J0* 
 
 >2^. 

 
 OF 
 
 CALIF. LIBRAE?, MS ANGELES
 
 POPULAR NOVELS. 
 
 BY MAT AGNES FLEMING. 
 
 1. GUT EARLSCOURT'S WIFE. 
 
 8. A WONDERFUL WOMAN. 
 
 8. A TERRIBLE SECRET. 
 
 4. NORINE'S REVENGE. 
 
 6. A MAP MARRIAGE. 
 
 6. ONE NIGHT'S MYSTEKT. 
 
 7. KATE DANTON. 
 
 8. SILENT AND TRUE. 
 
 9. HEIR OF CHARLTON. 
 10. CARRIED BY STORM. 
 11. LOST FOR A WOMAN. 
 12. A WIFE'S TRAGEDY. 
 13. A CHANGED HEART 
 14. PRIDE AND PASSION 
 15. SHARING HER CRIME (JVew). 
 
 " Mrs. Fleming's stories are growing more and more 
 popular every day. Their delineations of character, 
 life-like conversations, flashes of wit, con- 
 Htantly varying scenes, and deeply inter- 
 esting plots, combine to place 
 their author in the very 
 first rank of Modern 
 Novelists." 
 
 All published uniform with this volume. Price, $1.90 
 each, and sent free by mail on receipt of price, 
 
 6. W. CARLETON & CO., Publishers, 
 New York.
 
 SHARING 
 
 HER CRIME. 
 
 BY 
 
 MAY AGNES FLEMING, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 " GUY EARLSCOURT'S WIFE," "A TERRIBLE SECRET," " SILENT AND TRUE,' 
 
 " A WONDERFUL WOMAN," " LOST FOR A WOMAN," 
 
 " ONE NIGHT'S MYSTERY," " A MAD MARRIAGE," 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 " A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, and command ; 
 And yet a spirit still and bright, 
 With something of an angel light." 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 Copyright, 1882, by 
 
 G. W. Carle f on & Co., Publishers. 
 
 LONDON : S. LOW & CO. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIII. *
 
 Stereotyped by TBOW 
 
 SAMUEL STODDEB, PMNTINQ AND BOOK BINDING Co . 
 
 00 ANN STREET, N. Y. N. Y.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. The Plotters 7 
 
 II. The Death of Esther 18 
 
 III. The Astrologer 24 
 
 IV. Barry Oranmore 29 
 
 V. Mount Sunset Hall 37 
 
 VI. Lizzie's Lover 49 
 
 VII. The Cypress Wreath 62 
 
 VIII. Gipsy 70 
 
 IX. A Storm at Mount Sunset Hall 82 
 
 X. Miss Hagar 91 
 
 XI. Gipsy Outwits the Squire 101 
 
 XII. The Tigress and the Dove 109 
 
 XIII. Gipsy astonishes the Natives 119 
 
 XIV. The Moonlight Flitting 130 
 
 XV. The " Star of the Valley." 139 
 
 XVI. Our Gipsy 150 
 
 XVII. Gipsy's Return to Sunset Hall 158 
 
 w 
 
 2129504
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XVIII. Archie ........................................... 169 
 
 XIX. Gipsy's Daring .................................... 182 
 
 XX. The Sailor Boy's Doom ........................... 191 
 
 XXI. The Spider Weaves his Web ....................... 204 
 
 XXII. Fetters for the Eaglet ............................. 215 
 
 XXIII. The Bird Caged .................................. 222 
 
 XXIV. May and December ............................... 235 
 
 XXV. Archie's Lost Love ............................... 246 
 
 XXVI. Louis ............................................ 254 
 
 XXVII. Love at First Sight ................................ 267 
 
 XXVIII. " The Old, Old Story." ........................... 277 
 
 XXIX. The Rivals ....................................... 287 
 
 XXX. Gipsy Hunts New Game ____ ...................... 296 
 
 XXXI. Celeste's Trial .................................... 306 
 
 XXXII. " The Queen of Song." ........................... 318 
 
 XXXIII. A Startling Discovery ............................ 328 
 
 XXXIV. Light in the Darkness ............................ 334 
 
 XXXV. The Death-bed Confession ......................... 341 
 
 XXXVI. Retribution ........... .. ........................... 351 
 
 XXXVII. Another Surprise ................................. 357 
 
 XXXVIII. The Heiress of Sunset Hall ....................... 364 
 
 XXXIX. "Last Scene of All." .............................. 373
 
 SHARING HER CRIME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 " 'Tis a woman hard of feature, 
 Old, and void of all good nature. 
 'Tis an ugly, envious shrew, 
 Railing forever at me and you." POPE. 
 
 T was Christmas Eve. All day long crowds of 
 gayly dressed people had walked the streets, 
 basking in the bright wintry sunshine. Sleigh 
 after sleigh went dashing past, with merrily 
 jingling bells, freighted with rosy cheeks, and 
 bright eyes, and youthful faces, all aglow with happi- 
 ness. 
 
 But the sun must set on Christmas Eve, as on all 
 other days ; and redly, threateningly, angrily, he sank 
 down in the far west. Dark, sullen clouds came rolling 
 ominously over the heavens ; the wind blew piercingly 
 cold, accompanied with a thin, drizzling rain that froze 
 ere it fell. 
 
 Gradually the streets were deserted as the storm in- 
 fo]
 
 8 THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 creased in fury ; but the Yule logs were piled high, the 
 curtains drawn, and every house, save one, in the handsome 
 street to which my story leads me, was all aglow, all 
 ablaze with light. 
 
 In a lull of the storm the sounds of music and merry- 
 making would rise and swell on the air, as light feet 
 tripped merrily amid the mazes of the dance ; or a sil- 
 very peal of laughter would break easily on the way- 
 farer's ear. The reflection of the light through the 
 crimson curtains shed a warm, rosy glow over the snowy 
 ground, brightening the gloom of that stormy winter's 
 night. 
 
 But rising dark, grim, and gloomy amid those gayly 
 lighted mansions, stood a large, quaint building of dark- 
 red sandstone. It stood by itself, spectral, shadowy, and 
 grand. No ray of light came from the gloomy windows 
 that seemed to be hermetically sealed. All around was 
 stern, black, and forbidding. 
 
 And yet yes, from one solitary window there did 
 stream a long, thin line of light. But even this did not 
 look bright and cheerful like the rest ; it had a cold, yel- 
 lowish glare, making the utter blackness of the rest of 
 the mansion blacker still by contrast. 
 
 The room from which the light issued was high and 
 lofty. The uncarpeted floor was of black polished oak, 
 as also were the wainscoting and mantel. The walls 
 were covered with landscape paper, representing the 
 hideous Dance of Death, in all its variety of frightful 
 forms. The high windows were hung with heavy green 
 damask, now black with dirt and age. A large circular 
 table of black marble stood in one shadowy corner, and 
 a dark, hard sofa, so long and black that it resembled a 
 coffin, stood in the other. 
 
 A smoldering sea-coal fire, the only cheerful thing in 
 that gloomy room, struggled for life in the wide, yawn-
 
 THE PLOTTERS. 9 
 
 ing chimney. Now it would die away, enveloping the 
 apartment in gloom, and anon flame fitfully up, until the 
 ghostly shadows on the wall would seem like a train of 
 ghastly specters flitting by in the darkness. The elm 
 trees in front of the house trailed their long arms against 
 the window with a sound inexpressibly dreary ; and the 
 driving hail beat clamorously, as if for admittance. 
 
 On either side of the fire-place stood two large easy- 
 chairs, cushioned with deep crimson velvet. In these, 
 facing each other, sat two persons a man and a woman 
 the only occupants of the room. 
 
 The woman was tall, straight, and stiff, and seemingly 
 about fifty years of age* Her dress was a rustling black 
 satin, with a small crape handkerchief fastened on her 
 bosom with a magnificent diamond pin. Her hands, still 
 small and white, were flashing with jewels as they lay 
 quietly folded in her lap. A widow's cap rested on her 
 head, which was alternately streaked with gray and jet. 
 But her face so stern, so rigid, no one could look upon 
 it without a feeling of fear. The lips so thin that she 
 seemed to have no lips at all were compressed with a 
 look of unswerving determination. Her forehead was 
 low and retreating, with thick black eyebrows meeting 
 across the long, sharp nose, with a look at once haughty 
 and sinister. And from under those midnight bro;vs 
 glittered and gleamed a pair of eyes so small, so sharp 
 and keen with such a look of cold, searching, steely 
 brightness that the boldest gaze might well quail before 
 them. On that grim, hard face no trace of womanly 
 feeling seemed ever to have lingered all was stern, harsh, 
 and freezingly cold. She sat rigidly erect in her chair, 
 with her needle-like eyes riveted immovably on the face 
 of her companion, who shifted with evident uneasiness 
 beneath her uncompromising stare. 
 
 He was a man of forty, or thereabouts, so small of
 
 io THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 stature that, standing side by side, he could scarcely have 
 reached the woman's shoulder. But, notwithstanding 
 his diminutive size, his limbs were disproportionately 
 large for his body, giving him the appearance of being 
 all legs and arms. His little, round bullet-head was set 
 on a prodigiously thick, bull-like neck ; and his hair, 
 short, and bristling up over his head, gave him very 
 much the look of the sun, as pictured in the alma- 
 nacs. 
 
 This prepossessing gentleman was arrayed in an im- 
 maculate suit of black, with a spotless white dickey, 
 bristling with starch and dignity, and a most excruciat- 
 ing cravat. Half a dozen rings garnished his claw-like 
 hands, and a prodigious quantity of watch-chain dangled 
 from his vest. The worthy twain were engaged in deep 
 and earnest conversation. 
 
 " Well, doctor," said the lady, in a cold, measured 
 tone, that was evidently habitual, " no doubt you are 
 wondering why I sent for you in such haste to-night." 
 
 " I never wonder, madam," said the doctor, in a pom- 
 pous tone which, considering his size, was quite impos- 
 ing. "No doubt you have some excellent reason for 
 sending for me, which, if necessary for me to know, you 
 will explain." 
 
 " You are right, doctor," said the lady, with a grim 
 sort of smile. " I have an excellent reason for sending 
 for you. You are fond of money, I know." 
 
 " Why, madam, although it is the root of all evil " 
 
 " Tush, man ! There is no need for Satan to quote 
 Scripture just now," she interrupted with a sneer. " Say, 
 doctor, what would you do to earn five hundred dollars 
 to-night ?" 
 
 " Five hundred dollars ?" said the doctor, his small 
 eyes sparkling, while a gleam of satisfaction lighted up 
 his withered face.
 
 THE PL O TTERS. 1 1 
 
 " Yes," said the lady, " and if well done, I may. double 
 
 the sum. What would you do for such a price ?" 
 " Rather ask me what I would not do," 
 " Well, the job is an easy one. "Pis but to - " 
 She paused, and fixed her eyes on his face with such 
 
 a wild sort of gleam that, involuntarily, he quailed be- 
 
 fore her. 
 
 " Pray go on, madam. I'm all attention," he said, 
 
 almost fearing to break the dismal silence. " 'Tis but 
 
 " Make away with a woman and child !" 
 
 " Murder them ?" said the doctor, involuntarily recoil- 
 ing. 
 
 " Do not use that word !" she said, sharply. " Cow- 
 ard ! do you really blanch and draw back ! Methought 
 one of your profession would not hesitate to send a 
 patient to heaven." 
 
 "But, madam," said the startled doctor, "you know 
 the penalty which the law awards for murder." 
 
 " Oh, I perceive," said the woman, scornfully, "it is 
 not the crime you are thinking of, but your own preci- 
 ous neck. Fear not, rny good friend ; there is no danger 
 of its ever being discovered." 
 
 " But, my dear madam," said the doctor, glancing un- 
 easily at the stern, bitter face before him, " I have not 
 the nerve, the strength, nor the - " 
 
 " Courage .'" she broke in, passionately. " Oh, craven 
 weak, chicken-hearted, miserable craven ! Go, then 
 leave me, and I will do it myself. You dare not betray 
 me you could not without bringing your neck to the 
 halter so I fear you not. Oh, coward ! coward ! why 
 did not heaven make me a man ?" 
 
 In her fierce outburst of passion she arose to her feet, 
 and her tall figure loomed up like some unnaturally 
 large, dark shadow. The man quailed in fear before her.
 
 12 THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 "Go !" she said, fiercely, pointing to the door, " You 
 have refused to share my crime. Go ! poor cowardly pol- 
 troon ! but remember, Madge Oranmore never forgives 
 nor forgets !" 
 
 " But, my dear Mrs. Oranmore, just listen to me one 
 moment," said the doctor, alarmed by this threat. " I 
 have not refused, I only objected. If you will have the 
 goodness to explain to tell me what I must do, I will 
 see about it." 
 
 " See about it !" hastily interrupted the lady. " You 
 can do it it is in your power; and yes, or no, must be 
 your answer, immediately." 
 
 " But " 
 
 " No buts, sir. I will not have them. If you answer 
 yes, one thousand dollars and my future patronage shall 
 b.e yours. If you say no, yonder is the door ; and once 
 you have crossed the threshold, beware ! Now, Doctor 
 Wiseman, I await your reply." 
 
 She seated herself again in her chair ; and, folding 
 her hands in her lap, fixed her hawk-like eyes on his 
 face, with her keen, searching gaze. His eyes were bent 
 in troubled thought on the floor. Not that the crime 
 appalled him ; but if detected that was the rub. Doc- 
 tor Wiseman was, as his name implies, a man of sense, 
 with an exceedingly accommodating conscience, that 
 would stretch ad libitum, and never troubled him with 
 any such nonsense as remorse. But if it were discov- 
 ered ! With rather unpleasant vividness, the vision of a 
 hangman and halter arose before him, and he involun- 
 tarily loosened his cravat. Still, one thousand dollars 
 were tempting. Doctor Nicholas Wiseman had never 
 been so perplexed in his life. 
 
 " Well, doctor, well," impatiently broke in the lady, 
 "have you decided yes or no?"
 
 THE PLOTTERS. 13 
 
 " Yes," said the doctor, driven to desperation by her 
 sneering tone. 
 
 " Tis well," she replied, with a mocking smile, " I 
 knew you were too sensible a man to refuse. After all, 
 'tis but a moment's work, and all is over." 
 
 " Will you be good enough to give me the explana- 
 tion now, madam ?" said the doctor, almost shuddering 
 at the cold, unfeeling tone in which she spoke. 
 
 " Certainly. You are aware, doctor, that when I 
 married my late husband, Mr. Oranmore, he was a wid- 
 ower with one son, then three years old." 
 
 " I am aware of that fact, madam." 
 
 " Well, you also know that when this child, Alfred, 
 was five years of age, my son, Barry, was born." 
 
 " Yes, madam." 
 
 "Perhaps you think it unnecessary for me to go so 
 far back, doctor, but I wish everything to be perfectly 
 understood. Well, these two boys grew up together, 
 were sent to school and college together, and treated in 
 every way alike, outwardly j but, of course, when at home, 
 Barry was treated best. Alfred Oranmore had all the 
 pride of his English forefathers, and scorned to com- 
 plain ; but I could see, in his flashing eyes and curling 
 lips, that every slight was noticed. Mr. Oranmore 
 never interfered with me in my household arrangements, 
 nor did his son ever complain to him ; though, if he had, 
 Mr. Oranmore had too much good sense to mention it 
 to me." 
 
 The lady compressed her lips with stately dignity, 
 and the doctor looked down with something as near a 
 smile as his wrinkled lips could wear. He knew very 
 well Mr. Oranmore would not have interfered ; for 
 never after his marriage had the poor man dared to call 
 his soul his own. The lady, however, did not perceive 
 the smile, and went on :
 
 i 4 THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 " When Barry left college, he expressed a desire to 
 travel for two or three years on the Continent ; and I 
 readily gave him permission, for Mr. Oranmore was 
 then dead. Alfred was studying law, and I knew his 
 dearest wish was to travel ; but, as a matter of course, 
 it was out of the question for him to go. I told him 
 I could not afford it, that it would cost a great deal to 
 pay Barry's expenses, and that he must give up all idea 
 of it. Barry went, and Alfred staid ; though, as things 
 afterward turned out, it would have been better had I 
 allowed him to go." 
 
 Her eyes flashed, and her brows knit with rising an- 
 ger, as she continued ; 
 
 " You know old Magnus Erliston Squire Erliston, 
 as they call him. You know also how very wealthy he 
 is reputed to be owning, besides the magnificent estate 
 of Mount Sunset, a goodly portion of the village of St. 
 Mark's. Well, Squire Erliston has two daughters, to 
 the eldest of whom, in accordance with the will of his 
 father (from whom he received the property), Mount 
 Sunset Hall will descend. Before my husband's death, 
 I caused him to will his whole property to my son Barry, 
 leaving Alfred penniless. Barry's fortune, therefore, is 
 large, though far from being as enormous as that Esther 
 Erliston was to have. Well, the squire and I agreed 
 that, as soon as Barry returned from Europe they should 
 be married, and thus unite the estates of Oranmore and 
 Erliston. Neither Barry nor Esther, with the usual ab- 
 surdity of youth, would agree to this arrangement ; but, 
 of course, their objection mattered little. I knew I could 
 easily manage Barry by the power of my stronger will ; 
 and the squire, who is rough and blustering, could, with- 
 out much difficulty, frighten Esther into compliance 
 when all our schemes were suddenly frustrated by that 
 meddler, that busy-body, Alfred Oranmore."
 
 THE PLOTTERS. 15 
 
 She paused, and again her eyes gleamed with concen- 
 trated hatred and passion. 
 
 " He went to Mount Sunset, and by some means met 
 Esther Erliston. Being what romantic writers would 
 call one of ' nature's princes,' he easily succeeded in 
 making a fool of her ; they eloped, were married secret- 
 ly, and Squire Erliston woke up one morning to learn 
 that his dainty heiress had abandoned papa for the arms 
 of a beggar, and was, as the wife of a penniless lawyer, 
 residing in the goodly city of Washington. 
 
 " Pretty Esther doubtless imagined that she had only 
 to throw herself at papa's feet and bathe them with her 
 tears, to be received with open arms. But the young 
 lady found herself slightly mistaken. Squire Erliston 
 stamped, and raged, and swore, and frightened every 
 one in St. Mark's out of their wits ; and then, calming 
 down, 'vowed a vow' never to see or acknowledge his 
 daughter more. Esther was then eighteen. If she lived 
 to reach her majority, Mount Sunset would be hers in 
 spite of him. But the squire had vowed that before she 
 should get it, he would burn Sunset Hall to the ground 
 and plow the land with salt. Now, doctor, I heard that, 
 and set myself to work. Squire Erliston has a younger 
 daughter ; and I knew that, if Esther died, that younger 
 daughter would become heiress to all the property, and 
 she would then be just as good a wife for Barry as her 
 sister. Well, I resolved that Esther should no longer 
 stand in my way, that she should never live to reach her 
 majority. Start not, doctor, I see that you do not yet 
 know Madge Oranmore." 
 
 She looked like a very fiend, as she sat smiling grimly 
 at him from her seat. 
 
 " Fortune favored me," she continued. "Alfred Or- 
 anmore, with two or three other young men, going out 
 one day for a sail, was overtaken by a sudden squall they
 
 1 6 THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 knew little about managing a boat, and all on board 
 were drowned. I read it in the papers and set out for 
 Washington. After much difficulty I discovered Esther 
 in a wretched boarding-house ; for, after her husband's 
 death, all their property was taken for debt. She did 
 not know me, and I had little difficulty in persuading 
 her to accompany me. home. Three days ago we arrived. 
 I caused a report to be circulated at Washington that the 
 wife of the late Alfred Oranmore had died in great pov- 
 erty and destitution. The story found its way into the 
 papers ; I sent one containing the account of her death 
 to Squire Erliston ; so all trouble in that quarter is 
 over." 
 
 " And Esther ?" said the doctor, in a husky whisper. 
 
 " Of her we will speak by and by," said the lady, with 
 a wave of her hand ; " at present I must say a few words 
 of my son Barry. Three weeks ago he returned home ; 
 but has, from some inexplicable cause, refused to reside 
 here. He boards now in a distant quarter of the city. 
 Doctor, what says the world about this is there any 
 reason given ?" 
 
 " Well, yes, madam," said the doctor, with evident re- 
 luctance. 
 
 "And what is it, may I ask ?" 
 
 " I fear, madam, you will be offended." 
 
 " 'Sdeath ! man, go on !" she broke in passionately. 
 " What sayeth the far-seeing, all-wise world of him ?" 
 
 " 'Tis said he has brought a wife with him from 
 Europe, whom he wishes to conceal." 
 
 " Ha ! ha !" laughed the lady, scornfully. " Yes, I 
 heard it too a barefooted bog-trotter, forsooth ! But 
 'tis false, doctor ! false, I tell you ! You must contra- 
 dict the report everywhere you hear it. That any one 
 should dare to say that my son my proud, handsome 
 Barry would marry a potato-eating Biddy ! Oh ! but
 
 THE PLOTTERS. 17 
 
 for my indignation I could laugh at the utter absur- 
 dity." 
 
 But the fierce gleam of her eye. and the passionate 
 clenching of her hand, bespoke her in anything but a 
 laughing humor. 
 
 "I would not for worlds this report should reach 
 Lizzie Erliston," she said, somewhat more calmly. "And 
 speaking of her brings me back to her sister. Doctor, 
 Esther Oranmore lies in yonder room." 
 
 He startled slightly, and glanced uneasily in the di- 
 rection, but said nothing. 
 
 "Doctor," continued Mrs. Oranmore, in a low, stern, 
 impressive voice, while her piercing eyes seemed read- 
 ing his very soul, " she must never live to see the sun rise 
 again /" 
 
 " Madam !" he exclaimed, recoiling suddenly. 
 
 " You hear me, doctor, and you must obey. She must 
 not live to see Christmas morning dawn." 
 
 " Would you have me murder her ?" he inquired, in a 
 voice quivering between fear and horror. 
 
 " If you will call it by that name, yes," she replied, 
 still keeping her blazing eyes fixed immovably on his 
 face. "She and her child must die." 
 
 "Her child 1" 
 
 " Yes, come and see it. The night of its birth must 
 be that of its death." 
 
 She rose, and making a motion for him to follow her, 
 led the way from the apartment. Opening a heavy 
 oaken door, she ushered him into a dim bed-room, fur- 
 nished with a lounge, a square bedstead, whose dark 
 drapery gave it the appearance of a hearse, and a small 
 table covered with bottles and glasses. Going to the 
 lounge, she pointed to something wrapped in a large 
 shawl. He bent down, and the faint wail of an infant 
 met his ear.
 
 1 8 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 
 
 " She is yonder," said the lady, pointing to the bed ; 
 "examine these bottles; she will ask you for a drink, 
 give it to her you understand ! Remember, you have 
 promised." And before he could speak, she glided from 
 the room. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 
 
 " What shrieking spirit in that bloody room 
 Its mortal frame hath violently quitted ? 
 Across the moonbeam, with a sudden gleam. 
 A ghostly shadow flitted." HOOD. 
 
 OR a moment he stood still, stunned and be- 
 wildered. Understand? Yes, he understood 
 her too well. 
 
 He approached the bed, and softly drew 
 back the heavy, dark curtains. Lying there, 
 in a troubled sleep, lay a yourig girl, whose face was 
 whiter than the pillow which supported her. Her long 
 hair streamed in wild disorder over her shoulders, and 
 added to the wanness of her pale face. 
 
 She moaned and turned restlessly on her pillow, and 
 opened a pair of large, wild eyes, and fixed them on the 
 unprepossessing face bending over her. With lips and eyes 
 opened with terror, she lay gazing, until he said, in as 
 gentle a voice as he could assume ; 
 
 " Do not be afraid of me I am the doctor. Can I do 
 anything for you, child ?'" 
 
 " Yes, yes," she replied, faintly ; "give me a drink." 
 
 He turned hastily toward the table, feeling so giddy 
 
 he could scarcely stand. A tiny vial, containing a clear,
 
 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 19 
 
 colorless liquid, attracted his eye. He took it up and 
 examined it, and setting his teeth hard together, poured 
 its contents into a glass. Then filling it with water he 
 approached the bed, and raising her head, pressed it to 
 her lips. His hand trembled so he spilt it on the quilt. 
 The young girl lifted her wild, troubled eyes, and fixed 
 them on his face with a gaze so long and steady that his 
 own fell beneath it. 
 
 " Drink !" he said, hoarsely, still pressing it to her 
 lips. 
 
 Without a word she obeyed, draining it to the last 
 drop. Then laying her back on the pillow, he drew the 
 curtain and left the room. 
 
 Mrs. Oranmore was sitting, as she had sat all the 
 evening, stern and upright in her chair. She lifted her 
 keen eyes as he entered, and encountered a face so pallid 
 and ghastly that she almost started. Doctor Wiseman 
 tottered rather than walked to a seat. 
 
 " Well ?" she said, inquiringly. 
 
 "Well," he replied, hoarsely, "I have obeyed you." 
 
 ' That is well. But pray, Doctor Wiseman, take a 
 glass of wine ; you are positively trembling like a 
 whipped schoolboy. Go to the sideboard ; nay, do not 
 hesitate ; // is not poisoned." 
 
 Her withering sneer did more toward reviving him 
 than any wine could have done. 'His excitement was 
 gradually cooling down beneath those calm, steady eyes, 
 bent so contemptuously upon him. 
 
 He drank a glass of wine, and resumed his seat 
 before the fire, watching sullenly the dying embers. 
 
 " Well, you have performed your task ?" 
 
 " I have, madam, and earned my reward." 
 
 " Not quite, doctor ; the infant is yet to be dis- 
 posed of." 
 
 "Must it die, too?" '
 
 20 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 
 
 "Yes, but not here. You must remove it, in any 
 way you please, but death is the safest, the surest." 
 
 " And why not here ?" 
 
 "Because I do not wish it," she answered, haughtily; 
 " that is enough for you, sirrah ! You must take the 
 child away to-night." 
 
 "What shall I do with it?" 
 
 " Dolt ! blockhead ! have you no brains ?" she said, 
 passionately. " Are you aware ten minutes' walk will 
 bring you to the sea-side ? Do you know the waves re- 
 fuse nothing, and tell no tales ? Never hesitate, man ! 
 You have gone too far to draw back. Think of the re- 
 ward ; one thousand dollars for ten minutes' work ! 
 Tush, doctor ! I protest, you're trembling like a nervous 
 girl." 
 
 " Is it not enough to make one tremble ?" retorted 
 the doctor, roused to something like passion by her 
 deriding tone ; " two murders in one night is that 
 nothing ?" 
 
 " Pshaw ! no a sickly girl and a puling child more 
 or less in the world is no great loss. Hark !" she added, 
 rising suddenly, as a wild, piercing shriek .of more than 
 mortal agony broke from the room where Esther lay. 
 " Did you hear that ?" 
 
 Hear it ! The man's face was horribly ghastly and 
 livid, as shriek after shriek, wild, piercing, and shrill 
 with anguish, burst upon his ear. Great drops of per- 
 spiration stood on his brow his teeth chattered as 
 though by an ague fit, and he trembled so perceptibly 
 that he was forced to grasp the chair for support. 
 
 Not so the woman. She stood calm, listening with 
 perfect composure to the agonizing cries, that were grow- 
 ing fainter and fainter each moment. 
 
 " It is well none of the servants are in this end of the 
 house," she said, quietly ; "or those loud screams would
 
 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 21 
 
 be overheard, and might give rise to disagreeable re- 
 marks." 
 
 Receiving no answer from her companion, she turned 
 : 'to him, and seeing the look of horror on his ghastly 
 face, her lip curled with involuntary scorn. It was 
 strange she could stand there so unmoved, knowing her- 
 self to be a murderess, with the dying cries of her victim 
 still ringing in her ears. 
 
 They ceased at last died away in a low, despairing 
 moan, and then all grew still. The deep, solemn silence 
 was more appalling than her shrieks had been, for they 
 well knew they were stilled forever in death. 
 
 " All is over !" said Mrs. Oranmore, drawing a deep 
 breath. 
 
 "Yes," was the answer, in a voice so hoarse and un- 
 natural, that it seemed to issue from the jaws of death. 
 
 Again she looked at him, and again the mocking 
 smile curled her lip. 
 
 " Doctor," she said, quietly, "you are a greater 
 coward than I ever took you to be. I am going in now 
 to see her you had better follow me, if you are not 
 afraid." 
 
 How sardonic was the smile which accompanied these 
 words. Stunned, terrified as he was, it stung him, and 
 he started after her from the room. 
 
 They entered the chamber of the invalid. Mrs. 
 Oranmore walked to the bed, drew back the curtains, and 
 disclosed a frightful spectacle. 
 
 Half sitting, half lying, in a strange, distorted attitude 
 she had thrown herself into in her dying agony, her lips 
 swollen and purple, her eyes protruding, her hair torn 
 fiercely out by the roots, as she had clutched it in her 
 fierce anguish, was Esther. 
 
 The straining eyeballs were ghastly to look upon
 
 22 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 
 
 the once beautiful face was now swollen and hideous, as 
 she lay stark dead in that lonely room. 
 
 Moment after moment passed away, while the mur- 
 derers stood silently gazing on their victim. The deep 
 silence of midnight was around nothing was heard save 
 the occasional drifting of the snow against the windows. 
 
 A stern, grave smile hovered on the lips of Mrs. 
 Oranmore, as she gazed on the convulsed face of the 
 dead girl. Drawing the quilt at last over her, she turned 
 away, saying, mockingly : 
 
 " Where now, Esther Oranmore, is the beauty of which 
 you were so proud ? This stark form and ghastly face 
 is now all that remains of the beauty and lieiress of Squire 
 Erliston. Such shall be the fate, sooner or later, of all 
 who dare to thwart me." 
 
 Her eyes flamed upon the shrinking man beside her, 
 with an expression that made him quake. A grim smile 
 of self-satisfied power broke over her dark face as she 
 observed it, and her voice had a steely tone of command, 
 as she said : 
 
 " Now for the child. It must be immediately disposed 
 of." 
 
 " And s/ie?" said the doctor, pointing to the bed. 
 
 " I shall attend to that." 
 
 " If you like, madam, I will save you the trouble." 
 
 " No, sir," she replied, sharply; "though in life my 
 enemy, her remains shall never be given up to the dis- 
 secting-knife. I have not forgotten she is a gentleman's 
 daughter, and as such she shall be interred. Now you 
 may go. Wrap the child in this, and return without 
 her'" 
 
 11 You shall be obeyed, madam," said Doctor Wise- 
 man, catching the infection of her reckless spirit. He 
 stooped and raised the infant, who was still in a deep 
 sleep.
 
 THE DEATH OF ESTHER. 23 
 
 Muffling it carefully in the shawl, he followed the 
 lady from the room, and cautiously quitted the house. 
 
 The storm had now passed away ; the piercing wind 
 had died out, and the midnight moon sailed in unclouded 
 majesty through the deep blue sky, studded with myriads 
 of burning stars. 
 
 The cool night air restored him completely to him- 
 self. 
 
 Holding the still sleeping infant closer in his arms, he 
 hurried on, until he stood on the sloping bank command- 
 ing a view of the bay. 
 
 The tide was rising. The waves came splashing in on 
 the beach the white foam gleaming coldly brilliant in 
 the moonlight. The waters beyond looked cold, and 
 sluggish, and dark moaning in a strange, dreary way 
 as they swept over the rocks. How could he commit the 
 slumbering infant to those merciless waves ? Depraved 
 and guilty as he was, he hesitated. It lay so confidingly 
 in his arms, slumbering so sweetly, that his heart smote 
 him. Yet it must be done. 
 
 He descended carefully to the beach, and laying his 
 living bundle on the snowy sands, stood like Hagar, a 
 distance off, to see it die. 
 
 In less than ten minutes, he knew, the waves would 
 have washed it far away. 
 
 As he stood, with set teeth and folded arms, the merry 
 jingle of approaching sleigh-bells broke upon his startled 
 ear. They were evidently approaching the place where 
 he stood. Moved by a sudden impulse of terror, he 
 turned and fled from the spot. 
 
 Guilt is ever cowardly. He sped on, scarcely know- 
 ing whither he went, until in his blind haste he ran against 
 a watchman. 
 
 The unexpected shock sent both rolling over in the 
 snow, which considerably cooled the fever in Doctor
 
 24 THE ASTROLOGER. 
 
 Wiseman's blood. The indignant "guardian of night," 
 with an exclamation which wouldn't look well in print, 
 laid hold of the doctor's collar. But there was vigor in 
 Doctor Wiseman's dwarfed body, and strengthen his long, 
 lean arms ; and with a violent effort he wrenched 
 himself free from the policeman's tenacious grasp, and 
 fled. 
 
 "Charley" started in pursuit, and seeing he would 
 soon be overtaken, the doctor suddenly darted into 
 the high, dark portico of an imposing-looking house, 
 and soon had the satisfaction of beholding the angry 
 watchman tear past like a comet, in full pursuit. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ASTROLOGER. 
 
 He fed on poisons, and they had no power, 
 But were a kind of nutriment ; he lived 
 Through that which had been death to many men. 
 To him the book of night was opened wide, 
 And voices from the deep abyss revealed 
 A marvel and a secret." BYRON. 
 
 AVING assured himself that all danger was 
 past, Doctor Wiseman was about to start from 
 the building, when a sudden moonbeam fell 
 on the polished door-plate, and he started back 
 to see the name it revealed. 
 
 "The astrologer, Ali Hamed !" he exclaimed. "Now 
 what foul fiend has driven me to his accursed den to- 
 night ? 'Tis said he can read the future ; and surely no 
 man ever needed to know it more than I. Can it be that
 
 THE ASTROLOGER. 25 
 
 the hand of destiny has driven me here, to show me what 
 is yet to come. Well, it is useless going home or at- 
 tempting to sleep to-night ; so, Ali Hamed, I shall try 
 what your magical black art can do for me." 
 
 He rang the bell sharply, but moment after moment 
 passed, and no one came. Losing all patience, he again 
 rang a deafening peal, which echoed and re-echoed 
 through the house. 
 
 Presently the sound of footsteps clattering down stairs 
 struck his ear, and in a moment more the door was cau- 
 tiously opened, and a dark, swarthy face protruded 
 through the opening. Seeing but one, he stood aside to 
 allow him to enter, and then securely locked and bolted 
 the door. 
 
 " The astrologer, Ali Hamed, resides here ?" said the 
 doctor. 
 
 Accustomed to visitors at all hours of the day and 
 night, the man betrayed no surprise at the unreasonable 
 time he had taken to inquire, but answered quietly in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 " Can I see him ?" 
 
 " I think so ; step in here one moment, and I wil 
 see." 
 
 He ushered Dr. Wiseman into a small and plainly 
 furnished parlor, while he again went up stairs. In a 
 few moments he reappeared, and, bidding his visitor fol- 
 low him, led the way up the long staircase through a 
 spacious suite of apartments, and finally into a long, 
 dark room, where the astrologer usually received visi- 
 tors. 
 
 The doctor glanced around with intense curiosity, 
 not un mingled with awe. The floor was painted black, 
 and the walls were hung with dark tapestry, cov- 
 ered with all manner of cabalistic figures. Skulls, 
 crucibles, magic mirrors, tame serpents, vipers, and all 
 2
 
 26 THE ASTROLOGER. 
 
 manner of hideous things were scattered profusely 
 around. 
 
 While the doctor still stood contemplating the strange 
 things around him, the door opened and the astrologer 
 himself entered. He was an imposing-looking person- 
 age, tall and majestic, with grave, Asiatic features, and 
 arrayed with Eastern magnificence. He bent his head 
 with grave dignity in return to the doctor's profound 
 bow, and stood for a few moments silently regarding 
 him. 
 
 " You would know the future?" said the astrologer, 
 at length, in his slow, impressive voice. 
 
 " Such is my business here to-night." 
 
 " You would have your horoscope cast, probably ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then give me the day and hour of your birth, and 
 return to-morrow morning." 
 
 " No, I cannot wait until then ; I must know all to- 
 night." 
 
 The astrologer bowed, and after many tedious pre- 
 liminaries, directed the doctor to quit the room until he 
 should send for him. Dr. Wiseman then entered one of 
 the long suite of apartments through which he had 
 passed, and seated himself in a state of feverish anxiety 
 to hear the result. Some time elapsed ere the swarthy 
 individual who had admitted him presented himself at 
 the door and announced that the astrologer was ready to 
 receive him. 
 
 Dr. Wiseman found Ali Hamed standing beside a 
 smoking caldron, with his cross-bones, and lizards, and 
 mystic figures around him, awaiting his entrance. 
 
 Not much given to credulity, the doctor determined 
 to test his skill before placing implicit belief in his pre- 
 dictions ; and therefore, bluntly announcing his skepti- 
 pism, he demanded to know something of the past.
 
 THE ASTROLOGER. 27 
 
 " You are a widower, with one child," said the astrolo- 
 ger, calmly. 
 
 The doctor bowed assent. 
 
 " You are not rich, but avaricious; there is nothing 
 you would not do for money. You are liked by none ; 
 by nature you are treacherous, cunning, and unscrupu- 
 lous ; your hands are dyed, and your heart is black with 
 crime ; you " 
 
 "Enough!" interrupted the doctor, turning as pale 
 as his saffron visage would permit; "no more of the 
 past. What has the future in store for me?" 
 
 " A life of disgrace, and death on the scaffold!" 
 
 A suppressed cry of horror burst from, the white lips 
 of the doctor, who reeled as if struck by some sudden 
 blow. 
 
 " To-night," continued the astrologer, unheeding the 
 interruption, " a child has been born whose destiny shall be 
 united with yours through life; some strange, mystic tie will 
 bind you together for a time. But the hand of this child will 
 yet bring your head to the halter" 
 
 He paused. Dr. Wiseman stood stiff, rooted to the 
 ground with horror. 
 
 " Such is your future ; you may go," said the Egyp- 
 tian, waving his hand. 
 
 With his blood freezing in his veins, with hands 
 trembling and lips palsied with horror, he quitted the 
 house. An hour had scarcely passed since his entrance ; 
 but that hour seemed to have added ten years to his age. 
 He felt not the cold, keen air as he slowly moved along, 
 every sense paralyzed by the appalling prediction he 
 had just heard. 
 
 " Die on the scaffold !" His crime deserved it. But the 
 bare thought made his blood run cold. And through a 
 child born that night he was to perish ! Was it the child 
 of Esther Oranmore ? Oh, absurd ! it had been swept
 
 28 THE ASTROLOGER. 
 
 far away by the waves long ere this. Whose, then, 
 could it be ? There were more children born this Christ- 
 mas Eve than that one ; but how could any one ever 
 know what he had done? No one knew of it but Mrs. 
 Oranmore ; and he well knew she would never tell. 
 
 He plunged blindly onward through the heaps of 
 drifted snow, heeding not, caring not, whither his steps 
 wended. Once or twice he met a watchman going his 
 rounds, and he shrank away like the guilty thing that he 
 was, dreading lest the word "murder" should be stamped 
 on his brow. He thought with cowardly terror of the 
 coming day, when every eye, he fancied, would turn 
 upon him with a look of suspicion. 
 
 Involuntarily he wandered to the sea-shore, and 
 stood on the bank where he had been one hour before. 
 The waves \vere dashing now almost to his feet ; no 
 trace of any living thing was to be seen around. 
 
 " It has perished, then !" he exclaimed, with a feeling 
 of intense relief. " I knew it ! I knew it ! //, then, is 
 not the child which is to cause my death. But, pshaw ! 
 why do I credit all that soi-disant prophet told me ! Yet 
 he spoke so truly of the past, I cannot avoid believing 
 him. Perish on the scaffold ! Heavens ! if I felt sure 
 of it, I would go mad. Ha! what is that? Can it be 
 the ghastly white face of a child ?" 
 
 He leaned over and bent down to see, but nothing 
 met his eye save the white caps of the waves. 
 
 " Fool that I am !" he exclaimed, turning away im- 
 patiently. " Well might stony Madam Oranmore deem 
 me a coward did she see me now. I will hasten back to 
 her, and report the success of my mission." 
 
 He turned away, and strode in the direction of her 
 house as fast as he could walk over the frozen ground, 
 quite unconscious of what was at that same moment 
 passing in another quarter of the city on that same 
 eventful night.
 
 BARRY ORANMORE. 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BARRY ORANMORE. 
 
 " Pray for the dead 
 
 Why for the dead, who are at rest? 
 
 Pray for the living, in whose breast 
 
 The struggle between right and wrong 
 
 Is raging, terrible and strong." LONGFELLOW. 
 
 T was a luxuriously furnished apartment. A 
 thick, soft carpet, where blue violets peeped 
 from glowing green leaves so naturally that 
 one involuntarily stooped to cull them, cover- 
 ed the floor. Rare old paintings adorned the 
 wall, and the cornices were fretted with gold. The heavy 
 crimson curtains shut out the sound of the wintry wind, 
 and a glowing coal fire shed a living, radiant glow over 
 everythiag around. The air was redolent of intoxicating 
 perfume, breathing of summer and sunshine. On the 
 marble-topped center-table stood bottles and glasses, a 
 cigar-case, a smoking-cap, and a pair of elegant, silver- 
 mounted pistols. It was evidently a gentleman's room, 
 judging by the disorder. A beautiful marble Flora 
 stood in one corner, arrayed in a gaudy dressing-gown, 
 and opposite stood a dainty little Peri adorned with a 
 beaver hat. Jupiter himself was there, with a violin sus- 
 pended gracefully around his neck, and Cupid was lean- 
 ing against the wall, heels uppermost, with bent bow, 
 evidently taking deliberate aim at the flies on the ceiling. 
 Among the many exquisite paintings hanging on the 
 wall, there was one of surpassing beauty ; it represented 
 a bleak hill-side, with a flock of sheep grazing on the 
 scanty herbage, a lowering, troubled sky above ; and one
 
 3 o BARR Y ORANMORB. 
 
 could almost see the fitful gusts of wind sighing over 
 the gray hill-tops. Standing erect was a young girl a 
 mere child in years her long golden hair streaming 
 wildly iii the breeze, her straw hat swinging in her hand, 
 her fair, bright face and large blue eyes raised with 
 mingled shyness and sauciness to a horseman bending 
 over her, as if speaking. His fiery steed seemed pawing 
 with impatience ; but his rider held him with a firm 
 hand. He was a tall, slight youth, with raven black hair 
 and eyes, and a dark, handsome face. There was a wild 
 look about the dark horseman and darker steed, remind- 
 ing one of the Black Horseman of the Hartz Mountains. 
 Underneath was written, in a dashing masculine hand, 
 " The first meeting." There was something strikingly, 
 vividly life-like in the whole scene ; even the characters 
 the slender girl, with her pretty, piquant face, and the 
 handsome, graceful rider were more like living beings 
 than creations of fancy. 
 
 And yes, standing by the fire, his arm resting on 
 the mantel, his eyes fixed on the hearth, stood the orig- 
 inal of the picture. The same tall, superb form ; the 
 same clear olive complexion ; the same curling locks of 
 jet, and black eyes of fire ; the same firm, proud mouth, 
 shaded by a thick black mustache there he stood, his 
 eyes riveted on the glowing coals, his brow knit as 
 though in deep and painful thought. Now and then the 
 muscles of his face would twitch, and his white hands 
 involuntarily clench at some passing thought. 
 
 At intervals the noise of doors shutting and opening 
 would reach his ear, and he would start as though he 
 had received a galvanic shock, and listen for a moment 
 intently. Nothing could be heard but the crackling of 
 the fire at such times, and again he would relapse into 
 gloomy musing. 
 
 'What a fool I have been !" he exclaimed, at length
 
 BARRY ORANMORE. 3I 
 
 between his clenched teeth, as he shook back with fierce 
 impatience his glossy hair, " to burden myself with this 
 girl ! Dolt, idiot that I was, to allow myself to be be- 
 witched by her blue eyes and yellow hair ! What demon 
 could have possessed me to make her my wife? My 
 wife ! Just fancy me presenting that little blushing, 
 shrinking Galway girl as my wife to my lady mother, 
 or to that princess of .coquettes, Lizzie Erliston ! I wish 
 to heaven I had blown my brains out instead of putting 
 my head into such a confounded noose making myself 
 the laughing-stock of all my gallant friends and lady 
 acquaintances ! No, by heaven ! they shall never laugh 
 at Barry Oranmore. Eveleen shall be sent back to her 
 friends. They will be glad enough to get her on any 
 terms ; and she will soon forget me, and be happy tend- 
 ing her sheep once more. And yet and yet poor 
 Eveleen !" he said, suddenly, pausing before the picture, 
 while his dark eyes filled with a softer Ijght, and his 
 voice assumed a gentler tone ; " she loves me so well yet 
 far more than I do her. I hardly like the thought of 
 sending her away ; but it cannot be helped. My 
 mother's purse is running low, I fear ; Erliston's coffers 
 must replenish it. Yes, there is no help for it ; Eveleen 
 must go, and I must marry little Lizzie. Poor child ; 
 she left home, and friends, and all for me ; and it does 
 seem a villainous act in me to desert her for another. 
 But go she must ; there is no alternative." 
 
 He was walking up and down in his intense excite- 
 ment sometimes pausing suddenly for a few moments, 
 and then walking on faster than before. Thus half an 
 hour passed, during which he seemed^ to have formed 
 some determination ; for his mouth grew stern, and his 
 clear eyes cold and calm, as he once more leaned against 
 the mantel, and fell into thought. 
 
 Presently the door opened and a woman entered. She
 
 32 BARRY ORANMORE. 
 
 was a stout, corpulent person, with coarse, bloated face, 
 and small, bleared eyes. As she entered, she cast an 
 affectionate glance toward the brandy bottle on the table 
 a glance which said plainly she would have no objec- 
 tion to trying its quality. She was arrayed for the 
 street, with a large cloak enveloping her ample person, 
 and a warm quilted hood tied over her substantial 
 double chin. 
 
 " Well, sir, I'll be movin', I reckon," said the woman, 
 adjusting her cloak. "The young lady's doing very 
 nicely, and the baby's sleeping like an angel. So they'll 
 get along very well to-night without me." 
 
 The young man started at the sound of her voice, 
 and, looking up, said carelessly : 
 
 " Oh, it's you, is it ? Are you for leaving ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; it's time I was home and to bed. I ain't 
 used to bein' up late nights now don't agree with my 
 constitution-; it's sorter delicate. Shouldn't wonder if 
 I was fallin' into a decline." 
 
 The quizzical dark eyes of the young man surveyed 
 the rotund person before him, and in spite of himself he 
 burst out laughing. 
 
 " Well, now, if you was in a decline yourself, you'd 
 laugh t'other side of your mouth, I reckon," said the of- 
 fended matron. " S'pose you think it's very funny laugh- 
 ing at a poor, lone 'oman, without chick nor child. But 
 I can tell you " 
 
 " Ten thousand pardons, madam, for my offense," he 
 interrupted, courteously, though there was still a wicked 
 twinkle in his eye. " Pray sit down for a moment ; I 
 have something to say to you." 
 
 " Well, now, it don't seem exactly right to sit here 
 with you at this hour of the night. Howsomever, I will, 
 to oblige you," and the worthy dame placed her ample 
 frame in a cushioned elbow-chair.
 
 BARRY ORANMORE. 33 
 
 "Perhaps this argument may aid in overcoming your 
 scruples," said the young man, filling her a glass of wine, 
 and throwing himself on a lounge ; "and now to business. 
 You are a widow ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. My blessed husband died a martyr to his 
 country died in the discharge of his duty. He was a 
 custom-house officer, and felt it his duty always to exam- 
 ine liquors before destroying them. Well, one day he 
 took too much, caught the devil-rum tremendous, and 
 left me a disconsolate widder. The coroner of the jury 
 set onto him, and " 
 
 " There, there ! never mind particulars. You have no 
 children ?" 
 
