Leola

“ Stood suddenly like fate—
To those who love, the world is wide,
But not to those who hate!”
Leola felt a small, gloved hand pressing hers very hard, looked into bluebell eyes under flaxen waves of hair, and turned cold with dislike and repulsion, dreading every moment to see over the blonde’s shoulder her husband’s face, handsome and winning, with the laughing blue eyes that had smiled her heart away.
With a strong effort she pulled herself together, calling her passionate pride to her aid. They should not see her wince; she would show them she had forgotten him. ”

“ I wouldn’t permit myself to love a poor man if he were a perfect Adonis!”
But artless Leola, with rosy cheeks and glowing eyes, retorted:
“Then you do not know how to love, Jessie—not even the meaning of that sacred word, for I would adore Ray Chester if he had not a second coat to his back!”
“Ray Chester! There you go again!” cried Miss Stirling, with a violent start. “Oh, come now, you are madly in love with some man, Leola, and you have got to tell me all about it this minute!” ”

“ I was in an accident; my horse ran away, and I was thrown out of the runabout. Was I killed? Is this heaven, and are you an angel?”
Leola laughed a happy, rippling laugh, sweet as music to his ears.
“An angel? No, indeed,” she cried; “and this is not heaven, either, only a rough, rocky road, where you fell when you pitched out of your trap. Oh! are you hurt very bad? Does your poor head pain you very much?” ”

“ On learning that the rotund widower, Bennett, whom she secretly loved, was a suitor for Leola’s hand, the spinster promptly went into hysterics that she could not have helped to save her life.
She shrieked furiously:
“Oh, the fat villain, the vile deceiver! After all his attentions to me since his poor wife died, to turn around and fall in love with a chit of a girl like Leola! Oh, I could tear him limb from limb, the wretch! And as to marrying him, she shall not—never, never!” ”

“ Leola obeyed him, pouting, for she hated to lose time indoors this gladsome, golden day.
There was no love lost between her and her grim guardian, anyway, for he was a stern old man, reticent and mysterious, spending most of his time in a horrid laboratory up in the tower chamber of the rough old stone house, where the country folk said he was working either to wrest from Nature the secret of making gold, or the still greater mystery of distilling a magic elixir of life. ”

“ Then Leola recalled the morning, three weeks ago, when her guardian had bidden her prepare to be married in a month to the man of his choice.
“So this is my rich suitor—old Bennett!” she burst out, laughing, for she could not regard it seriously at all, not realizing Wizard Hermann’s grim determination.
“Why do you call him old? He is only about fifty or so, and a fine, handsome man!” complained the tearful governess.
She could hardly understand why the volatile Leola burst into spasms of the merriest laughter, in which Ray Chester could not help joining. ”

“ But he shall never marry Leola Mead—never! Why, I think I would murder her first! And what will he say when he finds me here? Above all, why is he masquerading under a false name, and pretending to be a poor artist? Ah, I have it! He means to deceive the silly girl; his intentions are dishonorable, but I will unmask him, I will break up the affair, I swear it!” clenching her white hands desperately.
Leola came back with the wine and a biscuit, and Jessie accepted, eagerly. ”

“ With Leola dead, all his plans would come to naught. Old Bennett would foreclose the mortgage and ruin him. In his old age he must go forth a beggar into the world, friendless, and without a place to lay his head.
Through this terrible trick of fate all his plans and aspirations must be wrecked, and science lose, perhaps, the magnificent discoveries to which he had devoted his life.
No wonder he was filled with a blind fury against Chester Olyphant, through whose treachery Leola’s death had come to pass, thus thwarting all his plans for future gain. ”

“ I’m so glad I came this morning, for I have detected a villain in a plot to ruin poor Leola! You remember how I told you I was betrothed to Chester Olyphant, a millionaire of New York, and that he was gone on a yachting tour for a few weeks. Well, this morning I found that, instead of going yachting, as he pretended, the unprincipled villain, who knew of Leola from me, had come down here masquerading as Ray Chester, an artist, making love to poor, innocent Leola. This morning he came upon us in the arbor, and when I exposed him to the girl, she fell in a swoon so deep that it looks like death. ”

