her feel more sensibly the sacredness of the vows that she was about to take upon herself, and the responsibilities she was so soon to assume.
“I know this great joy is far more than I deserve,” she murmured. “I cannot understand why no shadow has ever been allowed to cloud my life, when so many are born to a lot of sorrow, trial, and toil. I will try to lift the burden from some hearts in the future ”

“ Gladys said, thoughtfully.
“What makes you think that?” was the eager query.
“There are certain expressions in your face that I do not find in his, and vice versa; while somehow a feeling of antagonism, a barrier, almost amounting to distrust, comes between us when I am with him. Perhaps it is because I do not know him as well as I know you; it would be natural to differently regard one who had always been like a brother,” Gladys replied, gravely.
A painful thrill shot through Geoffrey’s heart at those last words.
“Does she feel nothing but sisterly affection for me?” he thought ”

“ Huntress stood like one dazed by some fearful shock, his glance wavering between the still unconscious bride and the man whose victim she had become.
“It is a fraud!” he cried at last. “You have practiced a most damnable fraud upon us all; but I hope that you do not imagine for a moment that you can enforce your claim. The courts of New York will promptly annul the marriage.” ”

“ This had been Geoffrey’s feeling all along; but it was Mr. Huntress’ desire to have a brilliant wedding, and he could not find it in his heart to oppose any reasonable wish of one who had been so kind to him.
“Well,” he answered, “we can comfort ourselves with one thought; the ‘fuss and excitement’ will not last long, then we shall have each other all to ourselves. But, darling, see here.” ”

“ Gladys Huntress sprang up in her carriage, an angry flush surging over her pretty face.
“John, stop!” she cried, imperiously. “Stop!” she repeated, laying her gloved hand upon his arm, with a touch which he involuntarily obeyed, and, drawing his reins, his well-trained horses came to a stand close beside the group we have described.
“Boys, what are you doing? Let him alone. Aren’t you ashamed to torment a boy who is weaker than yourselves?” ”

“ I have resolved from the first that no one should excel me, and that when I should be through with my college course I would battle, with all the energy I possess, for a high position in the world to offer her. But what will it all amount to if, in the meantime, some one else steals my darling from me!—if, while my own lips are sealed, from a sense of honor, some other man wins the heart I covet, and I have to see her become his wife? ”

“ Uncle August, you are driving me mad! Explain! explain! I cannot bear these enigmas!” cried the poor fellow, springing to his feet in a fearful state of agitation, while a cold perspiration started out all over his face.
Mr. Huntress gently forced him back into his chair and began at once to tell him all that had occurred, from the moment of the departure of the bridal party from the church, up to the present hour.
Geoffrey sat throughout the fearful recital as if he had suddenly been turned to stone, and when at last it was concluded, there were several moments of dreadful silence. ”