 " No," said the old woman stiffly, rather offended by 
 his unceremonious interruption. 
 
 " If you were well paid, you would have no objection 
 to taking one and bringing it up as your own ?" said the 
 young man, speaking quietly, though there was a look of 
 restless anxiety in his fine eyes. 
 
 " Well, no ; I'd have no objection, if " and here 
 
 she slapped her pocket expressively, by way of finishing 
 the sentence. 
 
 '"Money shall be no object ; but remember, the world 
 must think it is your own / am never to be troubled 
 about it more." 
 
 " All right I understand," said the nurse, nodding 
 her head sagely. " S'pose it's the little one in there ?" 
 
 " It is. Can you take it away now ?" 
 
 "To-night?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But laws ! ain't it too cold and stormy. Better wait 
 till to-morrow." 
 
 " No," was the quick and peremptory answer. " To- 
 night, now, within this very hour, it must be removed ; 
 and I am never to hear of it more."
 
 34 BARRY ORANMORE. 
 
 " And the poor young lady ? Seems sorter hard, now 
 don't it?" she'll take on wonderfully, I'm feared." 
 
 A spasm of pain passed over his handsome face, and 
 for a moment he was silent. Then, looking up, he said, 
 with brief sternness : 
 
 " It cannot be helped. You must go without dis- 
 turbing her, and I will break the news to her myself. 
 Here is my purse for the present. What is your ad- 
 dress ?" 
 
 The woman gave it. 
 
 " Very well, you shall hear from me regularly ; but 
 should we ever meet again, in the street or elsewhere, you 
 are not to know me, and you must forget all that has 
 transpired to-night." 
 
 " Hum !" said the fat widow, doubtfully. 
 
 " And now you had better depart. The storm has al- 
 most ceased, and the night is passing away. Is Ev is 
 my wife awake ?" 
 
 "No ; I left her sleeping." 
 
 " So much the better. You can take // with you with- 
 out disturbing her. Go." 
 
 The buxom widow arose and quitted the room. Oran- 
 more lay on a lounge, rigidly motionless, his face hidden 
 by his hand. A fierce storm was raging in his breast 
 " the struggle between right and wrong." Pride and 
 ambition struggled with love and remorse, but the fear 
 of the world conquered : and when the old woman re- 
 entered, bearing a sleeping infant in her arms, he looked 
 up as composedly as herself. 
 
 " Pretty little dear," said the widow, wrapping the 
 child in a thick woolen shawl, " how nicely she sleeps ! 
 Very image of her mother, and she's the beautifulest 
 girl I ever saw in my life. I gave her some paregoric 
 to make her sleep till I go home. Well, good-night, sir. 
 Our business is over."
 
 BARRY ORANMORE. 35 
 
 " Yes, good-night. Remember the secret ; forget 
 what has transpired to-night, and your fortune is made. 
 You will care for it " and he pointed to the child " as 
 though it were your own." 
 
 " Be sure I will, dear little duck. Who could help 
 liking such a sweet, pretty darling ? I s'pose you'll come 
 to see it sometimes, sir ?" 
 
 " No. You can send me word of its welfare now and 
 then. Go, madam, go." 
 
 The widow turned to leave the room, and, unobserved 
 by the young man, who had once more thrown himself 
 on his face on the sofa, she seized a well-filled brandy- 
 flask and concealed it beneath her shawl. 
 
 Quitting the house, she walked as rapidly as her 
 bulksome proportions would permit over the, snowy 
 ground. The road leading to her home lay in the direc- 
 tion of the sea-shore ; and, as she reached the beach, she 
 was thoroughly chilled by the cold, in spite of her warm 
 wrappings. 
 
 " It's as cold as the Arctic Ocean, and I've heerd say 
 that's the coldest country in the world. A drop of com- 
 fort won't come amiss just now. Lucky I thought on't. 
 This little monkey's as sound as a top. It's my 'pinion 
 that young gent's no better than he ought to be, to treat 
 such a lovely young lady in this fashion. Well, it's no 
 business of mine, so's I'm well paid. Lor ! I hope I 
 hain't gin it too much paregoric ; wouldn't for anything 
 'twould die. S'pose I'd get no more tin then. That's 
 prime," she added, placing the flask to her lips and drain- 
 ing a long draught. 
 
 As the powerful fumes of the brandy arose to her 
 head, the worthy lady's senses became rather confused ; 
 and, falling rather than sitting on the bank, the child, 
 muffled like a mummy in its plaid, rolled from her arms 
 into a snow-wreath. At the same moment the loud ring-
 
 36 BARR Y ORANMORE. 
 
 ing of bells and the cry of " Fire ! fire !" fell upon her 
 ear. It roused her ; and, in the excitement of the mo- 
 ment forgetting her little charge, she sprang up as well 
 as she could, and, by a strange fascination, was soon in- 
 voluntarily drawn away to mingle with the crowd, who 
 were hurrying in the direction of her abode. 
 
 Scarcely five minutes before. Dr. Wiseman had quitted 
 that very spot : and there, within a few yards of each 
 other, the two unconscious infants lay, little knowing 
 how singularly their future lives were to be united little 
 dreaming how fatal an influence one of them was yet to 
 wield over hint. 
 
 Some time after, when the flames were extinguished 
 and the crowd had quitted the streets for their beds 
 when the unbroken silence of coming morning had fallen 
 over the city the widow returned to seek for her child. 
 
 But she sought in vain ; the rising tide had swept 
 over the bank, and was again retreating sullenly to the 
 sea. 
 
 Sobered by terror and remorse, the wretched woman 
 trod up and down the dreary, deserted snowy beach 
 until morning broke ; but she sought and searched in 
 vain. The child was gone.
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 "A jolly place, 'twas said, in days of old." WORDSWORTH. 
 
 HE jingle of the approaching sleigh-bells, 
 which had frightened Dr. Wiseman from the 
 beach, had been unheard by the drunken 
 nurse ; but ten minutes after she had left, a 
 sleigh came slowly along the narrow, slippery 
 path. 
 
 It contained but two persons. One was an elderly 
 woman, wrapped and muffled in furs. A round, rosy, 
 cheery face beamed out from a black velvet bonnet, and 
 two small, twinkling, rnerry gray eyes, lit up the pleas- 
 antest countenance in the world. 
 
 Her companion, who sat in the driver's seat, was a 
 tall, jolly-looking darkey, with a pair of huge, rolling 
 eyes, looking like a couple of snow-drifts in a black 
 ground. A towering fur cap ornamented the place 
 where the " wool ought to grow," and was the only por- 
 tion of this son of darkness which could be discovered 
 for his voluminous wrappings. 
 
 The path was wet, slippery, and dangerous in the ex- 
 treme. The horses were restive, and a single false step 
 would have overturned them into the water. 
 
 " Missus Scour, if you please, missus, you'd better 
 git out," said the negro, reining in the horses, in evident 
 alarm ; " this yer's the wussest road I'se ever trabeled. 
 These wishious brutes '11 spill me and you, and the 
 sleigh, and then the Lor only knows what'll ever becomg 
 of us."
 
 38 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 " Do you think there's any danger, Jupiter ?" said 
 Mrs. Gower (for such was the name her sable attendant 
 had transformed into Scour), in a voice of alarm. 
 
 "This road's sort o' 'spicious anyhow," replied 
 Jupiter. " I'd 'vise you, Missus Scour, mum, to get out 
 and walk till we is past this yer beach. 'Sides the snow, 
 this yer funnelly beach is full o' holes, an' if we got 
 upsot inter one of 'em, ole marse might whistle for you 
 and me, and the sleigh arter that !" 
 
 With much difficulty, and with any amount of whoa- 
 ing, Jupiter managed to stop the sleigh, and assisted 
 stout Mrs. Gower to alight. This was no easy job, for 
 that worthy lady was rather unwieldy, and panted like 
 a stranded porpoise, as she slowly plunged through the 
 wet snow-drifts. 
 
 Suddenly, above the jingling sleigh-bells, the wail of 
 an infant met her ear. She paused in amazement, and 
 looked around. Again she heard it this time seeming- 
 ly at her feet. She looked down and beheld a small, 
 dark bundle, lying amid the deep snow. 
 
 Once more the piteous cry met her ear, and stooping 
 down, she raised the little dark object in her arms. 
 
 Unfolding the shawl, she beheld the infant whose 
 cries had first arrested her ear. 
 
 "Good heavens! a baby exposed to this weather 
 left here to perish !" exclaimed good Mrs. Gower, in hor- 
 ror. "Poor little thing, it's half frozen. Who could 
 have done so unnatural a deed ?" 
 
 "Laws! Missus Scour, what ye got dar ?" inquired 
 Jupiter. 
 
 " A baby, Jupe ! A poor little helpless infant whom 
 some unnatural wretch has left here to die !" exclaimed 
 Mrs. Gower, with more indignation than she had ever 
 before felt in her life.
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 39 
 
 " Good Lor ! so 'tis ! What you gwine to do wid it, 
 Missus Scour, mum ?" 
 
 " Do with it ?" said Mrs. Gower, looking at him in 
 surpri'se. " Why, take it with me, of course. You 
 wouldn't have me leave the poor infant here to perish, 
 would you ?" 
 
 "'Deed, Missus Scour, I wouldn't bring it 'long ef I 
 was you. Jes' 'fleet how tarin' mad ole marse '11 be 'bout 
 it. Don't never want to see no babies roun'. Deed, 
 honey, you'd better take my 'vice an' leave it whar it 
 was," said Jupiter. 
 
 " What? Leave it here to die. I'm ashamed of you, 
 Jupiter," said the old lady, rebukingly. 
 
 "But Lor ! Missus Scour ! ole marse '11 trow it out 
 de winder fust thing. Shouldn't be s'prised, nudder, ef 
 he'd wollop me for bringing it. Jes' 'fleet upon it, 
 Missus Scour, nobody can't put no 'pendence onto him, 
 deforsooken ole sinner. . Trowed his 'fernal ole stick at 
 me, t'other day, and like to knock my brains out, jes' for 
 nothin' at all. 'Deed, honey, I wouldn't try sich a 'sper- 
 riment, no how." 
 
 " Now, Jupiter, you needn't say another word. My 
 mind's made up, and I'm going to keep this child, let 'ole 
 marse' rage as he will. I'm just as sure as I can be, that 
 the Lord sent it to me, to-night, as a Christmas gift, in 
 place of my poor, dear Aurora, that he took to heaven," 
 said good Mrs. Gower, folding the wailing infant closer 
 still to herwarm, motherly bosom. 
 
 "Sartin, missus, in course you knows best, but ef 
 you'd only 'fleet. 'Pears to me, ole marse '11 tar roun 
 worser dan ever, when he sees it, and discharge you in 
 you 'sponsible ole age o' life 'count of it." 
 
 "And if he does discharge me, Jupiter, after twenty 
 years' service, I have enough to support myself and this 
 little one to the end of my life, thank the Lord !" said
 
 40 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 Mrs. Govver, her honest, ruddy face all aglow with gen- 
 erous enthusiasm. 
 
 "Well, I s'pose 'taint no sorter use talking," said 
 Jupiter, with a sigh, as he gathered up the reins ; " but 
 ef anything happens, jes 'member I 'vised you of it 'fore- 
 hand. Here we is on de road now, so you'd better get 
 in ef you's agoin' to take de little 'un wid you." 
 
 With considerable squeezing, and much panting, and 
 some groaning, good Mrs. Gower was assisted into the 
 sleigh, and muffled up in the buffalo robes. 
 
 Wrapping the child in her warm, fur-lined mantle, to 
 protect it from the chill night air, they sped merrily 
 along over the hard, frozen ground. 
 
 Christmas morning dawned bright, sunshiny, and 
 warm. The occupants of the sleigh had long since left 
 the city behind them, and were now driving along the 
 more open country. The keen, frosty air deepened the 
 rosy glow on Mrs. Gower's good-humored face. Warm- 
 ly protected from the cold, the baby lay sleeping sweetly 
 in her arms, and even Jupiter's sable face relaxed into a 
 grin as he whistled " Coal Black Rose." 
 
 The sun was about three hours high when they drew 
 up before a solitary inn. And here Jupiter assisted Mrs. 
 Gower into the house, while he himself looked after his 
 horses. 
 
 Mrs. Gower was shown by the hostess into the par- 
 lor, where a huge wood-fire roared up the wide chim- 
 ney. Removing the large shawl that enveloped it, Mrs. 
 Gower turned for the first time to examine her prize. 
 
 It did not differ much from other babies, save in be- 
 ing the tiniest little creature that ever was seen ; with 
 small, pretty features, and an unusual profusion of 
 brown hair. As it awoke, it disclosed a pair of large 
 blue eyes rather vacant-looking, it must be confessed 
 and immediately set up a most vigorous squealing. Small
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 41 
 
 as it was, it evidently possessed lungs that would not 
 have disgraced a newsboy, and seemed bent upon fully 
 exercising them ; for in spite of Mrs. Gower's cooing 
 and kissing, it cried and screamed "and would not be 
 comforted." 
 
 " Poor little dear, it's so hungry," said the good old 
 lady, rocking it gently. " What a pretty little darling 
 it is. I'm sure it looks like little Aurora !" 
 
 " What is the matter with baby ?" inquired the 
 hostess, at this moment entering. 
 
 " It's hungry, poor thing. Bring in some warm milk, 
 please," replied Mrs. Gower. 
 
 The milk was brought, and baby, like a sensible 
 child, as it doubtless was, did ample justice to it. Then 
 rolling it up in the shawl, Mrs. Gower placed it in the 
 rocking-chair, and left it to its own reflections, while she 
 sat down to a comfortable breakfast of fragrant coffee, 
 hot rolls, and fried ham. 
 
 When breakfast was over Jupiter brought round the 
 horses and sleigh, arid Mrs. Gower entered, holding her 
 prize, and they drove off. 
 
 It was noon when they reached the end of their long 
 journey, and entered the little village of St. Mark's. 
 Sloping upward from the bay on one side, and encircled 
 by a dense primeval forest on the other, the village 
 stood. St. Mark's was a great place in the eyes of its 
 inhabitants, and considered by them the only spot on the 
 globe fit for rational beings to live in. It was rather an 
 unpretending-looking place, though, to strangers, who 
 sometimes came from the city to spend the hot summer 
 months there, in preference to any fashionable watering- 
 place. It contained a church, a school-house, a lecture- 
 room, a post-office, and an inn. 
 
 But the principal building, and pride of the village, 
 was Mount Sunset Hall. It stood upon a sloping emi-
 
 42 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 nence, which the villagers dignified with the title of hill, 
 but which in reality was no such thing. The hall itself 
 was a large, quaint, old mansion of gray stone, built in 
 the Elizabethan style, with high turrets, peaked gables, 
 and long, high windows. It was finely situated, com- 
 manding on one side a view of the entire village and the 
 bay, and on the other the dark pine forest and far-spread- 
 ing hills beyond. A carriage-path wound up toward 
 the front, through an avenue of magnificent horse chest- 
 nuts, now bare and leafless. A wide porch, on which 
 the sun seemed always shining, led into a long, high hall, 
 flanked on each side by doors, opening into the separate 
 apartments. A wide staircase of dark polished oak led 
 to the upper chambers of the old mansion. 
 
 The owner of Sunset Hall was Squire Erliston, the 
 one great man of the village, the supreme autocrat of St. 
 Mark's. The squire was a rough, gruff, choleric old 
 bear, before whom children and poultry and other infe- 
 rior animals quaked in terror. He had been once given 
 to high living and riotous excesses, and Sunset Hall had 
 then been a place of drunkenness and debauchery. But 
 these excssses at last brought on a dangerous disease, 
 and for a long time his life was despaired of ; then the 
 squire awoke to a sense of his situation, took a "pious 
 streak " as he called it himself and registered a vow, 
 that if it pleased Providence not to deprive the world in 
 general, and St. Marks in particular, of so valuable an 
 ornament as himself, he would eschew all his evil deeds 
 and meditate seriously on his latter end. Whether his 
 prayer was heard or not I cannot undertake to say ; but 
 certain it is the squire recovered ; and, casting over in 
 his mind the ways and means by which he could best do 
 penance for his past sins, he resolved to go through a 
 course of Solomon's Proverbs, and get married. Deem- 
 ing it best to make the greatest sacrifice first, he got
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 43 
 
 married ; and, after the honeymoon was past, surprised 
 his wife one day by taking down the huge family Bible 
 left him by his father, and reading the first chapter. 
 This he continued for a week yawning fearfully all the 
 time; but after that he resolved to make his wife read 
 them aloud to him, and thereby save him the trouble. 
 
 " For," said the squire sagely, " what's the use of hav- 
 ing a wife if she can't make herself useful. ' A good 
 wife's a crown to her husband,' as Solomon says." 
 
 So Mrs. Erliston was commanded each morning to 
 read one of the chapters by way of morning prayers. 
 The squire would stretch himself on a lounge, light a 
 cigar, lay his head on her lap, and prepare to listen. But 
 before the conclusion of the third verse Squire Erliston 
 and his good resolutions would be as sound as one of the 
 Seven Sleepers. 
 
 When his meek little wife would hint at this, her 
 worthy liege lord would fly into a passion, and indig- 
 nantly deny the assertion. He asleep, indeed ! Prepos- 
 terous ! he had heard every word ! And, in proof of 
 it, he vociferated every text he could remember, and in- 
 sisted upon making Solomon the author of them all. 
 This habit he had retained through life often to the 
 great amusement of his friends setting the most absurd 
 phrases down to the charge of the Wise Monarch. 
 His wife died, leaving him with two daughters ; the 
 fate of the eldest, Esther, is already known to the 
 reader. 
 
 Up the carriage-road, in front, the sleigh containing 
 our travelers drove. Good Mrs. Govver who for many 
 years had been Squire Erliston's housekeeper alighted, 
 and, passing through the long hall, entered a cheerful- 
 looking apartment known as the " housekeeper's room." 
 
 Seating herself in an elbow-chair to recover her 
 breath, Mrs. Gower laid the baby in her bed, and rang
 
 44 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 the bell. The summons was answered by a tidy little 
 darkey, who rushed in all of a flutter. 
 
 "Laws! Missus Scour, IV 'stonished, I is! Whar's 
 de young 'un ! Jupe say you fotch one from the city." 
 
 " So I did ; there it is on the bed." 
 
 " Sakes alive, ain't it a mite of a critter ! Gemini ! 
 what'll old marse say ? Can't abide babies no how ! 
 'spect he neber was a baby hisself !" 
 
 "Totty, you mustn't speak that way of your master. 
 Remember, it's not respectful," said Mrs. Gower, re- 
 bukingly. 
 
 "Oh, I'll 'member of it 'specially when I's near him, 
 and he's got a stick in his hand," said Totty, turning 
 again to the baby, and eying it as one might some natu- 
 ral curiosity. " Good Lor ! ain't it a funny little critter ? 
 What's its name, Miss Scour?" 
 
 "I intend calling it Aurora, after my poor little 
 daughter," replied Mrs. Gower, tears filling her eyes. 
 
 "Roarer! Laws! ain't it funny? Heigh! dar's de 
 bell. 'Spect it's for me," said Totty, running off. 
 
 In a few moments she reappeared ; and, shoving her 
 curly head and ebony phiz through the door, announced, 
 in pompous tones, " dat marse wanted de honor ob a 
 few moments' private specification wid Missus Scour in 
 de parlor." 
 
 " Very well, Totty ; stay in here and mind the baby 
 until I come back," said Mrs. Gower, rising to obey. 
 
 Totty, nothing loth, seated herself by the bed and re- 
 sumed the scrutiny of the baby. Whether that young 
 lady remarked the impertinent stare of the darkey or not, 
 it would be hard to say ; for, having bent her whole 
 heart and soul on the desperate and rather cannibal-like 
 task of devouring her own little fists, she treated Totty 
 with silent contempt. 
 
 Meantime, Mrs. Gower, with a look of firm deter-
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 45 
 
 ruination, but with a heart which, it must be owned, 
 throbbed faster than usual, approached the room wherein 
 sat the lord and master of Sunset Hall. A gruff voice 
 shouted : " Come in !" in reply to her " tapping at the 
 chamber-door ;" and good Mrs. Gower, in fear and 
 trembling, entered the awful presence. 
 
 In a large easy-chair in the middle of the floor his 
 feet supported by a high ottoman reclined Squire 
 Erliston. He was evidently about fifty years of age, 
 below the middle size, stout and squarely built, and of 
 ponderous proportions. His countenance was fat, 
 purple, and bloated, as if from high living and strong 
 drink ; and his short, thick, bull-like neck could not fail 
 to bring before the mind of the beholder most unpleas- 
 ant ideas of apoplexy. His little, round, popping eyes 
 seemed in danger of starting from their sockets ; while 
 the firm compression of his square mouth betokened an 
 unusual degree of obstinacy. 
 
 " Good-morning, Mrs. Gower. Fine day, this ! Got 
 home, I see. Shut the door ! shut the door ! draughts 
 always bring on the gout ; so beware of 'em. Don't run 
 into danger, or you'll perish in it, as Solomon says. 
 There ! sit down, sit down, sit down !" 
 
 Repeating this request a very unnecessary number of 
 times for worthy Mrs. Gower had immediately taken a 
 seat on entering Squire Erliston adjusted his spectacles 
 carefully on the bridge of his nose, and glanced severely 
 at his housekeeper over the top of them. That good lady 
 sat with her eyes fixed upon the carpet her hands 
 folded demurely in her lap the very personification of 
 mingled dignity and good-nature. 
 
 " Hem ! madam," began the squire. 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Mrs. Gower, meekly. 
 
 " Jupe tells me that is, he told me I mean, ma'am,
 
 46 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 the short and long of it is, you've brought a baby home 
 with you eh ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied the housekeeper. 
 
 "And how dare you, ma'am how dare you bring 
 such a thing here ?" roared the squire, in a rage. " Don't 
 you know I detest the whole persuasion under twelve 
 years of age ? Yes, ma'am ! you know it ; and yet you 
 went and brought one here. ' The way of the trans- 
 gressor is hard,' as Solomon says ; and I'll make it con- 
 foundedly hard for you if you don't pitch the squalling 
 brat this minute out of the window ! D'ye hear that ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Mrs. Gower, quietly. 
 
 " And why the deuce don't you go and do it, then 
 eh?" 
 
 " Because, Squire Erliston, I am resolved to keep the 
 child," said Mrs. Gower, firmly. 
 
 " What ! what! WHAT !" exclaimed the squire, speech- 
 less with mingled rage and astonishment at the auda- 
 cious reply. 
 
 " Yes, sir," reiterated Mrs. Gower, resolutely. " I con- 
 sider that child sent to me by Heaven, and I cannot part 
 with it." 
 
 " Fudge ! stuff ! fiddlesticks ! Sent to you by heaven, 
 indeed ! S'pose heaven ever dropped a young one on 
 the beach ? Likely story !" 
 
 " Well, I consider it the same thing. Some one left 
 it on the beach, and heaven destined me to save it." 
 
 " Nonsense ! no such thing ! 'twas that stupid rascal, 
 Jupe, making you get out. I'll horsewhip him within an 
 inch of his life for it !" roared the old man, in a pas- 
 sion. 
 
 " I beg you will do no such thing, sir. It was no 
 fault of Jupiter's. If you insist on its quitting the 
 house, there remains but one course for me." 
 
 "Confound it, ma'am ! you'd make a saint swear, as
 
 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 47 
 
 Solomon says. Pray tell me what is that course you 
 speak of ?" 
 
 "I must leave with it." 
 
 " What ?" exclaimed the squire, perfectly aghast with 
 amazement. 
 
 " I must leave with it !" repeated Mrs. Gower, rising 
 from her seat, and speaking quietly, but firmly. 
 
 " Sit down, ma'am sit down, sit down ! Oh, Lord ! 
 let me catch my breath ! Leave with it ! Just say that 
 over again, will you ? I don't think I heard right." 
 
 " Your ears have not deceived you, Squire Erliston. 
 I repeat it, if that child leaves, I leave, too !" 
 
 You should have seen Squire Erliston then, as he sat 
 bolt upright, his little round eyes ready to pop from 
 their sockets with consternation, staring at good Mrs. 
 Gower much like a huge turkey gobbler. That good 
 lady stood complacently waiting, with her hand on the 
 handle of the door, for what was to come next. 
 
 She had not long wait ; for such a storm of rage 
 burst upon her devoted head, that anybody else would 
 have fled in dismay. But she, "good, easy soul," was 
 quite accustomed to that sort of thing, and stood gazing 
 upon him as serenely as a well-fed Biddy might on an 
 enraged barn-yard chanticleer. And still the storm of 
 abuse raged, interspersed with numerous quotations from 
 Solomon by way, doubtless, of impressing her that his 
 wrath was righteous. And still Mrs. Gower stood se- 
 rene and unruffled by his terrible denunciations, look- 
 ing as placid as a mountain lake sleeping in the sun- 
 light. 
 
 " Well, ma'am, well ; what do you think of your con- 
 duct now?" exclaimed the squire, when the violence of 
 his rage was somewhat exhausted. 
 
 " Just what I did before, sir." 
 
 " And what was that, eh ? what was that ?"
 
 48 MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 " That I have done right, sir ; and that I will keep the 
 child !" 
 
 ''You will?" thundered the squire, in an awful voice. 
 
 "Yes, sir !" replied Mrs. Govver, slightly appalled by 
 his terrible look, but never flinching in her determina- 
 tion. 
 
 " You you you abominable female, you !" stam- 
 mered the squire, unable to speak calmly, from rage. 
 Then he added : " Well, well ! I won't get excited no, 
 ma'am. You can keep the brat, ma'am ! But mind you, 
 if it ever comes across me, I'll wring its neck for it as I 
 would a chicken's !" 
 
 " Then I may keep the little darling ?" said good Mrs. 
 Gower, gratefully. "I am sure I am much obliged, 
 and " 
 
 " There ! there ! there ! Hold your tongue, ma'am ! 
 Don't let me hear another word about it the pest ! the 
 plague ! Be off with you now, and send up dinner. Let 
 the turkey be overdone, or the pudding burned, at your 
 peril! 'Better a stalled ox with quietness, than a dry 
 morsel,' as Solomon says. Hurry up there, and ring for 
 Lizzie !" 
 
 Mrs. Gower hastened from the room, chuckling at 
 having got over the difficulty so easily. And from that 
 day forth, little Aurora, as her kind benefactress called 
 her, was domesticated at Mount Sunset Hall.
 
 LIZZIES LOVER. 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 
 
 " Fond girl! no saint nor angel he 
 Who wooes thy young simplicity ; 
 But one of earth's impassioned sons, 
 
 As warm in love, as fierce in ire, 
 
 As the best heart whose current runs 
 
 Full of the day-god's living fire." 
 
 FIRE WORSHIPERS. 
 
 HE inn of St. Mark's was an old, brown, 
 wooden house, with huge, unpainted shutters, 
 and great oak doors, that in summer lay al- 
 ways invitingly open. It stood in the center 
 of the village, with the forest stretching away 
 behind, and the beach spreading out in front. Over the 
 door swung a huge signboard, on which some rustic 
 artist had endeavored to paint an eagle, but which, un- 
 fortunately, more closely resembled a frightened goose. 
 
 Within the " Eagle," as it was generally called, every- 
 thing was spotlessly neat and clean ; for the landlord's 
 pretty daughter was the tidiest of housewives. The 
 huge, oaken door in front, directly under the above- 
 mentioned sign-board, opened into the bar-room, behind 
 the counter of which the worthy host sat, in his huge 
 leathern chair, from "early morn till dewy eve." An- 
 other door, at the farther end, opened into the " big par- 
 lor," the pine floor of which was scrubbed as white as 
 human hands could make it ; and the two high, square 
 windows at either end absolutely glittered with cleanli- 
 ness. The wooden chairs were polished till they shone v 
 and never blazed a fire on a cleaner swept hearth than 
 3
 
 S o LIZZIES LOVER. 
 
 that which now roared up the wide fire-place of the 
 "Eagle." 
 
 It was a gusty January night. The wind came raw 
 and cold over the distant hills, now rising fierce and 
 high, and anon dying away in low, moaning sighs among 
 the shivering trees. On the beach the Waves came 
 tramping inward, their dull, hollow voices booming like 
 distant thunder on the ear. 
 
 But within the parlor of the " Eagle " the mirth and 
 laughter were loud and boisterous. Gathered around 
 the blazing fire, drinking, smoking, swearing, arguing, 
 were fifteen or twenty men drovers, farmers, fishermen, 
 and loafers. 
 
 " This yer's what / calls comfortable," said a lusty 
 drover, as he raised a foaming mug of ale to his lips and 
 drained it to the last drop. 
 
 " I swan to man if it ain't a rouser of a night," said 
 a rather good-looking young fellow, dressed in the 
 coarse garb of a fisherman, as a sudden gust of wind 
 and hail came driving against the windows. 
 
 " Better here than out on the bay to-night, eh, Jim ?" 
 said the drover, turning to the last speaker. 
 
 " Them's my sentiments," was the reply, as Jim filled 
 his pipe. 
 
 "I reckon Jim hain't no objection to stayin' anywhere 
 where Cassie is," remarked another, dryly. 
 
 "Who's taking my name in vain here?" called a clear, 
 ringing voice, as a young girl, of some eighteen years of 
 age, entered. Below the middle size, plump and round, 
 with merry, black eyes, a complexion decidedly brown, 
 full, red lips, overflowing with fun and good-nature 
 such was Cassie Fox, the pretty little hostess of the 
 " Eagle." 
 
 Before any one could reply, an unusual noise in the 
 bar-room fell upon their ears. The next moment, Sally,
 
 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 51 
 
 the black maid-of-all-work, came into the " big parlor," 
 with mouth and eyes agape. 
 
 " Laws, misses," she said, addressing Cassie, " dar's a 
 gem man a rale big-bug out'n de bar-room ; a 'specta- 
 ble, 'sponsible, 'greeable gem man, powerful hansom, wid 
 brack eyes an' har, an' a carpet-bag !" 
 
 " Sakes alive !" ejaculated Cassie, dropping the tray, 
 and turning to the looking-glass; "he's handsome, and 
 my hairs awfully mussed! Gracious ! what brings him 
 here, Sally?" 
 
 " Got cotch in de storm ; 'deed he did, chile heard 
 him tell marse so my own blessed self." 
 
 "Goodness !" again ejaculated the little hostess. " I'm 
 all in a flusterfication. Handsome ! dear, dear ! my 
 hair's all out of curl ! Black eyes ! I must unpin my 
 dress Nice hair ! Jim Loker, take your legs out of the 
 fire, nobody wants you to make andirons of 'em." 
 
 " Cass ! Cass, I say ! Come here, you Cass !" 
 called the voice of mine host from the bar-room. 
 
 Cassie bustled out of the room and entered the bar. 
 Old Giles Fox stood respectfully before the stranger, a 
 young man wrapped in a cloak, tall and handsome, with 
 a sort of dashing, reckless air, that well became him. 
 
 " Here, Cass," said her father, " this gentleman's go- 
 ing to stay all night. Show him into the best room, and 
 get supper ready. Be spry, now." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Cassie, demurely, courtesying before 
 the handsome stranger, who glanced half carelessly, 
 half admiringly, at her pretty face. "This way, sir, if 
 you please." 
 
 The stranger followed her into the parlor, and en- 
 countered the battery of a score of eyes fixed full upon 
 him. He paused in the doorway and glanced around. 
 
 " Beg pardon," he said, in the refined tone of a gen- 
 tleman, " but I thought this room was unoccupied. Can
 
 52 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 
 
 I not have a private apartment ?" he added, turning to 
 Cassie. 
 
 " Oh, yes, to be sure," replied the little hostess ; " step 
 this way, sir," and Cassie ran up-stairs, followed by the 
 new-comer, whose dark eyes had already made a deep 
 impression in the susceptible heart of Cassie. 
 
 He threw himself into a chair before the fire and 
 fixed his eyes thoughtfully on the glowing coals. Cassie, 
 having placed his dripping cloak before the fire to dry, 
 ran down stairs, where he could distinctly hear her shrill 
 voice giving hasty orders to the servants. 
 
 Supper was at length brought in by Cassie, and the 
 stranger fell to with the readiness of one to whom a long 
 journey has given an appetite. 
 
 " There," he said at last, pushing back his chair. " I 
 think I have done justice to your cookery, my dear 
 Cassie isn't that what they call you ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; after Cassiopia, who was queen in furrin 
 parts long ago. Efiofia, I think, was the name of the 
 place," said Cassie, complacently. 
 
 " What ?" said the stranger, repressing a laugh. 
 " What do you say was the name of the place *" 
 
 " Efiofia !" repeated Cassie, with emphasis. 
 
 " Ethiopia ! Oh, I understand ! And who named 
 you after that fair queen, who now resides among the 
 stars ?" 
 
 " Mother, of course, before she died," replied the 
 namesake of that Ethiopian queen. " She read about 
 her in some book, and named me accordingly." 
 
 The stranger smiled, and fixed his eyes steadily on 
 the complacent face of Cassie, with an expression of 
 mingled amusement and curiosity. There was a mo- 
 ment's pause, and then he asked : 
 
 " And what sort of place is St. Mark's I mean, what 
 sort of people are there in it ?"
 
 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 53 
 
 " Oh, pretty nice," replied Cassie; " most all like those 
 you saw down stairs in the parlor." 
 
 "But, I mean the gentry." 
 
 " Oh, the big-bugs. Well, yes, there is some of 'em 
 here. First, there's the squire " 
 
 " Squire who ?" interrupted the stranger, with a look 
 of interest. 
 
 " Squire Erliston, of course ; he lives up there in a 
 place called Mount Sunset." 
 
 " Yes ?" said the young man, inquiringly. 
 
 " Yes," repeated Cassiopia, " with his daughter, Miss 
 Lizzie." 
 
 " Has he only one daughter ?" 
 
 " That's all, now. He had two ; but Miss Esther ran 
 off with a wild young fellow, an' I've hearn tell as how 
 they were both dead, poor things ! So powerful hand- 
 some as they were too 'specially him." 
 
 "And Miss Lizzie? 1 ' 
 
 " Oh, yes. Well, you see she ain't married she's 
 more sense. She's awful pretty, too, though she ain't a 
 mite like Miss Esther was. Laws, she might have bin 
 married dozens of times, I'm sure, if she'd have all the 
 gents who want her. She's only been home for two or 
 three months ; she was off somewhere to boardin'-school 
 to larn to play the planner and make picters andsich." 
 
 " And the papa of these interesting damsels, what is 
 he like ?" inquired the young man. 
 
 " He ? sakes alive ! Why, he's the ugliest-tempered, 
 Grossest, hatefullest, disagreeablest old snapping-turtle 
 ever you saw. He's as cross as two sticks, and as savage 
 as a bear with a sore head. My stars and garters ! I'd 
 sooner run a mile out of my way than meet him in the 
 street." 
 
 " Whew ! pleasant, upon my word ! Are all your 
 country magnates as amiable as Squire Erliston ?"
 
 54 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 
 
 " There ain't many more, 'cepting Doctor Nick Wise- 
 man, and that queer old witch, Miss Hagar." 
 
 " Has he any grown-up daughters ?" inquired the 
 stranger, carelessly. 
 
 Cassie paused, and regarded him with a peculiar look 
 for an instant. 
 
 " Ahem !" she said, after a pause. " No ; he's a 
 widderer, with only one child, a daughter, 'bout nine 
 months old, and a nevvy a year or so older. No, there 
 ain't no young ladies I mean real ladies in the village, 
 'cept Miss Lizzie Erliston." 
 
 He paid no attention to the meaning tone in which 
 this was spoken, and after lingering a few moments 
 longer, Cassie took her leave, inwardly wondering who 
 the handsome and inquisitive stranger could be. 
 
 " Praps this'll tell," said Cassie, as she lifted the 
 stranger's portmanteau, and examined it carefully for 
 name and initials. " Here it is, I declare !" she ex- 
 claimed, as her eyes fell on the letters " B. O.," inscribed 
 on the steel clasp. " B. O. I wonder what them stands 
 for ! 'BO' bo. Shouldn't wonder if -he was a beau. 
 Sakes alive ! what can his name be and what can he 
 want ? Well, I ain't likely to tell anybody, 'cause I 
 don't know myself. ' Has he got any grown-up darters ?' " 
 she muttered, as the young man's question came again to 
 her mind. " Maybe he's a fortin' hunter. I've hern tell 
 o' sich. Well, I hope Miss Lizzie won't have anything 
 to do with him if he is, and go throw herself away on a 
 graceless scamp like Miss Esther did. Well, I guess, if 
 he goes courtin" there, old Thunderclap will be in his 
 wool, and O, massy on us ! if that Sally hain't let the 
 fire go dead out, while I was talkin' upstairs with ' B. O.' 
 Little black imp ! won't I give it to her ?" 
 
 The morning after the storm dawned clear and cold. 
 All traces of the preceding night's tempest had passed
 
 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 55 
 
 away, and the sun shone forth brightly in a sky of clear, 
 cloudless blue. 
 
 The handsome young stranger stood in the bar-room 
 of the "Eagle," gazing from the open door at the bay, 
 sparkling and flashing in the sun's light, and dotted all 
 over with fishing-boats. Behind the counter sat worthy 
 Giles Fox, smoking his pipe placidly. From the in- 
 terior of the building came at intervals the voice of 
 Cassie, scolding right and left at " You Sally " and " little 
 black imp." 
 
 Suddenly the stranger beheld, emerging from a forest 
 path on the right of the inn, a gentleman on horseback. 
 He rode slowly, and the stranger observed that all the 
 villagers he encountered saluted him respectfully, the 
 men pulling off their hats, the women dropping profound 
 courtesies, and the children, on their way to school, by 
 scampering in evident alarm across meadows and fields. 
 
 As he drew rein before the inn-door, the stranger 
 drew back. The old gentleman entered and approached 
 the bar. 
 
 " Good-morning, Giles," he said, addressing the pro- 
 prietor of the " Eagle" in a patronizing tone. 
 
 " Good-morning, squire good-morning, sir. Fine 
 day after the storm last night, said the host, rising. 
 
 " Great deal of damage done last night great deal," 
 said the old man, speaking rapidly, as was his custom : 
 " one or two of the fishermen's huts down by the shore 
 washed completely away. Yes, sir r ! Careless fools ! 
 Served 'em right. Always said it would happen / 
 knew it. ' Coming events cast their shadows afore,' as 
 Solomon says." 
 
 The young stranger stepped forward and stood before 
 him. 
 
 " Beg pardon, sir," he said, with a slight bow ; "have 
 I the honor of addressing Squire Erliston ?"
 
 56 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 
 
 "Yes, yes to be sure you have ; that's me. Yes, sir. 
 Who're you, eh ? vvho're you ?" said the squire, staring 
 at him with his round, bullet eyes. 
 
 "If Squire Erliston will glance over this, it will an- 
 swer his question," said the young man, presenting a 
 letter. 
 
 The squire held the letter in his hand, and stared at 
 him a moment longer ; then wiped his spectacles and 
 adjusted them upon his nose, opened the letter, and 
 began to read. 
 
 The stranger stood, in his usual careless manner, lean- 
 ing against the counter, and watched him during its 
 perusal. 
 
 " Lord bless me !" exclaimed the squire, as he finished 
 the letter. "So you're the son of my old friend, Oran- 
 more? Who'd think it ? You weren't the size of a well- 
 grown pup when I saw you last. And you're his son ? 
 Well, well ! Give us your hand. ' Who knows what a 
 day may bring forth ?' as Solomon says. I'd as soon 
 have thought of seeing the Khan of Tartary here as you. 
 Oranmore's son ! Well, well, well ! You're his very image 
 a trifle better-looking. And you're Barry Oranmore ? 
 When did you come, eh ? when did you come ?" 
 
 "Last night, sir." 
 
 "Last night, in all the storm ? Bless my soul ! Why 
 didn't you come up to Mount Sunset? Eh, sir? Why 
 didn't you come ?" 
 
 " Really, sir, I feared " 
 
 " Pooh ! pshaw ! nonsense ! no, you did not. 'In- 
 nocence is bold ; but the guilty flee-eth when no one 
 pursues,' as Solomon says. What were you afraid of? 
 S'pose everybody told you I was a demon incarnate 
 confound their impudence ! But I ain't ; no, sir ! 'The 
 devil's not as black as he's painted,' as Solomon says 
 or if he didn't say it, he ought to."
 
 LIZZIES LOVER. 57 
 
 " Indeed, sir, I should be sorry to think of my father's 
 old friend in any such way, I beg to assure you." 
 
 "No, you won't haven't time. Come up to Mount 
 Sunset come, right off ! Must, sir no excuse ; Liz '11 
 be delighted to see you. Come come come along !" 
 
 "Since you insist upon it, squire, I shall do myself 
 the pleasure of accepting your invitation." 
 
 " Yes, yes to besure you will !" again interrupted the 
 impatient squire. " Bless my heart ! and you're little 
 Barry. Well, well !" 
 
 " I am Barry, certainly," said the young man, smiling ; 
 "but whether the adjective 'little' is well applied or 
 not, I feel somewhat doubtful. I have a dim recollec- 
 tion of measuring some six feet odd inches when I left 
 home." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! to be sure ! to be sure !" laughed the 
 lusty old squire. " Little ! by Jove ! you're a head and 
 shoulders taller than I am myself. Yes, sir true as 
 gospel. ' Bad weeds grow fast,' as Solomon says. Lord ! 
 won't my Liz be astonished, though ?" 
 
 " I hope your daughter is quite well, squire." 
 
 " Well ! you'd better believe it. My daughter is 
 never sick. No, sir ; got too much sense specially Liz. 
 Esther always was a simpleton ran away, and all that, 
 before she was out of her bibs and tuckers. Both died 
 knew they would. 'The days of the transgressors shall 
 be short on the earth,' as Solomon says. But Liz has got 
 her eye-teeth cut. Smart girl, my Liz." 
 
 "I anticipate great pleasure in making the acquaint- 
 ance of Miss Erliston," said Oranmore, carelessly ; "her 
 beauty and accomplishments have made her name famil- 
 iar to me long ago." 
 
 "Yes, yes, Liz is good-looking deucedly good-look- 
 ing ; very like what I was at her age. Ah, you're laugh- 
 ing, you rascal! Well, I dare say I'm no beauty now j 
 3*
 
 5 8 LIZZIE'S LOVER. 
 
 but never mind that at present. 'Handsome is as hand- 
 some does," as Solomon says. Come, get your traps and 
 come along. Giles, fly round we're in a hurry." 
 
 Thus adjured, Giles kindly consented to "fly round." 
 All was soon ready ; and, after giving orders to have his 
 portmanteau sent after him, young Oranmore mounted 
 his horse, and, accompanied by the squire, rode off 
 toward Mount Sunset Hall, the squire enlivening the 
 way by numerous quotations from Solomon. 
 
 On reaching the Hall, his host ushered him into the 
 parlor, where, seated at the piano, was the squire's 
 daughter, Lizzie, singing, by some singular coinci- 
 dence : 
 
 "There's somebody coming to marry me 
 There's somebody coming to woo." 
 
 Whether Miss Lizzie had seen that somebody coming 
 through the window, I cannot say. 
 
 She rose abruptly from her seat as they entered, 
 exclaiming : 
 
 " Oh, papa ! I'm so glad you have come." 
 
 Then, seeing the stranger, she drew back with the 
 prettiest affectation of embarrassment in the world. 
 
 Lizzie Erliston was pretty decidedly pretty with a 
 little round, graceful figure, snowy complexion, rosebud 
 lips, and sparkling, vivacious blue eyes. Graceful, 
 thoughtless, airy, dressy, and a most finished flirt was 
 little Lizzie. 
 
 " Mr. Oranmore, my daughter Liz ; Liz, Mr. Oran- 
 more, son of my old friend. Fact ! Hurry up break- 
 fast now I'm starving." 
 
 " I am delighted to welcome the son of papa's friend." 
 said Lizzie, courtesying to the handsome stranger, who 
 returned the salutation with easy gallantry. 
 
 Breakfast was brought in, and the trio, together with
 
 LIZZIES LOVER. 59 
 
 worthy Mrs. Govver, were soon seated around the 
 table. 
 
 "I am afraid, Mr. Oranmore, you will find it very 
 dull here, after being accustomed to the gayety of 
 city life. Our village is the quietest place in the 
 world." 
 
 "Dull!" repeated Oranmore. "Did angels ever 
 condescend to dwell on this earth. I should say they 
 had taken up their abode in St. Mark's." 
 
 He fixed his large dark eyes on her face, and bowed 
 with a look of such ardent yet respectful admiration 
 as he spoke, that Lizzie blushed "celestial, rosy red," 
 and thought it the prettiest speech she had ever heard. 
 
 " Fudge !" grunted the squire. 
 
 "Ah, Mr. Oranmore, I see you are a sad flatterer," 
 said the little lady, smilingly, buttering another roll. 
 
 " Not so, Miss Erliston. Dare I speak what I think, 
 I should indeed be deemed a flatterer," replied Oran- 
 more, gallantly. 
 
 " Bah !" muttered the squire, with a look of intense 
 disgust. 
 
 At this moment a child's shrill screams resounded in 
 one of the rooms above, growing louder and louder each 
 moment. 
 
 "There that's Aurora! Just listen to the little 
 wretch !" exclaimed Lizzie. " That child will be the 
 death of us yet, with her horrid yells. Her lungs must 
 be made of cast-iron, or something harder, for she is in- 
 cessantly screaming." 
 
 The Squire darted an angry look at Mrs. Gower, who 
 faltered out : She was very sorry that she had told 
 Totty to be sure and keep her quiet that she didn't 
 know what was the matter, she was sure 
 
 " Ring the bell !" said the squire, savagely cutting her
 
 60 LIZZIES LOVER. 
 
 short. The summons was answered by the little darkey, 
 Totty. 
 
 " Well, Totty, what's the natter ?" said Lizzie., 
 " Don't you hear the baby squalling there like a little 
 tempest ? Why don't you attend to her ?" 
 
 " Lor ! Miss Lizzie, 'twan't none o' my fault 'deed 
 'twan't," said the little darkey. " Miss Roarer's a-roarin' 
 'cause she can't put her feet in de sugar-bowl. 'Deed I 
 can't 'vent her, to save my precious life. Nobody can't 
 do nothing wid dat 'ar little limb." 
 
 " I'll do something to you you won't like if you don't 
 make her stop !" said the angry squire. "Be off with 
 you now ; and, if I hear another word, I'll I'll twist 
 your neck for you !" 
 
 " Marse, I declare I can't stop her," said Totty, dodg- 
 ing in alarm toward the door. 
 
 " Be off !" thundered the squire, in a rage, hurling a 
 hot roll at the black head of Totty, who adroitly dodged 
 and vanished instanter. 
 
 "Of all diabolical inventions, young ones are the 
 worst !" snappishly exclaimed Squire Erliston, bringing 
 down his fist on the table. "Pests ! plagues ! abomina- 
 tions ! Mrs. Gower, ma'am, if you don't give it a sleep- 
 ing draught when it takes to yelling, I'll I'll I'll " 
 
 "By the way, Mr. Oranmore, as you are from the 
 city," broke in Lizzie, " perhaps you may have heard of 
 some one there who has lost a child ?" 
 
 "What what did you say? a child?" exclaimed 
 Oranmore, starting so suddenly and looking so wild, that 
 all looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " Yes. But, dear me, how pale you look ! Are you 
 ill ?" 
 
 " 111 ! Oh, no ; pray go on," said Oranmore, recov- 
 ering himself by an effort. 
 
