Leora

“ Alston Mead had never fully recognized before all the rare beauty of Leola, for until now it had been shadowed by her secret sorrow—the thorn that was always piercing her heart.
When the girl looked up at him now her eyes were like stars, sudden roses had bloomed on her cheeks, and her lips were trembling with smiles of joy.
“Oh, it is like some sweet dream!” she cried, half fearfully, her white hands clasped above her wildly throbbing heart.
“It is no dream, my darling; it is a blissful reality,” her father cried. ”

“ 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 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?” ”

“ She avoided every one, which was not hard to do, the household consisting of only five members—her guardian and self, her former governess, who now combined teaching and housekeeping by way of economy, a fat black cook, and a man of all work, a misshapen, dwarfish creature of tremendous strength.
The day and night seemed interminably long to Leola, who lay awake many hours through pure joy of this blissful something that had come so suddenly into the placid current of her young life. Heaven forefend her from ever knowing the wakefulness of sorrow! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Yes, it was she, it was Leonora, with this difference only, that this fair girl was a northern version of the Leonora of the south, but was none the less beautiful on that account. “Oh, Leonora, you child of the sun and of Nature, am I really to be so blessed, am I to find you here again—here where my heart was congealing, and longing for the sunny rays of delight from a fair woman’s eyes? Yes, Leonora, this is your sweet smile and kindling, childlike glance; it is you, and yet it is not you. God and Nature were reflected in your countenance, a whole heaven shone in your features. ”

“ A cry of alarm shrilled over the old man’s lips, and he stood like one rooted to the spot, listening for the cry of pain that must announce the dread result of the perilous leap. Visions of Leola crippled or dead floated before his mind’s eye, and he muttered, savagely:
“Little vixen, if you have broken your neck it is your own fault! But if you live you shall marry the man of my choice one month from to-day, I swear it!” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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!” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Eloise de Chaumont marvelled at Leonora's wonderful beauty--at the profusion of her jetty hair--at the softened lustre of her large, full, shaded eyes--at the delicate carving of the ever varying features--at the undulating grace, flowing, with every movement of her rounded, symmetrical limbs, into some new form of loveliness. She thought, "Well, she is beautiful, indeed! No wonder Lorenzo loved her. But, on my faith, she does not appear one to treat any man cruelly. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 then it is grace which says nothing, a heaven only for a husband, the dignity more of a matron than of a heroine, and love that might have suited Eve before she had seen this world. Leonora is certainly a beauty; but then a beauty who does not know her power, and who, consequently, can make no one else feel its full extent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With dawn came hope, came the jocund reassurance of the sun, of the familiar greetings and services and customs. It seemed impossible that tragedy could be lurking behind that kindly commonplace. Leonora’s spirits rose with the morning, heightened with the glowing day. Had the conquering glory of her beauty served her hitherto so implicitly to fail her now? If jealousy were at the bottom of this resentment, she carried the sweetest antidote to it in her bosom. ”

“ The tall slightly-stooping girl, with her flat figure, her plain shabby serge frock, her tired white face, and the sinister glance of the idealist in her great, fretful eyes, seemed to stand there and accuse the whole of Leonora's existence. Utterly absorbed in the imminent examination, her brain a welter of sterile facts, Rose found all the seriousness of life in dates, irregular participles, algebraic symbols, chemical formulas, the altitudes of mountains, and the areas of inland seas. ”

“ Beauteous Leonora! how little sensible are you to the charms of love! Did you know how to love like me, you would delight in secret to receive my vows; and, for some time at least, to conceal them from your father as from all the world. Oh! who can paint the charms of that mysterious intercourse, in which two hearts indulge, united by a passion as intense as pure." "It may have charms for you," replied Leonora; "to me, such intercourse would bring but sorrow: this refinement of tenderness but ill becomes a virtuous maiden. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As the dog-cart was crossing the railway bridge at Shawport, at the foot of the rise to Hillport, Leonora overtook her eldest daughter. She drew up. From the height of the dog-cart she looked at her child; and the girlishness of Ethel's form, the self-consciousness of newly-arrived womanhood in her innocent and timid eyes, the virgin richness of her vitality, made Leonora feel sad, superior, and protective. ”

“ Do not imagine that I am so weak as to expect that the perusal of these letters will work a sudden change: but it is fit, that before you leave England you should know that Leonora is not a cold, sullen, or offended wife; but one who loves you most tenderly, most generously; who, concealing the agony of her heart, waits with resignation for the time when she will be your refuge, and the permanent blessing of your life. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This poor Leonora, in her craven frenzy, condoned in her mind the offences of the monster in whose relentless grasp she now felt herself writhing. Her leaning towards him, her desire to propitiate, was like a lust. She would swear herself his creature, his sympathiser, his fellow-passionist, if only he would accept and spare her as such. Do not blame her over-harshly. The spirit crazed with fear of darkness has no volition but towards the light. ”

“ 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. ”