The Golden Ass

“ I was bitterly loath to yield—to leave her who had been so dear to me powerless and unconscious in the hands of a man whom I had already learned to hate, although not only did I owe my own new life to him, but on him alone rested all my hopes of seeing Golden Star once more restored to life and health, and the beauty that had been peerless ages before Joyful Star had reached the perfection of her young womanhood. ”

“ It is to him and his family that my poor Golden owes the bitter sorrows of her brief life. My sister's maid, Celine, confessed that it was Elinor Glenalvan who discovered Golden's identity, and bribed her to send her away under a ban of disgrace. Oh, God, Leith, could I only have known that the girl little Ruby loved so dearly, and who shunned me so persistently, was my deserted wife, how joyously would I have taken her to my heart and claimed her for my own. ”

“ His quaint humor was infectious.
"Do you think yourself so very handsome, sir?" she demanded.
"A lady told me so this evening," he replied, unblushingly. "One must always take a lady's word, must not one, fair Erma?"
"I am not Erma," she replied, impetuously; "I am only Golden."
"Golden! What a beautiful name!" cried Golden's captor. "Golden—what?"
"Golden Glenalvan," she replied.
"That is prettier still," he said; then he looked at her more closely. "Are you any kin to Clare and Elinor?"
"Yes; we are cousins," the girl replied, frankly. ”

“ Many would rejoice to be young enough again to hear for the first time the story of The Golden Touch,—how Midas prized gold above all things, how he secured the golden touch, and how the flies that alighted on his nose fell off little nuggets of gold. ”

“ Golden replied, as she buttoned the pretty dress and clasped a slight gold chain around the white neck of the child.
"Now you are quite finished," she said. "You look very sweet, and I hope you will enjoy yourself very much."
"Thank you," said the little girl, impulsively kissing her; then she added, a little pityingly: "It is a pity you cannot be [Pg 71] dressed in white, and go to the ball, too, Mary. Do you never wish to?"
"Sometimes," admitted Golden, with her sweet frankness, and a soft, little sigh.
Ruby studied her attentively a moment, her dark head perched daintily like a bird's. ”

“ I heard her utter a little gasping cry of wonder, and then I saw her slip forward on to her knees beside Golden Star's pillow, and as the light fell upon the two faces—the living and the dead—the likeness between them was so perfect, save for the golden gleam of Joyful Star's hair and the lustrous blackness of the tresses that framed my dead love's face, that they seemed to me as sisters, one watching over the slumbers of the other. ”

“ What subtle potency lies hidden in this gaudy bauble, the crown, that makes one feel like a god when one wears it? To hold in one's hand this little fiery-coloured world, to reach out one's arm to earth's uttermost limit, to girdle the seas with one's galley; to make the land a highway for one's hosts; this is to wear a crown! to wear a crown! The meanest serf in Russia who is loved is better crowned than I. How love outweighs the balance! How poor appears the widest empire of this golden world when matched with love! ”

“ I am as much the master of my own life as I was once of yours, and still am of Golden Star's. Without moving hand or foot I could kill myself as I sit here before you, so your threats of torture are nothing more than empty words. It is only a matter of simple life or death. If I live, Golden Star will live. If I die, she will never draw the breath of life—but what I have said, I have said. She shall only live as my promised wife, bound to me by the most sacred oath that you can swear. You cannot consummate your own marriage with her, because in the modern world that is impossible. ”

“ Gold buttons ran all down his sleeves: a rich golden girdle, set with gems, clasped his waist; a golden collar, with diamonds and rubies, was round his neck; and, in compliment to the Princess, her badge of the white hart gorged and couchant was suspended at his breast from a rich gold chain. ”

“ The great mystery of love has come to you already in your tender youth. Tell me, my daughter, are you a wife?"
The crimson color flushed into her cheeks, then receded, leaving her deathly pale again.
Tears rose into the great, blue eyes, and trembled on the long-fringed lashes.
Her lips parted and closed again without a sound.
"Tell me, Golden," he urged, anxiously; "are you a wife, or has some artful villain deceived you? If so——" he clenched his hand, and the lightnings of passion flashed from his somber, dark eyes.
A moan of pain came from the girl's white lips. ”