 "Well ; last Christmas eve, Mrs. Gower was return-
 
 LIZZIES LOVER. 61 
 
 ing from the city, where she had been to make purchases, 
 and taking the shore road, picked up an infant on the 
 beach, and brought it home. It is a wonder no inquiries 
 were made about it." 
 
 Barry Oranmore breathed freely again. It could not 
 be his child, for he had seen the nurse before leaving the 
 city; and she, fearing to lose her annuity, had told him 
 the child was alive and well : therefore it must be an- 
 other. 
 
 A week passed rapidly away at Sunset Hall. There 
 were sails on the bay, and rides over the hills, and shady 
 forest walks, and drives through the village, and long 
 romantic rambles in the moonlight. And Lizzie Erlis- 
 ton was in love. Was he ? She thought so sometimes 
 when his deep, dark eyes would rest on her, and fill with 
 softest languor as they wandered side by side. But, 
 then, had she not discovered his restlessness, his evident 
 longing to be away, though he still remained? Some- 
 thing in his conduct saddened and troubled her ; for she 
 loved him as devotedly as it was in the power of a nature 
 essentially shallow and selfish to love. But the danger- 
 ous spell of his voice and smile threw a glamour over 
 her senses. She could almost have loved his very faults, 
 had she known them. And, yielding herself to that 
 witching spell, Lizzie Erliston, who had often caught 
 others, at last found herself caught.
 
 62 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 
 
 " Bride, upon thy marriage-day, 
 Did the fluttering of thy breath 
 Speak of joy or woe beneath ? 
 And the hue that went and came 
 On thy cheek like waving flame, 
 Flowed that crimson from the unrest, 
 Or the gladness of thy breast?" HEMANS. 
 
 QUIRE ERLISTON, can I have a few mo- 
 ments' private conversation with you this 
 morning?" said Oranmore, as he sought 
 the squire, whom Mrs. Gower was just 
 helping to ensconce in his easy-chair. 
 " Certainly, certainly, my boy. Mrs. Gower, bring 
 the rest of the pillows by and by. ' Time for everything, 1 
 as Solomon says. Clear out now, ma'am, while 1 attend 
 to this young man's case." 
 
 Barry Oranmore stood in the middle of the floor, 
 resting one hand lightly on the back of "a chair. Squire 
 Erliston, propped up in an easy-chair with pillows and 
 cushions, and wearing an unusually benign expression 
 of countenance caused, probably, by Miss Aurora's 
 extraordinary quietness on that morning. 
 
 " You have doubtless perceived, sir, my attentions to 
 your daughter," went on the young man, in a tone that 
 was almost careless. " Miss Lizzie, I am happy to say, 
 returns my affection ; and, in short, sir, I have asked this 
 interview to solicit your daughter's hand." 
 
 He bowed slightly, and stood awaiting a reply. The 
 squire jumped from his seat, kicked one pillow to the
 
 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 63 
 
 other end of the room, waved another above his head, 
 and shouted : 
 
 "Bless my soul ! it's just what I wanted! Give us 
 your hand, my dear boy. Solicit her hand ! Take it, 
 take it, with all my heart. If she had a dozen of hands, 
 you should have them all." 
 
 " I thank you sincerely, Squire Erliston. Believe me, 
 it only needed your consent to our union to fill my cup 
 of happiness to the brim." 
 
 His voice was low almost scornful ; and the em- 
 phasis upon "happiness" was bitter, indeed. But the 
 squire, in his delight, neither heeded nor noticed. 
 
 " The wedding must come off immediately, my dear 
 fellow. We'll have a rousing one, and no mistake. I 
 was afraid Liz might run off with some penniless scamp, 
 as Esther did ; but now it's all right. Yes, the sooner 
 the wedding comes off the better. ' He who giveth not 
 his daughter in marriage, doeth well ; but he who 
 giveth her doeth better,' as Solomon ought to know, 
 seeing he had some thousands of 'em. Be off now, and 
 arrange with Lizzie the day for the wedding, while I 
 take a sleep. When it's all over, wake me up. There, 
 go ! Mrs. Gower ! hallo ! Mrs. Gower, I say ! come 
 here with the pillows." 
 
 Oranmore hurried out, while Mrs. Gower hurried in 
 he to tell Lizzie of the success of his mission, and she 
 to prepare her master for the arms of Morpheus. 
 
 That day fortnight was fixed upon as their marriage- 
 day. The Bishop of P was to visit St. Mark's, and 
 
 during his advent in the village the nuptials were to be 
 celebrated. 
 
 And such a busy place as Sunset Hall became after 
 the important fact was announced ! Poor Mrs. Gower 
 lost, perceptibly, fifty pounds of flesh, with running in 
 and out, and up and down stairs. Old carpets and old
 
 64 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 
 
 servants were turned out, and new curtains and French 
 cooks turned in. Carpets and custards, and ice-creams 
 and Aurora's screams, and milliners and feathers, and 
 flowers and flounces, and jellies and jams, and upholstery 
 reigned supreme, until the squire swore by all the " fiends 
 in flames "that it was worse than pandemonium, and 
 rushed from the place' in despair to seek refuge with 
 Giles Fox, and smoke his pipe in peace at the " Eagle." 
 
 Barry Oranmore, finding his bride so busily engaged 
 superintending jewels, and satins, and laces, as to be able 
 to dispense with his services, mounted his horse each 
 day, and seldom returned before night. And, amid all 
 the bustle and confusion, no one noticed that he grew 
 thinner and paler day after day ; nor the deep melan- 
 choly filling his dark eyes; nor the bitter, self-scorning 
 look his proud, handsome face ever wore. They knew 
 not how he paced up and down his room, night after 
 night, trying to still the sound of one voice that was ever 
 mournfully calling his name. They knew not that when 
 he quitted the brilliantly-lighted rooms, and plunged 
 into the deep, dark forest, it was to shut out the sight of 
 a sad, reproachful face, that ever haunted him, day and 
 night. 
 
 Lizzie was in her glory, flitting about like a bird from 
 morning till night. Such wonderful things as she had 
 manufactured out of white satin and Mechlin lace, and 
 such confusion as she caused flying through the house, 
 boxing the servants' ears, and lecturing Mrs. Gowerand 
 shaking Aurora who had leave now to yell to her 
 heart's content and turning everything topsy-turvy, 
 until the squire brought down his fist with a thump, and 
 declared that though Solomon had said there was a time 
 for everything, neither Solomon, nor any other man, 
 could ever convince him that there was a time allotted 
 for such a racket and rumpus as that.
 
 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 65 
 
 But out of chaos, long ago, was brought forth order ; 
 and the "eve before the bridal " everything in Sunset 
 Hall was restored to peace and quietness once more. 
 The rooms were perfectly dazzling with the glitter of new 
 furniture and the blaze of myriads of lusters. And such 
 a crowd as on the wedding night filled those splendid 
 rooms ! There was Mrs. Gower, magnificent in brown 
 velvet, preserved for state occasions like the present, 
 with such a miraculous combination of white ribbons 
 and lace on her head. There was the squire, edifying 
 the public generally with copious extracts from Solomon 
 and some that were not from Solomon. There was Mrs. 
 Oranmore, grim and gray as ever, moving like the guilty 
 shadow of a lost soul, through those gorgeous rooms 
 and that glittering crowd, with the miserable feeling at 
 her heart, that her only son was to be offered that night a 
 sacrifice on the altar of her pride and ambition. There was 
 Doctor Wiseman, all legs and arms, as usual, slinking 
 among the guests. There was the bishop, a fat, pompous, 
 oily-looking gentleman, in full canonicals, waiting to 
 tie the Gordian knot. 
 
 There was a bustle near the door, a swaying to and 
 fro of the crowd, and the bridal party entered. Every 
 voice was instantaneously hushed, every eye was fixed 
 upon them. How beautiful the bride looked, with her 
 elegant robes and gleaming jewels, her downcast eyes, 
 and rose-flushed cheeks, and half-smiling lips. The eyes 
 of all the gentlemen present were fixed wistfully upon 
 her. And the eyes of the ladies wandered to the bride- 
 groom, with something very like a feeling of awe, as 
 they saw how pale and cold he was looking how dif- 
 ferent from any bridegroom they had ever seen before. 
 Were his thoughts wandering to another bridal, in a land 
 beyond the sea, with one for whose blue eyes and golden 
 hair he would then willingly have surrendered fame, and
 
 66 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 
 
 wealth, and ambition ? And now, she who had left 
 friends, and home, and country for his sake, was deserted 
 for another. Yet still that unknown, penniless girl was 
 dearer than all the world beside. Well might he look 
 arid feel unlike a bridegroom, with but one image filling 
 his heart, but one name on his lips " Evdeen ! Eveleen!" 
 But no one there could read the heart, throbbing so 
 tumultuously beneath that cold, proud exterior. They 
 passed through the long rooms the bishop stood before 
 them the service began. To him it seemed like the 
 service for the dead to her it was the most delightful 
 thing in the world. There was fluttering of fans, flirting 
 of perfumed handkerchiefs, smiling lips and eyes, and 
 
 " With decorum all things carried ; 
 Miss smiled, and blushed, and then was married." 
 
 The ceremony was over, and Lizzie Erliston was 
 Lizzie Erliston no longer. 
 
 But just at that moment, when the crowd around Were 
 about to press forward to offer their congratulations, a 
 loud, ringing footstep, that sounded as though shod with 
 steel, was heard approaching. A moment more, and an 
 uninvited guest stood among them. The tall, thin, sharp, 
 angular figure of a woman past middle age, with a grim, 
 weird, old-maidenish face ; a stiff, rustling dress of iron- 
 gray ; a black net cap over her grizzled locks, and a 
 tramp like that of a dragoon, completed the external of 
 this rather unprepossessing figure. 
 
 All fell back and made way for her, while a murmur : 
 "Miss Hagar! What brings Miss Hagar here?" passed 
 through the room. 
 
 She advanced straight to where Lizzie stood, leaning 
 proudly and fondly on the arm of Oranmore, and draw- 
 ing forth a wreath of mingled cypress and dismal yew,
 
 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 67 
 
 laid it amid the orange blossoms on the head of the 
 bride. 
 
 With a shriek of superstitious terror, Lizzie tore the 
 ominous wreath from her head, and flung it on the floor. 
 Heeding not the action, the woman raised her long, 
 gaunt, fleshless arm like an inspired sibyl, and chanted 
 in a voice so wild and dreary, that every heart stood 
 still : 
 
 " Oh, bride ! woe to thee ! 
 Ere the spring leaves deck the tree, 
 Those locks you now with jewels twine 
 Shall wear this cypress wreath of mine." 
 
 Then striding through the awe-struck crowd, she 
 passed out and disappeared. 
 
 Faint and sick with terror, Lizzie hid her face in the 
 arm that supported her. A moment's silence ensued, 
 broken by the squire, who came stamping along, ex- 
 claiming : 
 
 " Hallo ! what's the matter here ! Have either of 
 these good people repented of their bargain, already. 
 ' Better late than never,' as Solomon says." 
 
 " It was only my sister Hagar, who came here to pre- 
 dict fortunes, as usual," said Doctor Wiseman, with an 
 uneasy attempt at a laugh, " and succeeded in scaring 
 Miss Lizzie Mrs. Oranmore, I mean half out of her 
 wits." 
 
 " Pooh ! pooh ! is that all. Liz, don't be such a little 
 fool ! There goes the music. Let every youngster be 
 off, on penalty of death, to the dancing-room. ' Time to 
 dance,' as Solomon says, and if it's not at weddings, I'd 
 like to know when it is. Clear !" 
 
 Thus adjured, with a great deal of laughing and 
 chatting, the company dispersed. The folding-doors 
 flew open, and merry feet were soon tripping gayly to
 
 68 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 
 
 the music, and flirting, and laughing, and love-making, 
 and ice-creams were soon at their height, and Lizzie, as 
 she floated airily around the room in the waltz, soon for- 
 got all about Miss Hagar's prediction. Barry Oranmore, 
 by an effort, shook off his gloom, and laughed with the 
 merriest, and waltzed with his bride, and the pretty bride- 
 maids ; and all the time his heart was faraway with that 
 haunting shape that had stood by his side all the night. 
 ****** 
 
 A month had passed away. Their bridal tour had 
 been a short one, and the newly wedded pair had re- 
 turned to Sunset Hall. And Lizzie was at last begin- 
 ning to open her eyes, and wonder what ailed her husband 
 So silent, so absent, so restless, growing more and more 
 so day after day. His long rides over the hills were now 
 taken alone ; and he would only return to lie on a 
 lounge in some darkened room, with his face hidden 
 from view by his long, neglected locks. At first she 
 pouted a little at this ; but seeing it produced no effect, 
 she at last concluded to let him have his own way, and 
 she would take hers. So evening after evening, while 
 he lay alone, so still and motionless, in his darkened 
 chamber, Lizzie frequented parties and soirees, giving 
 plausible excuses for her husband's absence, and was the 
 gayest of the gay. 
 
 One morning, returning with the gray dawn, from an 
 unusually brilliant soiree, she inquired for her husband, 
 and learned that, half an hour before, he had called for 
 his horse and ridden off. This did not surprise her, for 
 it had often happened so before ; so, without giving the 
 matter a second thought, she flung herself on her bed, 
 and fell fast asieep. 
 
 Half an hour after the sound of many feet, and a 
 confused murmur of many voices below, fell on her ear. 
 
 Wondering what it could mean, she raised herself on
 
 THE CYPRESS WREATH. 69 
 
 her elbow to listen, when the door was burst open ; and 
 Totty, gray, gasping, horror-stricken, stood before her. 
 
 " Totty, what in the name of heaven is the niatter !" 
 exclaimed Lizzie, in surprise and alarm. 
 
 " Oh, missus ! Oh, missus !" were the only words the 
 frightened negress could utter. 
 
 " Merciful heaven ! what has happened ?" exclaimed 
 Lizzie, springing to her feet, in undefined terror. 
 " Totty, Totty, tell me, or I shall go and see." 
 
 "Oh, Miss Lizzie ! Oh, Miss Lizzie !" cried the girl, 
 falling on her knees, "for de dear Lord's sake, don't go. 
 Oh, Miss Lizzie, it's too drefful to tell ! It would kill 
 you !" 
 
 With a wild cry, Lizzie snatched her robe from the 
 clinging hands that held it, and fled from the room down 
 the long staircase. There was a crowd round the parlor 
 door ; all the servants were collected there, and inside 
 she could see many of the neighbors gathered. She 
 strove to force her way through the throng of appalled 
 servants, who mechanically made way for her to pass. 
 
 " Keep her back keep her back, I tell you," cried the 
 voice of Dr. Wiseman, "would you kill her?" 
 
 A score of hands were extended to keep her back, but 
 they were too late. She had entered, and a sight met 
 her eyes that sent the blood curdling with horror to her 
 heart. A wild, terrific shriek rang through the house, as 
 she threw up both arms and fell, in strong convulsions, 
 on the floor.
 
 70 GIPSY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GIPSY. 
 
 " A little, wild-eyed, tawny child, 
 A fairy sprite, untamed and wild, 
 Like to no one save herself, 
 A laughing, mocking, gipsy elf." 
 
 EAR after year glides away, and we wonder 
 vaguely that they can have passed. On our 
 way to the grave we may meet many troubles, 
 but time obliterates them all, and we learn 
 to laugh and talk as merrily again as 
 though the grass was not growing between our face and 
 one we could never love enough. But such is life. 
 
 Ten years have passed away at St. Mark's since the 
 close of our last chapter ; ten years of dull, tedious mo- 
 notony. The terrible sight that had met Lizzie Oran- 
 more's eyes that morning, was the dead form of her 
 young husband. He had been riding along at his usual 
 reckless, headlong pace, and had been thrown from his 
 horse and killed. 
 
 Under the greensward in the village church-yard, 
 they laid his world-weary form to rest, with only 
 the name inscribed on the cold, white marble to tell he 
 had ever existed. And no one dreamed of the youthful 
 romance that had darkened all the life of Barry Oran- 
 more. Lying on the still heart, that had once beat so 
 tumultuously, they found the miniature of a fair young 
 face and a long tress of sunny hair. Wondering silent- 
 ly to whom they belonged, good Mrs. Gower laid them 
 aside, little dreaming of what they were one day to dis- 
 cover.
 
 GIPSY. 71 
 
 Lizzie, with her usual impulsiveness, wept and sobbed 
 for a time inconsolably. But it was not in her shallow, 
 thoughtless nature to grieve long for any one ; and ere 
 a year had passed, she laughed as gayly and sang as 
 merrily as ever. 
 
 Sometimes, it may be, when her child her boy 
 would look up in her face with the large dark eyes of 
 him who had once stolen her girlish heart away, tears 
 for a moment would weigh down her golden eyelashes ; 
 but the next instant the passing memory was forgotten, 
 and her laugh again rang out merry and clear. 
 
 And so the ten years had passed, and no change had 
 taken place at Sunset Hall save that it was far from be- 
 ing the quiet place it. had been formerly. 
 
 Has the reader forgotten Aurora, the little foundling 
 of yelling notoriety ? If so, it is no fault of hers, for 
 that shrill-voiced young lady never allowed herself to be 
 pushed aside to make room for any one. Those ten 
 years at least made a change in her. 
 
 See her now, as she stands with her dog by her side, 
 for a moment, to rest, in the quaint old porch fronting 
 Sunset Hill. She has been romping with Lion this 
 morning, and now, panting and breathless, she pauses 
 for an instant to prepare for a fresh race. There she 
 stands ! A little, slight, wiry, agile figure, a little thin, 
 dark, but bright and sparkling face, with small, irregular 
 features, never for a moment at rest. With a shower of 
 short, crisp, dark curls streaming in the breeze, every 
 shining ring dancing with life, and fire, and mirth, and 
 mischief. And with such eyes, looking in her face you 
 forgot every other feature gazing in those "bonny wells 
 of brown," that seemed fairly scintillating wickedness. 
 How they did dance, and flash, and sparkle, with youth, 
 and glee, and irrepressible fifn albeit the darker flame 
 that now and then leaped from their shining depths be-
 
 72 GIPSY. 
 
 spoke a wild, fierce spirit, untamed and daring, slumber- 
 ing in her heart, quiet and unaroused as yet, but which^ 
 would one day burst forth, scathing, blighting all on 
 whom it fell. 
 
 And such is Aurora Gower. A wild, dark, elfish 
 changeling, not at all pretty, but the most bewitching 
 sprite withal, that ever kept a household in confusion. 
 Continually getting into scrapes and making mischief, 
 and doing deeds that would have been unpardonable in 
 any one else, Aurora, in some mysterious way of her 
 own, escaped censure, and the most extravagant actions 
 were passed over with the remark, that it was "just like 
 her just what you might expect from a gipsy." Owing 
 to her dark skin and wild habits, "Gipsy " was the name 
 by which Mrs. Grower's protegee was universally known. 
 With every one she was a favorite, for though always 
 saucy, often impertinent, and invariably provoking, it 
 was impossible to be angry with a little fairy of a crea- 
 ture whom they could almost hold up between their 
 finger and thumb. 
 
 As for the burly old squire, he could as soon think 
 of getting along without his brandy as without Gipsy. 
 For though they continually quarreled, he abusing her 
 unmercifully, and she retorting impudently, yet, when 
 Gipsy at the end would flounce out in a towering pas- 
 sion, she was sure a few hours after to find a peace- 
 offering from the old man, in the shape of a costly gift, 
 lying on her table. After some coaxing she would con- 
 sent to forgive him, and Squire Erliston and his little 
 ward would smoke the calumet of peace (figuratively 
 speaking); but, alas! for the short-lived truce ere an- 
 other hour the war of words would be raging "fast and 
 furious "once more. 
 
 Good Mrs. Gowcr zealously strove to impress on the 
 wayward elf a becoming respect for the head of the
 
 GIPSY. 73 
 
 household ; and sometimes, in a fit of penitence, Aurora 
 would promise "not to give Guardy any more bile," 
 but being by nature woefully deficient in the bump of 
 reverence, the promise had never been kept ; and at last 
 the worthy housekeeper gave up the task in despair. 
 
 And so Aurora was left pretty much to follow her 
 "own sweet will," and no one need wonder that she 
 grew up the maddest, merriest elf that ever danced in 
 the moonlight. At the age of eleven she could ride 
 with the best horseman for miles around, hunt like a 
 practiced sportsman, bring down a bird on the wing 
 with her unerring bullet, and manage a boat with the 
 smartest fisherman in St. Marks. Needle-work, dolls, 
 and other amusements suitable for her age, she regarded 
 with the utmost contempt, and with her curls streaming 
 behind her, her hat swinging in her hand, she might be 
 seen flying about the village from morning till night, 
 always running, for she was too quick and impetuous to 
 walk. In the stormiest weather, when the winds were 
 highest and the sea roughest, she would leap into one of 
 the fishermen's boats, and unheeding storm and danger, 
 go out with them, in spite of commands and entreaties 
 to the contrary, until danger and daring became with 
 her second nature. But while Aurora has been standing 
 for her picture the rest of the family have assembled in 
 the breakfast-parlor of Mount Sunset Hall. Languidly 
 stretched on a sofa lay Lizzie Oranmore. Those ten 
 years have made no change in her ; just the same rose- 
 leaf complexion, the same round, little graceful figure, 
 the same coquettish airs and graces as when we saw her 
 last. Sbe might readily have been taken for the elder 
 sister of her son, Louis, who stood by the window 
 sketching the view before him. 
 
 There was a striking resemblance between Louis 
 and his dead father ; the same clear, olive complexion, 
 4
 
 74 GIPSY. 
 
 the same sable locks and bold black eyes, the same 
 scornful, curving upper lip, and the same hot, rash, im- 
 petuous nature. But with all his fiery impetuosity he 
 was candid, open and generous, the soul of honor and 
 frankness, but with a nature which, according as it was 
 trained, must be powerful for good or evil. 
 
 Sitting propped up in an easy-chair, with his gouty 
 leg, swathed in flannel, stretched on two chairs, was the 
 squire, looking in no very sweet frame of mind. The 
 morning paper, yet damp from the press, lay before him ; 
 but the squire's attention would wander from it every 
 moment to the door. 
 
 "Where's that little wretch this morning?" broke 
 out the squire, at last, throwing down his paper impa- 
 tiently. 
 
 "I really can't say," replied Lizzie, opening her eyes 
 languidly. " I saw her racing over the hills this morn- 
 ing, with those dreadful dogs of hers. I expect she will 
 be back soon." 
 
 " And we must wait for her ladyship J" growled the 
 squire. "I'll cane her within an inch of her life if she 
 doesn't learn to behave herself. ' Spare the child and 
 spoil the rod,' as Solomon says." 
 
 "Here she comes !" exclaimed Louis, looking up. 
 "Speak of Satan and he'll appear." 
 
 " Satan ! She's no Satan, I'd have you know, you 
 young jackanapes !" said the squire, angrily, for though 
 always abusing the "little vixen," Aurora, himself, he 
 would suffer no one else to do it. 
 
 " Look, look how she dashes along !" exclaimed 
 Louis, with kindling eyes, unheeding the ^reproof. 
 " There ! she has leaped her pony over the gate, and 
 now she is standing up in her saddle ; and bravo ! -.veil 
 done, Gipsy ! She has actually sprung over black Jupe's 
 head in a flying leap."
 
 GIPSY. 75 
 
 While he spoke Gipsy came running up the lawn to- 
 ward the house, singing, in a high, shrill voice, as she 
 
 ran : 
 
 / 
 
 " He died long, long ago, long ago 
 
 He had no hair on the top of his head, 
 The place where the wool ought to grow, 
 Lay down the shovel and the hoe-o-o, 
 Hang up " 
 
 " Stop that, stop that, you vixen ! Stop it, I tell you, 
 or I'll hang you up !" said the squire, angrily. " Where 
 do you learn those vulgar doggerels ?" 
 
 " Make 'em up, Guardy every one of 'em. Ain't I a 
 genius ?" 
 
 " I don't believe it, you scapegrace." 
 
 " No wonder you don't, seeing there never was a ge- 
 nius in the family before ; but 'better late than never,' 
 you know." 
 
 "None of your impertinence, miss. Give an account 
 of yourself, if you please. Where were you this morn- 
 ing ? Answer me that!" 
 
 " Nowhere, sir." 
 
 " Don't tell stories, you little sinner. Where is no- 
 where ?" 
 
 " Over to Doctor Spider's." 
 
 " Gipsy, my dear, why will you persist in calling 
 Doctor Wiseman nicknames ?" remonstrated Lizzie. 
 
 " Why, Aunt Liz, because he's just like a spider, for 
 all the world all legs," flippantly replied Gipsy. 
 
 " And what business had you there, monkey ? Didn't 
 I tell you not to go ? I thought I told you never to go 
 there !" said the squire, in rising wrath. 
 
 " Know it, Guardy, and that's just the reason I went." 
 
 " Because I forbade you, eh ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir."
 
 76 GIPSY. 
 
 " You you you disobedient little hussy, you ! 
 Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" 
 
 " Ashamed ! what of ? I haven't got the gout in my 
 leg." 
 
 " Gipsy, you dreadful child, hush !" said Lizzie, in 
 alarm. 
 
 " Oh, let her go on ! She's just as you taught her, 
 madam. And as to you, Miss Gipsy, or Aurora, or 
 whatever your name is, let me tell you, the gout is noth- 
 ing to be ashamed of. It runs in the most respectable 
 families, miss." 
 
 " Lord, Guardy ! What a pity I can't have it, too, 
 and help to keep up the respectability of the family !" 
 
 Louis turned to the window, and struggled violently 
 with a laugh, which he endeavored to change into a 
 cough, and the laugh and cough meeting, produced a 
 choking sensation. This sent Gipsy to his aid, who, 
 after administering sundry thumps on his back with her 
 little closed fists, restored him to composure, and the 
 squire returned to the charge. 
 
 " And now, to ' return to our mutton,' as Solomon 
 says ; or hold on a minute was it Solomon who said 
 that ?" 
 
 The squire paused, and placed his finger reflectively on 
 the point of his nose, in deep thought ; but being unable 
 to decide, he looked up, and went on : 
 
 'Yes, miss, as I was saying, what took you over to 
 Deep Dale so early this morning ? Tell me that." 
 
 " Well, if I must, I must, I s'pose so here goes." 
 
 " Hallo, Gipsy !" interrupted Louis. " Take care 
 you're making poetry." 
 
 " No, sir ! I scorn the accusation !" said Gipsy, draw- 
 ing herself up. "But, Guardy, since I must tell you, I 
 went over to see ahem ! Archie I"
 
 GIPSY 77 
 
 "You did !" grunted Guardy. " Humph! humph ! 
 humph !" 
 
 " Don't take it so much to heart, Guardy. No use 
 grieving 'specially as the grief might settle in your 
 poor afflicted leg limb, I mean." 
 
 "And may I ask, young lady, what you could pos- 
 sibly want with him ?" said the squire, sternly. 
 
 " Oh, fifty things ! He's my beau, you know." 
 
 " Your beau ! your beau ! your BEAU ! My con- 
 science !" 
 
 " Yes, sir, we're engaged." 
 
 "You are? 'Oh, Jupiter,' as Solomon says. Pray, 
 madam (for such I presume you consider yourself), when 
 will you be twelve years old ?" 
 
 " Oh, as soon as I can. I don't want to be an old 
 maid." 
 
 " So it seems, you confounded little Will-o'-the-wisp. 
 And will you be good enough to inform us how this 
 precious engagement came about ?" said the squire, with 
 a savage frown. 
 
 " With pleasure, sir. You see, we went out to gather 
 grapes in the wood one day, and we had a splendiferous 
 time. And says I, ' Archie, ain't this nice ?' and says he 
 ' Yes' and says I, ' Wouldn't it be nice if we'd get mar- 
 ried ?' and says he, ' Yes' and says I, ' Will you have 
 me, though ?' and says he, ' Yes' and says I " 
 
 " ' Ain't we a precious pair of fools ?' and says he, 
 'Yes,'" interrupted the squire, mimicking her. "Oh, 
 you're a nice gal you're a pretty young lady !" 
 
 " Yes, ain't I, now ? You and I are of one opinion 
 there, exactly. Ain't you proud of me ?" 
 
 " Proud of you, you barefaced little wretch ! I'd like 
 to twist your neck for you !" thundered the squire. 
 
 " Better not, Guardy ; you'd be hung for man* 
 slaughter if you did, you know."
 
 78 GIPSY. 
 
 " You don't call yourself a man, I hope !" said Louis. 
 
 " Well, if I don't, I'm a girl which is a thousand 
 times nicer. And speaking of girls, reminds me that 
 Miss Hagar's got the dearest, darlingest, beautifulest little 
 girl you ever set your eyes on." 
 
 " Miss Hagar ?" they all exclaimed in surprise. 
 
 " Yes, to be sure. Law ! you needn't look so aston- 
 ished ; this is a free country. And why can't Miss 
 Hagar have a little girl, if she wants to, as well as any- 
 body else, I'd like to know ?" exclaimed Gipsy, rather 
 indignantly. 
 
 "To be sure," said Louis, who took the same view of 
 the case as Gipsy. 
 
 " Where did she get it ? whose little girl is it?" in- 
 quired Lizzie, slightly roused from her languor by the 
 news. 
 
 " Don't know, I'm sure ; nobody don't. She was off 
 somewhere poking round all day yesterday, and came 
 home at night with this little girl. Oh, Louis, she's such 
 a dear little thing !" 
 
 " Is she ?" said Louis, absently. 
 
 "Yes, indeed with a face like double- refined moon- 
 light, and long, yellow hair, and blue eyes, and pink 
 dress, and cheeks to match. She's twice as pretty as 
 Minette ; and Miss Hagar's going to keep her, and teach 
 her to tell fortunes, I expect." 
 
 "I wonder Dr. Wiseman allows Miss Hagar to fill 
 the house with little beggars," said Lizzie. 
 
 " Oh, Spider's got nothing to do with it. Miss Hagar 
 has money of her own, and can keep her if she likes. 
 Pity if she'd have to ask permission of that 'thing of 
 legs and arms,' everything she wants to do." 
 
 " Gipsy, my dear, you really must not speak so of 
 Dr. Wiseman ; it's positively shocking," said the highly- 
 scandalized Mrs. Oranmore.
 
 GIPSY. 79 
 
 " Well, I don't care ; he is a ' thing of legs and arms.' 
 There, now !" 
 
 " What's the little girl's name, Gipsy ?" inquired 
 Louis. 
 
 " Celeste isn't it pretty ? And she oh, she's a dar- 
 ling, and no mistake. Wouldn't I marry her if I was a 
 man maybe I wouldn't." 
 
 " What's her other name ?" 
 
 " Got none at least she said so ; and, as I didn't like 
 to tell her she told a story, I asked Miss Hagar, and she 
 told me to mind my own business ; yes, she actually did. 
 Nobody minds how they talk to me. People haven't a 
 bit of respect for me ; and I have to put up with sass 
 from every one. I won't stand it much longer, either. 
 There !" 
 
 " No, I wouldn't advise you to," said Louis. " Better 
 sit down ; no use in standing it." 
 
 " Wiseman's a fool if he lets that crazy tramp, his 
 sister, support beggars in his house," exclaimed the 
 squire, in a threatening tone. " Lunatics like her should 
 not be allowed to go at large. He has no business to 
 permit it." 
 
 " I'd like to see him trying to stop it," said Gipsy. 
 " I'd be in his wool." 
 
 "You!" said the squire, contemptuously. "What 
 could a little Tom Thumb in petticoats, like you, do?" 
 
 " Look here, now, Guardy, don't call a lady names. 
 When you speak of Tom Thumb, you know, it's getting 
 personal. What could I do ? Why, I'd set his house on 
 fire some night about his ears, or some day, when out 
 shooting, a bullet might strike him accidentally on pur- 
 pose. It takes me to defend injured innocence," said 
 Gipsy, getting up, and squaring-off in an attitude of de- 
 fiance, as she exclaimed : "Come on, old Wiseman, I'm 
 ready for you !"
 
 8o GIPSY. 
 
 " Well, I can't allow you to associate with beggars. 
 You must never go to Deep Dale again. I can't coun- 
 tenance his proceedings. If he choose to make a fool of 
 himself, it's no reason why I should do so too." 
 
 " None in the world, sir especially as nature has 
 saved you that trouble." 
 
 " You audacious little demon, you ! what do you 
 mean ?" 
 
 " Ahem ! I was just observing, sir, that it's time for 
 breakfast," said Gipsy, demurely. 
 
 "Humph! humph! well, ring for Mrs. Gower, and 
 hold your tongue " 
 
 "Sorry I can't oblige you, Guardy. But how can I 
 hold my tongue and eat ?" 
 
 " I wish I could find something to take the edge off 
 it ; it's altogether too sharp," growled the old man to 
 himself. 
 
 Mrs. Gower, fat and good-natured as ever, entered at 
 this moment ; and, as they assembled round the table, 
 the squire who, though he generally got the worst of 
 the argument, would never let Gipsy rest again re- 
 sumed the subject. 
 
 " Mind, monkey, you're not to go to Deep Dale 
 again ; I forbid you positively forbid you." 
 
 " Lor ! Guardy, you don't say so !" 
 
 "Don't be disrespectful, minx. If I'm your guardian, 
 you shall obey me. You heard me say so before, didn't 
 you ?" 
 
 " Why, yes, I think so ; but, then, you say so many 
 things, a body can't be expected to remember them all. 
 You must be talking, you know ; and you might as well 
 be saying that as anything else." 
 
 " But I am determined you shall obey me this time. 
 Do you hear? At your peril, minion, dare to go there 
 again !" thundered the squire.
 
 GIPSY. Si 
 
 " That very pretty, Guardy, won't you say it over 
 again," replied the tantalizing elf. 
 
 " Gipsy ! oh, Gipsy, my dear !" chanted the ladies 
 Gower and Oranmore, in a horrified duet. 
 
 " You you you little, yellow abomination you ! 
 You you skinny " 
 
 " Squire Erliston," said Gipsy, drawing herself up 
 with stately dignity, " let me remind you, you are get- 
 ting to be personal. How would you like it if I called 
 you you you red-faced old fright you you you 
 gouty-legged " 
 
 " There ! there ! that'll do," hastily interrupted the 
 squire, while a universal shout of laughter went round 
 the table at the ludicrous manner in which the little imp 
 mimicked his blustering tone. "There, there! don't 
 say a word about it ; but mind, if you dare to go to Dr. 
 Wiseman's, you'll rue it. Mind that." 
 
 "All right, sir; let me help you to another roll," 
 said Gipsy, with her sweetest smile, as she passed the 
 plate to the old man, who looked, not only daggers, but 
 bowie-knives at the very least.
 
 82 A STORM. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A STORM AT MOUNT SUNSET HALL. 
 
 " At this Sir Knight grew high in wrath, 
 And lifting hands and eyes up both, 
 Three times he smote his stomach stout, 
 From whence, at length, fierce words broke out." 
 
 HUDIBRAS. 
 
 OTTY ! Totty ! I say, Totty, where are you ? 
 I declare to screech, I never saw such a 
 provoking darkey in my life. Nobody 
 never can find her when she's wanted ! 
 Totty ! Totty ! hallo, Totty ! I want you 
 dreadfully, it's a matter of life and death ! If that girl 
 doesn't pay more attention to me, I'll I'll discharge her ; 
 I will, so help me Jimmy Johnston ! Totty ! Totty-y-y !" 
 So called and shouted Gipsy, as she flew in and out, and 
 up and down stairs, banging doors after her with a noise 
 that made the old house ring, and scolding at the top of 
 her voice all the time. 
 
 " Laws ! Miss Roarer, here I is," said Totty, hurrying 
 as fast as possible into the presence of the little virago, 
 to get rid of the noise. 
 
 "Oh, it's a wonder you came ! I s'pose you'd rather 
 be lounging down in the kitchen than 'tending to your 
 mistress. How dare you go away, when you don't know 
 what minute I may want you ? Hey?" 
 
 "Good Lor! Miss Roarer, I only went down to de 
 kitchen to get my breakfas' 'long o' the res'. How you 
 'spec I's gvvine to live 'thout eatin'? You allers does call 
 
 jes' the contrariest time, allers " 
 
 " Hold your tongue !" exclaimed her imperious little
 
 A STORM. 83 
 
 mistress ; "don't give me any of your imperunce! There, 
 curl my hair, and put on my pretty purple riding-habit, 
 and make me just as pretty as ever you can. Hurry 
 up!" 
 
 "Make you pretty, indeed !" muttered the indignant 
 Totty ; " 'deed, when de Lord couldn't do it, 'taint very 
 likely I can. Come 'long and keep still, two or free 
 minutes, if you can. I never knew such a res'less little 
 critter in all my life." 
 
 While Gipsy was standing as quietly as her fidgety 
 nature would allow, to have her hair curled, Mrs. Govver 
 entered. 
 
 "Well, 'Rora, my dear, where are you going this 
 morning, that you are dressing in your best ?" said Mrs. 
 Govver, glancing at the gay purple riding-habit for 
 dress was a thing Gipsy seldom troubled herself about. 
 
 " Why, aunty, where would I be going ; over to Spi- 
 der's, of course." 
 
 "Oh, Gipsy, my dear, .pray don't think of such a 
 thing !" exclaimed the good woman, in a tone of alarm. 
 " Your guardian will be dreadfully angry." 
 
 " Lor ! aunty, I know that ; there wouldn't be any fun 
 in it if he wasn't," replied the elf. 
 
 " Oh, Aurora, child ! you don't know what you're do- 
 ing. Consider all he has done for you, and how ungrate- 
 ful it is of you to disobey him in this manner. Now, he 
 has set his heart on keeping you from Deep Dale (you 
 know he never liked the doctor nor his family), and he 
 will be terribly, frightfully angry if he finds you have dis- 
 obeyed him. Ride over the hills, go out sailing or shoot- 
 ing, but do not go there." 
 
 Gipsy, who had been yawning fearfully during this 
 address, now jerked herself away from Totty, and re- 
 plied, impatiently : 
 
 " Well, let him get frightfully angry ; I'll get ' fright-
 
 84 A STORM. 
 
 fully angry' too, and so there will be a pair of us.' 
 Do you s'pose I'd miss seeing that dear, sweet, little girl 
 again, just because Guardy will stamp, and fume, and 
 roar, and scare all mankind into fits? Not I, indeed. 
 Let him come on, who's afraid," and Gipsy threw her- 
 self into a stage attitude, and shouted the words in a 
 voice that was quite imposing, coming as it did from so 
 small a body. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, child ! consider," again began Mrs. 
 Gower. 
 
 " Oh, aunty, dear ! I won't consider, never did ; don't 
 agree with my constitution, no how you can fix it. 
 Arciiie told me one day when I was doing something he 
 considered a crazy trick, to ' consider.' Well, for his 
 sake, I tried to, and before ten minutes, aunty, I felt 
 symptoms of falling into a decline. There now !" 
 
 " Oh, my dear ! my dear ! you are incorrigible," 
 sighed Mrs. Gower; "but what would you do if your 
 guardian some day turned you out of doors ? You have 
 no claim on him, and he might do it, you know, in a fit 
 of anger." 
 
 " If he did " exclaimed Gipsy, springing up with 
 dashing eyes. 
 
 " Well, and if he did, what would you do ?" 
 
 "Why, I'd defy him to his face, and then I'd run off, 
 and go to sea, and make my fortune, and come back, and 
 marry you no, I couldn't do that, but I'd marry Archie. 
 Lor! I'd get along splendidly." 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! Gipsy ! rightly named Gipsy ! how lit- 
 tle you know what it is to be friendless in the world, 
 you poor little fairy you ! Now, child, be quiet, and 
 talk sensibly to me for a few minutes." 
 
 " Oh, bother, aunty ! I can't be quiet ; and as to talk- 
 ing sensibly, why I rather think I am doing that just 
 now. There, now now do, please, bottle up that lecture
 
 A STORM. 85 
 
 
 you've got for me, and it'll keep, for I'm off!" And 
 
 darting past them, she ran down stairs, through the long 
 hall, and was flying toward the stables in a twinkling. 
 
 On her way she met our old friend, Jupiter. 
 
 " Hallo, Jupe ! Oh, there you are ! Go and saddle 
 Mignonne 'mediately. I want him ; quick, now !" 
 
 "Why, Miss Roarer, honey, I'se sorry for ter diser- 
 blige yer, chile, but ole mas'r he tole me not to let yer 
 get Minnin to-day," said Jupiter, looking rather uneasily 
 at the dark, wild, little face, and large, lustrous eyes, in 
 which a storm was fast brewing. 
 
 " Do you mean to say he told you not to let me have 
 my pony ?" she said, or rather hissed, through her tight- 
 ly-clenched teeth. 
 
 " Jes' so, Miss Ro rer ; he tell me so not ten minutes 
 ago." 
 
 " Now, Jupiter, look here ; you go right off and sad- 
 dle Mignonne, or it'll be the worse for you. D'ye 
 hear?" 
 
 " Miss Roarer, I 'clare for't I dassent. Mas'r'll half 
 kill me." 
 
 "And I'll whole kill you if you don't," said Gipsy, 
 with a wild flash of her black eyes, as she sprang lightly 
 on a high stone bench, and raised her riding-whip over 
 the head of the trembling darkey ; " go, sir ; go right 
 off and do as I tell you !" 
 
 " Laws ! I can't 'deed chile ! I can't " 
 
 Whack ! whack ! whack ! with no gentle hand went 
 the whip across his shoulders, interrupting his apology. 
 
 " There, you black rascal ! will you dare to disobey 
 your mistress again !" Whack ! whack ! whack ! " If you 
 don't bring Mignonne out this minute, I'll shoot you 
 dead as a mackerel ! There; does that argument over- 
 come your scruples ?" whack ! whack ! whack ! 
 
 With something between a yell and a howl, poor
 
 86 A STORM. 
 
 Jupiter sprung back, and commenced rubbing his afflicted 
 back. 
 
 " Will you go ?" demanded Gipsy, raising her whip 
 once more. 
 
 " Yes ! yes! Who ever did see such a 'bolical little 
 limb as dat ar. Ole mas'r '11 kill me, I knows he will," 
 whimpered poor Jupiter as he slunk away to the stables, 
 closely followed by his vixenish little mistress, still 
 poising the dangerous whip. 
 
 Mignonne, a small, black, fleet-footed, spirited Ara- 
 bian, was led forth, pawing the ground and tossing his 
 head, as impatient to be off, even, as his young mistress. 
 
 "That's right, Jupe," said Gipsy, as she sprang into 
 the saddle and gathered up the reins ; " but mind, for 
 the future, never dare to disobey me, no matter what any- 
 body says. Mind, if you do, look out for a pistol-ball, 
 some night, through your head." 
 
 Jupiter, who had not the slightest doubt but what the 
 mad-headed little witch would do it as soon as not, began 
 whimpering like a whipped school-boy. Between the 
 Scylla of his master's wrath, and the Charybdis of his 
 willful little mistress, poor Jupiter knew not which way 
 to steer. 
 
 " Don't cry, Jupe there's a good fellow," said Gipsy, 
 touched by his distress. " Keep out of your master's 
 sight till I come back, and I'll take all the blame upon 
 myself. There, now off we go, Mignonne !" 
 
 And waving her plumed hat above her head, with a 
 shout of triumphant defiance as she passed the house, 
 Gipsy went galloping down the road like a flash. 
 
 The sky, which all the morning had looked threat- 
 ening, was rapidly growing darker and darker. 
 About half an hour after the departure of Gipsy, the 
 storm burst upon them in full fury. The wind howled 
 fiercely through the forest, the rain fell in torrents, the
 
 A STORM. 87 
 
 lightning flashed in one continued sheet of blue electric 
 flame, the thunder crashed peal upon peal, until heaven 
 and earth seemed rending asunder. 
 
 The frightened inmates of Sunset Hall were huddled 
 together, shivering with fear. The doors and windows 
 were closed fast, and the servants, gray with terror, were 
 cowering in alarm down in the kitchen. 
 
 " Lor' have massy 'pon us ! who ever seed sich light- 
 nin' ? 'Pears as though all de worl' was 'luminated, and 
 de las' day come !" said Jupiter, his teeth chattering with 
 terror. 
 
 " An' Miss Roarer, she's out in all de storm, an' ole 
 mas'r don't know it," said Totty. " She would go, spite 
 of all Missus Scour said. I 'clare to man, that dat ar 
 rampin,' tarryfyin' little limb's 'nuff to drive one clar 
 'stracted. I ain't no peace night nor day 'long o' her 
 capers. Dar !" 
 
 " Won't we cotch it when mas'r finds out she's gone," 
 said a cunning-looking, curly -headed little darkey, whom 
 Gipsy had nicknamed Bob-o-link, with something like a 
 chuckle, ; "good Lor ! jes' see ole mas'r a swearin' an' 
 teariu' round', an' kickin' de dogs an' niggers, an' 
 smashin' de res' ob de furnitur'. Oh, Lor !" And evi- 
 dently overcome by the ludicrous scene which fancy had 
 conjured up, Bob-o-link threw himself back, and went 
 off into a perfect convulsion of laughter, to the horror 
 of the rest. 
 
 While this discussion was going on below stairs, a far 
 different scene was enacting above. 
 
 At the first burst of the storm, Lizzie and Mrs. 
 Gower hastened in affright to the parlor, where the 
 squire was peacefully snoring in his arm-chair, and 
 Louis was still finishing his sketch. 
 
 The noise and bustle of their entrance aroused the 
 squire from his slumbers, and after sundry short snorts
 
 88 A STORM. 
 
 he woke up, and seeing the state of affairs, his first in- 
 quiry was for Gipsy. 
 
 " Where's that little abomination, now ?" he abruptly 
 demanded, in a tone that denoted his temper was not im- 
 proved by the sudden breaking up of his nap. 
 
 All were silent. Mrs. Gower through fear, and the 
 others through ignorance. 
 
 " Where is she ? where is she, I say ?" thundered the 
 squire. " Doesn't somebody know ?" 
 
 " Most likely up stairs somewhere," said Louis. " Shall 
 I go and see ?" 
 
 "No, you sha'n't 'go and see.' It's the duty of the 
 women there to look after her, but they don't do it. She 
 might be lost, or murdered, or killed, fifty times a day, 
 for all they care. ' Who trusteth in the ungodly shall 
 be deceived,' as Solomon says. Ring that bell." 
 
 Louis obeyed ; and in a few minutes Totty, quaking 
 with terror, made her appearance. 
 
 "Where's your young mistress? Where's Miss 
 Gipsy, eh?" demanded the squire, in an awful voice. 
 
 " Deed, mas'r, she's rode off. I couldn't stop her 
 nohow, 'deed " 
 
 " Rode off !" shouted the squire, as, forgetful of his 
 gouty leg, he sprang to his feet ; " rode off in this storm ? 
 Villains ! wretches ! demons ! I'll murder every one of 
 you ! Out in this storm ! Good Lord ! Clear out, 
 every living soul of you, and if one of you return with- 
 out her, I'll I'll blow his brains out !" roared the old 
 man, purple with rage. 
 
 "Why, grandfather," said Louis, while the rest 
 cowered with fear, i( it is not likely Gipsy is out exposed 
 to the storm. There are many places of shelter well- 
 known to her among the hills, and there she will stay 
 until this hurricane is over. It would be impossible for
 
 A STORM. 89 
 
 any one to find her now, even though they could ride 
 through this storm." 
 
 "Silence!" thundered the squire; "they must find 
 her ! Here, Jupe, Jake, Bob, and the rest of you, mount, 
 and off in search of Miss Aurora over the hills, and at 
 the peril of your life, return without her. Be off ! go ! 
 vanish ! and mind ye, be sure to bring her home." 
 
 " Law ! mas'r, Miss Roarer ain't over de hills. She's 
 gone over to Deep Dale," said Totty. 
 