“ I have no more use for so unworthy a guardian, but I shall not take revenge by foreclosing my mortgage on his home. I shall leave him in peaceable possession the term of his life; then Wheatlands will revert to my daughter, Leola. For the rest, as soon as Leola can pack up to leave I shall take my dear girl away with me to New York, and if Mr. Bennett repudiates his pretty bride, she may accompany us. I am rich, and for her love and care of Leola she shall be well repaid. ”

“ Leola’s dark eyes blazed with indignation.
“You must surely be mad,” she cried, passionately. “The man I would choose for my husband must ask me for my hand, not you, sir. This is free America, you must remember, not France, where marriages are arranged by old people who have forgotten love and youth. ”

“ Leola called every morning on Rex, and remained until the midday meal at Wheatlands. After appearing at this hour she slipped away again, returning to the cottage and staying till she had to go home to supper. Her regularity at these meals warded off any suspicion that she spent the intervening hours in the company of a very charming young man, who would render all Wizard Hermann’s schemes to marry her off to her unknown suitor quite null and void. ”

“ In all the years while Leola had lived here with her governess in the lonely old house, she could not remember a caress from the mysterious, self-absorbed [Pg 4] old man, who seemed to have no human interests or passions, and to care for no one but the dwarfish servitor who helped him in his laboratory, the only person he ever admitted within its precincts. ”

“ Even Doctor Barnes, who had not found it necessary to pay but three visits to his patient, did not know of the romance going on at the cottage, and being very busy with the measles, just then epidemic in Alderson and the country round about, he had no time to gossip about the stranger whose life Leola Mead had saved. As there were none who knew Ray Chester, so there were none to worry over him; and beneath the matronly chaperonage of kind Widow Gray their secret love bloomed into a splendid flower whose strong roots only death could tear away. ”

“ Then I took the train for West Virginia, and on arriving at Alderson I started out the same morning to find you, Leola; for, of course, you have guessed it was yourself! Directly my horse took fright; and only fancy my feelings when I saw you coming toward me on your white pony, a perfect vision of youth and joy and beauty, and realized that a horrible death might thrust us apart in another fatal moment. You saved my life, and can you wonder I look upon you as my fate—the fairest fate that ever life gave to a man? ”

“ But “time does not stop for tears,” and the days and months rolled away and brought round golden June again, so that it was a year since Leola had ridden out so joyfully on Rex to meet her fate in Chester Olyphant’s dark blue eyes. ”

“ The girl looked gayly at her lover, and he caught her little hand in his, saying, tenderly:
“We aren’t afraid of him, are we, my precious Leola? And if the worst comes to the worst, we will elope to Washington and get married before old Bennett knows what we are up to.”
“If you were only rich there needn’t be any trouble. You could pay off the mortgage for Mr. Hermann, and then he would be willing enough for you to have Leola!” suggested Miss Tuttle, inquiringly.
Ray’s dark blue eyes looked questioningly into those of his bonny sweetheart. ”

“ He recoiled in horror from her bold accusation, his handsome face went white, his blue eyes flashed lightning.
“How dare you?” he thundered, clenching his fist; then it fell helplessly to his side. “You are a woman; I cannot strike you. I can only reason and explain.”
“Yes, explain, if you can, for your conduct certainly appears very suspicious,” Jessie Stirling answered, with a bitter, taunting laugh that nearly drove him wild.
And yet, in all his anger, he knew she was right; it did look bad, this masquerade; and, although he despised the girl, he knew he must explain for Leola’s sake. ”

“ He pretended to be anxious to see the scenery, but I guess it was Leola more than anything else. Men are so sly!”
“And you, mamma, what did you tell him?” Jessie asked, anxiously.
“Oh, I told him we should be glad to have him visit Wheatlands some time when we were there with my half brother, but I made up my mind he should never go there till you were safely his wife.”
“Good, mamma, though, really, I cannot look upon Leola Mead seriously as a rival. Why, she is only a simple country girl, with no style or good clothes at all.” ”