“ He who pleads for the golden mean is always abused by extremists of both parties, but is always justified in the long run, and this is a case where the golden mean is eminently desirable, being indeed vital, which is much more than golden. ”

“ Her life had been so filled with darkness, that she could not look forward to the calm hereafter. All the brightness and beauty of heaven, the golden, was like the fleeting dreams of childhood, that the rolling years, bearing her to the portals of dim old age, had swept away. ”

“ John was unfeignedly glad that Golden had gone away herself without giving him the trouble and annoyance of sending her.
"It is much better as it is, father," he said to the poor, broken-hearted old creature. "I fully intended to send the girl away. She has only saved herself the ignominy of a summary dismissal. Do not fret yourself over her. She has only forsaken you to lead a life of shame with her erring mother. I hope that a lightning flash may strike her dead before she ever returns here again to disgrace and shame us yet further!" ”

“ But at that period of my life I was a very ignorant girl, and in the most noble spirit of a desperate adventure I embarked upon the quest of the Golden Bird, which in one short year has landed me—I am now the richest woman in the world. ”

“ THE GOLDEN TOUCH
Once upon a time there lived a very rich man, and a king besides, whose name was Midas; and he had a little daughter, whom nobody but myself ever heard of, and whose name I either never knew, or have entirely forgotten. So, because I love odd names for little girls, I choose to call her Marygold.
This King Midas was fonder of gold than of anything else in the world. He valued his royal crown chiefly because it was composed of that precious metal. If he loved anything better, or half so well, it was the one little maiden who played so merrily around her father’s footstool. ”

“ I do not like to be where a man is. Now, dear, will you excuse me?" pleaded Golden.
"Yes, I will, since you insist on it," answered Ruby. "But I can't see what makes you hate men! Now I like them. I like papa, I like Uncle Bert, and I shall like my husband when I grow big enough to have one. Do you ever intend to have a husband, Mary?" said the child, with a child's thoughtlessness.
CHAPTER XXV.
The beautiful color surged hotly into Golden's cheeks at Ruby's artless question. She turned her head away to hide the pain that made her sweet lips quiver. ”

“ But when the little beau is in a particularly rollicksome mood, or wants to display his gem to his mate or kindred, he elevates and spreads out the feathers of his crest, and lo! a transformation. The whole crown becomes golden! That gleaming speck expands until it completely hides the yellow and black of the crown.” May we not say with Mr. and Mrs. Grinnell that Mr. Golden-crown lifts his hat to Mrs. Golden-crown? We may learn patience and to be satisfied with nature as we find it, if we will study the life of the Golden-crown. It is always happy, always cheerful. ”

“ Golden then took up the comb and brush and brushed her long, yellow ringlets out of curl until they fell about her slender, graceful form like a veil of summer sunshine.
"If I only had the pearls, now, I might readily pass for the phantom," she said, looking at the reflection of herself in the glass. "How nice I look. This dress is quite becoming, I declare." ”

“ I can give your brother and the professor other gold, and I will show you a greater treasure-house than this under the Fortress itself.'
'Well,' she laughed, 'I won't say now that I won't have it, because the sight of all that gold might be too much for me, but I should dearly love to come and see it, and I think I might venture to bring Golden Star too. She's quite well and strong now, and if we are careful of her, it can't do her any harm, and it may do her good. ”

“ Golden answered, gratefully.
"The little girl is the petted and only daughter of wealthy people," continued the kind lady. "She is delicate, and has been humored and spoiled injudiciously all her life, until she is, at times, quite overbearing and disagreeable, so much so indeed that her mother can scarcely keep a nurse for her more than a week or two at a time. ”

“ The beautiful face drooped from his gaze, overspread with warm, crimson blushes. No words came from the sweet, tremulous red lips.
"A promise, child, no matter how humble the person to whom it is made, should be held perfectly sacred and inviolate," he continued. "I could not have believed that you, the child I had reared so carefully, could have been so ignoble as to falsify your promise."
CHAPTER XI.
Beautiful Golden sobbed wildly at the reproachful words of her grandfather.
"Grandpa, I didn't mean it," she wept. "Indeed, indeed, I intended to keep my promise to black mammy. ”