 " WHAT !" exclaimed the squire, pausing in his rage, 
 aghast, thunder-struck at the news. 
 
 '"Deed, Lord knows, mas'r, I couldn't stop her." 
 
 "You you you diabolical imp you !" roared the 
 old man, seizing his crutch, and hurling it at her head, 
 as Totty, in mortal alarm, dodged and fled from the 
 room. " Oh, the little demon ! the little wretch ! won't 
 I pay her for this, when I get hold of her ! the the dis- 
 obedient, ungrateful, undutiful hussy ! I'll cane her 
 within an inch of her life ! I'll lock her up on bread and 
 water ! I'll keep her in the house day and night ! I'll 
 oh, Lord, my leg, " he exclaimed, with a groan, as he 
 fell back, powerless, between rage and despair, in his 
 seat. 
 
 Mrs. Gower and "Lizzie, still quaking with terror, drew 
 farther into the corner to escape his notice, while Louis 
 bent still lower over his drawing to hide a smile that 
 was breaking over his face. 
 
 At this moment a fresh burst of rain and wind shook 
 the doors and windows of the old house, and with it the 
 squire's rage broke out afresh. 
 
 " Call Jupe ! Be off, Louis, and tell him to ride over 
 to Deep Dale this instant, and bring that little fiend 
 home ! And tell him if he doesn't return with her in 
 less than half an hour, I'll break every bone in his body ! 
 Go!"
 
 90 A STORM. 
 
 Louis accordingly repaired to the kitchen and deliv- 
 ered the order to poor Jupiter who, bemoaning his hard 
 fate in being obliged to serve so whimsical a master, 
 was forced to set out in the storm in search of the capri- 
 cious Gipsy. 
 
 Half an hour, three-quarters passed, and then Jupiter, 
 soaking with rain, and reeking with sweat, came gallop- 
 ing back ; but like young Lochinvar, immortalized in the 
 song : 
 
 " He rode unattended and rode all alone," 
 
 and gray, and shaking, and trembling with fear and ex- 
 pectation of the " wrath which was to come," he pre- 
 sented himself before his master. 
 
 " Well, sir, where's Miss Gipsy ?" shouted the old 
 man, as he entered. 
 
 " Mas'r, I couldn't bring her, to save my precious 
 life ; she wouldn't come, nohow. I tell her you wanted 
 her in a desprit hurry ; and she said, s'posin" you waited 
 till your hurry was over. I said you tole me not to come 
 home 'thout her ; and she said, very well, I might stay 
 all night, if I liked, 'cause she warn't comin' home till 
 to-morrer. I tole her you was t'arin' mad ; and she said, 
 you'd better have patience, and smoke your pipe. I 
 couldn't do nothin' 'tall with her, so I left, an' come 
 back, an' dat's all." And without waiting for the burst 
 of wrath which he saw coming, Jupiter beat a precipitate 
 retreat to the lower regions. 
 
 You should have seen the wrath of Squire Erliston 
 then. How he stamped, and raged, and swore, and 
 threatened, until he nearly frightened Lizzie into hyste- 
 rics, used as she was to his fits of passion. And then, at 
 last, when utterly exhausted, he ordered the servants to 
 go and prepare a large, empty room, which had long 
 been unused, as a prison for Gipsy, upon her return.
 
 MISS HAGAR. 9I 
 
 Everything was taken out of it, and here the squire 
 vowed she should remain until she had learned to obey 
 him for the future. Then, relapsing into sulky silence, 
 he sat down, " nursing his wrath to keep it warm," until 
 the return of the little delinquent. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MISS HAGAR. 
 
 " Let me gaze for a moment, that ere I die, 
 I may read thce, lady, a prophecy : 
 That brow may beam in glory awhile, 
 That cheek may bloom, and that lip may smile ; 
 But clouds shall darken that brow of snow, 
 And sorrows blight tha* bosom's glow." 
 
 L. DAVISON. 
 
 [EANTIME, while the squire was throwing the 
 household of Sunset Hall into terror and con- 
 sternation, the object of his wrath was en- 
 joying herself with audacious coolness at Deep 
 Dale. 
 
 The family of Doctor Nicholas Wiseman consisted of 
 one daughter, a year or two older than Gipsy, a nephew 
 called Archie Rivers, and a maiden step-sister, Miss 
 Hagar Dedley. The doctor, who was naturally grasping 
 and avaricious, would not have burdened himself with 
 the care of those two had it been anything out of his own 
 pocket. The parents of Archie Rivers had been tolerably 
 wealthy, and at their death had left him quite a fortune, 
 and amply remunerated the doctor for taking charge of 
 him until he should be of age. Miss Hagar had a slender 
 income, sufficient for her wants, and was permitted a room
 
 9 2 MISS HAGAR. 
 
 in his house as long as she should continue to take care 
 of herself. 
 
 Deep Dale had once been the residence of a wealthy 
 and aristocratic family, but had by some unknown means 
 passed from their hands to those of Doctor Wiseman. 
 
 It was, as its name implied, a long, deep, sloping 
 dale, with the forest of St. Mark's towering darkly be- 
 hind, and a wide, grassy lawn sloping down from the 
 front. The house itself was a long, low, irregular mansion 
 of gray sandstone, with a quaint, pleasant, old-fashioned 
 look. 
 
 Evening was now approaching. The curtains were 
 drawn, the lamps lighted, and the family assembled in 
 the plainly, almost scantily, furnished sitting-room. 
 
 By the fire, in a large leathern arm-chair, sat our old 
 acquaintance, the doctor, with one long, lean leg crossed 
 over the other, one eye closed, and the other fixed so 
 intently on the floor that he seemed to be counting the 
 threads in the carpet. Years have done anything but add 
 to his charms, his face never looked so much like yellow 
 parchment as it did then, his arms and legs were longer 
 and skinnier-looking than ever, and altogether, a more 
 unprepossessing face could hardly have been discovered. 
 
 By the table, knitting, sat Miss Hagar. Her tall, thin 
 figure, and grave, solemn face, made her look almost 
 majestic, as, with her lips firmly compressed, she knit 
 away in grim silence. Unlike other spinsters, she nei- 
 ther petted dogs nor cats, but had a most unaccountable 
 mania for fortune-telling, and had been, for years, the 
 seeress and sibyl of the whole neighborhood. * 
 
 In a distant corner of the room sat the little protegee 
 of Miss Hagar, with Gipsy on one side of her, and Archie 
 Rivers on the other, regarding her as though she were 
 some sort of natural curiosity. And, truly, a more lovely 
 child could scarcely have been found.
 
 MISS HAGAR. 93 
 
 She appeared to be about the same age as Gipsy, but 
 was taller and more graceful, with a beautifully rounded 
 figure, not plump, like that of most children, but slender 
 and elegant, and lithe as a willow wand. A small, fair, 
 sweet face, with long, golden hair, and soft, dreamy eyes 
 of blue, and a smile like an angel's. 
 
 Such was Celeste ! 
 
 Such a contrast as she was to Gipsy, as she sat with 
 her little white hands folded in her lap, the long golden 
 lashes falling shyly over the blue eyes ; her low, sweet 
 voice and timid manner, so still and gentle ; and her 
 elfish companion, with her dark, bright face, her eager, 
 sparkling, restless eyes, her short, sable locks, and her 
 every motion so quick and startling, as to make one 
 nervous watching her. 
 
 Archie Rivers, a merry, good-looking lad, with 
 roguish blue eyes and a laughing face, sat, alternately 
 watching the fair, downcast face of Celeste, and the 
 piquant, gipsyish countenance of the other. 
 
 At the table sat Minnette Wiseman, a proud, superb- 
 looking girl of twelve. Her long, jet-black hair fell in 
 glossy braids over her shoulders ; her elbows rested on 
 the table ; her chin supported by her hands ; her large, 
 glittering black eyes fixed on Celeste, with a look of 
 fixed dislike and jealousy that was never to die out dur- 
 ing life. 
 
 " And so you have no other name but Celeste," said 
 Gipsy, trying to peer under the drooping lashes resting 
 on the blue-veined cheek. " Now, if that isn't funny ! 
 Everybody has two names but you even me. I have 
 two names." 
 
 " Yes, Gipsy Gower. There is something odd and 
 elfinish in the very name," said Archie, laughing. 
 
 "Elfinish? It's no such thing. It's a great deal 
 prettier than yours, Archie Rivers ! And where did you
 
 94 MISS HAGAR. 
 
 live before you came here, Celeste?" continued Gipsy, 
 returning to th_> charge. 
 
 " With Aunt Katie," replied Celeste, softly. 
 
 " And where is she now ?" went on Gipsy. 
 
 " Dead !" said the child, while her lip trembled, and 
 a tear fell on the little brown hand lying on her own. 
 
 "Do tell ! and I've made you cry, too. Now, if that 
 ain't too bad. Do you know, Celeste, I never cried in 
 my life ?" 
 
 " Oh, what a fib !" exclaimed Archie. " You were 
 the horridest young one to cry ever I heard in my life. 
 You did nothing but yell and roar from morning till 
 night." 
 
 "I don't believe it! I don't believe it!" inignantly 
 exclaimed Gipsy. " I'm sure I was too sensible a baby 
 to do anything of the kind. Anyway, I have never cried 
 since I can remember. And as to fear were you ever 
 afraid ?" she asked, suddenly, of Celeste. 
 
 " Oh, yes often." 
 
 Did you ever ? Why, you look afraid now. Are 
 
 you 
 
 ' Yes." 
 
 " My ! What of ?" 
 
 " Of you" said Celeste, shrinking back, shyly, from 
 her impetuous liitle questioner. 
 
 " Oh, my stars and garters ! Afraid of me, and after 
 I've been so quiet and good with her all the evening !" 
 ejaculated Gipsy ; while Archie, who was blessed with 
 a lively sense of the ridiculous, leaned back and 
 laughed heartily. 
 
 " Well, after that I'm never going to believe there's 
 anything but ingratitude in this world," said Gipsy, 
 with an emphasis on the " this " which seemed to denote 
 she had met with gratitude in another.
 
 MISS HAG AX. 95 
 
 But tears filled the gentle eyes of Celeste, as she 
 looked up, and said : 
 
 " Oh, I hope you're not angry with me. I didn't 
 mean to offend you, I'm sure. I'm so sorry." 
 
 " Oh, it's no matter. Nobody minds what they say 
 to me. I'm used to it. But it's so funny you should be 
 afraid. Why, I never was afraid in my life." 
 
 " That's true enough, anyway," said Archie, with an 
 assenting nod. 
 
 " There's Guardy now. Oh ! won't he be awful 
 when I get home but laws ! who cares ! I'll pay him 
 off for it, if he makes a fuss. I sha'n't be in his debt 
 long, that's one comfort." 
 
 " Do you remember how dolefully Jupiter looked as 
 he came in for you, all dripping wet ; and when you 
 
 told him you wouldn't go, he " and overcome by the 
 
 ludicrous recollection, Master Archie again fell back in 
 a paroxysm of laughter. 
 
 " What a fellow you are to laugh, Archie !" remarked 
 Gipsy. " You astonish me, I declare. Do you laugh 
 much, Celeste ?" 
 
 " No, not much." 
 
 " That's right I don't laugh much either I'm too 
 dignified, you know ; but somehow I make other people 
 laugh. There's Archie now, for everlasting laughing ; 
 but Minnette do you know I never saw her laugh yet 
 that is, really laugh. She smiles sometimes ; not a 
 pleasant smile either, but a scornful smile like. I say, 
 Minnette," she added, raising her voice, " what is the 
 reason you never laugh ? ' 
 
 "None of your business," rudely replied Minnette. 
 
 "The Lord never intended her face for a smiling 
 one," said Miss Hagar, breaking in, suddenly. "And 
 you, you poor little wild eaglet, who, a moment ago, 
 boasted you had never wept, you shall yet shed tears of
 
 96 MISS HAGAR. 
 
 blood. The bird has its eyes put out with red-hot iron 
 before it can be made to sing sweetly ; and so you, too, 
 poor bird, must be blinded, even though you should flut- 
 ter and beat yourself to death, trying to break through 
 the bars of your cage." 
 
 " Humph ! I'd like to see them trying to put my eyes 
 out," said Gipsy. "I guess I'd make them sing, and on 
 the wrong side of their mouths, too at least, I think I 
 should !" 
 
 " Oh, Miss Hagar, tell us our fortunes you haven't 
 done so this long time," exclaimed Archie, jumping up. 
 "Here is Gipsy wants to know hers, and Celeste's, too; 
 and as for me, I know the future must have something 
 splendid in store for so clever a fellow, and I'm anxious 
 to know it beforehand." 
 
 " Don't be too anxious," said Miss Hagar, fixing her 
 gloomy eyes prophetically on his eager, happy face ; 
 " troubles are soon enough when they come, without 
 wishing to forestall them." 
 
 "Why, Miss Hagar, you don't mean to say I'm to 
 have troubles?" cried Archie, laughing. "If they do 
 come, I'll laugh in their face, and cry, 'Never surren- 
 der.' I don't believe, though, my troubles will be very 
 heavy." 
 
 " Yes, the heaviest troubles that man can ever know 
 shall be thine," said the oracle, in her deep, gloomy 
 voice. "The day will come when despair, instead of 
 laughter, will fill your beaming eyes ; when the smile 
 shall have left your lip, and the hue of health will give 
 place to the dusky glo;v of the grave. Yes, the day will 
 come when the wrong you may not quell shall cling to 
 you like a garment of flame, crushing and overwhelming 
 you and all you love, in its fiery, burning shame. The 
 day will come when one for whom you would give your 
 life shall desert you for your deadliest enemy, and leave
 
 MISS HAGAR. 97 
 
 you to despair and woe. Such is the fate I have read in 
 the stars for you." 
 
 " La ! Archie, what a nice time you're going to have," 
 said the incorrigible Gipsy, breaking the impressive 
 silence that followed the sibyl's words " when all that 
 comes to pass ! It will be as good as a play to you." 
 
 " Miss Hagar must have sat up all .last night getting 
 that pretty speech by heart," said Minnette, fixing her 
 mocking black eyes on the face of the spinster. " How 
 well she repeated it ! She'd make her fortune on the 
 stage as a tragedy queen." 
 
 " Scoffer !" said the sibyl, turning her prophetic ^yes 
 on the deriding face of the speaker, while her face dark- 
 ened, and her stern mouth grew sterner still. "One day 
 that iron heart of thine shall melt ; that heart, which, as 
 yet, is sealed with granite, shall feel every fiber drawn 
 out by the roots, to be cast at your feet quivering and 
 bleeding, unvalued and uncared for. Come hither, and 
 let me read your future in your eyes." 
 
 " No, no !" said Minnette, shaking back, scornfully, 
 her glossy black hair. " Prate your old prophecies to 
 the fools who believe you. I'll not be among the num- 
 ber." 
 
 " Unbeliever, I heed it not !" said Miss Hagar as she 
 rose slowly to her feet ; and the light of inspiration 
 gathered in her eyes of gray, as, swaying to and fro, she 
 chanted, in a wild, dirge-like tone : 
 
 " Beware ! beware ! for the time will come 
 A blighted heart, a ruined home. 
 In the dim future I foresee 
 A fate far worse than death for thee." 
 
 Her eyes were still riveted on the deriding face and 
 bold, bright eyes, that, in spite of all their boldness, 
 quailed before her steady gaze, 
 5
 
 98 MfSS HAGAR. 
 
 " Good-gracious, Miss Hagar, if you haven't nearly 
 frightened this little atomy into fits !" said Gipsy. " I 
 declare, of all the little cowards ever was, she's the great- 
 est ! Now, if I thought it wouldn't scare the life out of 
 her, I'd have my fortune told. If everybody else is going 
 to have such pretty things happen to them, I don't see 
 why I shouldn't, too." 
 
 " Come here, then, and let me read thy fate," said 
 Miss Hagar. " The spirit is upon me to-night, and it 
 may never come more." 
 
 "All right. Archie, stop grinning and 'tend this 
 little scary thing. Now, go ahead, Miss Hagar." 
 
 The seeress looked down solemnly into the dark, 
 piquant little face upturned so gravely to her own ; into 
 the wicked brown eyes, twinkling and glittering with 
 such insufferable mischief and mirth ; and, bending her 
 tall body down, she again chanted, in her dreary tone : 
 
 "Thou wast doomed from thy birth, oh, ill-fated child ; 
 Like thy birthnight, thy life shall be stormy and wild ; 
 There is blood on thine hand, there is death in thine eye, 
 And the one who best loves thee, by thee shall he die /" 
 
 " Whew ! if that ain't pleasant ! I always knew I'd 
 be the death of somebody !" exclaimed Gipsy. " Won- 
 der who it is going to be ? Shouldn't be s'prised if 'twas 
 Jupiter. I've been threatening to send him to Jericho 
 ever since I can remember. La ! if it comes true, won't 
 Minette, and Archie and I be in a ' state of mind' one of 
 these days ! I say, Celeste, come over here, and let's 
 have a little more of the horrible. I begin to like it." 
 
 "Yes, go, Celeste, go," said Archie, lifting her off 
 her seat. 
 
 But Celeste, with a stifled cry of terror, covered her 
 face with her hands, and shrank back.
 
 MISS HAGAR. 99 
 
 " Coward !" exclaimed Minnette, with a scornful flash 
 of her black eyes. 
 
 " Little goose !" said Gipsy, rather contemptuously ; 
 " what are you afraid of ? Go ! it won't hurt you." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! no, no ! no, no !" cried the child, 
 crouching farther back in terror. " It's too dreadful. I 
 can't listen to such awful things." 
 
 " Let her stay," said Miss Hagar, seating herself 
 moodily. " Time enough for her poor, trembling dove ! 
 to know the future when its storm-clouds gather 
 darkly over her head. Let her alone. One day you may 
 all think of my words to-night." 
 
 " There ! there ! don't make a fool of yourself any 
 longer, Hagar," impatiently broke in the doctor. " Leave 
 the little simpletons in peace, and don't bother their 
 brains with such stuff." 
 
 " Stuff !" repeated Miss Hagar, her eyes kindling with 
 indignation. " Take care ; lest I tell you a fate more 
 awful still. I speak as I am inspired ; and no mortal 
 man shall hinder me." 
 
 " Well, croak away," said her brother, angrily, " but 
 never again in my presence. I never knew such an old 
 fool !" he muttered to himself in a lower tone. 
 
 He started back almost in terror, as he ceased ; for 
 standing by his side, with her eyes fairly blazing upon 
 him with a wild, intense gaze, was the elfish Gipsy. She 
 looked so like some golden sprite so small and dark, 
 with such an insufferable light in her burning eyes 
 that he actually shrank in superstitious terror from her. 
 
 Without a word, she glided away, and joined Archie 
 in the corner, who was doing his best to cheer and amuse 
 the timid Celeste. 
 
 During the rest of the evening, Gipsy was unusually 
 silent and still ; and her little face would at times wear 
 a puzzled, thoughtful look, all unused to it.
 
 ioo MISS HAGAR. 
 
 " What in the world's got into you, Gipsy ?" asked 
 Archie, at length, in surprise. " What are you looking 
 so solemn about ?" 
 
 "Archie," she said, looking up solemnly in his face, 
 "am I possessed?" 
 
 " Possessed ! Why, yes, I should say you were 
 possessed by the very spirit of mischief !" 
 
 " Oh, Archie, it's not that. Don't you know it tells 
 in the Bible about people being possessed with demons ? 
 Now, Archie, do you think I am ?" 
 
 " What a question ! No ; of course not, you little 
 goose. Why ?" 
 
 "Because when ^/'pointing to the doctor, "said 
 what he did, I just felt as if something within me was 
 forcing me to catch him by the throat and kill him. And, 
 Archie, I could hardly keep from doing it ; and I do be- 
 lieve I'm possessed." 
 
 This answer seemed to Master Archie so comical that 
 he went off into another roar of laughter ; and in the 
 midst of it, he rolled off his seat upon the floor which 
 event added to his paroxysm of delight. 
 
 The doctor growled out certain anathemas at this ill- 
 timed mirth, and ordered Master Rivers off to bed. 
 Then Miss Hagar folded up her work, and taking Celeste 
 with her, sought her own room, where a little trundle- 
 bed had been prepared for the child. And Minnette 
 who, much against her will, was to share her room with 
 Gipsy, for whom she had no particular love got up and 
 lit the night-lamp, and, followed, by the willful fay, be- 
 took herself to rest. 
 
 The next morning dawned clear, sunshiny and bright. 
 Immediately after breakfast, Gipsy mounted Mignonne, 
 and set out to encounter the storm which she knew awaited 
 her at Sunset Hall.
 
 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIKE. 101 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 
 
 "Then on his cheek the flush of rage 
 O'ercame the ashen hue of age ; 
 Fierce he broke forth ; ' And dar'st thou, then, 
 To beard the lion in his den, 
 The Douglas in his hall ?' " MARMION. 
 
 IPSY rode along, singing gayly, and thinking, 
 with an inward chuckle, of the towering rage 
 which " Guardy" must be in. As she entered 
 the yard she encountered Jupiter, who looked 
 upon her with eyes full of fear and warning. 
 " Hallo, Jupe ! I see you haven't ' shuffled off this 
 mortal coil' yet, as Louis says. I suppose you got a 
 blowing up last night, for coming home without me, 
 eh?" 
 
 " Miss Roarer, honey, for mussy sake, don't 'front 
 mas'r to-day," exclaimed Jupiter, with upraised hands 
 and eyes ; "dar's no tellin' what he might do, chile. I 
 'vises you to go to bed an' say you's sick, or somefin, 
 caze he'd jes* as lief kill you as not, he's so t'arin' mad." 
 "Nonsense, you old simpleton! Do you think I'd 
 tell such a lie ? Let him rage ; I'll rage too, and keep 
 him in countenance." 
 
 " Miss Roarer, if you does, dar'll be bloodshed, and 
 den I'll be took up for all I knows dar will," said poor 
 Jupiter, in a whimpering tone. " Dis comes' o' livin* 
 with ladies what ain't ladies, and old gen'lemen what's 
 got de old boy's temper in dem." 
 
 " Why, you old good-for-nothing, do you mean to 
 say I'm not a lady !" exclaimed Gipsy, indignantly.
 
 102 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 
 
 " Jes' so, Miss Roarer, I don't care ef yer does whip 
 me dar ! S'pose a lady, a real lady, would go for to 
 shoot a poor nigger what ain't a doing no harm to no- 
 body, or go ridin' out all hours ob de night a.syou do. 
 No ! stands to reason, dey wouldn't, an' dat's de trufe 
 now, ef I is a good-for-nothin'. Dar !" 
 
 " You aggravating old Jupiter, you, I'll dar you if 
 you give me any more of your impudence," said Gipsy, 
 flourishing her whip over her head. 
 
 " Miss Roarer," began Jupiter, adroitly ducking his 
 head to avoid a blow. 
 
 "Silence, sir ! Don't 'Miss Roarer' me. Keep your 
 advice till it's called for, and take Mignonne off to the 
 stables, an' rub him down well ; and if you leave one 
 speck of dust on him, I'll leave you to guess what I'll do 
 to you." And so saying, Gipsy gathered up her riding- 
 habit in her hand, and ran up the broad step, singing at 
 the top of her voice : 
 
 ' Oh ! whistle and I'll come to you, my lad, 
 Oh ! whistle and I'll come to you, my lad ; 
 Though Guardy and aunty, an' a' should go mad, 
 Just whistle an' I'll come to you, my lad." 
 
 " Gipsy, Gipsy, hush, child ! Your guardian is dread- 
 fully angry with you, and will punish you very severely, 
 I'm afraid," said Mrs. Gower, suddenly appearing from 
 the dining-room. " This reckless levity will make mat- 
 ters worse if he hears you. Oh, Gipsy, how could you 
 do such an outrageous thing ?" 
 
 " La, aunty ! I haven't done any 'outrageous thing' 
 that I know of." 
 
 " Oh, child ! you know it was very wrong, very wrong, 
 of you, indeed, to stay at Deep Dale all night against his 
 express commands."
 
 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 103 
 
 "Now, aunty, I don't see anything very wrong at all 
 about it. I only wanted to have a little fun." 
 
 " Fun ! Oh ! you provoking little goose ! he'll pun- 
 ish you very severely, I'm certain." 
 
 "Well, let him, then. I don't care. I'll pay him off 
 for it some time see if I don't. What do you s'pose 
 he'll do to me, aunty ? Have me tried by court-martial, 
 or hold a coroner's inquest on top of me, or what ?" 
 
 " He is going to lock you up in that old lumber-room, 
 up in the attic, and keep you there on bread and water, 
 he says." 
 
 "Well, now, I'll leave it to everybody, if that isn't 
 barbarous. It's just the way the stony-hearted fathers 
 in the story-books do to their daughters, when they fall 
 in love, and then their beaus come, filled with love and 
 rope-ladders, and off they go through the window. I say, 
 aunty, is there any chance for me to get through the 
 window ?" 
 
 "No, indeed, they are fastened outside with wooden 
 shutters and iron bolts. There is no chance of escape, 
 so you had best be very good and penitent, and beg his 
 pardon, and perhaps he may forgive you." 
 
 "Beg his pardon ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! aunty, I like that, 
 wouldn't Archie laugh if he heard it. Just fancy me, 
 Gipsy Gower, down on my knees before him, whimper- 
 ing and snuffling, and a tear in each eye, like a small 
 potato, and begging his serene highness to forgive me, 
 and I'll never do it again. Oh ! goodness gracious, 
 just fancy what a scene it would be !" 
 
 " You provoking little minx ! I am sure any other 
 little girl would beg her guardian's pardon, when she 
 knew she did wrong." 
 
 " But I don't know that I've did wrong. On the con- 
 trary, I know I've did right; and I'm going to do it over 
 again, the first chance there !"
 
 104 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQU1XE. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! child you are perfectly incorrigible. 
 I despair of ever being able to do anything with you. 
 As I told you before, I shouldn't be surprised if your 
 guardian turned you out of doors for your conduct." 
 
 " And as I told you before, aunty, I would not want bet- 
 ter fun. Archie Rivers is going to West Point soon, and 
 I'll go with him, and ' do my country some service' in 
 the next war." 
 
 " If he turned you out, Gipsy, it would break my 
 heart," said Mrs. Gower, plaintively. 
 
 " Yes, and I suppose it would break mine too, but I 
 luckily don't happen to have a heart," said Gipsy, who 
 never by any chance could, as she called it, "do the sen- 
 timental." " However, aunty, let's live in the sublime 
 hope that you'll break the necks of two or three hundred 
 chickens and geese, before you break your own heart 
 yet. And I protest, here comes Guardy, stamping arid 
 fuming up the lawn. Clear out, aunty, for I expect he'll 
 hurl the whole of the Proverbs of Solomon at my head, 
 and one of 'em might chance to hit you. Go, aunty, I 
 want to fight my own battles ; and if I don't come off 
 with drums beating and colors flying, it'll be a caution ! 
 Hooray !" 
 
 And Gipsy waved her plumed hat above her head, 
 and whirled round the room in a defiant waltz. 
 
 She was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the 
 squire, who, thrusting both hands into his coat pockets, 
 stood flaming with rage before her; whereupon Gipsy, 
 plunging her hands into the pockets of her riding-habit, 
 planted both feet firmly on the ground, and confronted 
 him with a dignified frown, and an awful expression of 
 countenance generally, and to his amazement, burst out 
 with : 
 
 " You unprincipled, abandoned, benighted, befud- 
 dled old gentleman ! how dare you have the impudence,
 
 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 105 
 
 the effrontery, the brazenness, the impertinence, the 
 the everything-else ! to show your face to me after your 
 outrageous, your unheard-of, your monstrous, your 
 yes, I will say it diabolical conduct yesterday ! Yes, 
 sir ! I repeat it, sir I'm amazed at your effrontery, after 
 sending a poor, unfortunate, friendless, degenerate son 
 of Africa through the tremendous rain, the roaring 
 lightning, the flashing thunder, the silent winds, in 
 search of me, to stand there, looking no more ashamed 
 of yourself than if you weren't a fair blot on the foul 
 face of creation ! Answer me, old gentleman, and for- 
 ever afterward hold thy peace !" 
 
 " You abominable little wretch ! You incarnate little 
 fiend, you ! You impish little imp, you ! I'll thrash 
 you within an inch of your life !" roared the old man, 
 purple with rage. 
 
 " Look out, Guardy, you'll completely founder the 
 English language, if you don't take care," interrupted 
 Gipsy. 
 
 " You impudent little vixen ! I'll make you repent 
 yesterday's conduct," thundered the squire, catching 
 her by the shoulder and shaking her till she was breath- 
 less. 
 
 " Loo loo loek here, old gentleman, do do don't 
 you try that again !" stuttered Gipsy, panting for breath, 
 and wrenching herself, by a powerful jerk, free from his 
 grasp. 
 
 " Why didn't you come home when I sent for you ? 
 Answer me that, or I won't leave a sound bone in your 
 body. Now, then !" 
 
 " Well, Guardy, to tell the truth, it was because I 
 didn't choose to. Now, then !" 
 
 " You you you incomparable little impudence, I'll 
 fairly murder you !" shouted the squire, raising his hand 
 in his rage to strike her a blow, which would assuredly
 
 io6 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 
 
 have killed her ; but Gipsy adroitly dodged, and his hand 
 fell with stunning force on the hall table. 
 
 With something between a howl and a yell, he started 
 after her as she ran screaming with laughter ; and seiz- 
 ing her in a corner, where she had sunk down exhausted 
 and powerless with her inward convulsions, he shook 
 her until he could shake her no longer. 
 
 " I'll lock you up ! I'll turn you out of doors ! I'll 
 thrash you while I am able to stand over you ! No, I 
 won't thrash a woman in my own house, but I'll lock 
 you up and starve you to death. I'll be hanged if I 
 don't !" 
 
 " You'll be hanged if you do, you mean." 
 
 "Come along ; we'll see what effect hunger and soli- 
 tary confinement will have on your high spirits, my lady," 
 said the squire, seizing her by the arm and dragging her 
 along. 
 
 " Guardy, if you do, my ghost '11 haunt you every 
 night, just as sure as shooting," said Gipsy, solemnly. 
 
 " What do I care about you or your ghost ! Come 
 along. ' The unrighteous shall not live out half their 
 days,' as Solomon says ; therefore it's according to 
 Scripture, and no fault of mine if you don't live long." 
 
 " Solomon was never locked up. in a garret," said 
 Gipsy, thrusting her knuckles in her eyes and beginning 
 to sob, "and he don't know anything about it. It's real 
 hateful of you to lock me up now ! But it's just like 
 you, you always were an ugly old wretch every way." 
 Sob, sob, sob. 
 
 "That's right, talk away ! You can talk and scold as 
 much as you like to the four bare walls presently," said 
 the squire, dragging her along. 
 
 " You're a hateful old monster ! I wish you were far 
 enough I just do ! and I don't care if I'm taken up for 
 defamation of character so, there ! Boo, hoo a hoo
 
 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 107 
 
 a hoo," sobbed, and wept, and scolded Gipsy, as the 
 squire, inwardly chuckling, led her to her place of cap- 
 tivity. 
 
 They reached it at length ; a large empty room with- 
 out a single article of furniture, even without a chair. It 
 was quite dark, too, for the windows were both nailed 
 up, and the room was situated in the remotest portion of 
 the building, where, let poor Gipsy cry and scream as she 
 pleased, she could not be heard. 
 
 On entering her prison, Gipsy ceased her sobs for a 
 moment to glance around, and her blank look of dismay 
 at the aspect of her prison, threw the squire into a fit of 
 laughter. 
 
 " So," he chuckled, " you're caught at last. Now, here 
 you may stay till night, and I hope by that time I'll have 
 taken a little of the mischief out of you." 
 
 "And I'll have nothing to pass the time," wept Gipsy. 
 " Mayn't I go down stairs and get a book ?" 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha ! No. I rather think you mayn't. 
 Perhaps I may bring you up one by and by," said the 
 squire, never stopping to think how Gipsy was to read 
 in the dark. 
 
 " Look up there on that shelf, I can't reach ; there's 
 one, I think," said Gipsy, whose keen eye had caught 
 sight of an old newspaper lying on the spot indicated. 
 
 The squire made a step forward to reach it, and like 
 an arrow sped from a bow, at the same instant, Gipsy 
 darted across the room, out through the open door. Ere 
 the squire could turn round, he heard the door slam to, 
 and he was caught in his own trap, while a triumphant 
 shout, a delighted " hurrah !" reached his ear from with- 
 out. 
 
 The squire rushed frantically to the door, and shook, 
 and pulled, and swore, and threatened and shouted, to 
 all of which Gipsy answered by tantalizingly asking him.
 
 io8 GIPSY OUTWITS THE SQUIRE. 
 
 whether he'd come out now, or wait till she let him. 
 Then, finding threats of no avail, he betook himself to 
 coaxing ; and wheedled, and persuaded, and promised, 
 and flattered, but equally in vain, for Gipsy replied that 
 i she wouldn't if. she could, couldn't if she would, for that 
 $ she had thrown the key as far as she could pitch it, out 
 of the window, among the shrubs in the garden where, 
 as she wasn't in the habit of looking for needles in hay- 
 stacks, she thought it quite useless searching for it ; and 
 ended by delivering him a lecture on the virtue of pa- 
 tience and the beauty of Christian resignation And after 
 exhorting him to improve his temper, if possible, during 
 his confinement, as she was going over to spend the day 
 at Dr. Spider's and teach Miss Hagar's little girl to ride, 
 she went off and left him, stamping, and swearing, and 
 foaming, in a manner quite awful to listen to. 
 
 True to her word, Gipsy privately sought the stables, 
 saddled Mignonne herself, and rode off, without being 
 observed, to spend the day at Deep Dale. The absence 
 of the squire was noticed ; but it was supposed he had 
 ridden off on business after locking up Gipsy, and 
 therefore it created no surprise. As he had positively 
 forbidden any one in the house to go near her prison, no 
 one went ; and it was only when Gipsy returned home 
 late at night that she learned, to her surprise and alarm, 
 he had not yet been liberated. The door was forced 
 open by Jupiter, and the squire was found lying on the 
 floor, having raged himself into a state that quite pre- 
 vented him from " murdering " Gipsy as he had threat- 
 ened. Two or three days elapsed before " Richard " be- 
 came "himself again ;" and night and day Gipsy hovered 
 over his bedside the quietest, the most attentive little 
 nurse that ever was seen, quite unalarmed by his throw- 
 ing the pillow, the gruel and pill-boxes at her head every 
 time she appeared in his sight.
 
 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 109 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 . THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 
 
 "Oh, wanton malice deathful sport 
 
 Could ye not spare my all ? 
 But mark my words, on thy cold heart 
 A fiery doom shall fall." 
 
 N the golden glow of the morning, Minnette 
 Wiseman stood at the door, gazing out not 
 watching the radiant beauties of nature not 
 listening to the sweet singing of the birds 
 not watching the waves flashing and glitter- 
 ing in the sunlight but nursing her own dark, fathom- 
 less thoughts. 
 
 From the first moment of the coming of Celeste she 
 had hated her, with a deep, intense hatred, that was des- 
 tined to be the one ruling passion of her life. She was 
 jealous of her beauty, angry to see her so petted and 
 caressed by every one, but too proud to betray it. 
 
 Pride and jealousy were her predominant passions ; 
 you could see them in the haughty poise of her superb 
 little head, in the dusky fire smoldering in her glittering 
 black eyes, in the scornful, curling upper lip, in the 
 erect carriage and proud step. In spite of her beauty no 
 one seemed to like Minnette, and she liked no one. 
 
 Among her schoolmates her superior talents won 
 their admiration, but her eagle ambition to surpass them 
 all soon turned admiration into dislike. But Minnette 
 went haughtily on her way, living in the unknown world 
 of her dark, sullen thoughts, despising both them and 
 the love she might have won. 
 
 A week had passed since the coming of Celeste.
 
 no THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 
 
 Miss Hagar, feeling she was not competent to undertake 
 the instruction of such a shy, sensitive little creature, 
 wished to send her to school. The school to which 
 Minnetteand Gipsy went (sometimes) was two miles dis- 
 tant, and taught by the Sisters of Charity. Miss Hagar 
 would have sent her there, but there was no one she could 
 go with. She mentioned this difficulty to her brother. 
 
 "Can't she go with Minnette?" said the latter, im- 
 patiently. 
 
 "No, she sha'n't," said the amiable Minnette. " I'll 
 have no such whimpering cry-baby tagging after me. 
 Let Madam Hagar go with her darling herself if she 
 likes." 
 
 "Just what I expected from you," said Miss Hagar, 
 looking gloomingly in the sullen face before her. " If 
 the Lord doesn't punish you one day for your hatred and 
 hard-heartedness, it'll be because some of his creatures 
 will do it for him. Take my word for it." 
 
 " I don't care for you or your threats," said Minnette, 
 angrily ; "and I do hate your pet, old Miss Hagar, and 
 I'll make everybody else hate her if I can, too." 
 
 " Minnette, hold your tongue," called her father, angry 
 at being interrupted in his reading. 
 
 Minnette left the room, first casting a glance full of 
 dislike and contempt on Celeste, who sat in a remote 
 corner, her hands over her face, while the tears she 
 struggled bravely to suppress fell in bright drops 
 through her taper fingers. Sob after sob swelled the 
 bosom of the sensitive child, on whose gentle heart the 
 cruel words of Minnette had fallen with crushing weight. 
 Dr. Wiseman, after a few moments, too, left the room, 
 and Celeste, in her dark corner, wept unseen and uncared 
 for. 
 
 Suddenly a light footstep entering the room startled
 
 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE, in 
 
 her. Her hands were gently removed from her tear- 
 stained face, while a spirited voice exclaimed : 
 
 " Hallo ! Sissy ! what's the matter? Has that kite- 
 heart, Minnette, been mocking you ?" 
 
 " No-o-o !" faltered Celeste, looking up through her 
 tears into the bright face of Archie Rivers. 
 
 " What's the case, then ? Something's wrong, I know. 
 Tell me, like a good little girl, and I'll see if I can't 
 help you," said Archie, resolutely retaining the hands 
 with which she struggled to cover her face. 
 
 "Miss Hagar wants to send me to school, and I've no 
 one to go with. Minnette doesn't like to be troubled 
 with " 
 
 " Oh, I see it all ! Minnette's been showing her an- 
 gelic temper, and won't let you go with her, eh ?" 
 
 " Ye-e-es," sobbed Celeste, trying bravely not to cry. 
 
 " Well, never mind, birdie ! I have to pass the Sisters' 
 school every day on my way to the academy, and I'll 
 take care of you, if you'll go with me. Will you ?" he 
 said, looking doubtfully into her little, shrinking face. 
 
 " I I think so," said Celeste, rather hesitatingly. "I 
 will be a trouble, though, I'm afraid." 
 
 "Not you !" exclaimed Archie, gayly. "I'll be your 
 true knight and champion now, and by and by you'll be 
 my little wife. Won't you?" 
 
 "No-o-o, I don't like to," said Celeste, timidly. 
 
 Archie seemed to think this answer so remarkably 
 funny that he gave way to a perfect shout of laughter. 
 Then, perceiving the sensitive little creature on the 
 verge of crying again, he stopped short by an effort, 
 and said, apologetically : 
 
 "There! don't cry, sis : I wasn't laughing at you. I 
 say, Miss Hagar," he added, springing abruptly to his 
 feet as that ancient lady entered, " mayn't I bring Celeste
 
 ii2 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 
 
 to school ? I'll 'tend to her as carefully as if she was 
 my daughter. See if I don't." 
 
 A grim sort of smile relaxed the rigid muscles of 
 Miss Hagar's iron face as she glanced benignly at his 
 merry, thoughtless face over the top of her spectacles. 
 
 "Yes, she may go with you, and the Lord will bless 
 you for your good, kind heart," she said, laying her hand 
 fondly on his curly head. 
 
 Archie, throwing up his cap in the exuberance of his 
 glee, said : 
 
 " Run and get ready, sis, and come along." 
 
 "No; wait until to-morrow," said Miss Hagar. 
 " She cannot go to-day." 
 
 "All right; to-morrow, then, you've to make your 
 debut in the school of St. Mark's. I say, Miss Hagar, 
 what shall we call her? not your name Dedley's too 
 dismal." 
 
 " No ; call her Pearl she is a pearl," said Miss Hagar, 
 while her voice became as gentle as such a voice could. 
 
 " Very well, Celeste. Pearl then be it. And so, 
 Celeste, be ready bright and early to-morrow morning, 
 and we'll go by Sunset Hall, and call for Gipsy and 
 Louis. By the way, you haven't seen Louis yet, have 
 you ?" 
 
 " No," said Celeste. 
 
 " Oh, then, you must see him, decidedly, to-morrow. 
 But mind, you mustn't go and like him better than you 
 do me, because he's better-looking. I tell you what, 
 little sis, he's a capital fellow, and so clever ; he's ahead 
 of every fellow in the academy, and beats me all to 
 smash, because I'm not clever at anything except riding 
 and shooting, and I'm his equal in those branches. So 
 now I'm off good-bye !" 
 
 And with a spring and a jump, Archie was out of the 
 room and dashing along the road at a tremendous rate.
 
 THE TIGRESS AND THE DGVE. 113 
 
 The next morning Celeste, with a beating heart, set 
 out With Archie for school. How pretty she looked in 
 her white muslin dress, her white sunbonnet covering 
 her golden curls a perfect little pearl ! 
 
 Archie, having paid her a shower of compliments, 
 took her by the hand and set out with her for Sunset 
 Hall. At the gate Celeste halted, and no persuasions 
 could induce her to enter. 
 
 " No, no ; I'll wait here until you come back. Please 
 let me," she said, pleadingly. 
 
 " Oh, well, then, I won't be long," said Archie, rush- 
 ing frantically up the lawn and bursting like a whirlwind 
 into the hall door. 
 
 In a few moments he reappeared, accompanied by 
 Louis. 
 
 " Look, old fellow ! there she is at the gate. Isn't 
 she a beauty ?" said Archie. 
 
 Louis stopped and gazed, transfixed by the radiant 
 vision before him. In her floating, snowy robes, golden 
 hair, her sweet, angel-like face, on which the morning 
 sunshine rested like a glory, she was indeed lovely, be- 
 wildering, dazzling. 
 
 " How beautiful ! how radiant ! how splendid ! 
 Archie, she is as pretty as an angel !" burst forth Louis, 
 impetuously. 
 
 " Ha, ha ha ! a decided case of love at first sight. 
 Come along and I'll introduce you," exclaimed Archie. 
 
 Having presented the admiring Louis to Celeste, 
 who, after the first shy glance, never raised her eyes, he 
 informed her that Gipsy had gone out riding early in 
 the morning, and they were forced to go without her. 
 
 " Celeste, you must sit lo me for your portrait," said 
 Louis, impulsively, as they walked along. 
 
 "I don't know," said Celeste, shrinking closer to
 
 j 14 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 
 
 Archie, whom she had learned to trust in like an old 
 friend. 
 
 " I'm sketching the ' Madonna in the Temple ' for 
 Sister Mary, and your sweet, holy, calm face will do ex- 
 actly for a model," said Louis. 
 
 " That's a compliment, sis," said Arehie, pinching 
 her cheek ; " you'd better sit. Hallo ! if that isn't 
 Gipsy's bugle ! And here she comes, as usual, flying 
 like the wind. If she doesn't break her neck some day, 
 it will be a wonder." 
 
 As he spoke, the clear, sweet notes of a bugle re- 
 sounded musically among the hills above them ; and 
 the next moment the spirited little Arabian, Mignonne, 
 came dashing at a break-neck pace down the rocks, with 
 Gipsy on his back, a fowling-piece slung over her shoul- 
 der, and sitting her horse as easily as though she were 
 in an easy-chair. With a wild " tally-ho !" she cleared a 
 yawning chasm at a bound, and reined her horse in so 
 suddenly that he nearly fell back on his haunches. The 
 next instant she was beside them, laughing at Celeste, 
 who clung, pale with fear, to Archie. 
 
 " What luck this morning, Diana ?" exclaimed 
 Archie. 
 
 " Pretty well for two hours. Look !" said Gipsy, 
 displaying a well-filled game-bag. 
 
 " Did you kill those birds ?" inquired Celeste, lifting 
 her eyes in fear, not unmixed with horror, to the spark- 
 ling face of the young huntress. 
 
 " To be sure ! There ! don't look so horror-struck. 
 I declare if the little coward doesn't look as if she 
 thought me a demon," said Gipsy, laughing at Celeste's 
 sorrowful face. " Look ! do you see that bird away up 
 there, like a speck in the sky ? Well, now watch me 
 bring it down ;" and Gipsy, fixing her eagle eye on the 
 distant speck, took deliberate aim.
 
 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 115 
 
 " Oh, don't don't !" cried Celeste, in an agony of 
 terror ; but ere the words were well uttered, they were 
 lost in the sharp crack of her little rifle. 
 
 Wounded and bleeding, the bird began rapidly to 
 fall, and, with a wild shriek, Celeste threw up her arms, 
 and fell to the ground. 
 
 " Good gracious ! if I haven't scared the life out of 
 Celeste !" exclaimed Gipsy, in dismay, as Archie raised 
 her, pale and trembling, in his arms. 
 
 " What a timid little creature !" thought Louis, as he 
 watched her, clinging convulsively to Archie. 
 
 " Oh, the bird ! the poor bird!" said Celeste, burst- 
 ing into tears. 
 
 Gipsy laughed outright, and pointing to a tree near 
 at hand, said : 
 
 " There, Louis, the bird has lodged in that tree ; go 
 and get it for her." 
 
 Louis darted off to search the tree, and Gipsy, stoop- 
 ing down, said, rather impatiently : 
 
 "Now, Celeste, don't be such a little goose! What 
 harm is it to shoot a bird ? everybody does it." 
 
 " I don't think it's right ; it's so cruel. Please don't 
 do it any more," said Celeste, pleadingly. 
 
 " Can't promise, dear? / must do something to keep 
 me out of mischief. But here comes Louis. Well, is it 
 dead ?" 
 
 "No," said Louis, "but badly wounded. However, 
 I'll take care of it ; and if it recovers, Celeste, you shall 
 have it for a pet." 
 
 " Oh, thank you ! you're .y<? good," said Celeste, giving 
 him such a radiant look of gratitude that it quite over- 
 came the gravity of Master Rivers, who fell back, roar- 
 ing with laughter. 
 
 Celeste and Gipsy stood a little apart, conversing, 
 and the boys sat watching them.
 
 n6 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 
 
 " I say, Louis, what do you think of her ?" said Archie, 
 pointing to Celeste. 
 
 " I think she is perfectly bewitching the loveliest 
 creature I ever beheld," replied Louis, regarding her with 
 the eye of an artist. " She reminds me of a lily a dove, 
 so fair, and white, and gentle." 
 
 " And Gipsy, what does she remind you of ?" 
 
 " Oh ! of a young Amazon, or a queen eaglet of the 
 mountains, so wild and untamed." 
 
 "And Minnette, what is she like?" 
 
 " Like a tigress, more than anything else I can think 
 of just now," said Louis, laughing ; " beautiful, but 
 rather dangerous when aroused." 
 
 "Aroused ! I don't think she could be aroused, she is 
 made of marble." 
 
 "Not she. As Miss Hagar says, the day will come 
 when she will, she must feel ; every one does sometime 
 in his life. What does Scott say : 
 
 " ' Hearts are not flint, and flints are rent ; 
 Hearts are not steel, and steel is bent.'" 
 
 " Well, if you take to poetry, you'll keep us here all 
 day," said Archie, rising. " Good-bye, Gipsy ; come 
 along Celeste !" 
 