“ Miss Tuttle could give her no comfort, for although she had been Leola’s governess from the age of three, she had never fathomed the mystery about her charge. But she tried to reassure her, saying:
“Do not brood over it, dear girl, it is possibly one of old Hermann’s false tales to [Pg 23] coerce you into obedience. I should sooner believe that he has appropriated to his own use money that belonged to you, and thinks he can make it up to you this way.”
“To live with Giles Bennett as his wife—that old Falstaff of a man!—I loathe the prospect!” sobbed Leola. ”

“ How Leola’s heart beat! how her cheeks burned! She stole a glance at herself in the long, gilded mirror, wondering if he would think her as pretty, in her costly silk gown and fine laces, as in the simple cotton gown of the rustic maiden. The mirror assured her she was even more charming now, for it is not to be disputed that “fine feathers make fine birds.”
They told her all over again the story Jessie had related that morning, adding some that she had preferred not to tell.
The Stirlings had done their best to lure Chester Olyphant back, but all in vain ”

“ The revulsion from long hope to sudden despair was so bitter that it awakened an intense and jealous hatred for Leola, superseding the devotion of years.
Hermann realized that he had made a mistake in taking her into his confidence, and made a masterly retreat, exclaiming:
“Oh, well, well, don’t take it so hard, Amanda Tuttle; you’re too old to behave like a love-sick chit! ”

“ But Leola is lying unconscious, you say. Have they brought her into the house?”
“Yes, she is in her room, and her governess with her. I daresay she will revive presently, and as I cannot do anything more for her I’ll go help mamma to unpack our trunks, while you watch for the doctor and that wretch, Chester Olyphant.”
And hoping in the bottom of her heart that not a bone would be left unbroken in the young man’s body, hating him because he knew her for what she was, and because she could never win him back again, she flew to her mother to relate all that had occurred. ”

“ Leola realized it, and felt how impossible it was to keep hidden the happy secret of her love. Indeed, she fairly ached to tell it to some sweet, sympathetic girl friend, and why not Jessie, whom she had known from childhood, and who had always been fairly friendly? True; the young lady was twenty-three, four years older than herself, but as each was [Pg 16] madly in love with a splendid young man, there was a bond of sympathy between their hearts that might bring good results if they fairly understood each other. ”

“ Be seated, I beg you, and calm yourself. This is certainly a very unexpected rencontre. I did not know you were at Wheatlands. Has not Leola, then, told you she is my promised wife?”
Sinking, sullenly, to the arbor bench as he raised her to her feet, she hissed, furiously:
“The silly little rustic told me she was in love with a man named Ray Chester, but how was I to guess that her poor artist lover was the millionaire society man, Chester Olyphant, masquerading under a false name and guise, perhaps to deceive a pretty, ignorant country girl, with more beauty than brains?” ”

“ This, I swear to you, Miss Stirling, was my only reason for the little deception I practised on Leola, and my plan succeeded well. I have won for my own the sweetest, truest heart that ever beat, and I had decided last night to come here to-day to confess all to Leola and her guardian, and to press for an immediate marriage, in order to save her from the persecutions of a rich old man, who has Mr. ”

“ They have with them also some one else that you know—a Mrs. Gray, who had a present made her of this tour by a gentleman whom she had nursed through an illness. How strange you look, Leola! You have grown pale, and you tremble. Are you ill?”
“Oh, no, papa—perhaps just a little nervous. Go on, papa, have you anything more to tell?”
“Not just now, my dear daughter—not till you take your luncheon. No? A drop of this wine, perhaps, to set you up. There, the color is coming back to your cheeks. Shall I ring to have the things taken away?”
She nodded, and they adjourned to their private parlor. ”

“ It is better even than “The Jumping Frog”—better than anything, I think—and young Guy told it well. But Leola brought a potent rival on the tearful side of things. “The Death of Paul Dombey” is plated pathos, not wholly sterling; but Sharon could not know this; and while Leola most prettily recited it to me I would lose my recent opinion in favor of Guy, and acknowledge the value of her performance. Guy might have the men strong for him, but this time the women were going to cry. I got also a certain other sort of entertainment out of the competing mothers. Mrs. Jeffries and Mrs. ”