“ Beauty is only a curse to a poor girl who has to earn her own living."
"Yes, madam," Golden answered, with perfect meekness, though she crimsoned painfully.
"So I think," continued her kind friend, "that a home and shelter in even the humblest capacity is better for you than to be wandering alone in the streets homeless and penniless."
"I know that," said Golden, "but I have nowhere to go," and the pathos of the tearful tone touched the kind lady's heart.
"My child, I have been thinking about that," she said. "I have a friend who needs a nurse for her little invalid girl. ”

“ She rushed forward and caught her disobedient nursling by the hand.
"Oh, my darlin', my honey, chile," she cried. "Come away from dat black-hearted wilyun to your grandpa and your ole brack mammy."
But to the consternation of everybody, the girl shook Dinah's hand off, and clung persistently to her lover.
He drew his arm protectingly around the slight figure, and Golden cried out with pretty, childish defiance:
"He loves me! he loves me! and I will not leave him." ”

“ So long as he is preoccupied with love of you, the gold, and all that it implies, will escape him: the golden age will endure. Not until he forswears love will he stretch out his hand to the gold, and found the Plutonic empire for himself. But the choice between love and gold may not rest altogether with him. He may be an ugly, ungracious, unamiable person, whose affections may seem merely ludicrous and despicable to you. ”

“ One day, in the winter time, when Golden Snow was about fifteen years old, a herald rode by the fisherman’s cottage, crying—“The prince! the prince will marry the most beautiful maiden in all the Gold Land. Hear! hear! the prince will marry the most-beautiful maiden in all the Gold Land!” ”

“ The bright blood came swiftly back into her cheeks as I said this, and, without answering me she stooped, and with gentle hands put back the tresses from Golden Star's forehead, and, bending over her, laid her warm, sweet lips on the cold, smooth brow that I had last seen crowned with the marriage-garland in our bridal chamber in the Sanctuary. ”

“ Yet Golden shivered and trembled as she regarded the fair, smiling beauty. How could she look so bright and careless with the brand of deadly sin upon her? There was neither sorrow nor repentance on the smiling, debonair face.
"And this is my mother," Golden thought to herself, with a strange heaviness at her heart. "She seems utterly indifferent at her wickedness. Ah, she little dreams that the poor babe that she deserted so heartlessly is sitting before her now."
Mrs. Leith's light, careless voice jarred suddenly on her mournful mood.
"Well, I will try you, Mary, for I need a maid. ”

“ There is an Inca princess for you also, a real one, too. I have been teaching Golden Star to say your name, and, do you know, she makes it sound just like music with that sweet voice of hers. See, here she is, and you shall hear her say it.'
I had dismounted meanwhile, and taken Golden Star from her litter, and when the people saw her, [Pg 257] her name ran swiftly from lip to lip, and a great shout of delight rose up from thousands of throats to welcome her back to life and the home of her long-dead fathers. ”

“ The little maiden's heart beat faster at the delicious sound, so inspiring to youthful ears. She threw down her book impatiently.
"How sweet it sounds," she said. "They are in the great [Pg 9] dancing-hall. I should like to see them. How cruel my cousins are to me!"
The sweet lips quivered, and the blue eyes darkened with anger. Golden was a spoiled, impetuous child. Her grandpa and old Dinah had always yielded to her in everything and placed no restraint on her impetuous temper.
Her little heart was swelling bitterly now, with resentment against her cruel cousins. ”

“ Whiter than the pillow on which she lay, beautiful Golden was breathing her sad young life out in heavy sighs and moans, while hidden carefully out of sight beneath its white linen sheet, "There lay the sweet, little baby that never had drawn a breath."
CHAPTER XLI.
Into that splendid home in New York where the Desmonds had [Pg 114] just arrived from Europe, that terrible telegram came like a thunder-clap. ”