 ******* 
 
 True to promise, Louis adopted the wounded bird ; 
 and under his skillful hands it soon recovered and was 
 presented to Celeste. She would have set it free, but 
 Louis said : " No ; keep it for my sake, Celeste." And 
 so Celeste kept it ; and no words can tell how she grew 
 to love that bird. It hung in a cage in her chamber, and 
 her greatest pleasure was in attending it. Minnette 
 hated the very sight of it. That it belonged to Celeste 
 would have been enough to make her hate it ; but added
 
 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 117 
 
 to that, it had been given her by Louis Oranmore, the 
 only living being Minnette had ever tried to please ; and 
 jealousy added tenfold to her hatred. 
 
 Seeing the bird hanging, one day, out in the sunshine, 
 she opened the cage-door, and, with the most fiendish 
 and deliberate malice, twisted its neck, and then, going 
 to Celeste, pointed to it with malignant triumph spark- 
 ling in her bold, black eyes. 
 
 Poor Celeste ! She took the dead and mangled body 
 of her pretty favorite in her lap, and sitting down, wept 
 the bitterest tears she had ever shed in her life. Let no 
 one smile at her childish grief ; who has been without 
 them ? I remember distinctly the saddest tears that ever 
 I shed were over the remains of a beloved kitten, stoned 
 to death. And through all the troubles of after years, 
 that first deep grief never was forgotten. 
 
 While she was still sobbing as if her heart would 
 break, a pair of strong arms were thrown around her, 
 and the eager, handsome face of Louis was bending over 
 her. 
 
 " Why, Celeste, what in the world are all those tears 
 for ?" he inquired, pushing the disheveled golden hair 
 off her wet cheek. 
 
 " Oh, Louis, my bird ! my poor bird !" she cried, hid- 
 ing her face on his shoulder, in a fresh burst of grief. 
 
 " What ! it's dead, is it ?" said Louis, taking it up. 
 "Did the cat get at it?" 
 
 " No, no ; it wasn't the cat ; it was it was " 
 
 " Who?" said Louis, while his dark eyes flashed. 
 " Did any one dare to kill it ? Did Minnette, that young 
 tigress " 
 
 " Oh, Louis ! don't, don't ! You mustn't call her such 
 dreadful names !" said Celeste, placing her hand over his 
 mouth. " I don't think she meant it ; don't be angry 
 with her, please ; it's so dreadful !"
 
 n8 THE TIGRESS AND THE DOVE. 
 
 " You little angel !" he said, smoothing gently her fair 
 hair; "no, for your sake I'll not. Never mind, don't 
 cry ; I'll get you another, twice as pretty as that !" 
 
 " No, Louis ; I don't want any more ! I'd rather 
 have the dear birds free ! And now, will you will you 
 bury poor birdie?" said Celeste, almost choking in her 
 effort to be " good and not cry." 
 
 "Yes; here's a nice spot, under the rose-bush," said 
 Louis ; " and I'll get a tombstone and write a nice epitaph. 
 And you must console yourself with the belief that it's 
 happy in the bird's heaven, if there is such a place," 
 added Louis, as he placed poor " Birdie " in its last rest- 
 ing-place. 
 
 Half an hour after, Celeste sought the presence of 
 Minnette. She found her sitting by the window, her 
 chin resting on her hand, as was her habit, gazing out. 
 She did not turn round as Celeste entered ; but the 
 latter went up softly, and, placing her hand on hers, said 
 gently : 
 
 " Minnette, I'm afraid you're angry with me ? I'm 
 very sorry ; please forgive me ?" 
 
 Minnette shook her roughly off, exclaiming : 
 
 " Don't bother me, you little whining thing ! Go out 
 of this !" 
 
 " Yes ; but only say you forgive me, first ! Indeed, 
 indeed, Minnette, I didn't mean to offend you. I want 
 to love you, if you'll let me !" 
 
 " Love !" exclaimed Minnette, springing fiercely to her 
 feet, her black eyes gleaming like fire. " You artful 
 little hypocrite ! You consummate little cheat ? Don't 
 talk to me of love ! Didn't I see you in the garden, with 
 your arms around Louis Oranmore, in a way for which 
 you ought to be ashamed of yourself complaining to 
 him of my wickedness and cruelty in killing the bird 
 he gave you. And yet, after turning him against me,
 
 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 119 
 
 you come here, and tell me you love me ! Begone, 
 you miserable little beggar ! I hate the very sight of 
 you !" 
 
 Her face was convulsed with passion. With a cry 
 of terror, Celeste fled from the room to weep alone in 
 her own chamber, while Minnette sat by the window, 
 watching the stars come out in their splendor, one by 
 one, with the germs of that jealousy taking deep root 
 in her soul, that would grow and bear fruit for ever- 
 more^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 
 " What mighty mischief glads her now?" FIRE WORSHIPERS. 
 
 MONG the villagers of St. Mark's, the mad- 
 headed, wild-eyed, fearless Gipsy Gower was 
 a universal favorite. Not one among them 
 but had received from her warm heart and 
 generous hand some service. The squire 
 furnished his " imp" plentifully with pocket-money, 
 which was invariably bestowed with careless generosity 
 upon the poor of the parish ; but given in a way that 
 precluded all thanks. Sometimes the door would be 
 thrust open with such violence as to wake the inmates, 
 thinking a troop of horse was about to favor them with 
 a visit, and her purse flung into the middle of the floor ; 
 and away she would ride like a flash. But on these occa- 
 sions they were never at a loss to know the donor. If, 
 on her next visit, they began to thank her for her gift,
 
 120 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 
 
 Gipsy indignantly denied all knowledge of it, and posi- 
 tively refused to listen to them. 
 
 Dr. Wiseman, who was a pretty extensive land-owner, 
 had several tenants in the remotest part of the village, 
 whom he forced to pay an exorbitant rent, giving them 
 to understand that unless they paid it on the very day it 
 came due, out they must go ! One evening, about dusk, 
 Gipsy, who had been riding out, was overtaken by a 
 storm of wind and rain, and sought shelter in one of the 
 cottages. 
 
 On entering she found the whole family in deep dis- 
 tress. The head of the family sat gazing moodily at the 
 fire : his wife, surrounded by her children, was weeping ; 
 and they, following her example, had setup a clamorous 
 cry. 
 
 "Why, what's up now? What's the matter, Mrs. 
 Brown ?" inquired Gipsy, in surprise. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Gipsy ! is it you ? Sit down. Alas, it's 
 the last time we can ever ask you !" said the woman, 
 with a fresh burst of tears. 
 
 " Why, are you going to turn me out the next time I 
 come?" said Gipsy, taking the proffered seat. 
 
 " Heaven forbid we'd ever turn you out, Miss Gipsy, 
 after all you've done for us !" said the woman ; " but 
 after to-night we'll no longer have a roof to shelter us." 
 
 " You won't, eh ? Do you intend to set fire to this old 
 shanty, and burn it down ?" inquired Gipsy. 
 
 " No, no ; but Dr. Wiseman was here for his rent 
 (this is pay-day, you know), and we haven't a cent in the 
 house to give him. Mr. Brown's been sick mostly all 
 summer, and all we could make it took to feed the chil- 
 dren. And now Dr. Wiseman says he'll turn us out, to 
 starve or beg, to-morrow," replied the woman 'through 
 her tears. 
 
 " The old sinner !" exclaimed Gipsy, through her
 
 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES, 121 
 
 hard-closed teeth. " Did you ask him to give you time 
 to pay ?" 
 
 " Yes, I went on my knees, and begged him to spare 
 us fora few months, and we would pay him every cent ; 
 but he wouldn't. He said he would give us until to- 
 morrow morning, and if we didn't have it then, out we 
 must go." 
 
 For a moment Gipsy was silent, compressing her lips 
 to keep down her fiery wrath, while the woman wept 
 more passionately than ever. 
 
 " Have his other tenants paid him ?" inquired Gipsy, 
 at length. 
 
 " Yes, all but us." 
 
 " When did he start for home ?" 
 
 " Not five minutes ago ?" 
 
 " Which way did he take ?" said Gipsy, springing to 
 her feet, and beginning to examine her pistols. 
 
 " He went over the hills," said the man at the fire, 
 speaking now for the first time ; " I heard them say he 
 was afraid to be robbed if he went round by the road, as 
 he had all the money he got from the tenants with 
 him." 
 
 "All right, then, Mrs. Brown, my dear woman. Keep 
 up heart ; and if some good fairy gets you out of this 
 scrape, don't say a word about it. Good night." 
 
 " You had better not venture alone in the storm," said 
 Mrs. Brown, anxiously ; "one of the boys will go with 
 you." 
 
 "Thank you, there's no necesstiy. I feel safer on 
 Mignonne's back than with all the boys that ever afflicted 
 the world for its sins for a body-guard. So mind my 
 words, ' hold on to the last,' as the shoemaker said, and 
 don't despair." 
 
 The last words were lost in the storm of wind and rain, 
 as she opened the door. Springing on the back of Mig- 
 6
 
 122 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 
 
 nonne, she turned his head in' the direction of the hills, 
 and sped over the ground as rapidly as her fleet-footed 
 Arabian could carry her. 
 
 Through the night, and wind, and rain, over the dan- 
 gerous hilly path jogged Dr. Wiseman. He scarcely 
 felt the storm, for a talisman in the shape of a well-filled 
 pocket-book lay pressed to his avaricious heart. His 
 mare, a raw-boned old brute, as ugly as her master, 
 walked along slowly, manifesting a sublime contempt 
 for storm and wind that would have done the heart of "a 
 philosopher good. What her thoughts were about it, 
 would be hard to say ; but her master's ran on money, 
 robbers, highwaymen, and other such " knights of the 
 road." 
 
 " There are many desperate characters in the village 
 who know I have a large sum of money about me, and 
 who would no more mind waylaying, robbing, and per- 
 haps murdering me, than I would of turning the Brown's 
 out to-morrow. Luckily, however, they'll think I've 
 taken the village road," said the doctor to himself, in a 
 sort of soliloquy, " and so I'll escape them. But this 
 road is a dismal one, and seems just the place for a ren- 
 dezvous of robbers. Now, if a highwayman were to 
 step up from behind one of these rocks, and cry " 
 
 " Your money or your life !" cried a deep, sepulchral 
 voice at his ear, with such startling suddenness that, 
 with an exclamation of horror and fear, the doctor near- 
 ly fell from his seat. 
 
 Recovering himself, he strove to see the robber, but 
 in the deep darkness and beating rain it was impos- 
 sible. But though lie couldn't see, he could hear, and 
 the sharp click of a pistol distinctly met his ear. 
 
 " Your money or your life !" repeated the low, hoarse 
 voice, in an imperious tone. 
 
 For reply, the doctor, rendered desperate by the fear
 
 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 123 
 
 of losing his money, drew a pistol and fired. As it 
 flashed, he saw for a moment a horse standing before 
 him, but the rider seemed to have lain flat down, for no 
 man was there. Ere he could draw his second pistol, 
 his horse v;as grasped by the bridle-rein, and the cold 
 muzzle of a pistol was pressed to his temple. 
 
 " Your money or your life !" cried a fierce, excited 
 voice that terror alone prevented him from recognizing. 
 " Deliver up your money, old man, or this instant you 
 shall die." 
 
 " Oh, spare my life !" cried the wretched doctor, in 
 an agony of terror, for the cold ring of steel still pressed 
 his temple like the deadly fang of a serpent. " Spare 
 my life, for God's sake, and you shall have all ! I'm a 
 poor man, but you shall have it." 
 
 " Quick, then," was the imperious rejoinder, as the 
 doctor fumbled in his pockets, and at last, with a deep 
 groan of despair, surrendered the plump pocket-book to 
 the daring outlaw. 
 
 "That is all I have; now let me go," cried the mis- 
 erable doctor. 
 
 " Yes ; but first you must solemnly swear never to 
 speak to man, woman, or child of what has occurred to- 
 night. Swear by your own miserable soul !" 
 
 " I swear !" groaned the unhappy doctor. 
 
 "And lest you should be tempted to commit perjury, 
 and break your oath, let me tell you that the very first 
 attempt to do so will be followed by instant death. Mind ! 
 I will watch you day and night, dog your steps like a 
 blood-hound, and if you dare to breathe it to living mor- 
 tal, that moment will be your last." 
 
 " I'll never mention it ! I'll never speak of it. Oh, 
 let me go," implored the agonized Galen. 
 
 " Very well, then. I have the honor to wish you
 
 124 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 
 
 good-night. If you don't ride straight home, I'll send a 
 bullet through your head." 
 
 And with this cheering assurance the robber put spurs 
 to the horse, and rode off in the direction opposite to that 
 leading to Deep Dale. 
 
 Little need was there to exhort the terror-stricken 
 doctor to ride straight home. Never before had the 
 spavined old mare fled over the ground with the velocity 
 she did that night, and Doctor Wiseman did not breathe 
 freely until he was double-locked in his own room. 
 
 The Browns paid their rent the next day, and would 
 no longer remain tenants of the doctor. If he suspected 
 any one, the robber's threat caused him prudently to 
 remain silent ; but his wretched look was an unfailing 
 subject of mirth for Gipsy Gower for a month after, 
 and the cunning twinkle of her eye said as plainly as 
 words : 
 
 "I know, but I won't tell." 
 
 One day, Gipsy fell into deeper disgrace with the 
 squire than had ever occurred before. In fact, it was 
 quite an outrageous thing, and the only apology I can 
 offer for her is, that she meant no harm. 
 
 The Bishop of B., Senator Long, and a number of 
 distinguished gentlemen and ladies from the city had 
 come to St. Mark's to spend a few days. Squire Erlis- 
 ton, as a matter of course, immediately called to see his 
 friends, and a few days after gave a large dinner-party, 
 to which they were all invited. 
 
 The important day for the dinner-party arrived. Liz- 
 zie was up in her room, dressing. Mrs. Gower was su- 
 perintending affairs in the dining-room. The squire, in 
 full dress, sat alone, awaiting his friends. As he sat, 
 sleep overpowered him, and unconsciously he sank into 
 a profound slumber. 
 
 While he was snoring in peace, little dreaming of the
 
 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 125 
 
 fate awaiting him, that little imp of mischief, Gipsy, en- 
 tered. One glance sufficed, and across her fertile brain 
 there shot a demoniacal project of mischief, while her 
 whole form became instinct, and her wicked eyes scin- 
 tillated with fun. 
 
 Quitting the room, she returned presently with a box 
 of lampblack in one hand, and the mustard-pot in the 
 other. 
 
 " Now, Guardy, you keep still a little while till I 
 turn you into an Indian chief, and here goes for your 
 war-paint." 
 
 So saying, the little wretch drew a streak of mustard 
 across his nose, following it by a similar one of lamp- 
 black. And so she continued until his whole face was 
 covered with alternate stripes of yellow and black, 
 scarcely able to repress a shout of laughter as she 
 worked, at the unspeakably ludicrous appearance he pre- 
 sented. 
 
 Having exhausted her supply of paint, Gipsy stepped 
 to the door to survey her work, and unable longer to re- 
 strain a roar of laughter, fled to her room, quivering with 
 the anticipation of the fun to come. 
 
 Scarcely had she quitted the room when the door 
 was flung open, and, in pompous tones, the servant 
 announced : 
 
 " De Right Reveren' Bishop of B., de Hon'ble Senator 
 Long and Mrs. Long." 
 
 And the whole party, half a dozen in number, entered 
 the apartment. 
 
 The noise awoke the squire; and a most musical 
 snore was mercilessly interrupted, and ended in a 
 hysterical snort. Starting to his feet with an expression 
 of countenance that utterly repudiated the idea of his 
 having been asleep, he advanced with extended hand 
 toward the bishop. That high functionary drew back
 
 126 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 
 
 for a moment aghast, and glanced at his companions in 
 horror. Human nature could stand it no longer, and a 
 universal shout of laughter resounded through the room. 
 
 "Eh? What? Lord bless me, what's the matter?" 
 said the squire, turning his face from one to another, in- 
 wardly wondering if they had all gone mad. " What are 
 you laughing at ?" 
 
 A fresh roar of laughter from the whole party an- 
 swered this, as they all pressed their hands to their sides, 
 utterly unable to stop. Seeing this, the squire at last 
 began grinning with sympathy, thereby adding so much 
 to the ludicrousness of his appearance, that some threw 
 themselves on the floor, some on chairs and sofas, in per- 
 fect convulsions. 
 
 " What the deuce is it?" repeated the squire, at last 
 losing patience. " Will you oblige me by telling me 
 what the matter is?" 
 
 " My dear sir," began the bishop, in tremulous tones. 
 
 The squire turned his painted face eagerly toward the 
 speaker. In vain he attempted to proceed, it was not in 
 human nature to withstand that face, and the bishop fell 
 back in a paroxysm that threatened never to end. 
 
 It was a scene for an artist. The row of convulsed 
 faces around, pausing for a moment breathlessly, but 
 breaking forth louder than ever the minute their eyes again 
 fell upon him. And there sat the squire with his black 
 and yellow face, turning in dismay from one to another, 
 his round bullet-eyes ready to pop from their sockets. 
 
 At this moment the door opened, and Lizzie, Louis, 
 and Mrs. Gower, followed by all the servants in the 
 house, attracted by the noise, burst into the room. The 
 moment their eyes fell on the squire, who had started to 
 his feet to address them, their looks of surprise vanishsd, 
 and, as if by one accord, shout after shout of laughter 
 broke from all. In vain did the squire stamp, and fume,
 
 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 127 
 
 and demand to know what was the matter ; his only 
 answer was afresh explosion of mirth. 
 
 At last, in despair, Mrs. Gower managed to point to 
 a mirror opposite. The squire rushed frantically to the 
 spot, and then paused, transfixed, aghast with horror. 
 Turning slowly round, he confronted his guests with 
 such a look of blank, utter dismay, that all the laughter 
 previous was nothing to the universal roar which fol- 
 lowed that despairing glance. Then bursting out with : 
 " It's that fiend ! that demon incarnate ! that little 
 Jezebel has done this," he rushed from the room in 
 search of her. 
 
 Gipsy, attracted by the laughter, had ventured cau- 
 tiously to descend the stairs. The squire perceived her, 
 as like a flash she turned to fly. With one galvanic 
 bound he sprang up the stairs, seized her by the shoulder, 
 shouting : 
 
 " By Heaven ! I'll pay you for this when they go !" 
 
 Then opening an adjoining door, he thrust her in, 
 turned the key, put it in his pocket, and rushed out of 
 the house into the yard, where, by the friendly aid of 
 soap and hot water, and some hard scrubbing, he managed 
 to make himself once more look like a Christian. 
 
 Then, returning to his guests who by this time had 
 laughed themselves into such a state that they could 
 laugh no longer he dispersed the servants with sundry 
 kicks and cuffs, and proceeded to explain, as well as he 
 was able, how it came about. Politeness forced the 
 party to make every effort to maintain their gravity, but 
 more than once, while seated in solemn conclave round 
 the dinner-table, the recollection of the old man's ludi- 
 crous appearance would prove too much for flesh and 
 blood and, leaning back, they would laugh until the 
 tears stood in their eyes. Their example proving con- 
 tagious, the whole party would join in, to the great mor-
 
 iz8 GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 
 
 tification of the squire who inwardly vowed that Gipsy 
 should pay dearly for every additional laugh. 
 
 But for the squire to reckon without Gipsy was rather 
 a hazardous experiment. Seldom did that young lady 
 find herself in a position from which her genius would 
 not extricate her as the squire found to his cost in the 
 present instance. 
 
 Gipsy's first sensation at finding herself for the first 
 time really a prisoner was one of intense mortification, 
 followed by indignation ; and her thoughts ran some- 
 what after the following fashion : 
 
 "The mean old thing ! to lock me up here just be- 
 cause I applied a little mustard outside instead of in- 
 side ! Nevermind; if I don't fix him for it, it'll be a 
 wonder. So you'll pay me for this, will you, Guardy ? 
 Ah ! but you ain't sure of me yet, you see. If I don't 
 outwit you yet, my name's not Gipsy Roarer Gower ! 
 Now, Gipsy, my dear, set your wits to work, and get 
 yourself out of this black hole of a prison." 
 
 Going to the window, she looked out. The sight 
 would have appalled any one else ; but it did not intim- 
 idate Gipsy. The room she was in was on the third 
 story, at a dizzy height from the ground. She looked 
 around for a rope to descend ; but none did the room 
 contain. What was she to do ? Gipsy raised herself on 
 one toe to consider. 
 
 Suddenly her eye fell on a new suit of broadcloth 
 her guardian had brought home only the day before. 
 She did not hesitate an instant. 
 
 To her great delight she found a pair of scissors in 
 her pocket ; and, taking the coat and unmentionables 
 from the wall where they hung, she sat down and dili- 
 gently fell to work cutting them into long strips. Fif- 
 teen minutes passed, and nothing remained of Guardy's
 
 'GIPSY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES. 129 
 
 new clothes but a long black knotted string which, to 
 her great delight, she found would reach easily to the 
 ground. 
 
 Fastening it to the window-sill securely, she began 
 to descend, and in ten minutes she stood once more on 
 terra fir ma. 
 
 Going to the stables, she saddled Mignonne and led 
 him to the front gate, where she left him standing. Then, 
 with unheard-of audacity, she entered the hall, opened 
 the dining-room door, and thrusting in her wicked little 
 head, she exclaimed exultingly : 
 
 "I say, Guardy, you can 'pay' me any time at your 
 leisure, and I'll give you a receipt in full." 
 
 Then, I am sorry to say, making a hideous grimace, 
 she turned to fly ; but the squire jumped from his seat 
 overturning the bishop and Mrs. Senator Long in his 
 violent haste and shouting, " Stop her ! stop her !" 
 rushed after her from the room. 
 
 But he was too late, and she leaped upon Mignonne's 
 back and was off. Waving her hat in the air in a defiant 
 "hurra !" she dashed down the road and disappeared. 
 
 Amazement and rage were struggling in the breast 
 of the squire. Doubting whether it was all a delusion, 
 he rushed up stairs to the room. The door was still fast ; 
 and, burning with impatience, he opened it. And there 
 he found the window wide open, and his new suit con- 
 verted into a rope, which still dangled, as if in exulta- 
 tion from the window. And the mystery was solved. 
 
 What the squire said and did there, it is useless to 
 say. The reader knows his remarks were anything but 
 edifying ; and even the august presence of the over- 
 turned bishop could not prevent him from hurling a 
 torrent of invectives against the unfortunate Gipsy. 
 Never had Squire Erliston been so angry in his life. 
 6*
 
 130 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 
 
 Inwardly vowing that she should repent what she had 
 done, the squire "bided his time" little dreaming how 
 bitterly he was destined to repent that vow. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 
 
 "Oh, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd ; 
 She was a vixen when she went to school, 
 And though she is but little, she is fierce." 
 
 HE moonlight was falling brightly on the 
 lawn, and shimmering like silver sheen on 
 the leaves of the horse-ehestnuts, as Gipsy 
 rode home. The company had just dispersed, 
 and the squire was about to retire, when the 
 clatter of horse's hoofs on the graveled path made him 
 start up and hasten out to the porch. And there he be- 
 held the audacious Gipsy riding fearlessly toward him, 
 shouting at the top of her lungs some wild chorus, of 
 which he only caught the words : 
 
 " You must place in my coffin a bottle of red, 
 And say a good fellow is gone." 
 
 " If I don't pay her off before I sleep to-night !" mut- 
 tered the squire, between his clenched teeth. " I'll put 
 an end to her pranks, or know for why." 
 
 Gipsy leaped lightly from her horse, and resigning 
 him to Jupiter, ran up the steps, and encountered the 
 purple face and blazing eyes of her angry guardian.
 
 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 131 
 
 "Good-evening, Guardy !" was her salute. "Nice 
 night !" 
 
 "Stop !" said the squire, catching her by the arm as 
 she was about to run past " stop ! I've an account to 
 settle with you, my lady !" 
 
 " Oh, any time at your convenience, Squire Erliston ; 
 I'll not be hard on you." 
 
 "Silence, Miss Impertinence ! You have the impu- 
 dence of Satan to face me after what you have done !" 
 
 " Now, Guardy, don't be unreasonable, but look at 
 the matter in its proper light. All fashionable people 
 paint." 
 
 : ' Silence !" exclaimed the squire, in a voice hoarse 
 with rage. " Silence ! before I brain you, you little vil- 
 lain ! You have made me the laughing-stock of the 
 country for miles around. I can never dare to show my 
 face after what has occurred, without being jeered and 
 mocked at. And all through you the creature of my 
 bounty the miserable little wretch who would have 
 been a common street-beggar if I had not clothed, and 
 fed, and educated you ! through you, you brazen-faced, 
 good-for-nothing little pauper, whom I would have 
 kicked out long ago to the workhouse where you belong, 
 if I had not feared the opinion of the world. Begone 
 from my sight, before I am tempted to brain you !" 
 
 His face was perfectly livid with the storm of passion 
 into which he had wrought himself. As he ceased, he 
 raised his hand and brutally struck her a blow that sent 
 her reeling across the room. 
 
 Then all the demon in her fiery nature was aroused. 
 With the shriek of a wounded panther, she leaped to- 
 ward him, with clenched hands, blazing eyes, hard- 
 ground teeth, ghastly face, convulsed brow, and eyes 
 that fairly scintillated sparks of fire. She looked a per-
 
 132 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 
 
 feet little fiend, as she glared upon him, quivering in 
 every nerve with frenzied passion. 
 
 The old sinner drew back appalled, frightened into 
 calmness by that dark, fierce face. For a moment she 
 expected she would spring at his throat like a tigress and 
 strangle him. But, with a long, wild cry, she clasped 
 her hands above her head, and fled swiftly upstairs, dis- 
 appearing like some elfin sprite in the darkness beyond. 
 
 "Good Lord !" muttered the squire, wiping the drops 
 of terror off his face. " What a perfect little devil ! 
 Did ever any one see such a look on a human face be- 
 fore ! It's my opinion she's allied to Old Nick, and will 
 carry me off some night in a brimstone of cloud and 
 fire I mean a fire of cloud and brimstone. Good 
 gracious ! I'm palpitating like a hysterical girl. I never 
 got such a fright in my life. I vow it's a danger to go 
 to bed with that desperate little limb in the house. I 
 shouldn't wonder if she set the place on fire about our 
 ears and burned us all in our beds, or cut our throats, or 
 something. She looked wild and crazy enough to do it. 
 Well, I reckon, I'll be more careful how I chastise her 
 for the future, that's certain." 
 
 So saying, the squire took his night-lamp and went 
 off to bed, taking the precaution to double lock his door, 
 lest the " little imp" should take it into her head to carry 
 him off bodily during the night. 
 
 No such catastrophe occurred, however, and when 
 the squire went down to breakfast, he found everything 
 going on as usual. Lizzie lay on a lounge, immersed 
 in the pages of a novel, and Louis sat by the window 
 busily sketching, as was his custom. 
 
 " I say, Lizzie, have you seen anything of Gipsy this 
 morning?" he inquired, as he entered. 
 
 " No, papa." 
 
 "I'd rather think she rode off before any of us were
 
 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 133 
 
 up this morning," said Louis, raising his head. " Mig- 
 nonne is not in the stable." 
 
 This was nothing unusual, so without waiting for 
 her, the family sat down to breakfast. 
 
 But half an hour after, Totty came running in alarm 
 to Mrs. Gower, to say Miss Gipsy's bed had not been 
 slept in all night. This fact was self-evident ; and the 
 worthy housekeeper sought out the squire to learn 
 whether Gipsy had returned home the night before. 
 
 "Yes, yes, to be sure she did. ' Night brings home 
 all stragglers,' as Solomon says. Why ?" 
 
 " Because she has not slept in her bed the livelong 
 night." 
 
 "No!" shouted the squire, springing from his seat, 
 as if some one had speared him. " Lord bless me ! where 
 can she have gone ?" 
 
 "Ah, Squire Erliston,' you do not think anything has 
 happened to the dear child, do you ?" said Mrs. Gower, 
 clasping her hands. 
 
 " Fiddle-de-dee, woman, of course not. She's gone 
 back to Deep Dale, I'll lay a wager. Oh, here comes 
 young Rivers, now we'll know." 
 
 " Archie, my dear," said Mrs. Gower, as that young 
 gentleman entered the room, "did Gipsy go back to 
 Deep Dale last night ?" 
 
 " Go back ! Why, of course she didn't." 
 
 " Oh, Squire Erliston, you hear that. Oh, where can 
 that crazy creature have gone ?" exclaimed Mrs. Gower, 
 twisting her fingers in distress. 
 
 " Why, what's wrong ? Where is Gipsy ?" asked 
 Archie, in surprise. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. She came home late last night, 
 and must have gone away somewhere, for she never 
 went to bed at all. Oh, I am sure she has been killed,
 
 134 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 
 
 or drowned, or shot, or something ! I always knew it 
 would happen," and Mrs. Govver fairly began to cry. 
 
 " Knew what would happen ?" said Archie, perplexed 
 and alarmed. 
 
 " Something or other. I always said it ; and now 
 my words have come true," replied Mrs. Gower sobbing. 
 
 " Mrs. Gower, ma'am, allow me to tell you, you're a 
 fool !" broke out the squire. " Most likely she didn't 
 feel sleepy, and rode off before you were out of your 
 bed this morning, just like the young minx. Ring the 
 bell, and we'll see what time she started." 
 
 Archie obeyed, and Totty made her appearance. 
 
 " Tott," said the master, " be off with you, and send 
 Jupiter here immediately." 
 
 Totty ducked her wooly head by way of reply, as she 
 ran off, and presently Jupiter made his appearance in evi- 
 dent trouble. 
 
 " Jupe, you black rascal, what time did Gipsy ride off 
 this morning?" asked the squire. 
 
 " Please, mas'r, it warn't dis mornin' she rid off," said 
 Jupiter, holding the door ajar, in order that he might re- 
 treat if his master grew violent 
 
 "What do you mean, sir?" roared his master, in 
 rising terror. 
 
 " 'Deed, mas'r, I couldn't stop the young wixen de 
 young lady, I mean she don't mind me, no how, she 
 don't." 
 
 " Nor anybody else, for that matter," groaned the 
 squire, inwardly. 
 
 " You see, mas'r, arter she come home, I tuk Minnon 
 inter de stable, and 'gan rubbin' him down, 'c:ize he was 
 all in a foam she done rid him so hard. Well, "bout half 
 an hour arter, as I was goin' to bed, I hears a noise in de 
 yard, an' when I looks out, dar was Miss Gipsy takin' de
 
 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 135 
 
 horse out again. 'Deed she was, mas'r, an' 'fore I could 
 get out she war gone 'twan't no fault of mine." 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! Gipsy !" shouted the squire, jumping 
 to his legs and stamping up and down the floor in an 
 agony of remorse and sorrow. "And I've driven you 
 from home, old monster that I am ! I'm a brute ! an 
 alligator ! a crocodile ! a wretched old wretch ! a miser- 
 able, forsaken old sinner ! and I'll knock down any man 
 that dare say to the contrary ! Oh, Gipsy, my dear little 
 plague! where are you now? My darling little wild 
 eaglet ! friendless in the wide world !" Here catching 
 sight of Jupiter still standing in the door-way, he rushed 
 upon him and shook him until the unfortunate darkey's 
 jaws chattered like a pair of castanets. " As for you, you 
 black rascal ! I have a good mind to break every bone in 
 your worthless skin. Why didn't you wake me up, sir, 
 when you saw her going, eh? Answer me that !" 
 
 " Mas'r ma ma mas'r," stuttered poor Jupiter, 
 half strangled, " 'deed de Lord knows I was 'fraid to 
 'sturb ye. Ma ma ma mas'r " 
 
 " Silence, sir ! Up with you and mount let every 
 man, Avoman, and child in the place be off in search of 
 her. And Mrs. Govver, ma'am, do you stop snuffling 
 there. ' No use crying for spilled milk,' as Solomon 
 says. We'll have her home and soundly thrashed before 
 night, or my name's not Magnus Theodoric Erliston. 
 Ha ! there ! Louis ! Archie ! the rest of you, mount and 
 off ! And Mrs. Govver, ma'am, do you run out and 
 saddle my horse, and bring him round while I draw on 
 my boots." 
 
 "Squire Erliston," sobbed the poor old lady, "you 
 know very well I can't saddle your horse. Oh, Gipsy ! 
 Gipsy !" she added, with a fresh burst of tears. 
 
 " Well, fly and tell some of the rest, then. Women 
 are such worthless creatures good for nothing but cry-
 
 136 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING, 
 
 ing. There they go, with Louis and young Rivers at 
 their head, to scour the country. ' In the days when we 
 went gipsying,' as Solomon says. I do believe that little 
 minx will be the death of me yet I know she will ! I'm 
 losing flesh ; I'm losing temper ; I'm losing cash ! I'm 
 losing rest, and losing patience every day. She'll bring 
 my gray hairs in sorrow to the grave, as Solomon says, 
 only I happen to wear a wig, Ah ! there's my horse. 
 Now for it ! Gipsy Gower, you little torment, you, 
 won't I tell you a piece of my mind when I catch you !" 
 
 But the squire was destined not to catch her ; for, 
 though they continued the search for the lost one until 
 night, no trace of her could be found. All that could be 
 learned of her was from an innkeeper in a neighboring 
 town, some twenty miles distant. He said a young girl 
 answering the description given of Gipsy had arrived 
 there about daylight, and, after taking a hasty breakfast, 
 had left her horse which was utterly exhausted by the 
 pace with which she had ridden him and started in the 
 mail coach for the city. 
 
 Mignonne was led home, and as it was too late to go 
 farther that day the tired horsemen returned, silent and 
 dispirited, homeward. The next day the search was re- 
 newed, and the driver of the mail-coach questioned con- 
 cerning the little fugitive. He could throw but little 
 light on the subject ; she accompanied him as far as the 
 city, where she paid her fare and left him. And that 
 was all he knew. 
 
 Placards were posted up, and rewards offered ; the 
 police were put upon her track ; but all in vain. And 
 at last all hope was given up, and the lost child was re- 
 signed to her fate. 
 
 One day, about three weeks after her flight, the post- 
 man brought a letter for Mrs. Gower. One glance at 
 the superscription, and with a cry of joy she tore it open,
 
 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 137 
 
 for it was in the light, careless hand of Gipsy. It ran as 
 follows : 
 
 "Mv DEAR, DARLING AUNTY : I suppose you have 
 had great times up at Sunset Hall since I made a moon- 
 light flitting of it. I wish I had been there to see the 
 fun. I suppose Guardy stamped and roared, and blew 
 up Jupiter, and blessed me after his old style. Well, 
 you know, aunty, I just couldn't help it. Guardy was 
 getting so unbearable there was no standing him, and so 
 I'm going to take Gipsy Gower under my own especial 
 patronage, and make a good girl of her. Don't be angry, 
 now, aunty, because I'll take precious good care of my- 
 self see if I don't. Tell Guardy not to make a fuss, for 
 fear it might bring on the gout, and tell him not to keep 
 searching for me, for if he hunts till he's black in the 
 face he won't find me. Remember me to Aunt Liz, and 
 Louis, and Celeste, and and Archie. Tell Archie not to 
 fall in love with anybody else ; if he does he may look 
 out for a squall from your own little GIPSY." 
 
 This characteristic letter, instead of comforting the 
 family, plunged them into still deeper trouble on her 
 account. Mrs. Gower wept for her darling unceasingly, 
 and would not be comforted ; Lizzie sighed and yawned, 
 and lay on her lounge from morning till night, looking 
 drearier than ever; and the servants went in silence and 
 sadness about their daily business, heaving a sigh and 
 shedding a tear over every memento that recalled poor 
 Gipsy. Now that she was gone they found how dearly 
 they loved her, in spite of all the scrapes and troubles 
 she had ever cost them. 
 
 A dull, heavy, stagnant silence hung over the man- 
 sion from morning till night. There was no more bang- 
 ing of doors, and flying in and out, and up and down
 
 138 THE MOONLIGHT FLITTING. 
 
 stairs, and scolding, and shouting, and singing all in one 
 burst, now. The squire was blue-molding fairly " run- 
 ning to seed," as he mournfully expressed it for want 
 of his little torment. 
 
 No one missed the merry little elf more than the lusty 
 old squire, who sighed like a furnace, and sat undis- 
 turbed in his own arm-chair from one week's end to the 
 other. Sometimes Louis would bring over Celeste, who 
 had nearly wept her gentle eyes out for the loss of her 
 friend, to comfort him, and the fair, loving little crea- 
 ture would nestle on a stool at his feet and lay her 
 golden head in his lap, and go to sleep. And the 
 squire would caress her fair, silken curls with his 
 great, rough hands, and pat her white, dimpling shoul- 
 ders, and turn away with a half groan ; for she was not 
 Gipsy ! 
 
 As for poor Archie, he took to wandering in the woods 
 and shooting unoffending birds and rabbits, because it 
 was Gipsy's favorite sport, and looked as doleful as 
 though he had lost every friend in the world. 
 
 "Fall in love with any one else," indeed! Master 
 Archie scorned the idea, and began to have sundry 
 visions of joining the monks of La Trappe as soon as 
 he grew old enough. This and his other threats of 
 going to sea, of enlisting, of killing somebody, by way 
 of relieving his spirits, kept poor Celeste trembling with 
 fear for him from morning till night. And in her own 
 gentle way she would put her arms round his neck and 
 cry on his shoulder, and beg of him not to say such 
 naughty things, for that Gipsy would come back yet 
 she knew that she would. 
 
 But Minnette, who didn't care a straw whether Gipsy 
 ever came back or not, would laugh her short, deriding 
 laugh, and advise him to become a Sister of Charity at 
 once. And Celeste said she would be one when she grew
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 130 
 
 up, and then she would be always near to comfort him. 
 And Minnette's taunts always sent poor Archie off to 
 the woods in a more heart-broken state of mind than 
 ever before. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 
 
 " Face and figure of a child, 
 
 Though too calm, you think, and tender, 
 
 For the childhood you would lend her." BROWNING. 
 
 HE winter was now drawing on. The short, 
 bleak November days had come, with their 
 chill winds and frosty mornings. Miss 
 Hagar looked at the slight, delicate form and 
 pale little face of her protegee, and began to 
 talk of keeping her at home, instead of sending her to 
 school during the winter months. 
 
 Celeste listened, and never dreamed of opposing her 
 wishes, but stole away by herself, and shed the first sel- 
 fish tears that had ever fallen from her eyes in her life. 
 It was so pleasant in school, among so many happy 
 young faces, and with the holy, gentle-voiced Sisters of 
 Charity, and so unspeakably lonesome at home, with 
 nothing to do but look out of the window at gray hills 
 and leafless trees, and listen to the dreary sighing of the 
 wind. Therefore Celeste grieved in silence, and strove 
 to keep back the tears when in Miss Hagar's presence, 
 lest she should think her an ungrateful, dissatisfied little 
 girl. 
 
 One morning, however, as Miss Hagar entered the
 
 i 4 o THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY," 
 
 deserted parlor, she found Celeste sitting in the chimney- 
 corner, her face hidden in her hands, sobbing gently to 
 herself. A little surprised at this, for the child seemed 
 always smiling and happy before her, Miss Hagar took 
 her on her knee, and asked what was the matter. 
 
 "Nothing," replied Celeste, though her cheek glowed 
 crimson red, as she felt she was not speaking the truth. 
 
 <l People don't cry for nothing, child !" said the aged 
 spinster, severely. " Whafs the matter ?" 
 
 11 Please, Miss Hagar, I'm so naughty, but but I 
 don't want to leave school." 
 
 " Don't want to leave school ? Why, child, you'd 
 freeze to death going to school in the winter." 
 
 " But Minnette goes," pleaded Celeste. 
 
 " Minnette's not like you, little lily. She's strong and 
 hardy, and doesn't mind the cold ; it only brings living 
 roses to her cheeks ; but you, little whiff of down that 
 you are, you'd blow away with the first winter breeze." 
 
 Celeste had no reply to make to this. She only 
 hung down her head, and tried very hard to swallow a 
 choking sensation in her throat. 
 
 At this moment Archie burst in, in his usual boister- 
 ous manner, all aglow with snow-balling Louis. Mas- 
 ter Rivers seemed in very good condition, notwithstand- 
 ing the loss of Gipsy ; though I rather think he would 
 have been induced to knock any one down who would 
 tell him he had forgotten her. 
 
 "What! in trouble again, little sis? Who's been 
 bothering you now ? Just give me a hint, and I'll invite 
 them not to do it again." 
 
 "Why, the little simpleton is crying because I won't 
 let her freeze herself to death going to school all win- 
 ter !" said Miss Hagar. 
 
 " Oh, that's it is it ? Dry up your tears, then, 
 Birdie ; there's ' balm in Gilead ' for you. Yesterday,
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 141 
 
 that good-natured old savage, Squire Erliston, hearing 
 me tell Louis that Celeste cpuld not go to school owing 
 to the distance, immediately insisted that we should all 
 use his family sleigh for the winter. Now, Miss Hagar, 
 see how those radiant smiles chase her tears away. 
 We'll nestle you up in the buffalo robes, and dash off to 
 school with you every morning to the music of the jing- 
 ling sleigh-bells. Eh, puss? won't it be glorious?" 
 
 " What's that ?" said Minnette, entering suddenly. 
 
 " Why, Squire Erliston has given his sleigh up to 
 Pussy here to take her to school, and perhaps we'll take 
 you if you're not cross, though the squire has no partic- 
 ular love for you." 
 
 " Thank you for nothing," said Minnette, scornfully; 
 "but I wouldn't go if you did ask me. Before I'd be 
 such a baby !" she added, glancing contemptuously at 
 Celeste. 
 
 And Minnette was as good as her word, positively 
 refusing even the stormiest mornings to go in the sleigh. 
 Archie exhausted all his eloquence, and Celeste pleaded 
 tearfully, offering to stay at home and let her take her 
 place; but Minnette answered all their entreaties by a 
 sullen " I won't." Even when Louis, the only living 
 being to whom her high, stubborn will would bend, 
 pleaded with her to come, she only turned away, and 
 said, in a tone very gentle for her : 
 
 "No, Louis, don't ask me ; I can't go. Why should 
 I ? I'm no trembling little coward like Celeste. I love 
 the winter ! yes, twice as well as the summer ! The 
 summer is too still, and warm, and serene for me ! But 
 the winter, with its maddening winds and howling 
 storms, and white, frosty ground and piercing cold 
 breeze, sends the blood bounding like lightning through 
 every vein in my body, until I fly along, scarcely touch- 
 ing the ground beneath me ! Louis, walking alone
 
 142 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 
 
 through the drifted snow, I feel no cold ; but in your 
 warm sleigh beside her, my heart would feel like ice !" 
 
 " Strange, wild girl that you are ! Why do you dis- 
 like Celeste so much ?" 
 
 " I don't know. I never liked any one in my life at 
 least not more than one. Do you like her ?" she said, 
 lifting her eyes, glancing with dusky fire, to his face. 
 
 "Like her!" he exclaimed, shaking back his short, 
 black curls, while his full, dark eye kindled "like that 
 lovely little creature ! that gentle little dove ! that sweet 
 little fairy ! beautiful as an angel ! radiant as a poet's 
 dream ! bewitching as an Eastern houri ! Like her ! Oh, 
 Minnette !" 
 
 She paused for a moment, and fixed her gleaming 
 eyes on the bright, handsome face, sparkling with boy- 
 ish enthusiasm ; then, without a word, turned away, and 
 fled from his sight. 
 
 And from that moment her hatred of Celeste re- 
 doubled tenfold in its intensity. Every opportunity of 
 wounding and insulting the sensitive heart of the gentle 
 child was seized ; but every insult was borne with pa- 
 tience every taunt and sarcasm met with meek silence, 
 that only exasperated her merciless tormentor more and 
 more. Sometimes Celeste would feel rising in her bosom 
 a feeling of dislike and indignation toward her persecu- 
 tor; and then, filled with remorse, she would kneel in 
 the chapel and meekly pray for a better spirit, and al- 
 ways rise strengthened and hopeful, to encounter her 
 arch-enemy, with her taunting words and deriding black 
 eyes. 
 
 One last incident, displaying forcibly their different 
 dispositions, and I have done with the children, Min- 
 nette and Celeste, forever. 
 
 The Sisters had purchased a beautiful new statue of 
 the Madonna, and placed it in the refectory until it could
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 143 
 
 be properly fixed in the chapel. The children were re- 
 peatedly forbidden to enter the refectory while it was 
 there, lest it should accidentally be broken. 
 
 One day, the Sisters had given a conge, and their 
 pupils were out playing noisily in the large garden and 
 grounds attached to the convent. Minnette, who never 
 liked to mingle in a crowd, selected three of the boldest 
 spirits present, and proposed they should play " Puss in 
 the corner" by themselves. 
 
 " Oh ! we can't here in this great big place," was the 
 reply ; " besides, the other girls will be sure to join us." 
 
 "Let us go into the class-room, then," said the ad- 
 venturous Minnette. 
 
 " Sister Mary Stanislaus is sweeping out the class- 
 room, and she won't let us," said one of the girls. 
 
 " Well, then, there's the refectory," persisted Min- 
 nette. 
 
 "Oh ! we daren't go there ! Mother Vincent would 
 be dreadfully angry. You know the new statue is there !" 
 said the girls, aghast at the very idea. 
 
 " Such cowards !" exclaimed Minnette, her lip curling 
 and her eye flashing. " I wish Gipsy Gower were here. 
 She would not be afraid." 
 
 "/ain't a coward! I'll go!" cried one, following 
 the daring Minnette, who had already started for the for- 
 bidden room. The others, yielding to their bolder spirit, 
 followed after, and soon were wildly romping in the re- 
 fectory. 
 
 Suddenly, Minnette, in her haste, rushed against the 
 shelf where the statue stood. Down it came, with a loud 
 crash, shivered into a thousand fragments. 
 
 The four girls stood pale, aghast with terror. Even 
 Minnette's heart for a moment ceased to beat, as she 
 gazed on the broken pieces of the exquisite statue. It
 
 144 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 
 
 was but for a moment ; all her presence of mind re- 
 turned, as she breathlessly exclaimed : 
 
 " Sister will be here in a moment and catch us. Let 
 us run out and join the other girls, and she'll never 
 know who did it." 
 
 In an instant they were rushing pell-mell from the 
 room. Minnette was the last, and as she went out her 
 eye fell upon Celeste coming along the passage. A pro- 
 ject for gratifying her hatred immediately flashed across 
 her mind. Seizing Celeste by the arm she thrust her 
 into the refectory, closed the door, and fled, just as the 
 Sister, startled by the noise, came running to the spot. 
 
 She opened the door ! There stood Celeste, pale and 
 trembling, gazing in horror on the ruins at her feet. 
 
 An involuntary shriek from Sister Stanislaus brought 
 all the nuns and pupils in alarm to the spot. Celeste 
 had entered the forbidden room had, by some accident, 
 broken the beautiful and costly statue ; that was a fact 
 self-evident to all. She did not attempt to deny it her 
 trembling lips could frame no words, while the real cul- 
 prits stood boldly by, silent and unsuspected. 
 
 Celeste was led away to appear before " Mother Vin- 
 cent," and answer the heavy charge brought against her. 
 She well knew how it all happened, and could very 
 easily have cleared herself ; but she had just been read- 
 ing a lecture on humility and self-denial, and heroically 
 resolved to bear the blame sooner than charge Minnette. 
 " Minnette will hate me worse than ever if I tell," she 
 thought; "and I must try and get her to like me. Be- 
 sides, I deserve punishment, for I felt dreadfully bad and 
 naughty, when she made the girls laugh at me this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 So -Celeste met the charge only by silence, and sobs, 
 and tears ; and Mother Vincent, leading her into the
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 145 
 
 class-room, where all the girls and teachers were assem- 
 bled, administered a public reproof. 
 
 " Had it been any of the other girls," she said, " she 
 would not have felt surprised ; but Celeste was such a 
 good girl generally, she was indeed surprised and grieved. 
 It was not for the loss of the statue she cared most 
 though that could scarcely be replaced but so glaring 
 an act of disobedience as entering the refectory could 
 not go unpunished. Therefore, Sister Mary Joseph 
 would lead Celeste off and leave her by herself until 
 school was dismissed, as a warning to be more obedient 
 in future." 
 
 And Celeste, with her fair face flushed with shame 
 her bosom heaving with sobs as though her gentle heart 
 would break was led away to the now unforbidden re- 
 fectory, and left alone in her deep sorrow. The real cul- 
 prits sat silent and uneasy, starting guiltily when a low, 
 suppressed sob would now and then reach their ear. 
 But Minnette, with her black eyes blazing with triumph, 
 her cheeks crimson with excitement, sat bold and un- 
 daunted, proud and rejoicing in her victory. 
 
 That evening one of the girls, unable to endure the 
 stings of conscience, went to the Mother Superior and 
 nobly confessed the whole. The good lady listened 
 amazed, but silent. Celeste was released, brought before 
 her, and confronted with Minnette. 
 
 " Why did you tell this falsehood, Minnette ?" said 
 the justly indignant lady, turning to her. 
 
 " I told no falsehood, madam," she said, boldly, 
 though her cheek glowed like fire, and her falcon eye 
 fell beneath the keen, steady gaze of the other. 
 
 " You acted z. falsehood, then, which is quite as bad," 
 said Mother Vincent ; "and I am pained beyond meas- 
 ure to find so artful and wicked a disposition in one so 
 young. And you, my child," she added, drawing Celeste 
 7
 
 i 4 6 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 
 
 toward her and caressing her golden head ; " why did 
 you suffer this wrong in silence ?" 
 
 " Because I deserved it, Mother; I didn't like Min- 
 nette this morning," she answered, dropping her pale 
 face sadly. 
 
 A glance that might have killed her, it was so 
 dazzlingly, intensely angry, shot from the lightning eyes 
 of Minnette. 
 
 After a few brief words, both were dismissed. The 
 sleigh stopped to take up Celeste, and Minnette walked 
 proudly and sullenly home. 
 
 When she reached the house she found Celeste stand- 
 ing in the door-way, with Louis beside her, twining her 
 golden curls over his fingers. All the evil passions in 
 Minnette's nature were aroused at the sight. Springing 
 upon her, fairly screaming with rage, she raised her 
 clenched hand and struck her a blow that felled her to 
 the ground. Then darting past, she flew like a flash up 
 the polished oaken staircase, and locked herself in her 
 own room ; but not until the wild cry of Louis at the de- 
 moniac act reached her ear, turning her very blood to 
 gall. 
 
 He sprang forward, and raised Celeste up. She had 
 struck on a sharp icicle as she fell, and the golden hair 
 clung to her face clotted with the flowing blood. Pale 
 and senseless, like a broken lily, she lay in his arms, as, 
 with a heart ready to burst with anguish, Louis bore her 
 into the house and laid her on a sofa. His cry brought 
 Miss Hagar to the spot. She stood in the door-way, and 
 with her usual calmness surveyed the scene. Celeste lay 
 without life or motion on the sofa, and Louis bent over 
 her, chafing her cold hands, and calling her by every 
 tender and endearing name. 
 
 "Some of Minnette's handiwork," she said, coming 
 forward ; " poor little white dove, that vulture would
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 147 
 
 tear out your very heart if she could. But my words 
 will come true, and some day she will find out she has a 
 heart herself, when it is torn quivering and bleeding in 
 strong agony from the roots." 
 
 "Oh, Miss Hagar, do you think she is dead?" cried 
 Louis, his brave, strong heart swelling and throbbing in 
 an agony of grief. 
 
 " No ; I hope not. Ring the bell," was her answer. 
 
 Louis obeyed ; and having dispatched the servant 
 who answered it for the doctor, she proceeded to wash 
 the blood from the wound. Doctor Wiseman came in 
 with the utmost indifference ; listened to the story, said 
 it was "just like Minnette ;" thought it ten chances to 
 one whether she would ever recover ; gave a few gen- 
 eral directions as to how she was to be treated, and went 
 off to sip his coffee and read the newspaper. 
 
 Louis' indignation knew no bounds. 
 
 " Leave this detestable old house," he exclaimed im- 
 petuously, to Miss Hagar ; "take Celeste over to Sunset 
 Hall, and live with us. Grandfather is rough, but kind 
 and generous ; and you and poor little Celeste will be 
 warmly welcomed. Do come, Miss Hagar." 
 
 " No, Louis," said Miss Hagar, shaking her head. 
 " I thank you for your kind offer ; but I cannot be de- 
 pendent on anybody. No ; I cannot go." 
 
 " But, good heavens ! Miss Hagar, will you stay and 
 let that hawk-heart Minnette kill this poor, gentle little 
 soul, who is more like an angel than a living child." 
 
 "No," said Miss Hagar ; " there is a cottage belonging 
 to me about half a mile from here, at a place called Little 
 Valley. You know it, of course. Well, I shall have it 
 furnished ; and as soon as Celeste recovers, if she ever 
 does recover, poor child, I shall go there. Thank the 
 Lord ! I'm able to support myself ; and there she will be 
 beyond the power of Minnette."
 
 148 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 
 
 " Beyond the power of Minnette,'' thought Louis, as 
 he walked homeward. " Will she ever be beyond the 
 power of that mad girl ? What can have made her hate 
 that angelic little creature so, I wonder?" 
 
 Ah, Louis ! Ten years from hence will you need to 
 ask that question ? 
 
 The indignation of all at Sunset Hall at hearing of 
 Minnette's outrageous conduct was extreme. The squire 
 was sure that " bedeviled tigress would never die in bed." 
 Mrs. Gower's fat bosom swelled with indignation, and 
 even Lizzie managed to drawl out " it was positively too 
 bad." And immediately after hearing it Mrs. Gower 
 ordered out the sleigh, and loading it with delicacies for 
 the little sufferer, set out for Deep Dale, where she found 
 her raving in the delirium of a brain fever. 
 
 Days and weeks passed ere Celeste rose from her bed, 
 pale and weak, and frailer than ever. Minnette, with 
 proud, cold scorn, met the reproachful glances of those 
 around her ; and never betrayed, by word or act, the 
 slightest interest in the sufferer. Only once, when Ce- 
 leste for the first time entered the parlor, supported by 
 Louis, did she start ; and the blood swept in a crimson 
 tide to her face, dyeing her very temples fiery red. She 
 turned aside her head ; but Celeste went over, and taking 
 her unwilling hand, said, gently : 
 
 " Dear Minnette, how glad I am to see you once more. 
 It seems such a long time since we met. Why did you 
 not come to see me when I was sick?" 
 
 " You had more agreeable company," said Minnette, 
 in a low, cold voice, glaring her fierce eyes at Louis as 
 she arose. "Excuse me," and she passed haughtily from 
 the room. 
 
 Miss Hagar's Valley Cottage was now ready for her 
 reception ; and as soon as Celeste could bear to be re- 
 moved they quitted Deep Dale. Celeste shed a few tears
 
 THE "STAR OF THE VALLEY." 149 
 
 as she bade good-bye to the doctor and Minnette, but 
 they were speedily turned to smiles as Louis gayly lifted 
 her in his arms and placed her in the sleigh beside Archie. 
 Then, seating himself on the other side of her, he shouted 
 a merry adieu to Minnette, who seemed neither to see nor 
 hear him as she leaned, cold and still, against the door. 
 Miss Hagar took her seat in front with the driver ; and 
 off the whole party dashed. 
 
 As the spring advanced the roses once more bloomed 
 upon the pale cheeks of Celeste ; and the fair " Star of 
 the Valley," as Master Louis had poetically named her, 
 was known far and wide. Celeste had never been so 
 happy before in her life. Every day brought Louis or 
 Archie to the cottage, with books, flowers, or pictures, or 
 something to present their " star" with. And as yet 
 Celeste loved them both alike, just as she did Miss 
 Hagar, just as she did Mrs. Gower. Though weeks and 
 months passed away, Minnette never came near them. 
 Sometimes Celeste went with the boys to see her; but 
 her reception was always so cold and chilling that, 
 fearing her visits displeased her, she at last desisted alto- 
 gether. 
 
 And Minnette, strange girl that she was, lived her own 
 life in secret. She sat in her own room, silent and alone, 
 the livelong day ; for after that eventful morning on 
 which the statue was broken, she would go to school no 
 more. With her chin leaning on her hand, she would 
 sit for hours with her glittering black eyes fixed on the 
 fire, thinking and thinking, while the doctor sat silently 
 reading by himself, until finally Master Archie, with a 
 jaw-splitting yawn, declared that he would go and be a 
 Sister of Charity if they'd take him ; for of all the old 
 tombs ever he heard of, Deep Dale beat them hollow.
 
 ISO OUR GIPSY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OUR GIPSY. 
 
 ' Leaping spirits bright as air, 
 Dancing heart untouched by care, 
 Sparkling eye and laughing brow, 
 And mirthful cheek of joyous glow." 
 
 N the spring Louis and Archie were to go to 
 New York and enter college. The squire, 
 who was dying by inches of the inaction at 
 Sunset Hall, resolved to accompany them ; 
 and Lizzie, rousing herself from her indo- 
 lence, also resolved to accompany them. Doctor Wise- 
 man intended sending Minnette to boarding-school, and 
 Miss Hagar offered to send Celeste, likewise, if she would 
 go ; but Celeste pleaded to remain and go to the Sisters ; 
 and as it happened to be just what Miss Hagar wished, 
 she consented. 
 
 The evening before that fixed for the departure of the 
 boys was spent by them at the Valley Cottage. Archie 
 was in unusually boisterous spirits, and laughed till he 
 made the house ring. Louis, on the contrary, was silent 
 and grave, thinking sadly of leaving home and of part- 
 ing with his friends. 
 
 Celeste, who always caught her tone from those around 
 her, was one moment all smiles at one gay sally of 
 Archie's, and the next sighing softly as her eye fell upon 
 the grief-bowed young head of Louis. Miss Hagar sat 
 by the fire knitting, as stiff, and solemn, and grave as 
 usual. 
 
 " It will be a year twelve whole months before we 
 all meet again," said Louis, with a sigh.
 
 OUR GIPSY. 151 
 
 " Oh, dear !" said Celeste, her eyes filling with tears ; 
 " it will be so lonesome. It seems to me the time will 
 never pass." 
 
 " Oh, it will pass never fear," said Archie, in the 
 confident tone of one who knows he is asserting a fact ; 
 "and we'll come back young collegians decidedly fast 
 young men Mirabile dictu that's Latin and I'll marry 
 you, sis. Oh, I forgot Gipsy." 
 
 Here Archie's face suddenly fell to a formidable 
 length, and he heaved a sigh that would have inflated a 
 balloon. 
 
 " Oh, if Gipsy were here it wouldn't be a bit lone- 
 some I mean, not so much. Minnette's going away, too," 
 said Celeste, sadly. 
 
 " Well, you needn't care for her, I'm sure," said 
 Archie, gruffly. " She's as sharp as a bottle of cayenne 
 pepper, and as sour as an unripe crab-apple. For my 
 part, I'm glad to be out of the way of her dagger-tongue." 
 
 " Oh, Archie, please don't," said Celeste, gently. 
 " How do you know but she likes you now, after all ?" 
 
 " Likes me ? Oh, that's too good. Hold me, some- 
 body, or I'll split !" exclaimed Archie, going off into an 
 inextinguishable fit of laughter at the very idea. 
 
 Louis rose and went to the door ; Celeste followed 
 him, leaving Archie to recover from his laughter and ex- 
 patiate to Miss Hagar on the pleasures and prospects he 
 hoped to enjoy in Gotham. 
 
 It was a beautiful moonlight night. The bright May 
 moon shed a shower of silvery glory over the cottage, 
 and bathed them in its refulgent light. 
 
 " Oh, Louis, what is the matter ?" said Celeste, lay- 
 ing her hand on his arm. " Are you so sorry for leaving 
 home ?" 
 
 " I don't care for that, Celeste ; I am sorry to leave 
 you."
 
 i S 2 OUR GIPSY. 
 
 " But it's only for a year. I will be here when you 
 come back." 
 
 " Will you, Celeste ?" 
 
 " Why, yes, Louis, of course I will." 
 
 " Oh, no, you won't, Celeste. There will be some- 
 thing here taller and more womanly, who will talk and 
 act like a young lady, and whom I will call Miss Pearl ; 
 but the little, gentle Celeste will be here no longer." 
 
 " Well, won't it be the same with you ?" said Celeste, 
 with an arch smile. " Something will come back taller 
 and more manly, who will talk and act like a young 
 gentleman, and whom I must call Mr. Oranmore, I 
 suppose. But the Louis who brings me pretty books, 
 and calls me ' the Star of the Valley,' I will never see 
 again." 
 
 "Oh, Celeste, you know better than that. Will you 
 think of me sometimes when I am gone?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, always. What a strange question ! Why, 
 I never thought of asking you to think of me, though 
 you are going among so many strangers, who will make 
 you forget all your old friends." 
 
 "You know I couldn't forget any of my old friends, 
 Celeste, much less you. I shall think of you, and Miss 
 Hagar, and Mrs. Gower, and yes, and poor Gipsy every 
 day. See, I have brought you a parting gift, Celeste, for 
 your celestial little neck." 
 
 So saying, he drew out a little gold chain and cross, 
 and threw it over the graceful neck that bent to receive 
 it. 
 
 "Oh, thank you, dear Louis. I shall prize your gift 
 so much. How kind and thoughtful of you ! I wish I 
 had something to give you in return." 
 
 "One of your curls will do." 
 
 " Will it? Oh, then you shall have it." 
 
 So saying, she drew out a tiny pair of scissors and
 
 OUR GIPSY. 153 
 
 severed a long, shining ring of gold from her bright little 
 head. 
 
 "Hallo! what's this? Exchanging true lovers' to- 
 kens, by all that's tender ! Ha, ha, ha !" shouted Master 
 Rivers, appearing suddenly, and roaring with laughter. 
 
 " Confound you !" muttered Louis, giving him a shake. 
 "And now I must go and bid Miss Hagar good-bye. 
 Archie, go off and bring the gig round. Celeste, stay 
 here ; I'll be with you again in a minute." 
 
 So saying, Louis entered the cottage, shook hands 
 with the hoary spinster, who bade him be a good boy, 
 and not bring back any city habits. Then going to the 
 door, where Celeste still stood looking on her cross, 
 and closing her eyes to force back the tears that were 
 fast gathering in them, he took her in his arms and 
 said : 
 
 " And now good-bye, little darling. Don't quite forget 
 Louis." 
 
 " Oh, Louis," was all she could say, as she clung to 
 his neck and sobbed on his shoulder. 
 
 He compressed his lips and resolutely unclasped her 
 clinging arms ; then pressing his lips to her fair brow, 
 he leaped into the gig, seized the reins, and, in his excite- 
 ment, dashed off, quite forgetting Archie, who had lin- 
 gered to say good-bye to Celeste. 
 
 Archie rushed after him, shouting "Stop thief! stop 
 thief !" until Louis, discovering his mistake, pulled up, 
 and admitted that wronged and justly-indignant young 
 gentleman. 
 
 " Now for Deep Dale, to bid good-bye to Minnette 
 and Old Nick," said Archie, irreverently, "and then hie 
 for Sunset Hall." 
 
 " Yes, poor Celeste," said Louis, with a sigh, evi- 
 dently forgetting he had a companion ; whereupon 
 Archie again went into convulsions of laughter, kicking
 
 i 5 4 OUR GIPSY. 
 
 up his heels and snapping his fingers in an ectasy of de- 
 light. Louis found his example so contagious, that 
 after trying for a few moments to preserve his gravity 
 he, too, was forced to join in his uproarious mirth. 
 
 On their arrival at Deep Dale they found the doctor 
 in his study. Louis bade him a formal farewell ; and 
 having learned that Minnette was in the parlor, he went 
 down to seek her, accompanied by Archie. 
 
 She sat in her usual attitude, gazing intently out of the 
 window at the cold moonlight. She looked up as they 
 entered, and started violently as she perceived who were 
 her visitors. 
 
 " Well, Minnette, we've come to bid you good-bye,' 
 said Archie, gayly, throwing his arms round her neck 
 and imprinting a cousinly salute on her cheek. " Good- 
 bye for twelve months, and then hie for home and a 
 happy meeting. Louis, I leave you to make your adieux 
 to Minnette, while I make mine to old Suse, down in the 
 kitchen. Mind, Minnette, don't give him one of your 
 curls, as I saw another little girl do awhile ago, unless 
 he gives you a gold cross and chain in return for it he 
 gave her one." And with a mischievous laugh, Archie 
 clattered down stairs, taking half the staircase at a 
 bound. 
 
 She drew herself back and up ; and the hand she had 
 half extended to meet his was withdrawn, as, with a cold 
 formal bow, she said : 
 
 " Farewell ! I wish you a safe journey and a happy 
 return." 
 
 " And nothing more I Oh, Minnette ! Is it thus old 
 friends, who have known each other from childhood, are 
 to part? Just think, we may never meet again !" 
 
 "Do you care?'* she asked, in a softened voice. 
 
 "Care! Of course I do. Won't you shake hands,
 
 OUR GIPSY. 155 
 
 Minnette ! You're not half as sorry to let me go as 
 little Celeste was." 
 
 " Oh, no ; I don't lose so much. I have no books, 
 nor flowers, nor visits, nor gold crosses to lose by your 
 absence," she said, sarcastically her face, that had soft- 
 ened for a moment, growing cold and hard at the men- 
 tion of her name. " Good-bye Louis, and I wish you 
 all success and happiness." 
 
 The hand she extended was cold as ice. He pressed 
 it between his, and gazed sadly into the clear, bright 
 eyes that defiantly met his own. 
 
 " Come, Louis, don't stay there all night !" called 
 Archie, impatiently. " Old Suse has been hugging and 
 kissing me till I was half smothered, down there in the 
 kitchen ; and it didn't take her half the time it does you 
 two. Come along." 
 
 " Good-bye ! good-bye !" said Louis, waving his hand 
 to Minnette, who followed him to the door; and the 
 next moment they were dashing along at break-neck 
 speed toward Sunset Hall. 
 
 The moonlight that night fell on Celeste, kneeling in 
 her own little room, praying for Louis and Archie, and 
 sobbing in unrestrained grief whenever her eye fell 
 upon the bright gold cross his parting gift. Appro- 
 priate gift from one who seemed destined to never lay 
 aught but crosses upon her ! 
 
 It fell upon Minnette, sitting still by the window, 
 with a face as cold and white as the moonlight on which 
 she gazed. She did not love Louis Oranmore ; but she 
 admired him liked him better than any one else she 
 knew, perhaps, because he was handsome. But she 
 hated Celeste ; and his evident preference for her kindled 
 up the flames of jealousy in her passionate soul, until 
 she could have killed her without remorse. 
 
 The next morning the guy party set out for New
 
 156 OUR GIPSY. 
 
 York ; and in due course of time they reached that city, 
 and put up at one of the best hotels. 
 
 " Suppose we go to the opera to-night ?" said Lizzie 
 to the squire, as she sat all her languor gone looking 
 out of the window at the stream of life flowing below. 
 
 " Just as you like it's all one to me," said the squire, 
 with most sublime indifference. 
 
 " Then the opera be it," said Lizzie, and the opera, 
 accordingly, it was. And a few hours later found them 
 comfortably seated, listening to the music, and gazing 
 on the gayly-attired people around them. 
 
 " How delightful this is !" exclaimed Lizzie, her eyes 
 sparkling with pleasure. 
 
 " Humph ! delightful ! Set of fools ! ' All is vanity,' 
 as Solomon says. Wonder who foots the bills for all 
 this glittering and shaking toggery?" grunted the 
 squire. 
 
 " I've heard them say that the young danseuse, ' La 
 Petite Eaglet,' is going to dance to-night," said Louis. 
 " Everybody's raving about her." 
 
 " Why ? Is she so beautiful ?" inquired Lizzie. 
 
 " No, I believe not ; it's because she dances so well," 
 replied Louis. 
 
 At this moment the curtain arose, a thunder of ap- 
 plause shook the house, and La Petite Eaglet herself 
 stood before them. A little straight, lithe figure, arrayed 
 in floating, gauzy robes of white silver tissue, and 
 crowned with white roses a small, dark, keen, piquant 
 face bright, roguish eyes, that went dancing like light- 
 ning around the house. Suddenly her eye fell on our 
 party from St. Mark's ; a slight start and a quick re- 
 moval of her eyes followed. The applause grew deaf- 
 ening as the people hailed their favorite. She bowed. 
 The music struck merrily up, and her tiny feet went 
 glancing, like rain-drops, here and there. She seemed
 
 OUR GIPSY. 157 
 
 floating in air, not touching the ground, as she whirled, 
 and flew, and skimmed like a bird in the sunshine. The 
 squire was dizzy absolutely dizzy looking at her. 
 His head was going round, spinning like a top, or like 
 her feet, as he gazed. Lizzie and Louis were entranced, 
 but Archie, after the first glance, sat with dilating eyes 
 and parted lips incredulous, amazed, bewildered with 
 a look of half-puzzled, half-delighted recognition on his 
 face. 
 
 Still the little dancer whirled and pirouetted before 
 them ; and when she ceased a shout of applause thun- 
 dered through the building, shaking it to its center 
 Flowers, wreaths, and bouquets fell in showers around 
 her ; ladies waved their handkerchiefs and clapped their 
 little hands in the excitement of the moment. The 
 opera-going world seemed to have gone mad. And there 
 stood the little Eaglet, bowing to the delighted audience, 
 the very impersonification of self-possession and grace. 
 
 Suddenly, rising as if to speak, she removed the 
 crown of roses from her head. There was a profound, 
 a dead silence, where lately all had been uproar. Every 
 eye was bent in wonder every neck was strained to see 
 what she was about to do. 
 
 Taking one step forward, she fixed her eyes on the 
 box occupied by the squire and his family. Every eye, 
 as a matter of course, turned in that direction likewise. 
 Raising the wreath, she threw it toward them, and it 
 alighted in triumph on the brow of the squire. 
 
 In a moment she was gone. Up sprang Archie, quite 
 regardless of the thousands of eyes upon him, and wav- 
 ing his cap in the air above his head, he shouted, in wild 
 exultation : 
 
 "I knew it! I knew it ! It's our Gipsy! it's Gipsy 
 Gower .'"
 
 158 GIPSY'S RETURN. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GIPSY'S RETURN TO SUNSET HALL. 
 
 " This maiden's sparkling eyes 
 Are pretty and all that, sir ; 
 But then her little tongue 
 Is quite too full of chat, sir." MOORE. 
 
 HE effect of Archie's announcement on our 
 party may be imagined. Lizzie uttered a 
 stifled shriek and fell back in her seat ; the 
 squire's eyes protruded until they seemed 
 ready to burst from their sockets ; Louis 
 gazed like one thunder-struck, and caught hold of 
 Archie, who seemed inclined to leap on the stage in 
 search of his little lady-love. 
 
 " Let me go into the green-room let us go before she 
 leaves," cried Archie, struggling to free himself from the 
 grasp of Louis. 
 
 The crowd were now dispersing ; and the squire and 
 his party arose and were borne along by the throng, 
 headed by Archie, whose frantic exertions as he dug 
 his elbows right and left, to make a passage, quite re- 
 gardless of feelings and ribs soon brought them to the 
 outer air ; and ten minutes later the squire never could 
 tell how found them in the green-room, among painted 
 actresses and slip-shod, shabby-looking actors. 
 
 Archie's eyes danced over the assembled company, 
 who looked rather surprised, not to say indignant, at 
 this sudden entrance, and rested at last on a straight, 
 slight, little figure, with its back toward them. With 
 one bound he cleared the intervening space betwixt 
 them, and without waiting to say " by your leave,"
 
 GIPSY'S RETURN. 159 
 
 clasped her in his arms, and imprinted a kiss upon her 
 cheek. 
 
 " Dear me, Archie, is that you ? Take care ! you're 
 mussing my new dress dreadfully !" was the astoundingly 
 cool salutation, in the well-known tones of our little < 
 Gipsy. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, how could you do it ? Oh, Gipsy, it was 
 such a shame," exclaimed Archie, reproachfully. 
 
 At this moment she espied Louis advancing toward 
 her, and accosted him with : 
 
 " How d'ye do, Louis ? how's Celeste and Minnette, 
 and Mignonne, and all the rest? Pretty well, eh ?" 
 
 " Gipsy ! Gipsy ! what a way to talk after our long 
 parting," said Louis, almost provoked by her indiffer- 
 ence. " You don't know how we all grieved for you. 
 Poor Mrs. Gower has become quite a skeleton crying for 
 her ' monkey.' " 
 
 " Oh, poor, dear aunty ! that's too bad now. But 
 here comes Guardy and Lizzie. I don't think Guardy 
 \vas breaking his heart about me anyway ! He looks in 
 capital condition yet." 
 
 At this moment the squire came over with Lizzie 
 leaning on his arm. 
 
 " Hallo ! Guardy, how are you ? How did you like 
 the opera ?" exclaimed Gipsy, in the same tone she 
 would have used had she parted from him an hour be- 
 fore. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! you little wretch you ! I never thought 
 it would come to this," groaned the squire. 
 
 "No, you thought I wasn't clever enough ! Just see 
 how easy it is to be deceived ! Didn't I dance beauti- 
 fully, though, and ain't I credit to you now ? I'll leave it 
 to Archie here. Aunt Lizzie, I'll speak to you as soon as 
 I get time. Here comes old Barnes, the manager, to 
 know what's the matter."
 
 160 GIPSY'S RETURN. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, you'll come home with us, my love, you 
 really must," exclaimed Lizzie. 
 
 " Couldn't, aunty, by no manner of means," replied 
 Gipsy, shaking her head. 
 
 " But I'll be shot if you </<?'/, though," shouted the 
 squire, "so no more about it. Do you think I'm going 
 to let a ward of mine go with a gang of strolling players 
 any longer ?" 
 
 " I'm no ward of yours, Squire Erliston ; I'm my own 
 mistress, thanks be to goodness, free and independent, 
 and so I mean to stay," exclaimed Gipsy, with spark- 
 ling eyes. 
 
 " But, oh, my dear ! my dear Gipsy, do come home 
 with us to-night," pleaded Lizzie, taking her hand. 
 
 " You will, Gipsy, just for to-night," coaxed Louis. 
 And : " Ah, Gipsy, wont you now ?" pleaded Archie, 
 looking up in her saucy little face, with something very 
 like tears shining in his usually merry blue eyes. 
 
 " Well maybe just for to-night," said Gipsy, slow- 
 ly yielding ; " but mind, I must go back to-morrow." 
 
 " And may I be kicked to death by grasshoppers, if 
 ever I let you go back," muttered the squire to himself. 
 
 " Here comes the manager, Mr. Barnes," said Gipsy, 
 raising her voice; " these are my friends, and I am going 
 home with them to-night." 
 
 " You'll be back to-morrow in time for the rehear- 
 sal ?" inquired Mr. Barnes, in no very pleased tone of 
 voice. 
 
 "Oh, yes, to be sure," said Gipsy, as she ran off to 
 get her hat and cloak. 
 
 "We'll see about that .'" said the squire, inwardly, with 
 a knowing nod. 
 
 Gipsy soon made her appearance. A cab was in 
 waiting, and the whole party were soon on their way to 
 the hotel.
 
 GIPSY'S RETURN. 161 
 
 "And now, tell us all your adventures since the 
 night you eloped from Sunset Hall," said Louis, as they 
 drove along. 
 
 " By and by. Tell me first all that has happened at 
 St. Mark's since I left ail about Celeste, and the rest of 
 my friends." 
 
 So Louis related all that had transpired since her de- 
 parture softening, as much as he could, the outrageous 
 conduct of Minnette. 
 
 " Poor Celeste !" exclaimed Gipsy, with glowing 
 cheeks and flashing eyes. " Oh, don't I wish I'd only 
 been there to take her part ! Wouldn't I have given it 
 to Minnette the ugly old thing ! beg pardon, Archie, 
 for calling your cousin names." 
 
 " Oh, you're welcome to call her what you please, 
 for all I care," replied Archie, in a nonchalant tone. 
 " I'm not dying about her." 
 
 " There's no love lost, I think," said Louis, laugh- 
 ing. 
 
 By this time they had reached the hotel. Lizzie took 
 Gipsy to her room to brush her hair and arrange her 
 dress, and then led her to the parlor, where the trio 
 were waiting them. 
 
 " And now for your story !" exclaimed Archie, con- 
 descendingly pushing a stool toward Gipsy with his 
 foot. 
 
 " Well, it's not much to tell," said Gipsy. "After 
 leaving you, Guardy, that night, in an excessively amia- 
 ble frame of mind, I went up to my room and sat down 
 to deliberate whether I'd set fire to the house and burn 
 you all in your beds, or take a razor and cut your wind- 
 pipe, by way of letting in a little hint to be more polite 
 to me in future." 
 
 " Good Lord ! I just thought so !" ejaculated the hor- 
 rified squire.
 
 1 62 GIPSY'S RETURN. 
 
 " Finally, Guardy, I came to the conclusion that I 
 would do neither. Both were unpleasant jobs at least 
 they would have been unpleasant to you, whatever they 
 might have been to me, and would have taken too much 
 time. So I concluded to let you burden the earth a little 
 longer, and quote Solomon for the edification of the 
 world generally, and in the meantime to make myself as 
 scarce as possible ; for I'd no idea of staying to be 
 knocked about like an old dishcloth. So I got up, took 
 my last supply of pocket-money, stole down to the sta- 
 bles, mounted Mignonne, and dashed off like the wind. 
 Poor Mignonne ! I rather think I astonished him that 
 night, and we were both pretty well blown by the time 
 we reached Brande's Tavern. 
 
 " There I took breakfast, left Mignonne much 
 against my will jumped into the mail-coach, and started 
 for the city. Arrived there, I was for awhile rather at a 
 loss in what direction to turn my talents. My pre- 
 dominant idea, however, was to don pantaloons and go 
 to sea. Being determined to see the lions, while I staid, 
 I went one night to the play, saw a little girl dancing, 
 and Eureka ! I had discovered what I was born for at 
 last ! ' Couldn't I beat that ?' says I to myself. And so, 
 when I went home, I just got up before the looking- 
 glass, stood on one toe, and stuck the other leg straight 
 out, as she had done, cut a few pigeon-wings, turned a 
 somerset or two, and came to the conclusion that if I 
 didn't become a danseuse forthwith, it would be the great- 
 est loss this world ever sustained the fall of Jerusalem 
 not excepted. To a young lady of my genius it was no 
 very difficult thing to accomplish. I went to see Old 
 Barnes, who politely declined my services. But I wasn't 
 going ' to give it up so, Mr. Brown,' and, like the widow 
 in the Scripture, I gave him no peace, night or day, until
 
 GIPSY'S RETURN. 163 
 
 he accepted my services. Well, after that all was plain 
 sailing enough. Maybe I didn't astonish the world by 
 the rapidity with which my continuations went up and 
 down. It was while there I wrote that letter of con- 
 solation to Aunty Gower, by way of setting your minds 
 at ease. Then we went to Washington, then to New 
 York, and everywhere I ' won golden opinions from all 
 sorts of people,' as Shakespeare, or Solomon, or some 
 of them old fellows says. I always kept a bright look- 
 out for you all, for I had a sort of presentiment I'd 
 stumble against you some day. So I wasn't much sur- 
 prised, but a good pleased, when I saw Guardy's dear 
 old head protruding, like a huge overboiled beet, from 
 one of the boxes to-night. And so Finis/" 
 
 "Gipsy," exclaimed Archie, "you're a regular speci- 
 men of Young America ! You deserve a leather medal, 
 or a service of tin plate you do, by Jove !" 
 
 "'Pon honor, now?" 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, my love, I'm very sorry to think you 
 could have degraded yourself in such a way !" said 
 Lizzie, with a shockingly shocked expression of coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 " Degraded, Aunt Lizzie !" exclaimed Gipsy, indig- 
 nantly. " I'd like to know whether it's more degrading 
 to earn one's living, free and merry, as a respectable, 
 'sponsible, danceabie dancer, as Totty would say, or to 
 stay depending on any one, to be called a beggar, and 
 kicked about like an old shoe, if you didn't do every- 
 thing a snappish old crab of an old gentleman took into 
 his absurd old head. I never was made to obey any one 
 and what's more, I won't neither. There, now !" 
 
 "Take care, Gipsy ; don't make any rash promises," 
 said Archie. " You've got to promise to ' love, honor, 
 and obey ' me } one of these days."
 
 x64 GIPSY'S RETURN. 
 
 " Never-r-r ! Obey you, indeed ! Don't you wish I 
 may do it ?" 
 
 " Well, but, my love," said Lizzie, returning to the 
 charge, " though it is too late to repair what you have 
 done, you must be a dancing-girl no longer. You must 
 return home with us to Sunset Hall." 
 
 " Return to Sunset Hall ! Likely I'll go there to be 
 abused again ! Not I, indeed, Aunt Lizzie ; much 
 obliged to you, at the same time, for the offer." 
 
 "And I vow, Miss Flyaway, you shall go with us 
 there !" 
 
 " And I vow, Guardy, I sha'rit go with you there !" 
 
 " I'll go to law, and compel you to come. I'm your 
 rightful guardian !" said the squire, in rising wrath. 
 
 " Rightful fiddlesticks ! I'm no ward of yours ; I'm 
 Aunty Gower's niece ; and the law's got nothing to 
 do with me," replied Gipsy, with an audacious snap of 
 her fingers ; for neither Gipsy nor the boys knew how 
 she was found on the beach. 
 
 " And is that all the thanks you give me for offering 
 to plague myself with you, you ungrateful little var- 
 mint ?" 
 
 " I'm not ungrateful, Squire Erliston !" flashed Gipsy 
 a streak of fiery red darting across her dark face. " I'm 
 not ungrateful ; but I won't be a slave to come at your 
 beck ; I wont be called a beggar a pauper ; I wont be 
 told the workhouse is my rightful home ; I wont be 
 struck like a cur, and then kiss the hand that strikes me. 
 No ! I'm not ungrateful ; but, though I'm only a little 
 girl, I won't be insulted and abused for nothing. I can 
 earn my own living, free and happy, without whining 
 for any one's favor, thank Heaven !" 
 
 Her little form seemed to tower upward with the con- 
 sciousness of inward power, her eyes filled, blazed, and
 
 GIPSY'S RETURN. 165 
 
 dilated, and her dark cheek crimsoned with proud defi- 
 ance. 
 
 The squire forgot his anger as he gazed in admiration 
 on the high-spirited little creature standing before him, 
 as haughty as a little empress. Stretching out his arms, 
 he caught her, and seated her on his knee stroking her 
 short, dancing curls, as he said, in the playful tone one 
 might use to a spoiled baby : 
 
 " And can't my little monkey make allowance for an 
 old man's words ? You know you were very naughty 
 and mischievous that day, and I had cause to be angry 
 with you ; and if I said harsh things, it was all for your 
 good, you know." 
 
 "All for my good ! such stuff ! I wish you'd put me 
 down. I'm a young lady, I'd have you to know ; and I 
 ain't going to be used like a baby, dandled up and down 
 without any regard for my dignity !" said Gipsy, with 
 so indignant an expression of countenance, that Archie 
 who, as I before mentioned, was blessed with a 
 keen sense of the ludicrous fell back, roaring with 
 laughter. 
 
 " Now, Gipsy, my love, do be reasonable and return 
 home with us," said Lizzie, impatiently. 
 
 " I won't, then there !" said Gipsy, rather sullenly. 
 
 But the tears rushed into Lizzie's eyes for she really 
 was very fond of the eccentric elf and in a moment 
 Gipsy was off the squire's knee, and her arms round Liz- 
 zie's neck. 
 
 "Why, aunty, did I make you cry? Oh, I'm so sorry ! 
 Please don't cry, dear, dear aunty." 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, it's so selfish of you not to return with 
 us, when we are so lonesome at home without you," said 
 , fairly sobbing. 
 
 " Yes ; and poor Mrs. Gower will break her heart
 
 166 GIPSY'S RETURN. 
 
 when she hears about it I know she will," said Louis, 
 in a lachrymose tone. 
 
 " And I'll break mine I know I will !" added Archie, 
 rubbing his knuckles into his eyes, and with some diffi- 
 culty squeezing out a tear. 
 
 " And I'll blow my stupid old brains out ; and after 
 that, I'll break my heart, too," chimed in the squire, in a 
 very melancholy tone of voice. 
 
 "Well ! la me! you'll have rather a smashing time 
 of it if you all break your hearts. What'll you do with 
 the pieces, Guardy ? sell them for marbles ?" said Gipsy, 
 laughing. 
 
 "There ! I knew you'd relent ; I said it. Oh, Gipsy, 
 my darling, I knew you wouldn't desert your ' Guardy ' in 
 his old age. I knew you wouldn't let him go down to his 
 grave like a miserable, consumptive old tabby-cat, with 
 no wicked little ' imp ' to keep him from stagnating. 
 Oh, Gipsy, my dear, may Heaven bless you !" 
 
 "Bother ! I haven't said I'd go. Don't jump at con- 
 clusions. Before I'd be with you a week you'd be blow- 
 ing me up sky-high." 
 
 "But, Gipsy, you know I can't live without blowing 
 somebody up. You ought to make allowance for an old 
 man's temper. It runs in our family to blow up. I had 
 an uncle, or something, that was ' blown up' at the battle 
 of Bunker Hill. Then I always feel after it as amiable 
 as a cat when eating her kittens. ' After a storm there 
 cometh a calm,' as Solomon says." 
 
 " Well, maybe there's something in that," said Gipsy, 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " And you know, my love," said Lizzie, "that, though 
 a little girl may be a dancer, it's a dreadful life for a 
 young woman which you will be in two or three years. 
 No one ever respects a dancing girl ; no gentleman ever 
 would marry you."
 
 GIPSY'S RETURN. 167 
 
 *' Wouldn't they, though !" said Gipsy, so indignantly 
 that Archie once more fell back, convulsed. " If they 
 wouldn't, somebody 'd lose the smartest, cleverest, hand- 
 somest young lady on this terrestrial globe, though I say 
 it, as 'hadn't oughter.' Well, since you all are going to 
 commit suicide if I don't go with you, I suppose old 
 Barnes must lose the 'bright particular star' of his com- 
 pany, and I must return to St. Mark's, to waste my 
 sweetness on the desert air." 
 
 This resolution was greeted with enthusiastic delight 
 by all present ; and the night was far advanced before 
 the squire could part with his " little vixen," and allow 
 her to go to rest. 
 
 Old Barnes as Gipsy called him was highly indig- 
 nant at the treatment he had received, and, going to the 
 hotel, began abusing Gipsy and the squire, and every- 
 body else generally ; whereupon the squire, who never 
 was noted for his patience, took him by the collar, and, 
 by a well-applied kick, landed him in the kennel a 
 pleasant way of settling disputes which he had learned 
 while dealing with his negroes, but for which an over- 
 particular court made him pay pretty high damages. 
 
 Three days after, Louis and Archie bade them fare- 
 well, and entered college ; and the squire, after a plea- 
 sure-trip of a few weeks, set out for St. Mark's. 
 
 In due course of time he arrived at that refugium 
 pcccatorum ; and the unbounded delight with which Gipsy 
 was hailed can never be described by pen of mine. 
 
 Good Mrs. Gower could scarcely believe that her 
 darling was really before her ; and it was only when 
 listening to the uproar that everywhere followed the 
 footsteps of the said darling, that she could be con- 
 vinced. 
 
 As for Celeste, not knowing whether to laugh or cry
 
 i68 GIPSY'S RETURN. 
 
 with joy, she split the difference, and did both. Even 
 Miss Hagar's grim face relaxed as Gipsy came flashing 
 into their quiet cottage like a March whirlwind, throw- 
 ing everything into such "admired disorder," that it gen- 
 erally took the quiet little housekeeper, Celeste, half a 
 day to set things to rights afterward. 
 
 And now it began to be time to think of completing 
 the education of the two young girls. Minnette had left 
 for school before the return of Gipsy, and it became 
 necessary to send them likewise. Loath as the squire was 
 to part with his pet, he felt he must do it, and urged Miss 
 Hagar to allow Celeste to accompany her. 
 
 " Gipsy will defend her from the malice of Minnette, 
 and the two girls will be company for each other," said 
 the old man to the spinster. "Girls must know how to 
 chatter French, and bang on a piano, and make worsted 
 cats and dogs, and all such! So let little Snowdrop, here, 
 go with my monkey, and I'll foot the bill." 
 
 Miss Hagar consented ; and a month after found our 
 little rustic lasses our fair " Star of the Valley " and 
 our mountain fairy, moving in the new world of board- 
 ing-school.
 
 ARCHIE. 169 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ARCHIE. 
 
 "His youthful farm was middle size, 
 For feat of strength or exercise 
 
 Shaped in proportion fair ; 
 And dark-blue was his eagle eye, 
 And auburn of the darkest dye 
 
 His short and curling hair. 
 Light was his footstep in the dance, 
 
 And firm his stirrup in the lists, 
 And oh ! he had that merry glance 
 That seldom lady's heart resists." SCOTT. 
 
 IVE years passed. And the children, Gipsy 
 and Celeste, we can never see more ; for those 
 five years have changed them into young 
 ladies of seventeen. Strange to say, neither 
 Louis nor Archie has met Minnette, Gipsy, or 
 Celeste, since the time they parted to go to college : and 
 with all the change that years have made in their appear- 
 ance, it is doubtful whether they would even recognize 
 one another now, if they met. 
 
 The way of it was this : Louis and Archie, after the 
 life and excitement of the city, began to think that Sun- 
 set Hall was an insufferably dull place ; and with the 
 usual fickleness of youth, instead of going home to spend 
 their vacation, invariably went with some of their school- 
 fellows. This troubled the old squire very little ; for 
 without Gipsy, in the quiet of Sunset Hall, he was fall- 
 ing into a state of stupid apathy, and gave Master Louis 
 carte blanche to go where he pleased. Lizzie was too in- 
 dolent to trouble herself much about it, and as she gen- 
 erally went on a visit to New York every winter, she con- 
 tented herself with seeing her son and heir then, and 
 8
 
 T 7 o ARCHIE. 
 
 knowing he was well. As for Gipsy and Celeste, their 
 faithless boy- lovers seemed to have quite outgrown their 
 early affection for them. 
 
 Then, when the time came for them to graduate, and 
 make choice of a profession, Squire Erliston found that 
 young Mr. Oranmore would neither be doctor, lawyer, 
 nor clergyman ; nor even accept a post in the army or 
 navy. 
 
 " Why not," said the squire, during an interview he 
 had with him ; " what's your objection ?" 
 
 " Why, my dear grandfather," replied Louis. " you 
 should have too much regard for your suffering fellow- 
 mortals to make a doctor of me. As for being a lawyer, 
 I haven't rascality enough for that yet; and I've too 
 much respect for the church to take holy orders. Neither 
 does the camp nor forecastle agree with me. I have no 
 particular love for forced marches or wholesale slaugh- 
 ter ; nor do I care over much for stale biscuit, bilge- 
 water, and the cat-o'-nine-tails ; so I must e'en decline 
 all." 
 
 " Then what in the name of Heaven will you be ?" ex- 
 claimed the squire. 
 
 " An artist, sir ; an artist. Heaven has destined me 
 for a painter. I feel something within me that tells me I 
 will yet win fame and renown. Let me go to Europe 
 to Germany and Italy, and study the works of the glo- 
 rious old masters, and I will yet win a name you will not 
 blush to hear." 
 
 " Glorious old fiddlesticks ! Go, if you like, but I 
 never expected to find a grandson of mine such a fool ! 
 The heir of Mount Sunset and its broad lands, the heir 
 of Oranmore Hall, and old Mother Oranmore's yellow 
 guineas, can do as he pleases, of course. Go and waste 
 your time daubing canvas if you will, I'll be hanged if / 
 care !"
 
 ARCHIE. 171 
 
 Therefore, six months before the return of the girls 
 from school, Louis, accompanied by a friend, sailed for 
 Europe without seeing them. 
 
 " And you, sir," said the squire, turning to Archie ; 
 " are you going to be a fool and turn painter, too ?" 
 
 " No, sir," replied Master Archie ; " I'm not going to 
 be a fool, but I'm going to be something worse a knave ; 
 in other words, a lawyer. As for painting, thank for- 
 tune, I've no more talent for it than I have for turning 
 milliner, beyond painting my face when acting charades." 
 
 So Archie went to Washington, and began studying 
 for the bar. 
 
 Gipsy, who was a universal favorite in school, began, 
 for the last few years, to copy the example of the boys, 
 and spend her vacations with her friends. Minnette and 
 Celeste always returned home ; for Minnette, cold, and 
 reserved, and proud, was disliked and feared by all ; and 
 though Celeste was beloved by everybody, duty and af- 
 fection forbade her to leave Miss Hagar for her own 
 pleasure. 
 
 Our madcap friend, Gipsy, had lost none of her wicked 
 nor mischief-loving propensities during those years. 
 Such a pest and a plague as she was in the school, driv- 
 ing teachers and pupils to their wits' end with her mad 
 pranks, and yet liked so well. There was usually a 
 downright quarrel, about the time of the holidays, to see 
 who would possess her ; and Gipsy, after looking on 
 and enjoying the fun, would, to the surprise and chagrin 
 of all, go with some one who least hoped for the honor. 
 
 Gipsy was spending the winter with a school-friend, 
 Jennie Moore, at Washington. The three girls, whose 
 united fortunes are the subject of this history, had grad- 
 uated ; Minnette, with the highest honors the school 
 could give ; Celeste, with fewer laurels, but with far more 
 love ; and Gipsy alas, that I should have to say it !
 
 172 ARCHIE. 
 
 most wdfully behind all. The restless elf would not 
 study was always at the foot of her class, and only 
 laughed at the grave lectures of the teachers ; and yawned 
 horribly over the rules of syntax, and the trying names 
 in her botany. So poor Gipsy left little better than when 
 she entered. 
 
 The folding-doors of Mr. Moore's spacious drawing- 
 room were thrown open, blazing with light and radiant 
 with brilliantly-dressed ladies. Miss Jennie had resolved 
 that the first ball should surpass anything that had taken 
 place that winter. All the elite of the city, wealth, beauty, 
 fashion, gallantry, and talent, were mingled in gay con- 
 fusion. There were soft rustling of silks, and waving of 
 perfumed handkerchiefs, and flirting of fans, and flirting 
 of belles ; and bright ladies cast killinggJances from their 
 brilliant eyes ; and gentlemen bowed and smiled, and 
 paid compliments, and talked all sorts of nonsense, and 
 
 " All went merry as a marriage bell." 
 
 Near the upper end of the room the belle, par excel- 
 lence, seemed to be ; for in her train flowed all that were 
 wittiest, and gayest, and loveliest there. Whenever she 
 moved, a throng of admirers followed ; and where the 
 laughter was loudest, the mirth highest, the crowd 
 greatest, there might you find the center of attraction, 
 this belle of whom I am speaking. 
 
 And yet she was not beautiful ; at least, not beautiful 
 when compared with many there who were neglected for 
 her. She is floating now in a gay waltz round the room 
 with a distinguished foreigner, and " I will paint her as 
 I see her." 
 
 A small, slight, straight, lithe figure, airy and bird- 
 like in its motions, skimming over the floor without
 
 ARCHIE. 173 
 
 seeming to touch it ; never at rest ; but quick, sudden, 
 abrupt, and startling in all its motions, yet every motion 
 instinct, glowing with life. A dark, bright, laughing 
 little face, that no one knows whether it is handsome or 
 not, it is so radiant, so bewitching, so sparkling, so full 
 of overflowing mirth and mischief. Short, crisp black 
 curls, adorning the sauciest little head in the world ; 
 wicked brown eyes, fairly twinkling with wickedness ; a 
 rosy little mouth, that seemed always laughing to display 
 the little pearly teeth. Such was the star of the evening. 
 Reader, do you recognize her ? 
 
 As she seated herself after the dance, tired and a little 
 fatigued, Jennie Moore, a pretty, graceful girl, came up 
 to her, saying, in a low voice : 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, I have a stranger to introduce to you 
 a most distinguished one. One of the cleverest and most 
 talented young lawyers in Washington." 
 
 "Distinguished ! Now, I'm tired to death of 'distin- 
 guished ' people ; they're all a set of bores ugly as sin 
 and pedantic as schoolmasters. Don't stare it's a 
 fact !" 
 
 " Oh, but Mr. Rivers is not ; he is young, handsome, 
 agreeable, witty, a regular lady-killer, and worth nobody 
 knows how much." 
 
 " Mr. worth what ?" exclaimed Gipsy, springing to 
 her feet so impulsively that her friend started back. 
 
 " Why, what's the matter ?" said Jennie in surprise. 
 
 "Nothing! nothing!" said Gipsy, hastily. '''Who 
 did you say it was ?" 
 
 "Mr. Archibald Rivers, student-at-law." 
 
 " Jennie, they say I've changed greatly of late. Do 
 you think I look anything like I did when you first saw 
 me?" 
 
 " Why, not much. You were a tawny little fright
 
 174 ARCHIE. 
 
 then ; you're almost handsome now," said the candid 
 Jennie. 
 
 "Then he won't know me. Jennie, will you oblige 
 by introducing Mr. Rivers to me under an assumed 
 name ?" 
 
 " Why " 
 
 "There ! there! don't ask questions ; I'll tell by and 
 by. Go and do it." 
 
 " Well, you have always some new crotchet in your 
 crotchety little head," said Jennie, as she started to 
 obey. 
 
 In a few moments she reappeared, leaning on the 
 arm of the "distinguished" Mr. Rivers. Our Archie 
 has not changed as much as Gipsy has done during 
 these years, save that he has grown taller and more 
 manly-looking. He has still his frank, handsome, boy- 
 ish face ; his merry blue eye and boisterous manner, a 
 little subdued. 
 
 The indistinct tone in which Miss Moore introduced 
 him prevented him from catching the name, but he 
 scarcely observed ; and seeing in the young lady, whose 
 lips were now pursed up and whose eyes were cast mod- 
 estly on the floor, a shrinking, bashful girl, he charita- 
 bly began to draw her out. 
 
 " There is quite an assembly here this evening," was 
 his original remark, by way of encouraging her. 
 
 "Yes, sir," was the reply, in a tone slightly tremu- 
 lous, which he ascribed to maiden bashfulness. 
 
 " What a delightful young lady your friend, Miss 
 Moore, is," continued Archie. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 "There are a great many beautiful ladies in the 
 room." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 "Confound her!" muttered Archie, "can she say
 
 ARCHIE. 175 
 
 nothing but 'Yes, sir?' But the most beautiful lady 
 present is by my side," he continued, aloud, to see how 
 she would swallow so palpable a dose of flattery. 
 
 "Yes, sir/" 
 
 " Whew ! if that's not cool ! I wonder if the girl's 
 an idiot !" thought Master Archie. Then, aloud : " Do 
 you know you're very beautiful ?" 
 
 " Yes. I know it." 
 
 A stare of surprise followed this answer. Then he 
 continued : 
 
 " You are a most bewitching young lady ! Never 
 was so much charmed by anybody in my life !'' 
 
 "Sorry I can't return the compliment." 
 
 " Hallo !" thought Archie, rather taken aback. "She's 
 not such a fool as I took her to be. What do you think 
 of that lady !" he added, pointing to a handsome but 
 dark-complexioned girl, whom report said would one 
 day be Mrs Rivers. 
 
 " Oh ! I don't think her pretty at all she's such a 
 gipsy." 
 
 Archie gave a little start at the name. Poor Gipsy ! 
 he had quite forgotten her of late. 
 
 "Do you know," he said, "I once had a little friend 
 called Gipsy ? Your words recalled her to my memory. 
 You remind me of her, somehow, only you are hand- 
 somer. She was dark and ugly." 
 
 " Indeed ! Did you like her ?" 
 
 "Ye-e-e-s a little," said Archie, hesitatingly; "she 
 was a half-crazy little thing black as a squaw, and I 
 don't think 1 was very fond of her, but she was very fond 
 of me." 
 
 "Indeed, sir!" said the young lady, a momentary 
 flash gleaming from her dark eyes ; "she must have been 
 a bold girl, rather, to let you know it."
 
 176 ARCHIE. 
 
 " She was bold the boldest girl ever I knew, with 
 nothing gentle and womanly about her whatever." 
 
 " What did you say her name was ?" 
 
 " Gipsy Gipsy Govver. You seem interested in her." 
 
 " I am, sir I know her." 
 
 " You do ?" cried Archie, aghast. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; but I like her no more than you do. She 
 was a rough, uncouth savage, detested by every one who 
 knew her. I had the misfortune to be her room-mate in 
 school, and she used to bore me dreadfully talking about 
 her gawky country friends, particularly some one whom 
 she called Archie." 
 
 " Yes ? What used she to say about him ? She liked 
 him, didn't she ?" said Archie, eagerly. 
 
 " Why, no ; I should say not. She used to say he was 
 a regular fool always laughing. She said she never 
 knew such a greeny in all her life." 
 
 Mr. Rivers suddenly wilted down, and hadn't a word 
 to say. Just at that moment a party of Gipsy's friends 
 came along, and it was : 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! Gipsy ! Oh, Miss Gower ! we've been 
 searching all over for you. Everybody's dying of the 
 blues, because you are absent. Do come with us !" 
 
 Archie leaped from his seat as though he had received 
 a bayonet thrust. Gipsy rose, saying, in a low, sarcastic 
 voice, as she passed him : 
 
 " Remember me to Gipsy when you see her. Tell 
 her what I said about Archie," and she was gone. 
 
 During the remainder of the evening the "distin- 
 guished " Mr. Rivers looked about as crestfallen as a 
 young lawyer possessed of a large stock of native impu- 
 dence could well do. There he stood and watched 
 Gipsy, who had never been so magnetic, so bewitching, 
 so entrancing in her life before. Never by chance did
 
 ARCHIE. 177 
 
 she look at him ; but there was scarcely another mascu- 
 line head in the room she had not turned. 
 
 " Confound the little witch !" muttered Master Archie, 
 " no wonder she called me a fool ! But who the deuce 
 would ever think of finding little Gipsy Gower in one 
 of the belles of Washington ? Had it been Celeste, now, 
 I should not have felt surprised. And who would ever 
 think that yonder dazzling, brilliant, magnetic girl was 
 the little shy maiden who, ten minutes ago, sat beside 
 me with her demure 'yes, sir!' Well, she seems to be en- 
 joying herself anyway. So, Miss Gipsy, I'll follow your 
 example and do the same." 
 
 For the remainder of the evening Archie threw him- 
 self into the gay throng with the evident determination 
 of enjoying himself or dying in the attempt. And more 
 than one fair cheek flushed, and more than one pair of 
 bright eyes grew brighter, as their owner listened with 
 downcast lashes and smiling lips to the gallant words of 
 the handsome young lawyer. He was, if not the hand- 
 somest, at least one of the handsomest, men in the room ; 
 and 
 
 " Oh ! he had that merry glance, 
 That seldom lady's heart resists." 
 
 And eclipsed belles raised their graceful heads in 
 triumph to find the bewildering Gipsy had no power 
 over him. But if they had known all, they would have 
 found that those " merry glances" were not for them, 
 but to pique the jealousy of the evening star. 
 
 Ere the company dispersed he sought out Gipsy, who 
 withdrawing herself from the revelers, stood, silent and 
 alone, by the window. 
 
 " Gipsy !" he said, gently. 
 
 "Mr. Rivers !" she said, drawing herself up. 
 
 "Forgive me, Gipsy, for what I said." 
 8*
 
 17? ARCHIE. 
 
 " I have nothing to forgive ! I rather think we are 
 quits !" replied Gipsy, cooily. 
 
 " Well, make up friends with me, and be a little like 
 the Gipsy I used to know." 
 
 " What ! like that black little squaw that bold, 
 ugly, half-crazy thing? You astonish me, Mr. Rivers !" 
 
 " Yes, even so, Gipsy ; you know it's all true ; and 
 I'll be the same 'regular fool, always laughing.' Then 
 shake hands and call me Archie, as you used to." 
 
 " Well, now, I don't know," said Gipsy " I don't 
 think I ought to forgive you." 
 
 " Don't think about it, then, Nonsense, Gipsy you 
 know you're to be my little wife !" 
 
 She laughed and extended her hand, though her dark 
 cheek grew crimson. 
 
 '* Well, there, I forgive you, Archie. Will that do ? 
 And now let us go into the supper-room, for I'm starving. 
 One of my early habits I have not outgrown and that is, 
 a most alarming appetite." 
 
 " Now I shall have her all to myself for the rest of the 
 evening," thought Archie, as he stood beside her, and 
 watched triumphantly the many savage and ferocious 
 glances cast toward him by the gentlemen. 
 
 But Archie found himself slightly mistaken ; for 
 Gipsy, five minutes later, told him to be off that he was 
 an old bore, and not half as agreeable as the most stupid 
 of her beaus. Then laughing at his mortified face, she 
 danced and flirted unmercifully, leaving Mr. Rivers to 
 think she was the most capricious elf that ever tormented 
 a young lawyer. 
 
 Every day for a week after he was a constant visitor 
 at Mr. Moore's. And every day for a week he went 
 away as he came, without seeing Gipsy. She was al- 
 ways out riding, or driving, or " not at home," though 
 he could see her plainly laughing at him at the window.
 
 ARCHIE. 179 
 
 The willful fairy seemed to take a malicious delight in 
 teasing the life out of poor Archie. Evening after even- 
 ing she accepted the escort of a handsome young Eng- 
 lish baronet, Sir George Stuart, the most devoted of all 
 her lovers leaving Archie to bear it as he pleased. And 
 between jealousy, and rage, and mortification, and 
 wounded pride, Mr. Rivers had a hard time of it. It was 
 too bad to see his own little Gipsy his girlish lady-love 
 taken from him this way without being able to say a 
 word against it. 
 
 So Archie fell a prey to " green and yellow melan- 
 choly," and never saw the stately young nobleman with- 
 out feeling a demoniacal desire to blow his brains out ; 
 and nothing prevented him from doing it but the be- 
 coming respect he had for the laws of his country. 
 
 One morning, however, for a wonder, he had the good 
 fortune to find Gipsy alone in the parlor, looking per- 
 fectly charming in her becoming deshabille. 
 
 " How did you enjoy yourself last night at Mrs. 
 Greer's ball ? I saw you there with that fool of a baro- 
 net," said Archie, rather savagely. 
 
 "I enjoyed myself very well, as I always do. And I 
 must beg of you not to speak of Sir George in that way, 
 Mr. Rivers. I won't allow it." 
 
 " Oh, you won't !" sneered Archie. " You seem to 
 think a great deal of him, Miss Gower. " 
 
 " Why, of course I do ! He's so handsome so per- 
 fectly gentlemanlike so agreeable, and so everything 
 else. He's a real love of a man." 
 
 " Oh ! the deuce take him !" 
 
 " Why, Mr. Rivers !" said Gipsy, with a very shocked 
 expression of countenance. 
 
 " Gipsy, be serious for once. I have had something to 
 say to you this long time, but you have been so precious
 
 i8o ARCHIE. 
 
 careful to keep out of my sight, I've had no chance to say 
 it. Gipsy, do you love Sir George Stuart ?" 
 
 " Why, Archie ! to be sure I do." 
 
 "Oh-h-h !" groaned Archie. 
 
 " What's the matter ? got the toothache ?" 
 
 " Oh, dear, no. I have the heart-ache !" 
 
 " Sorry to hear it. Better go to Deep Dale and con- 
 sult Doctor Spider about it." 
 
 " Will you come with me ?" 
 
 " I've no objection. I'm going home to-morrow, 
 and I'd just as lief have you for an escort as any one 
 else." 
 
 " Then you are not going to be married to Sir George 
 Stuart, Gipsy ?" exclaimed Archie, eagerly. 
 
 " Why, not just now, I think." 
 
 " Gipsy, would you marry me ?" 
 
 "Well, I wouldn't mind, if nobody better offers." 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! be serious ; don't laugh at me now. 
 You know you promised, when a little girl, to be my 
 little wife. Will you, dear Gipsy ?" 
 
 " There gracious me ! you're treading on Sambo's 
 toes." 
 
 A howl from an unfortunate black pug dog testified 
 to the truth of this remark. 
 
 " Men are such awkward creatures ! Poor Sambo ! 
 did he hurt you ?" said Gipsy, stooping and caressing 
 the ugly little brute. 
 
 " Oh, saints and angels ! only hear her. She will 
 drive me mad I know she will. Here I offer her my 
 heart, and hand, and fortune (though I don't happen to 
 have such a thing about me), and she begins talking 
 about Sambo's toes. That girl will be the death of me. 
 And when I die I'll charge them to place on my tomb- 
 stone, 'Died from an overdose of a coquette.' ' 
 
 And Master Archie stamped up and down, and flung
 
 ARCHIE. 181 
 
 his coat-tails about with an utterly distracted expression 
 of countenance. 
 
 " Why, what nonsense are you going on with there ?" 
 inquired Gipsy, pausing in her task of comforting Sam- 
 bo, and looking at him in surprise. 
 
 " Nonsense !" exclaimed Archie, pausing before her, 
 and throwing himself into a tragic attitude. " Infatuated 
 girl ! the heart you now cast from you will haunt you in 
 the dead hours of the night, when everything (but the 
 mosquitoes) is sleeping ; it will be ever before you in 
 your English home, when you are the bride of Sir George 
 (confound him !) Stuart ; it will " 
 
 But Master Archie could proceed no further ; for 
 Gipsy fell back in her chair, fairly screaming with laugh- 
 ter. Archie made a desperate effort to maintain his 
 gravity, but the effort proved a failure, and he was forced 
 to join Gipsy in an uproarious peal. 
 
 " Oh, dear !" said Gipsy, wiping her eyes, "I don't 
 know when I have laughed so much." 
 
 "Yes," said Archie, in high dudgeon "pretty thing 
 to laugh at, too ! After breaking my heart, to begin 
 grinning about it. Humph !" 
 
 " You looked so funny you looked " 
 
 Gipsy's voice was lost in another fit of laughter. 
 
 " Come, now, Gipsy, like a good girl, don't laugh 
 any more ; but tell me, will you marry me will you be 
 my wife ?" 
 
 " Why, yes, you dear old goose, you ! I never in- 
 tended to be anything else. You might have known 
 that I'd be your wife, without making such a fuss about 
 it," said Gipsy. 
 
 " And Sir George, Gipsy ?" 
 
 " Oh, poor fellow, I gave him his coup de conge last 
 night, and he set out for England this morning."
 
 i82 GIPSY'S DARING. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, my dear, you're a pearl without price !" 
 exclaimed Archie, in a rapture. 
 
 " Glad to hear it, I'm sure. And now do go away, 
 Archie, and don't bother me any longer ; for I must pack 
 up my things and start for home to-morrow." 
 
 " You little tyrant ! Well, I am to accompany you, 
 mind." 
 
 "Just as you please only do leave me." 
 
 " Little termagant ! Accept this ring as a betrothal 
 gift." 
 
 " Well, there put it on, and for goodness' sake clear 
 out." 
 
 With a glance of comical despair, Mr. Rivers took 
 his hat and quitted the house. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GIPSY'S DARING. 
 
 " It is a fearful night ; a feeble glare 
 Streams from the sick moon in the overclouded sky, 
 The ridgy billows, with a mighty cry, 
 
 Rush on the foamy beaches wild and bare. 
 
 What bark the madness of the waves will dare !" 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 IPSY was once more at Sunset Hall. Archie 
 had escorted her home and then returned to 
 Washington. He would have mentioned 
 their engagement to the squire, and asked his 
 consent to their union, but Gipsy said : 
 " No, you mustn't. I hate a fuss ; and as I don't in-
 
 GIPSY'S DARING. 183 
 
 tend to be married for two or three years yet, it will be 
 time enough to tell them all by and by." 
 
 So Archie, with a sigh, was forced to obey his capri- 
 cious little love and go back, after making her promise 
 to let him come down every month and see her ; for she 
 wouldn't write to him it was "too much bother." 
 
 It began again to seem like old times at St. Mark's. 
 There was Gipsy at Sunset Hall, keeping them all from 
 dying of torpor, and astonishing the whole neighbor- 
 hood by her mad freaks. There was Minnette the 
 proud, cold, but now beautiful Minnette living alone 
 at Deep Dale ; for the doctor had gone from home on 
 business. There was sweet Celeste, the Star of the Val- 
 ley, in her little cottage home the fairest, loveliest 
 maiden the sun ever shone upon. 
 
 It was a lovely May morning. The air was made 
 jocund with the songs of birds ; the balmy breeze scarce 
 rippled the surface of the bay, where the sunshine fell in 
 golden glory. 
 
 Through the open doors and windows of Valley Cot- 
 tage the bright May sunbeams fell warm and bright ; 
 they lingered in broad patches on the white floor, and 
 touched gently the iron-gray locks of Miss Hagar, as she 
 sat knitting in her leathern chair in the chimney-corner, 
 as upright and gray as ever. Years seemed to pass on 
 without touching her ; for just as we first saw her at 
 Lizzie Oranmore's bridal, the same does she appear to- 
 day. 
 
 In the doorway stands a young girl, tall and grace- 
 ful, dressed in soft gray muslin, fastened at her slender 
 waist by a gold-colored belt. Can this young lady be 
 our little, shy Celeste? Yes; here is the same superb 
 form, the same dainty little head, with its wealth of pale- 
 gold hair ; the same clear, transparent complexion ; the 
 soft, dove-like eyes of blue ; the broad, white queenly
 
 184 GIPSY'S DARING. 
 
 forehead ; the little, rosy, smiling mouth. Yes, it is 
 Celeste celestial, truly, with the promise of her child- 
 hood more than fulfilled. The world and its flatterers 
 and she has heard many have had no power to spoil 
 her pure heart, and she has returned the same gentle, 
 loving Celeste the idol of all who know her, radiating 
 light and beauty wherever she goes, a very angel of 
 charity to the poor, and beloved and cherished by the 
 rich. More hearts than Celeste likes to think of have 
 been laid at her feet, to be gently and firmly, but sadly, 
 refused ; for that sound, unsullied heart has never yet 
 been stirred by the words of man. 
 
 She stood in the doorway, gazing with parted lips 
 and sparkling eyes on the balmy beauty of that bright 
 spring morning, with a hymn of gratitude and love to 
 the Author of all this beauty filling her mind. 
 
 Suddenly the sylvan silence of the spot was broken 
 by the thunder of horse's hoofs, and the next instant 
 Gipsy came bounding along upon the back of her favor- 
 ite Mignonne. 
 
 " Good-morning, dear Gipsy," said Celeste, with her 
 own bright smile, as she hastened to open the gate for her. 
 " Have you been out, as usual, hunting this morning ?" 
 
 " Yes, and there are the spoils," said Gipsy, throwing 
 a well-filled game-bag on the ground. " I come like a 
 true hunter a leal knight of the gay greenwood to 
 lay them at the feet of my liege lady. I fancied a can- 
 vas-back duck and a bright-winged partridge would not 
 come amiss this morning. I know my gallop has made 
 me perfectly ravenous." 
 
 " You shall have one of them presently for break- 
 fast," said Celeste, calling Curly, their little black maid- 
 of-all-work. "Tie Mignonne there, and come in." 
 
 " By the way, Celeste, you don't seem to think it such 
 an appalling act to shoot birds now as you used to," said
 
 GIPSY'S DARING. 185 
 
 Gipsy, springing from her horse ; " it was once a crime of 
 the first magnitude in your eyes." 
 
 "And I confess it seems a needless piece of cruelty 
 to me still. I could scarcely do it if I were -starving, I 
 think." 
 
 " You always were with reverence be it spoken 
 rather a coward, Celeste. Do you remember the day I 
 shot the bird that Louis saved for you, and you fell 
 fainting to the ground?" said Gipsy, laughing at the re- 
 membrance. 
 
 " Yes, I remember. I was rather an absurd little 
 thing in those days," said Celeste, smiling. " How I did 
 love that unlucky little bird !" 
 
 " Oh ! that was because Louis gave it to you. There ! 
 don't blush. Apropos of Louis, I wonder where he is 
 now ?" 
 
 " In Rome, I suppose ; at least Mrs. Oranmore told 
 me so," replied Celeste. 
 
 " Yes ; when last we heard from him he was study- 
 ing the old masters, as he calls them or the old gran- 
 nies, as Guardy calls them. I shouldn't wonder if he 
 became quite famous yet, and oh, Celeste ! where did 
 you get that pretty chain and cross ?" abruptly asked 
 Gipsy, as her eye fell on the trinket. 
 
 "A present," said Celeste, smiling and blushing. 
 
 Gipsy's keen eyes were fixed on her face with so 
 quizzical an expression, that the rose-hue deepened to 
 crimson on her fair cheek as they passed into the house. 
 And Gipsy went up and shook hands with Miss Hagar, 
 and seated herself on a low stool at her feet, to relate 
 the morning's adventures, while Celeste laid the cloth 
 and set the table for breakfast. 
 
 After breakfast Gipsy rode off in the direction of 
 Deep Dale. On entering the parlor she found Min- 
 nette sitting reading.
 
 1 86 GIPSY'S DARING. 
 
 Minnette now a tall, splendidly developed, womanly 
 girl, with the proud, handsome face of her childhood 
 rose and welcomed her guest with cold courtesy. The 
 old, fiery light lurked still in her black eyes; but the 
 world had learned her to subdue it, and a coldly-polite re- 
 serve had taken the place of the violent outburst of pas- 
 sion so common in her tempestuous childhood. 
 
 "Don't you find it horribly dull here, Minnette?" 
 said Gipsy, swallowing a rising yawn. 
 
 "No," replied Minnette ; "I prefer solitude. There 
 are few none, perhaps who sympathize with me, and 
 in books I find companions." 
 
 "Well, I prefer less silent companions, for my part," 
 said Gipsy. " I don't believe in making an old hermit 
 or bookworm of myself for anybody." 
 
 " Every one to her taste," was the cold rejoinder. 
 
 "When do you expect your father home?" inquired 
 Gipsy. 
 
 "To-night." 
 
 " Then he'll have a storm to herald his coming," said 
 Gipsy, going to the window and scanning the heavens 
 with a practiced eye. 
 
 " A storm impossible !" said Minnette. " There is 
 not a cloud in the sky." 
 
 " Nevertheless, we shall have a storm," said Gipsy. 
 " I read the sky as truly as you do your books ; and 
 if he attempts to enter the bay to-night, I'm inclined 
 to think that the first land he makes will be the bot- 
 tom." 
 
 Minnette heard this intelligence with the utmost cool- 
 ness, saying only : 
 
 " Indeed ! I did not know you were such a judge of 
 the weather. Well, probably, when they see the storm 
 coming, they will put into some place until it is over." 
 
 " If they don't, I wouldn't give much for their chance
 
 GfPSY'S DARING. 187 
 
 of life," said Gipsy, as she arose to go ; " but don't worry, 
 Minnette all may be right yet." 
 
 Minnette looked after her with a scornful smile. 
 Fret ! She had little intention of doing it ; and five 
 minutes after the departure of Gipsy she was so deeply 
 immersed in her book as to forget everything else. 
 
 As the day wore on and evening approached, Gipsy's 
 prophecy seemed about to prove true. Dark, leaden 
 clouds rolled about the sky ; the wind no longer blew 
 in a steady breeze, but howled in wild gusts. The bosom 
 of the bay was tossing and moaning wildly, heaving and 
 plunging as though struggling madly in agony. Gipsy 
 seized her telescope, and running up to one of the high- 
 est rooms in the old hall, swept an anxious glance across 
 the troubled face of the deep. Far out, scarcely distin- 
 guishable from the white caps of the billows, she beheld 
 the sail of a vessel driving, with frightful rapidity, to- 
 ward the coast driving toward its own doom ; for, once 
 near those foaming breakers covering the sunken reefs 
 of rocks, no human being could save her. Gipsy stood 
 gazing like one fascinated ; and onward still the doomed 
 bark drove like a lost soul rushing to its own destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 Night and darkness at last shut out the ill-fated ship 
 from her view. Leaving the house, she hastily made her 
 way to the shore, and standing on a high, projecting 
 peak, waited for the moon to rise, to view the scene of 
 tempest and death. 
 
 It lifted its wan, spectral face at last from behind a 
 bank of dull, black clouds, and lit up with its ghastly 
 light the heaving sea and driving vessel. The tempest 
 seemed momentarily increasing. The waves boiled, and 
 seethed, and foamed, and lashed themselves in fury 
 against the beetling rocks. And, holding by a project- 
 ing cliff, Gipsy stood surveying the scene. You might
 
 1 88 GIPSY'S DA JUNG. 
 
 have thought her the spirit of the storm, looking on the 
 tempest she had herself raised. Her black hair and thin 
 dress streamed in the wind behind her, as she stood lean- 
 ing forward, her little, wild, dark face looking strange 
 and weird, with its blazing eyes, and cheeks burning 
 with the mad excitement of the scene. Down below her, 
 on the shore, a crowd of hardy fishermen were gathered, 
 watching with straining eyes the gallant craft that in a 
 few moments would be a broken ruin. On the deck could 
 be plainly seen the crew, making most superhuman ex- 
 ertions to save themselves from the terrible fate impend- 
 ing over them. 
 
 All in vain ! Ten minutes more and they would be 
 dashed to pieces. Gipsy could endure the maddening 
 sight no longer. Leaping from the cliff, she sprang down 
 the rocks, like a mountain kid, and landed among the 
 fishermen, who were too much accustomed to see her 
 among them in scenes like this to be much startled by 
 it now. 
 
 " Will you let them perish before your eyes ?" she 
 cried, wildly. " Are you men, to stand here idle in a 
 time like this ? But with the boats, and save their lives !' 
 
 " Impossible, Miss Gipsy !" answered half a dozen 
 voices. " No boat could live in such a surf." 
 
 "Oh, great heaven ! And must they die miserably 
 before your very eyes, without even making an effort to 
 save them ?'' she exclaimed, passionately, wringing her 
 hands. " Oh, that I were a man ! Listen ! Whoever 
 will make the attempt shall receive five hundred dollars 
 reward !" 
 
 Not one moved. Life could not be sacrificed for 
 money. 
 
 "There she goes !" cried a voice. 
 
 Gipsy turned to look. A wild, prolonged shriek of 
 mortal agony rose above the uproar of the storm, and
 
 GIPSY'S DARING. 189 
 
 the crew were left struggling for life in the boiling 
 waves. 
 
 With a piercing cry, scarcely less anguished than 
 their own, the mad girl bounded to the shore, pushed off 
 a light batteau, seized the oars, and the next moment was 
 dancing over the foaming waves. 
 
 A shout of fear and horror arose from the shore at 
 the daring act. She heeded it not, as, bending all her 
 energies to the task of guiding her frail bark through 
 the tempestuous billows, she bent her whole strength to 
 the oars. 
 
 Oh ! surely her guardian angel steered that boat on 
 its errand of mercy through the heaving, tempest-tossed 
 sea ! The salt spray seemed blinding her as it dashed 
 in her face ; but on she flew, now balanced for a mo- 
 ment on the top of a snowy hill of foam, the next, sunk 
 down, down, as though it were never more to rise. 
 
 " Leap into the boat !" she cried, in a clear, shrill 
 voice, that made itself heard, even above the storm. 
 
 Strong hands clutched it with the desperation of 
 death, and two heavy bodies rolled violently in. The 
 weight nearly overset the light skiff ; but, bending her 
 body to the oars, she righted it again. 
 
 " Where are the rest ?" she exclaimed, wildly. 
 
 "All gone to the bottom. Give me the oars !" cried 
 a voice. 
 
 She felt herself lifted from where she sat, placed 
 gently in the bottom of the boat, and then all conscious- 
 ness left her, and, overcome by the excitement, she 
 fainted where she lay. 
 
 When she again opened her eyes she was lying in the 
 arms of some one on the shore, with a circle of troubled, 
 anxious faces around her. She sprang up wildly. 
 
 "Are they saved?" she exclaimed, looking around.
 
 190 GJPSY'S DARING. 
 
 " Yes ; thanks to your heroism, our lives are pre- 
 served," said a voice beside her. 
 
 She turned hastily round. It was Doctor Nicholas 
 Wiseman. Another form lay stark and rigid on the 
 sand, with men bending over him. 
 
 A deadly sickness came over Gipsy she knew not 
 why it was. She turned away, with a violent shudder, 
 from his outstretched hand, and bent over the still form 
 on the sand. All made way for her with respectful 
 deference ; and she knelt beside him and looked in his 
 face. He was a boy a mere youth, but singularly hand- 
 some, with a look of deep repose on his almost beauti- 
 ful face. 
 
 "Is he dead?" she cried, in a voice of piercing an- 
 guish. 
 
 " No ; only stunned," said the doctor, coming over 
 and feeling his pulse. 
 
 " Take him to Sunset Hall, then," said Gipsy, turn- 
 ing to some of the men standing by. 
 
 A shutter was procured, and the senseless form of 
 the lad placed upon it, and, raising it on their shoulders, 
 they bore him in the direction of the old mansion-house. 
 
 Doctor Wiseman went toward his own home. And 
 Gipsy, the free mountain maid, leaped up the rocks, 
 feeling, for the first time in her life, sick and giddy. 
 Oh ! better, far better for her had they but perished in 
 the seething waves !
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 " With gentle hand and soothing tongue 
 
 She bore the leech's part ; 
 And while she o'er his sick bed hung 
 He paid her with his heart." SCOTT. 
 
 HE sunshine of a breezy June morning fell 
 pleasantly into the chamber of the invalid. 
 It was a bright, airy room a perfect paradise 
 of a sick chamber with its snowy curtained 
 bed, its tempting easy-chair, its white lace 
 window curtains fluttering softly in the morning air. 
 The odor of flowers came wafted through the open case- 
 ment ; and the merry chirping of a bright-winged canary, 
 hanging in the sunshine, filled the room with its cheer- 
 ful music. 
 
 Reclining in the easy-chair, gazing longingly out at 
 the glorious sunshine, sat the young sailor whose life 
 Gipsy had saved. His heavy dark hair fell in shining 
 waves over his pale, intelligent brow ; and his large blue 
 eyes had a look of dreamy melancholy that few female 
 hearts could have resisted. 
 
 Suddenly his eye lighted up, and his whole face 
 brightened, as a clear, sweet voice, singing a gay carol, 
 met his ear. Gipsy still retained her old habit of singing 
 as she walked ; and the next moment the door opened, 
 and she stood, like some bright vision, before him, with 
 cheeks glowing, eyes sparkling, and her countenance 
 bright and radiant from her morning ride; her dark 
 purple riding-habit setting off to the best advantage her 
 straight, slight; rounded form ; and her jaunty riding-
 
 192 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 hat, with its long, sweeping, sable plume, giving her the 
 air of a young mountain queen, crowned with vitality, 
 and sceptered with life and beauty. 
 
 " Oh, I have had such a charming canter over the hills 
 this morning," she cried, with her wild, breezy laugh. 
 " How I wished you had been well enough to accompany 
 me. Mignonne fairly flew, leaping over yawning chasms 
 and rocks as though he felt not the ground beneath him. 
 But I am forgetting how do you feel this morning?" 
 
 " Much better, sweet lady. Who could be long ill 
 with such a nurse ?" he replied, while his fine eyes lit up 
 with admiration and gratitude. 
 
 Gipsy, be it known, had installed herself as the nurse 
 of the young sailor ; and, by her sleepless care and 
 tender nursing, had almost restored him from death to 
 life. And when he became convalescent, she would sit 
 by his bedside for hours, reading, talking, and singing 
 for him, until gratitude on his part ripened into fervent 
 love ; while she only looked upou him as she would on 
 any other stranger taking an interest in him only on 
 account of his youth and friendliness, and because she 
 had saved his life. 
 
 "Well, I'm glad to hear it, I'm sure ! I want you to 
 hurry and get well, so you can ride out with me. Are 
 you a good horseman ?" 
 
 " Yes, I think so," he said, smiling. 
 
 "Because, if you're not, you mustn't attempt to try 
 our hills. It takes an expert rider, I can tell you, to 
 gallop over them without breaking his neck." 
 
 "Yetjvtf venture, fairest lady." 
 
 "Me? Ha, ha! Why, I've been on horseback ever 
 since I was two years old. My horse is my other self. I 
 could as soon think of living without laughing as with- 
 out Mignonne."
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 193 
 
 " Then, sweet lady, you will kindly be my teacher in 
 the art of riding." 
 
 " Oh, I wouldn't want better fun ; but look here, Mr. 
 Danvers, don't be ' sweet lady '-ing me ! I ain't used to 
 it, you know. People generally call me ' Monkey,' 
 ' Imp,' ' Torment,' ' Wretch,' and other pet names of a 
 like nature. But if you don't like any of them, call me 
 Gipsy, or Gipsy Gower, but don't call me 'sweet lady' 
 again. You see, I never could stand nicknames." 
 
 "And may I ask you why you have received those 
 names?" inquired the young midshipman (for such he 
 was), laughing. 
 
 <l Why, because I am an imp, a wretch, and always 
 was and always will be, for that matter. I believe I 
 was made to keep the world alive. Why, everybody in 
 St. Mark's would be dead of the blues if it weren't for 
 me." 
 
 " Yes ; I have heard of some of your wild antics. 
 That good old lady, Mrs. Gower, was with me last night, 
 and we had quite a long conversation about you, I assure 
 you." 
 
 " Poor dear aunty, she's at her wits' end, sometimes, 
 to know what to do with me. And, by that same token, 
 here she comes. Speak of somebody, and he'll appear, 
 you know." 
 
 Mrs. Gower opened the door, flushed and palpitating 
 with her walk up-stairs. Poor Mrs. Gower was "wax- 
 ing fat" with years ; and it was no easy task for her to 
 toil her way up the long staircase of Sunset Hall. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, my dear !" she exclaimed, all in a glow 
 of pleasurable excitement, "guess who's come !" 
 
 " Who, who ?" cried Gipsy, eagerly. 
 
 41 Archie !" 
 
 Up sprang Gipsy, flew past Mrs. Gower, and was 
 down the stairs in a twinkling. 
 9
 
 1 94 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 "Archie ! who the deuce is he?" thought the young 
 midshipman, with a jealous twinge. 
 
 " You seem to have brought Miss Gower pleasant 
 news," he remarked, by way of drawing her out, after he 
 he had answered her inquiries about his health. 
 
 " Why, yes, it's natural she should be glad to meet 
 her old playmate," replied the unsuspecting old lady. 
 
 " Ah ! her old playmate. Then she has known him 
 for a long time?" 
 
 " Yes ; they were children together, grew up together, 
 and were always fond of one another. It has always been 
 my dearest wish to see them united ; and I dare say they 
 will be yet." 
 
 The youth's face was turned to the window as she 
 spoke, or good Mrs. Gower might have been startled by 
 his paleness. As he asked no more questions, the worthy 
 old lady began to think he might wish to be left to himself ; 
 so, after a few general directions to be sure and take 
 care of himself and not catch cold, she quitted the 
 room. 
 
 Meantime, Archie and Gipsy were holding a very ani- 
 mated conversation in the parlor below. Archie was 
 relating how he had undertaken a very important case, 
 that would call him from home for four or five months ; 
 and that, when it was over, he would be rich enough to 
 set up an establishment for himself, and return to St. 
 Mark's to claim his little bride. 
 
 "And now, Gipsy," he concluded, "'what mischief 
 have you been perpetrating since I saw you last? 
 Who have you locked up, or shot, or ran away with 
 since ?" 
 
 In reply, Gipsy related the story of the wreck, and 
 went into ecstasies on the beauty of Mr. Harry Danvers, 
 U. S. N, Archie listened with a savage frown, that
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 195 
 
 grew perceptibly more savage every moment. Gipsy 
 saw it, and maliciously praised him more and more. 
 
 " Oh, Archie, he's the handsomest fellow I ever met. 
 So agreeable and polite, with such a beautiful, melan- 
 choly countenance !" 
 
 " Oh, curse his melancholy countenance !" 
 
 " For shame, sir ! How can you speak so of my 
 friends ? But it's just like you. You always were a 
 cross, disagreeable old thing now then !" 
 
 " Yes ; I'm not such a sweet seraph as this agreeable 
 and polite young son of Neptune," said Mr. Rivers, Avith 
 a withering sneer. "Just let me catch sight of his ' beau- 
 tiful, melancholy countenance,' and maybe I'll spoil its 
 beauty for him." 
 
 " Now, Archie, you're real hateful. I'm sure you'll 
 like him when you see him." 
 
 "Like him ! Yes, I'd like to blow his brains out." 
 
 " No, you mustn't, either ; he's too handsome to be 
 killed. Oh, Archie, when he laughs he looks so charm- 
 ing !" 
 
 " Confound him ! /'// make him laugh on the other 
 side of his mouth !" growled the exasperated Archie. 
 
 " He's got such a sweet mouth and such lovely white 
 teeth !" continued the tantalizing fairy. 
 
 " I wish he and his white teeth were at the bottom of 
 the Red Sea !" burst out Archie, in a rage. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Rivers, you're positively jealous !" said 
 Gipsy, looking very much surprised indeed. 
 
 "Jealous ! Yes, I should think so. You are enough 
 to drive any one jealous. Suppose I began raving about 
 young ladies^-their 'melancholy countenances,' and 
 'sweet mouths,' and 'white teeth,' and all such stuff 
 how would you like it, I want to know?" 
 
 " Why, I shouldn't care." 
 
 " You wouldn't ? Oh, Jupiter Olympus ! Only hear
 
 196 THE SAILOR BOYS DOOM. 
 
 that!" exclaimed Archie, striding up and down in a tow- 
 ering passion. "That shows all you care about me! 
 Going and falling in love with the first old tarry sailor 
 you meet ! I won't endure it ! I'll blow my brains out 
 I'll " 
 
 " Well, don't do it in the house, then. Pistols make 
 a noise, and might disturb Mr. Danvers." 
 
 Archie fell into a chair with a deep groan. 
 
 " There, don't look so dismal. I declare, you give me 
 a fit of the blues every time you come to see me. Why 
 can't you be pleasant, and laugh ?" 
 
 "Laugh !" exclaimed poor Archie. 
 
 " Yes, laugh! I'm sure you used to be forever grin- 
 ning. Poor, dear Mr. Danvers is sick, yet he laughs." 
 
 " Mr. Danvers again !" shouted Archie, springing to 
 his feet. " May Lucifer twist Mr, Danvers' neck for 
 him ! I won't stay another minute in the house. I'll 
 clear out, and never see you more. I'll never enter your 
 presence again, you heartless girl !" 
 
 " Well, won't you take a cup of coffee before you 
 go ?" said Gipsy, with her sweetest smile. 
 
 "Hallo, Jupiter! Jupiter, 1 say, bring round my 
 horse. And now, most faithless of women, I leave you 
 forever. Life is now a blank to me ; and, ere yonder 
 sun sets, I shall be in eternity." 
 
 " Is it possible ? Won't you write when you get 
 there, and let me know if it's a good place for lawyers 
 to settle in ?" 
 
 Oh ! such a groan as followed this ! Casting a 
 tragical look of despair at Gipsy, who sat smiling serene- 
 ly, Archie rushed from the house. 
 
 Ten minutes later he was back again. Gipsy had 
 stretched herself on a sofa, and was apparently fast 
 asleep.
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 197 
 
 "Heartless girl!" exclaimed Archie, shaking her; 
 "wake up, Gipsy !" 
 
 " Oh ! is it you ?" said Gipsy, drowsily opening her 
 eyes. " What did you wake me up for ? I thought you 
 had started on your journey to eternity." 
 
 "Gipsy, shall I go?" 
 
 "Just as you please, Archie only let me go to sleep, 
 and don't bother me." 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! you cruel coquette ! won't you bid me 
 stay ?" 
 
 " Well, stay, then ! I wish to goodness you wouldn't 
 be such a pest." 
 
 " Gipsy, tell me do you love me or Mr. Danvers 
 best ?" 
 
 " I don't love either of you there, now ! And I tell 
 you what, Archie Rivers, if you don't go off and let me 
 get asleep, I'll never speak to you again. Mind that !" 
 
 With a deep sigh, Archie obeyed, and walked out of 
 the room with a most dejected expression of counte- 
 nance. No sooner was he gone than Gipsy sprang up, 
 and, clapping her hands, danced round the room her 
 eyes sparkling with delight. 
 
 "Oh, it's such fun!" she exclaimed. "Poor, dear 
 Archie ! if I haven't made him a victim to the 'green- 
 eyed monster!' Mr. Danvers, indeed! As if that dear, 
 good-natured Archie wasn't worth all the Mr. Danvers 
 that ever adorned the quarterdeck ! Oh ! won't I flirt, 
 though, and make the 'distinguished Mr. Rivers' so 
 jealous, that he won't know whether he's standing on his 
 head or his heels ! If I am to settle down into a hum- 
 drum Mrs. Rivers some day, I'll have as much frolic as 
 I can before it. So, Master Archie, look out for the 
 'wrath that's to come;' for your agonies won't move 
 me in the least." 
 
 And never did any one keep her word more faithfully
 
 198 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 than Gipsy. During the fortnight that Archie was to 
 stay with them she flirted unmercifully with the hand- 
 some young midshipman, who was now able to ride out, 
 quite unconscious of all the hopes she was rousing in 
 his bosom. Poor Gipsy ! little did she dream that, 
 while she rode by his side, and bestowed upon him her 
 enchanting smiles, and wore the colors he liked, and 
 sang the songs he loved, to torment the unhappy Archie, 
 that he, believing her serious, had already surrendered 
 his heart to the bewitching sprite, and reposed in the 
 blissful dream of one day calling her his ! 
 
 Archie Rivers was jealous. Many were the ferocious 
 glances he cast upon the young sailor ; and many and 
 dire were his threats of vengeance. But Gipsy, mad 
 .girl, only listened and laughed, and knew not that an- 
 other pair of ears heard those threats, and would one day 
 use them to her destruction. 
 
 But matters were now drawing to a crisis. The 
 young midshipman was now quite restored to health, 
 and found himself obliged to turn his thoughts toward 
 his own home. Archie's fortnight had elapsed ; but still 
 he lingered too jealous to leave while his rival re- 
 mained. 
 
 One bright moonlight night the three were gathered 
 in the cool, wide porch in front of the mansion. Gipsy 
 stood in the doorway her white dress fluttering in the 
 breeze binding in her dark, glossy curls a wreath of 
 crimson rosebuds, given her a few moments previous by 
 Mr. Danvers. All her smiles, and words, and glances 
 were directed toward him. Archij was apparently for- 
 gotten. 
 
 "Please sing one of your charming songs, Miss 
 Gipsy ;*this is just the hour for music," said Mr. Dan- 
 vers. 
 
 " With pleasure. What shall it be? your favorite ?"
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 199 
 
 inquired Gipsy, taking her guitar and seating herself at 
 his feet. 
 
 " If you will be so good," he replied, his eyes spark- 
 ling with pleasure at her evident preference. 
 
 Archie's brow grew dark. He hated the sailor's fav- 
 orite song, because it was his favorite. This Gipsy well 
 knew ; and her brown eyes twinkled with mischief, as 
 she began, in her clear, sweet voice : 
 
 " ' Sleeping, I dream, love I dream, love, of thee ; 
 O'er the bright waves, love, floating with thee ; 
 Light in thy soft hair played the soft wind, 
 Fondly thy white arms around me were twined ; 
 And as thy song, love, swelled o'er the sea, 
 Fondly thy blue eyes beamed, love, on me.' " 
 
 She hesitated a moment, and looked up in his face, 
 as though really intending the words for him. He was 
 bending over her, pale and panting his blue e}^es blaz- 
 ing with a light that brought the crimson blood in a 
 rosy tide to her very temples. She stopped abruptly. 
 
 " Go on !" he said, in a low voice. 
 
 She hesitated, glanced at Archie, and seeing the 
 storm-cloud on his brow, the demon of mischief once 
 more conquered her better nature, and she resumed : 
 
 " ' Soon o'er the bright waves howled forth the gale, 
 Fiercely the lightning flashed on our sail , 
 And as our frail bark drove through the sea, 
 Thine eyes, like loadstones, beamed, love, on me. 
 Oh, heart, awaken ! wrecked on lone shore, 
 Thou aft forsaken ! dream, heart, no more.' " 
 
 Ere the last words were uttered, Archie had seized 
 his hat and rushed from the house ; and Danvers, for- 
 getting everything save the entrancing creature at his 
 feet, clasped her suddenly in his arms, and passionately 
 exclaimed :
 
 2 oo THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! my love ! my life, my beautiful moun- 
 tain sprite ! can you, will you love me ?" 
 
 With a wild, sharp cry of terror and anger, she broke 
 from his arms, and sprang back, with flashing eyes. 
 
 " Back, sir, back ! I command you ! How dare you 
 attempt such a liberty with me ?" 
 
 How beautiful she looked in her wrath, with her 
 blazing eyes, and crimson cheeks, and straight little 
 form drawn up to its full height, in surprise and indig- 
 nation. 
 
 He stood gazing at her for a moment amazed, 
 thunder-struck at the change. Then, seeing only her 
 enchanting beauty, he took a step forward, threw him- 
 self at her feet, and broke forth passionately : 
 
 " Gipsy, I love you I worship you. Have you been 
 mocking me all this time ? or do you love me, too ?" 
 
 " Rise, sir ! I have neither been mocking you, nor do 
 I love you ! Rise ! rise ! Kneel not to me !" 
 
 "And T have been deceived? Oh, falsest of false 
 ones ! why did you learn me to love you ?" 
 
 " Mr. Danvers, don't call me names. As to the learn- 
 ing you to love me, I never attempted such a thing in my 
 life ! I'd scorn to do it," she said, indignantly ; but even 
 while she spoke, the blood rushed in a fiery torrent to 
 her face, and then back to her heart, for she thought of 
 all the encouragement her merciless flirtation must have 
 given him. 
 
 " You did, Gipsy, you know you did!" he vehemently 
 exclaimed. " Every encouragement that could be given 
 to a lover, you gave to me ; and I fool that I was I 
 believed you, never dreaming that I should find a flinty, 
 hardened flirt in one whom I took to be a pure-hearted 
 mountam maiden." 
 
 Had Gipsy felt herself innocent of the charge, how 
 indignantly she would have denied it. But the con-
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 201 
 
 sciousness of guilt sent the crimson once more to her 
 brow, as she replied in a low, hurried tone : 
 
 " Mr. Danvers, I have done wrong ! Forgive me ! 
 As heaven is my witness, I dreamed not that you cared 
 for me. It was my mad, wild love of mischief brought 
 all this about. Mr. Danvers, it is as yet a secret, but Mr. 
 Rivers is my betrothed husband. Some fiend prompted 
 me to make him jealous, and to accomplish that end I I 
 blush to say it flirted with you ; alas, never dreaming 
 you thought anything of it. And now that I have ac- 
 knowledged my fault, will you forgive me, and be my 
 friend ?" 
 
 She extended her hand. He smiled bitterly, and 
 passed her without touching it. Then leaving the house, 
 he mounted his horse and galloped furiously away. 
 Prophetic, indeed, were the words with which her song 
 had ended words that came pealing through the dim 
 aisles of the forest after him, as he plunged frantically 
 along : 
 
 " Oh, heart, awaken ! wrecked on lone shore, 
 Thou art forsaken ! dream, heart, no more !" 
 
 Gipsy stood still in the porch, cold and pale, await- 
 ing his return. But though she waited until the stars 
 grew dim in the sky, he came not. Morning dawned, 
 and found her pale with undefined fear, but still he was 
 absent. 
 
 After breakfast, Archie came over, still angry and 
 sullen, after the previous night's scene, to find Gipsy 
 quieter and more gentle than he had ever seen her before 
 in her life. 
 
 "I wish he would come ! I wish he would come!" 
 cried her wild, excited heart, as she paced up and down, 
 until her eyes grew bright and her cheeks grew burning 
 hot, with feverish watching and vague fear.
 
 202 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 
 
 "You look ill and excited, Gipsy. A canter over 
 the hills will do you good," said Archie, anxiously. 
 
 She eagerly assented, and leaping on Mignonne's 
 back, dashed away at a tremendous pace, yet could not 
 go half quick enough to satisfy her restless longing to 
 fly, fly, she knew not where. 
 
 " Where are you going, Gipsy ?" cried Archie, who 
 found some difficulty to keep up with the break-neck 
 pace at which she rode. 
 
 " To the Black Gorge," was her reply, as she thun- 
 dered over the cliff. 
 
 " Why, Gipsy ! what possesses you to go to that wild 
 place ?" said Archie, in surprise. 
 
 " I don't know I feel as if I must go there! Don't 
 talk to me, Archie ! I believe I'm crazy this morning !" 
 
 She flew on swifter than ever, until they reached the 
 spot a huge, black, yawning gulf among the hills. She 
 rode so close to the fearful brink that Archie's heart 
 stood still in horror. 
 
 " Are you mad, Gipsy ?" he cried, seizing her bridle- 
 rein and forcing her back. " One false step, and your 
 brains would be dashed out against the rocks." 
 
 But, fixing her eyes on the dark chasm, she answered 
 him only by a wild, prolonged shriek, so full of piercing 
 anguish that his blood seemed curdling in his veins, 
 while, with bloodless face and quivering finger, she 
 pointed to the gulf. 
 
 He leaped from his horse and approached the dizzy 
 edge. And there a sight met his eyes that froze his heart 
 with horror. 
 
 " Great God !" he cried, springing back, with a face 
 deadly white. " A horse and rider lie dead and mangled 
 below !" 
 
 A deadly faintness came over Gipsy; the ground 
 seemed reeling around her, and countless stars danced
 
 THE SAILOR BOY'S DOOM. 203 
 
 before her eyes. Fora moment she was on the verge of 
 swooning, then by a powerful effort the tide of life rolled 
 back, and she leaped from her horse and stood by his 
 side. 
 
 " It is impossible to reach the bottom," cried Archie, 
 in a voice low with horror. " A cat could hardly clam- 
 ber down those perpendicular sides." 
 
 " I can do it, Archie ; I often went up and down there 
 when a child," exclaimed Gipsy ; and ere Archie could 
 restrain her, the fearless girl had caught hold of a stunted 
 spruce tree and swung herself over the edge of the ap- 
 palling gorge. 
 
 Archie Rivers scarcely breathed ; he felt as though he 
 scarcely lived while she rapidly descended by catching 
 the matted shrubs growing along its sides. She was 
 down at last, and bending over the mangled form below. 
 
 " Gipsy ! Gipsy ! do you recognize him ?" cried 
 Archie. 
 
 She looked up, and he saw a face from which every 
 trace of life seemed to have fled. 
 
 " Yes," she replied, hoarsely. " // is Danv ers ! Ride 
 ride for your life to Sunset Hall, and bring men and 
 ropes to take him up !" 
 
 In an instant he was in the saddle, and off. In less 
 than an hour he returned, with half the population in 
 the village after him, whom the news of the catastrophe 
 had brought together. 
 
 Ropes were lowered to Gipsy, who still remained 
 where Archie had left her, and the lifeless form of the 
 young man drawn up. Gipsy, refusing all aid, clambered 
 up the side, and the mournful cavalcade set out for Sun- 
 set Hall. 
 
 He was quite dead. It was evident he had fallen, in 
 the darkness, into the gorge, and been instantly killed. 
 His fair hair hung, clotted with blood, round his fore-
 
 204 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 head : and a fearful gash in the temple showed the 
 wound whence his young life had flowed away. And 
 Gipsy, feeling as though she were his murderess, sat by 
 his side, and, gazing on the still, cold form, shed the first 
 bitter tears that had ever fallen from her eyes. By some 
 strange coincidence, it was in that self-same spot the 
 dead body of Barry Oranmore had been found. 
 
 Poor Gipsy ! The sunshine was fast fading out of 
 her sky, and the clouds of fate gathering thick and fast 
 around her. She wept now for another knowing not 
 how soon she was to weep for herself. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 " A fearful sign stands in thy house of life 
 An enemy a fiend lurks close behind 
 The radiance of thy planet. Oh, be warned !" 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 " And now a darker hour ascends." MARMION 
 
 WEEK after the event recorded inthe last 
 chapter Archie went back to the city. Be- 
 fore he went, he had obtained a promise 
 from Gipsy who had grown strangely still 
 and gentle since the death of Danvers to 
 become his wife immediately upon his return ; but, with 
 her usual eccentricity, she refused to allow him to make 
 their engagement public. 
 
 " Time enough by and by," was still her answer ; and 
 Archie was forced to be content. 
 
 Gipsy was, for a while, sad and quiet, but both were
 
 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 205 
 
 foreign to her character ; and, with the natural buoy- 
 ancy of youth, she shook off her gloom, and soon once 
 more her merry laugh made music through the old house. 
 
 Doctor Nicholas Wiseman sometimes made his appear- 
 ance at Sunset Hall of late. Lizzie was suffering from 
 a low fever ; and as he was the only physician in St. 
 Mark's, he was called in. 
 
 As he sat one day in the parlor at luncheon with the 
 squire, Gipsy came tripping along with her usual elastic 
 step, and touching her hat gallantly to the gentlemen, 
 ran up to her own room. The squire's eyes followed her 
 with a look of fond pride. 
 
 " Did you ever see such another charming little 
 vixen?" he asked, turning to the doctor. 
 
 " Miss Gower's certainly an extraordinary young 
 lady," said the doctor, dryly. " I have often been sur- 
 prised, Squire Erliston, that you should treat your house- 
 keeper's niece as one of your own family." 
 
 " She's not my housekeeper's niece," blurted out the 
 squire ; " she was " 
 
 He paused, suddenly recollecting that the discovery 
 of Gipsy was a secret. 
 
 " She was what ?" said the doctor, fixing his keen 
 eyes on the old man's face. 
 
 " Well, hang it, Wiseman, I suppose it makes no dif- 
 ference whether I tell you or not. ' Gipsy is not Mrs. 
 Gower's niece : she is a foundling." 
 
 "Yes," said the doctor, pricking up his ears. 
 
 "Yes, last Christmas Eve, just seventeen years ago, 
 
 Mrs. Gower, returning from A , found Gipsy lying 
 
 on the beach, near the south end of the city." 
 
 Long habit had given Dr. Wiseman full control over 
 his emotions, but now the blood rushed in a purple tide 
 to his sallow face, as he leaped from his chair and fairly 
 shouted :
 
 206 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 " What!" 
 
 " Eh ? Lord bless the man ! what's the matter ?" 
 said the squire, staring at him until his little fat eyes 
 seemed ready to burst from their sockets. 
 
 " What did you say ? found her on the beach on 
 Christmas Eve, seventeen years ago?" said the doctor, 
 seizing him fiercely by the arm, and glaring upon him 
 with his yellow eyes. 
 
 "Yes, I said so. What in the name of all the demons 
 is the matter with you ?" roared the squire, shaking him 
 off. "What do you know about it ?" 
 
 "Nothing! nothing! nothing!" replied the doctor, 
 remembering himself, and sinking back in his chair. 
 " Pray, go on." 
 
 The squire eyed him suspiciously. 
 
 " My dear sir," said the doctor, every trace of emo- 
 tion now passed away, "forgive my violence. But, 
 really, the story seemed so improbable " 
 
 " Improbable or not, sir," interrupted the squire, 
 angry at being doubted, "it's true as Gospel. It was a 
 snowy, unpleasant night. Mrs. Gower and Jupiter were 
 returning from the city, and took the shore road in pref- 
 erence to going over the hills. As they went along, 
 Mrs. Gower was forced to get out on account of the 
 dangerous road ; and hearing a child cry, she stooped 
 down, and found Gipsy lying wrapped up in a shawl, in 
 the sand. Well, sir, my housekeeper, as a matter of 
 course being a humane woman brought the child 
 (which could not have been a week old) home, and gave 
 it her name. And that, sir, is the history of Gipsy 
 Gower, let it seem ever so improbable." 
 
 Like lightning there flashed across the mind of the 
 doctor the recollection of the advancing sleigh-bells 
 which had startled him from the beach. This, then, was 
 the secret of her disappearance ! This, then, was
 
 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 207 
 
 the child of Esther Erliston and Alfred Oranmore ! 
 This wild, untamed, daring elf was the heiress, in her 
 mother's right, of all the broad lands of the Erlistons. 
 She had been brought up as a dependent in the house of 
 which she was the rightful heiress : and the squire 
 dreamed not that his " monkey" was his grandchild ! 
 
 Thoughts like these flashed like lightning through 
 the mind of Dr. Wiseman. The sudden, startling dis- 
 covery bewildered him ; he felt unequal to the task of 
 conversing. And making some excuse, he arose abrupt- 
 ly, entered his gig, and letting the reins fall on his 
 horse's neck, allowed him to make the best of his way 
 home; while, with his head dropped on his breast, 
 he pondered on the strange disclosure he had just 
 heard. 
 
 No one living, it was evident, knew who she was, 
 save himself. What would old Dame Oranmore say 
 when she heard it ? Wretch as he was, he found himself 
 forced to acknowledge the hand of a ruling Providence 
 in all this. The child who had been cast out to die had 
 been nurtured in the home that was hers by right. By 
 his hand the mother had perished ; yet the heroism of 
 the daughter had preserved his worthless life. 
 
 "What use shall I make of this discovery?" he 
 mused, as he rode along. " How can I turn it to my 
 own advantage ? If I wish it, I can find little difficulty 
 in convincing the world that she is the rightful heiress 
 of Mount Sunset, instead of Louis Oranmore. But how 
 to do it, without implicating myself that's the question. 
 There was no witness to the death-bed scene of Esther 
 Erliston ; and I can assert that Madam Oranmore caused 
 me to remove the child, without mentioning the mother 
 at all. I can also easily feign some excuse for leaving- 
 her in the snow talk about my remorse and anguish at 
 finding her gone, and all that. Now, if I could only get
 
 2o8 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 this hare-brained girl securely in my power, in such a 
 way as to make her money the price of her freedom, I 
 would not hesitate one moment about proclaiming it all. 
 But how to get her in my power she is keen and wide- 
 awake, with all her madness, and not half so easily duped 
 as most girls of her age Let me think !" 
 
 His head fell lower, his claw-like hands opened and 
 shut as though clutching some one, his brows knit in a 
 hard knot, and his eyes seemed burning holes in the 
 ground, with their wicked, immovable gaze. 
 
 At last, his mind seemed to be made up. Lifting his 
 head, he said, with calm, grim determination : 
 
 " Yes, my mind is made up ; that girl shall be 
 my WIFE !" 
 
 Again he paused. His project, when repeated aloud, 
 seemed so impossible to accomplish that it almost 
 startled him. 
 
 " It may be difficult to bring about," he said, as if in 
 answer to his momentary hesitation. " No doubt it will ; 
 but, nevertheless, it shall, it will, it must be done ! Once 
 her husband, and I shall have a legal right to everything 
 she possesses. The world need not know I have made 
 the discovery until after our marriage ; it shall think it 
 is for love I marry her. Love ! ha, ha, ha ! Just fancy 
 Dr. Wiseman / at the age of fifty-nine, falling in love 
 with a chit of a girl of seventeen ! Well, I shall set my 
 wits to work ; and if I fail to accomplish it, it will be the 
 first time I have ever failed in aught I have undertaken. 
 She calls me a spider ; let her take care lest she be 
 caught lest her bright wings are imprisoned in the web 
 I will weave. Her opposition will be fierce and firm ; 
 and, if I have studied her aright, she can only be 
 conquered through those she loves. That she loves that 
 whipper-snapper of a nephew of mine, I have long 
 known ; and yet that very love shall make her become
 
 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 209 
 
 my wife. And so my bright little Gipsy Gower or 
 Gipsy Oranmore from this day forth you are mine !" 
 
 " Look here, aunty," said Gipsy, following Mrs. 
 Gower, as she wandered through the house, brush in 
 hand, " what brings that old spider here so often of late ? 
 He and Guardy appear to be as thick as two pickpockets 
 though, a few years ago, Guardy detested the sight of 
 him. They are for everlasting closeted together, plotting 
 something. Now, aunty, it looks suspicious, don't it?" 
 
 " I am afraid Dr. Wiseman is drawing your guardian 
 into some rash speculation," said Mrs. Gower. " The 
 squire is always muttering about 'stocks,' and 'inter- 
 est,' and such things. I am afraid the doctor is using 
 him for his own purposes. Heaven forgive me if I wrong 
 him !" 
 
 "Wrong him! I tell you, aunty, that Spider's a 
 regular snake. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could 
 see him. He has a way of looking at me that I don't 
 half like. Whenever I'm in the room he stares and 
 stares at me, as if I were some natural curiosity. Per- 
 haps he's falling in love with me. There ! I tell you 
 what, aunty I've just hit the right thing in the middle 
 he's meditating whether or not he'll raise me to the 
 dignity of Mrs. Spider Wiseman I know he is !" ex- 
 claimed Gipsy, laughing, little dreaming how near she 
 had stumbled to the truth. 
 
 "Nonsense, child. A man of Dr. Wiseman's age and 
 habits has little thought of taking a wife, much less such 
 a wild one as you. I hope it may all turn out well, 
 though I have my doubts." 
 
 "So have I," said Gipsy ; "and I'm going to keep a 
 bright lookout for breakers ahead. If that yellow old 
 ogre tries to bamboozle poor, dear, simple Guardy, he'll 
 find himself in a worse scrape than when I saved him
 
 2io THR SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 from drowning. I know I was born to be a knight- 
 errant, and protect innocent old men, and astonish the 
 world generally. And now I must run up stairs, and 
 see if I can do anything for poor little Aunt Liz." 
 
 While Gipsy was conversing with Mrs. Gower, a dia- 
 logue of a different nature was going on in the parlor 
 betwixt the squire and the doctor. 
 
 Artfully had Dr. Wiseman's plans been laid, and 
 skillfully were they executed. With his oily, persuasive 
 words, and flattering tongue, he had got the squire com- 
 pletely and irrecoverably in his power, in order that the 
 hand of his ward might be the price of his freedom. 
 
 Dr. Wiseman knew the squire always had a mania 
 for speculating. Taking advantage of this, he entrapped 
 him into investing in some mad scheme, which failed, as 
 the doctor well knew it would, leaving the squire hope- 
 lessly in debt. Of all his creditors he owed the doctor 
 himself the most ; for that obliging man had insisted on 
 lending him large sums of ready money. And now the 
 time of payment was at hand, and where should he ob- 
 tain the money ? 
 
 Squire Erliston was rich that is, the estate of Mount 
 Sunset was in itself a princely fortune ; but this was to 
 descend to his grandson ; and the squire had too much 
 pride to allow it to go to him burdened with debt. Neither 
 could he mortgage any part of it to pay off the debt. 
 He felt that his heir ought not to suffer for his own mad- 
 ness. Besides, he did not wish his grandson to know 
 how egregiously he had allowed himself to be duped by 
 a set of sharpers. Therefore he now sat listening to the 
 doctor, half-stupefied at learning the extent of his losses 
 the amount of debts which he had no means of paying ; 
 while' the doctor condoled with him outwardly, and 
 chuckled inwardly at the success of his plans. 
 
 " Moore, to whom you are indebted to the amount of
 
 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 211 
 
 twenty thousand dollars, even goes so far as to threaten 
 law proceedings if he is not immediately paid," said the 
 doctor, continuing the conversation. 
 
 The squire groaned. 
 
 " I told him it might not be convenient for you to 
 meet so many heavy liabilities at once : but he would 
 not listen to reason said he would give you a week to 
 deliberate, and if at the end of that time the money was 
 not forthcoming, your rascality, as he termed it, should 
 be openly proclaimed to the world, and the law would 
 force you to pay." 
 
 "Oh, Lord !" said the squire, writhing inwardly. 
 
 " His intention, without doubt, is to obtain aclaim on 
 Mount Sunset; and, your other creditors joining him, 
 the whole estate will finally become theirs." 
 
 " Never !" shouted the squire, leaping fiercely to his 
 feet. "I will shoot every villain among them first! 
 Mount Sunset has been in our family for years, and no 
 gang of swindlers shall ever possess it." 
 
 " My dear sir," said the doctor, soothingly, "do not 
 be excited. It is useless, and will only make matters 
 worse. You see you are completely in their power, and 
 there is no possible hope of escape. In spite of all you 
 can do, I fear Mount Sunset will be theirs, and you and 
 your family will be turned out upon the world, compara- 
 tively speaking, beggars." 
 
 The unhappy squire sank back in his chair ; and, cov- 
 ering his face with his hands, writhed and groaned in 
 mental torture. 
 
 " Your only course now," continued the merciless 
 doctor, fixing his snake-like eyes with lurking triumph 
 on his victim, " is to write to your grandson, confess all 
 to him, and bring him home. He is an artist of some 
 note, they say. Most probably, therefore, he will be able
 
 212 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 to support you though it may seem strange to him first 
 to work for his living." 
 
 " Work for his living !" shouted the squire, maddened 
 by the words. "Louis Oranmore work for his living 1 
 No, sir ! he has not sunk so low as that yet. If need be, 
 he has the property of his grandmother Oranmore still 
 remaining." 
 
 " The property of Mrs. Oranmore will not be his un- 
 til her death, which may not be this ten years yet. She 
 is hard and penurious, and would hardly give him a 
 guinea to keep him from starving. Besides, would you, 
 Squire Erliston, live on the bounty of Mrs. Oranmore ?" 
 said the doctor, with a sarcastic sneer. 
 
 " No, sir ; I would die of starvation first !" replied 
 the squire, almost fiercely. "But she, or some one 
 else, might lend me the money to pay off these accursed 
 debts." 
 
 " Not on such security as you would give, Squire 
 Erliston," said the doctor, calmly. " In fact, my dear 
 sir, it is useless to think of escaping your fate. Mount 
 Sunset must be given up to satisfy these men !" 
 
 "Oh, fool! fool! fool! miserable old fool that I 
 was, to allow myself to be so wretchedly duped !" 
 groaned the squire, in bitter anguish and remorse. 
 " Better for me had I never been born, than that such 
 disgrace should be mine in my old age ! And Louis ! 
 poor Louis ! But I will never see him again. If Mount 
 Sunset be taken from me it will break my heart. Every 
 tree and picture about the old place is hallowed by the 
 memory of the past ; and now that I should lose it 
 through my own blind, miserable folly ! Oh ! woe is 
 me !" And, burying his great head in his hands, the un- 
 happy old man actually sobbed outright. 
 
 Now had the hour of Dr. Wiseman's triumph come ; 
 now was the time to make his daring proposal. Awhile
 
 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 213 
 
 he sat gloating over the agonies of his victim ; and then, 
 in slow, deliberate tones, he said : 
 
 " But in all this darkness, Squire Erliston, there still 
 remains one ray of light one solitary hope. What 
 would you do if I were to offer to. cancel what you owe 
 me, to pay off all your other debts, and free you once 
 more ?" 
 
 "Do!" exclaimed the squire, leaping in his excite- 
 ment from the chair. "Do, did you say ? I tell you, Dr. 
 Wiseman, there is nothing under heaven I would not do. 
 But you you only mock me by these words." 
 
 " I do not, Squire Erliston. On one condition your 
 debts shall every one be paid, and Mount Sunset still re- 
 main yours." 
 
 " And that condition ! For Heaven's sake name it !" 
 cried the squire, half maddened by excitement. 
 
 *' Will you agree to it ?" 
 
 " Yes, though you should even ask my life !" 
 
 " That would be of little service to me," said the 
 doctor, with a dry smile. " No ; I ask something much 
 easier." 
 
 " For Heaven's sake name it !" exclaimed the squire, 
 wildly. 
 
 " It is " 
 
 " What ?" 
 
 " The hand of your ward, Gipsy Gower" 
 
 The squire stood like one transfixed with amazement, 
 his eyes ready to shoot from his head with surprise and 
 consternation. And calmly before him sat the doctor, 
 his leathern countenance as expressionless as ever. 
 
 " What did you say ?" said the squire, at length, as 
 though doubting the evidence of his senses. 
 
 " My words were plainly spoken. I will free you 
 from all your debts on condition that you bestow upon
 
 214 THE SPIDER WEAVES HIS WEB. 
 
 me in marriage the hand of your young ward, Gipsy 
 Govver." 
 
 " But Lord bless me ! my dear sir, what in the world 
 even you want with that chit of a child that mad girl of 
 the mountains for a wife ?" exclaimed the squire, still 
 aghast. 
 
 " I want her, let that suffice," said the doctor, with a 
 frown. " Do you agree to this proposal ?" 
 
 " Why, I'm willing enough, but she oh, Dr. Wiseman, 
 the thing is hopeless she'd never consent in this world. 
 She can be as obstinate as a little mule when she likes. 
 ' When a woman won't, she won't, and there's the end 
 on't,' as Solomon says." 
 
 " You must make her." 
 
 " Me ! Why, she doesn't mind me " 
 
 "Squire Erliston," angrily broke in the doctor, 
 "listen to me; either you lose Mount Sunset and are 
 publicly disgraced, or you will compel this girl to marry 
 me. Do you hear ?" 
 
 " There ! there ! don't be hasty ! I'll do what I can. 
 It won't be my fault if she don't. But who'd ever think 
 of you wanting to marry little Gipsy. Well, well, well, 
 ' Wonders will never cease,' as Solomon says." 
 
 "You can explain the matter to her urge her by her 
 gratitude, her love for you, to consent," said the doctor ; 
 "try the sentimental dodge commands in this case will 
 be worse than useless. Enlist the women on your side ; 
 and above all things keep it a profound secret from Ar- 
 chibald Rivers and Louis Oranmore. If none of your 
 arguments move her, I have still another in reserve that 
 I know will clinch the business. Give her no rest, day 
 or night, until she consents ; and if she complains of 
 cruelty, and all that, don't mind her. All girls are silly ; 
 and she, being half-crazy, as she is, it seems to me the 
 greatest favor you can do her is to marry her to a man
 
 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 215 
 
 of sense and experience like myself. Keep in mind what 
 you lose by her refusal, and what you gain by her con- 
 sent. If she will not .marry me, I will add my claims to 
 those of your other creditors, and no earthly power will 
 be able to save you from total ruin," said the doctor, with 
 grim, iron determination. 
 
 "She shall consent! she shall she must!" said the 
 squire, startled by his last threat ; " she shall be your wife, 
 that is settled. I think I can manage her, though it will 
 be a desperate struggle." 
 
 " I shall force myself into her presence as little as 
 possible," said the doctor, calmly ; " she has no particular 
 love for me as yet, and it will not help on my case. 
 Mind, I shall expect you will use all your energies, for 
 our marriage must take place in a month at farthest," 
 said the doctor, as he arose, arid, with a last expressive 
 glance at his victim, withdrew. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 
 
 "I'm o'er young, I'm o'er young 
 
 I'm o'er young to marry yet. 
 I'm o'er young ; 'twould be a sin 
 To take me from my mammy yet." BURNS. 
 
 IPSY, my dear, come here and sit beside me. 
 I have something very important to say to 
 you," said the squire, as, half an hour later, 
 he caught sight of Gipsy, running, singing, 
 down stairs. 
 "Why, Guardy, what's the matter? You look as
 
 216 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 
 
 solemn as a coffin," said Gipsy, coming in and sitting 
 down on a stool at his side. 
 
 " Gipsy, marriage is a solemn subject." 
 
 " Shockingly solemn, Guardy. And who are you 
 thinking of marrying?" 
 
 "I'm thinking of marrying you " 
 
 " Marrying me? Oh, Jerusalem ! Well, if aunty con- 
 sents, I'm willing. La ! won't it be fun ? Just fancy 
 Louis calling me grandmother ! Ha, ha ! 
 
 " Hush, you chatterbox don't interrupt me. As I 
 was saying, I have been thinking of marrying you to 
 some discreet, sensible man. You are too wild and 
 giddy, and you must get married and settle down." 
 
 "Just so, Guardy ; I've been thinking of it myself." 
 
 " Now, there's Doctor Wiseman, for instance. He'd 
 be an excellent husband for you. He's a pleasant gen- 
 tleman, possessing many sound, sterling qualities, learned, 
 and not bad looking " 
 
 " Exactly, Guardy useful as well as ornamental. 
 For instance, he'd do to put in a corn-field to scare away 
 the crows." 
 
 "Don't be impertinent, Miss Gower ! Doctor Wise- 
 man is a serious man, self-balanced and grave " 
 
 "Grave ! I guess so ! He always reminds me of death 
 and his scythe whenever I see him." 
 
 " Silence, and listen to me ! Now what objection 
 could you possibly make to Doctor Wiseman as a hus- 
 band ?" 
 
 "As a husband? Ha, ha, ha! Why, Guardy, you 
 don't mean to say that that yellow-skinned, spindle- 
 shanked, dwarfed old ogre, with one leg in the grave, 
 and the other over the fence, is thinking of marrying 
 do you ?" 
 
 " Hold your tongue, or you'll lose it, you little wretch!
 
 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 217 
 
 Doctor Wiseman is no old ogre, but a dark-complex- 
 ioned " 
 
 " Saffron, saffron, Quardy ! Tell the truth, now, and 
 shame your master. Isn't it saffron ?" 
 
 "I'll brain you if you don't stop ! A man can't get 
 in a word edgeways with you. Dr. Wiseman, minx, has 
 done you the honor to propose for your hand. I have 
 consented, and " 
 
 But the squire broke off suddenly, in a towering rage 
 for Gipsy, after an incredulous stare, burst into a shout 
 of laughter that made the house ring. Pressing her 
 hands to her sides, she laughed until the tears ran down 
 her cheeks ; and, at last, unable to stop, she rolled off her 
 seat on to the floor, and tumbled over and over in a per- 
 fect convulsion. 
 
 " Oh, you little aggravation ! Will you stop?" cried 
 the squire, seizing her by the shoulder, and shaking her 
 until she was breathless. 
 
 " Oh, Guardy, that's too good 1 Marry me ? Oh, I 
 declare, I'll split my sides !" exclaimed Gipsy, going into 
 another fit of laughter, as she essayed in vain to rise. 
 
 " Gipsy Gower ! Cease your folly for a moment, and 
 rise up and listen to me," said the squire, so sternly that 
 Gipsy wiped the tears from her eyes, and pressing her 
 hands to her sides, resumed her seat. 
 
 " Gipsy, I do not wish you to consider me a boaster, 
 but you know I have done a great deal for you, brought 
 you up, educated you, and intended leaving you a for- 
 tune at my death " 
 
 " Thank you, Guardy ; couldn't you let me have part 
 of it now ?" 
 
 " Silence, I tell you ! Gipsy, this is what I intended 
 doing ; but, child, I have become involved in debt. 
 Mount Sunset will be taken from me, and you, and 
 Louis, and the rest of us will he beggars."
 
 218 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 
 
 Up flew Gipsy's eyebrows, open flew her eyes, and 
 down dropped her chin, in unfeigned amazement. 
 
 " Yes," continued the squire, " you may stare, but it's 
 true. And now, Gipsy, since you told me you were not 
 ungrateful now is the time to prove it, by saving me 
 and all your friends from ruin." 
 
 "7 save you from ruin ?" said Gipsy, staring with all 
 her eyes, and wondering if " Guardy " was wandering in 
 his mind. 
 
 " Yes, you. As I told you, I am involved in debt, 
 which it is utterly impossible for me to pay. Now, Doc- 
 tor Wiseman, who has fallen in love with my fairy, has 
 offered to pay my debts if you will marry him. Don't 
 laugh, don't, as I see you are going to do this is no time 
 for laughter, Gipsy." 
 
 " Oh, but Guardy, that's too funny ! The idea of me, 
 a little girl of seventeen, marrying a man of sixty 
 'specially such a man as Spider Wiseman ! Oh, Guardy, 
 it's the best joke of the season !" cried Gipsy, bursting 
 into another immoderate fit of laughter. 
 
 "Ungrateful, hard-hearted girl !" said the squire, 
 with tears actually in his stormy old eyes ; " this is your 
 return for all I have done for you ! You, the only living 
 being who can save those who have been your best 
 friends from being turned out of the old homestead, 
 instead of rejoicing in being able to do it, you only 
 laugh at him in scorn, you " the squire broke down 
 fairly here. 
 
 Never had the elf seen the usually violent old man so 
 moved. A pang shot through her heart for her levity ; 
 and the next moment her arms were round his neck, and 
 her white handkerchief wiping away fhe tears of which 
 he was ashamed. 
 
 " Dear dear Guardy, I'm so sprry ! I never thought 
 you felt so bad about it. I'll do anything in the world
 
 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 219 
 
 to help you ; I'm not ungrateful. What do you want me 
 to do, Guardy ?" 
 
 " To save me, by marrying Doctor Wiseman, my 
 dear." 
 
 " Oh, Guardy, oh, Guardy ! You surely weren't se- 
 rious in proposing that?" exclaimed Gipsy, really aston- 
 ished. 
 
 " Serious ? Alas ! I was never so serious before in 
 my life. You will do this, Gipsy ?" 
 
 " Oh, Guardy ! Marry him ? Heaven forbid !" ex- 
 claimed Gipsy, with a violent shudder. 
 
 "Then you will let us all be turned out from the old 
 roof-tree out into the world to die ; for, Gipsy, if the 
 old place is taken from me, I should break my heart 
 through grief !" 
 
 "Oh, Guardy, it won't be so bad as that ! Surely 
 something can be done ? How much do you owe ?" 
 
 " More than I dare mention. Child, nothing can be 
 done to save us unless you consent to this marriage." 
 
 " Oh ! that is too horrible even to think of. Can you 
 not write to Louis ? I'm sure he could do something to 
 save us." 
 
 " No, he could do nothing ; and he must never know 
 it at all. Even supposing he could, before a letter could 
 reach him we would be publicly disgraced I should be 
 branded as a rogue, and turned out of doors to die. No, 
 Gipsy, unless you consent, before the week is out, to be- 
 come the bride of Doctor Wiseman, all hope will be over. 
 And though afterward, by some hitherto unheard-of 
 miracle, the property should be restored to us, I should 
 not live to see it ; for if you persist in refusing, Gipsy, 
 I will die by my own hand, sooner than live to be brand- 
 ed like a felon. And Lizzie and Mrs. Gower, who love 
 you so well, how do you think they could live, knowing 
 that all had been lost through your ingratitude ! Louis,
 
 220 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 
 
 too, your foster-brother, how will he look on the girl 
 whose obstinacy will make him a beggar ? Consent and 
 all will be well, the gratitude and love of an old man 
 will bless you through life ; refuse, and my death will be 
 on your soul, haunting you through all your cheerless, 
 unblessed life." 
 
 With all the eloquence and passion of intense selfish- 
 ness he spoke, while each word burned into the heart and 
 soul of his listener. She was pacing up and down the 
 floor, half-maddened by his words, while the word in- 
 gratitude seemed dancing in living letters of fire before 
 her. 
 
 " Oh ! what shall I do ? What shall I do ?" she cried, 
 wringing her hands wildly. 
 
 " Let me advise you ; I am older and have had ex- 
 perience, and a claim on your obedience. Marry Doctor 
 Wiseman ; he is, I know, somewhat older than you, but 
 you need a man of age and wisdom. He is rich, and loves 
 you ; and with him, conscious that you have done your 
 duty, you will be blessed by God, and be happy." 
 
 " Happy !" she broke in, scornfully, "and with him ! 
 Happy !" 
 
 "It is the first favor I ever asked of you, Gipsy, and 
 I know you will not refuse. No one must know of it, 
 not one, save Lizzie and Mrs. Gower. You must not 
 breathe it to a living soul, save them." 
 
 " Guardy, there is some guilt or mystery connected 
 with this debt. What is it ?" 
 
 " I cannot tell you now, child ; when you have obeyed 
 me, I will. Come, Doctor Wiseman will be here for 
 your answer to-morrow. Shall I tell him you have con- 
 sented ?" 
 
 "Oh ! no, no ! no, no ! Good heavens !" she cried, 
 shudderingly.
 
 FETTERS FOR THE EAGLET. 221 
 
 " Gipsy ! Gipsy ! consent. I implore you, by all you 
 hold dear on earth, and sacred in heaven, to consent !" 
 he said, with wild vehemence. 
 
 "Oh! I cannot ! I 'cannot! I cannot! Oh, Guardy, 
 do not urge me to this living death," she cried passion- 
 ately. 
 
 " Then you can see me die, child. This, then, is your 
 gratitude !" he said, bitterly. 
 
 " Oh, Guardy, you will not die ! I will work for you 
 yes, I will toil night and day, and work my fingers to 
 the bone, if need be. I can work more than you would 
 think." 
 
 " It would be useless, worse than useless. I should 
 not live to make you work for me. Refuse, if you will, 
 and go through life with the death of a fellow-creature 
 on your soul." 
 
 " Oh ! I wish I had never been born," said Gipsy, 
 wringing her pale fingers in anguish. 
 
 " Consent ! consent ! Gipsy, for my sake ! For the 
 sake of .the old man who loves you !" 
 
 She did not reply ; she was pacing up and down the 
 room like one half-crazed, with wild, excited eyes, and 
 flushed cheeks. 
 
 " You do not speak. 'Silence gives consent,' as Sol- 
 omon says," said the squire, the ruling habit still " strong 
 in death." 
 
 " Let me think ! You must give me time, Guardy ! I 
 will go to my room now, and to-morrow you shall have 
 my answer." 
 
 "Go, then; I know it will be favorable. I dare 
 not think otherwise. To-morrow morning I will 
 know." 
 
 " Yes, to-morrow," said Gipsy, as she left the room 
 and fled wildly up stairs.
 
 222 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 " To-morrow," said the old sinner, looking after her. 
 " And what will that answer be ? ' Who can tell what a 
 day may bring forth ?' as Solomon says." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 "Lay on him the curse of a withered heart, 
 
 The curse of a sleepless eye ; 
 Till he wish and pray that his life would part, 
 Nor yet find leave to die." SCOTT. 
 
 ORNINGcame. The squire sat in the break- 
 fast parlor, impatiently waiting for the com- 
 ing of Gipsy. He waited in vain. The mo- 
 ments flew on ; still she came not. 
 
 Losing patience at last, he caught the bell- 
 rope and rang a furious peal. Five minutes after the 
 black face and woolly head of Totty appeared in the 
 door- way. 
 
 " Totty, where's your young mistress ?" 
 "Here !" answered the voice of Gipsy herself, as she 
 stood, bright and smiling, behind Totty. 
 
 Somehow, that smile alarmed the old man, and he 
 began trembling for the decision he had so anxiously 
 been expecting. 
 
 "Well, come in. Clear out, Totty. Now, 'Gipsy, your 
 decision." 
 
 " Now, Guardy, wait until after breakfast. How is 
 any one to form an opinion on an empty stomach, I'd 
 like to know ? There, don't get into a fidget about it, as 
 I see you're going to do, because it's no use."
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 223 
 
 "But, Gipsy, tell me will it be favorable?" 
 
 "That depends upon circumstances. If I have a good 
 appetite for my breakfast I may probably be in good- 
 humor enough to say -yes to everything you propose ; if 
 not, I tremble for you, Guardy. Visions of blunt pen- 
 knives and bulletless pistols flash in ' awful array' before 
 my mind's eye. Shall I ring the bell for Aunty Gower ?" 
 
 " I suppose so," growled the old man ; " you are as 
 contrary as Balaam's ass." 
 
 " Guardy, look out ! Don't compare me to any of 
 your ancestors." 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Gower entered, followed by 
 Lizzie, now an invalid, wrapped up in numberless shawls, 
 until she resembled a mummy. 
 
 The squire had informed them both, the night before, 
 how matters stood ; and they glanced anxiously at' 
 Gipsy, as they entered, to read, if possible, her decision 
 in her countenance. Nothing could they guess from 
 that little dark, sparkling face, as vivacious and merry 
 as ever. 
 
 When breakfast was over Mrs. Gower and Mrs. 
 Oran more quitted the room, leaving Gipsy alone with 
 the squire. 
 
 "Now, Gipsy, now," he exclaimed, impatiently. 
 
 " Guardy," said Gipsy, earnestly, " all last night I lay 
 awake, trying to find out where my path of duty lay ; 
 and, Guardy, I have come to the conclusion that I can- 
 not add to your sin, if you have committed one, by a 
 still greater crime. I cannot perjure myself, before 
 God's holy altar, even to save you. Guardy, I always 
 loathed and detested this man this Dr. Wiseman ; and 
 now I would sooner die by slow torture than be his wife. 
 Your threat of suicide I know you will not fulfill 'twas 
 but idle words. But even had you been serious, it would 
 be all the same ; for sooner than marry that man I would
 
 224 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 plunge a dagger into my own heart and let out my life's 
 blood. I do not speak hastily, for I have done that 
 which I seldom do thought before I spoke. If we 
 really, as you say, become poor, I am willing to leave 
 my wild, free life, my horses, hounds, and the ' merry 
 greenwood,' to become a toiling kitchen brownie for 
 your sake. Do not interrupt me, Guardy ; nothing you 
 can say can change my purpose. I am not ungrateful, 
 but I cannot commit a crime in the face of high heaven, 
 even for the sake of those I love best. Tell my decision 
 to Dr. Wiseman. And now, Guardy, this subject must 
 be forever dropped between us, for you have heard my 
 ultimatum." 
 
 And without waiting for the words that were ready 
 to burst forth, she arose, bent her graceful little head, 
 and walked out of the room. 
 
 As she went up-stairs, on her way to her own room, 
 she passed Lizzie's chamber. Mrs. Oranmore caught 
 sight of her through the half-opened door, and called 
 her. 
 
 " Gipsy, my love, come in here." 
 
 Gipsy went in. It was a pleasant, cheerful room, 
 with bright pictures on the walls, and rich crimson 
 damask hangings in the window. Lizzie Oranmore, as 
 she lies on her lounge, enveloped in a large, soft shawl, 
 is not much like the Lizzie, the bright little coquette, 
 we once knew. A pale, faded creature she is now, with 
 sallow cheeks, and thin, pinched face. 
 
 " Well, my dear," said Mrs. Oranmore, anxiously, 
 " papa has mentioned this shocking affair to me. What 
 has been your answer to Dr. Wiseman's proposal ?" 
 
 " Oh, aunty, what could it be but no ? You didn't 
 suppose I'd marry that ugly old daddy-long-legs, did 
 you ? Why, aunty, when I get married which I never 
 will if I can help it for I would be ever free it must be
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 225 
 
 to a lord, duke, or a Sir Harry, or something above the 
 common. Just fancy such a little bit of a thing like me 
 being tied for life to a detestable old Bluebeard like 
 Spider. Not I, indeed !" said the elf, as she danced 
 around the room and gayly sang : 
 
 " An old man, an old man, will never do for me, 
 For May and December can never agree." 
 
 "But Gipsy, my dear, do you not know that we are 
 to be turned out, if you refuse?" said Lizzie, in blank 
 dismay. 
 
 " Well, let us be turned out, then. I will be turned 
 out, but I won't marry that old death's-head. I'm young 
 and smart, and able to earn my own living, thank good- 
 ness !" 
 
 "Oh, ungrateful girl, will you see me die? For, 
 Gipsy, if I am deprived now, in my illness, of the com- 
 forts to which I have always been accustomed, I shall 
 die." 
 
 " Oh, no, you won't, aunty. I don't think that things 
 are as bad as Guardy makes them appear ; and, even if 
 they were, Dr. Wiseman, old wretch as he is, would let 
 you remain." 
 
 "No, he would not, child; you don't know the re- 
 vengeful disposition of that man. Oh, Gipsy, by the 
 momory of all we have done for you, I beseech you to 
 consent !" 
 
 " Aunty, aunty, I cannot ; it is too dreadful even to 
 think about. Oh, aunty, I cannot tell you how I loathe, 
 abhor, and detest that hideous old sinner !" 
 
 " Gipsy, that is wrong that is sinful. Dr. Wiseman 
 is a highly respectable gentleman rather old for you, it 
 is true but of what difference is a few years ? He is 
 rich, and loves you well enough to gratify your every 
 wish. What more would you have ?"
 
 226 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 "Happiness, aunty. I should be utterly miserable 
 with him." 
 
 "Nonsense, child, you only think so. It is not as if 
 you were older, and loved somebody else. People often 
 marry those they don't care about, and grow quite fond 
 of them after a time. Now, I shouldn't be surprised if 
 you grew quite fond of Dr. Wiseman by and by." 
 
 . Gipsy laughed her own merry laugh again as she 
 heard Lizzie's words. 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy, you thoughtless creature ! is this your 
 answer to my petition ?" said Lizzie, putting her hand- 
 kerchief to her eyes. " Leave me, then. I will not long 
 survive your ingratitude ; but, mark me, your name will 
 become a by-word, far and near, and descend to posterity 
 branded with the disgrace of your ungrateful conduct. 
 Go leave me ! Why should you stay to witness the 
 misery you have caused ?" 
 
 Poor Gipsy ! how these reproaches stung her. She 
 started to her feet, and began pacing the floor rapidly, 
 crying wildly : 
 
 "Oh, Heaven help me ! I know not what to do ! I 
 wish I were dead, sooner than be branded thus as an in- 
 grate !" 
 
 Lizzie's sobs alone broke the stillness of the room. 
 At last, unable to endure them longer, she rushed out 
 and sought refuge in her own chamber. As she entered 
 she saw Mrs. Gower seated by the window a look of 
 trouble and sadness on her usually happy, good-natured 
 face. 
 
 " Oh ! aunty, what shall I do ? Oh ! aunty, I am going 
 crazy, I think !" cried Gipsy, distressedly, half maddened 
 by the sight of Lizzie's tears. 
 
 " My dear, it is very plain what you must do. You 
 must marry Dr. Wiseman," said Mrs. Gower, gravely. 
 
 " Oh ! aunty, have you turned against me, too ? Then
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 227 
 
 I have no friend in the wide world ! Oh ! I wish I wish 
 I had never been born !" 
 
 " My love, don't talk in that way ; it is not only very 
 foolish, but very sinf,ul. Dr. Wiseman is certainly not 
 the man I would wish to see you married to ; but, you 
 perceive, there is no alternative. Gipsy, I am getting 
 old, so is the squire ; Mrs. Oranmore is ill, and I do not 
 think she will live long. Will you, therefore, allow the 
 old man and woman who love you above all human 
 beings and a poor, weak invalid, to be turned upon the 
 charity of the cold world to die ? Gipsy, you know if 
 we could save you from misery, we would coin our very 
 hearts' blood to do it." 
 
 " And, oh, aunt ! could there be greater misery for 
 me than that to which you are urging me?" 
 
 " You talk like the thoughtless girl you are, Gipsy. 
 How often, for wealth or social position merely, or to 
 raise their friends from want, do young girls marry old 
 men ! Yet, you refuse to save us from worse than want, 
 from disgrace and death yes, death! I know what I am 
 saying, Gipsy you obstinately refuse. Gipsy, my child, 
 for my sake do not become such a monster of ingrati- 
 tude, but consent." 
 
 "Oh, aunty! leave me. I feel as if I were going 
 mad ! Every one in the world seems to have turned 
 against me even you! Oh, aunty, dear, good aunty! 
 don't talk to me any more ; my very brain seems on 
 fire." 
 
 " Yes ; your cheeks are burning, and your eyes are 
 like fire you are ill and feverish, my poor little fairy. 
 Lie down, and let me bathe your head." 
 
 "No, no, aunty, don't mind. Oh! what matter is it 
 whether I am ill or not? If it wasn't for you, and 
 Guardy, and all the rest, I feel as if I should like to lie 
 down and die !"
 
 228 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 " My own little darling, you must not talk of dying ; 
 every one has trouble in this world, and you cannot ex- 
 pect to escape !" 
 
 " Yes ; I know, I know ! Hitherto, life has been to 
 me a fairy dream ; and now this terrible awakening to 
 reality ! Life seemed to me one long, golden summer 
 day ; and now and now " 
 
 " You are excited, love ; lie down, and try to sleep 
 you talk too much." 
 
 " Yes, I know ; I always did talk too much ; but I do 
 not think I will ever talk much again. Oh, aunty ! I 
 have heard of the heart-ache, but I never knew what it 
 was before !" 
 
 "My love, you must not feel this so deeply. How 
 wild your eyes are ! and your hands are burning hot ! 
 Do lie down, and try to rest." 
 
 " Rest ! rest ! Shall I ever find- rest again ?" 
 
 " Of course you will, my dear. Now what shall I 
 tell the squire is your decision about this ? I promised 
 him to talk to you about it." 
 
 " Oh, aunty, don't don't! Leave me alone, and let 
 me think I cannot talk to you now !" 
 
 " Shall I bring you up ice for your head, my dear ?" 
 
 " No, no ; you have already brought ice for my heart, 
 aunty that is enough." 
 
 " You talk wildly, love ; I am afraid your mind is 
 disordered." 
 
 " Don't mind my talk, dear aunty, I always was a 
 crazy, elfish changeling, without a heart, you know. 
 Nobody minds what I say. Only leave me now ; I will 
 be better by and by." 
 
 With a sigh Mrs. Gower left the room. It was 
 strange that, loving her poor little fay as she did, she 
 should urge her to this wretched marriage ; but the 
 squire had talked and persuaded her until he brought her
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 229 
 
 to see the matter with his eyes. And poor Gipsy was 
 left alone to pace up and down the room like one de- 
 ranged, wringing her hands, while her cheeks and eyes 
 burned with the fire of fever. 
 
 " Oh, if Archie would only come !" was the wild cry 
 of her aching heart, as she walked restlessly to and fro. 
 
 But Archie was away ; she knew not even his present 
 address, and she was left to battle against the dark decree 
 of fate alone. 
 
 " I will seek Dr. Wiseman ; I will beg, I will implore 
 him to spare me, and those who would have me make 
 this fatal sacrifice. Surely his heart is not made of 
 stone ; he cannot resist my prayers !" 
 
 So, waiting in her room until she saw him ride up to 
 the Hall, she descended the stairs and entered the parlor, 
 where he and the squire sat in close conversation to- 
 gether, and formally desired the honor of a private inter- 
 view. 
 
 He arose, and, bowing, followed her into the draw- 
 ing-room. Motioning him to a seat she stood before 
 him, her little form drawn up to its full height, her de- 
 fiant, dark eyes fixed on his repulsive face with undis- 
 guised loathing. 
 
 " Dr. Wiseman," she began, " I have heard of this 
 proposal which you have honored me by making. Be- 
 lieve me, I fully appreciate the honor you have done 
 me" and her beautiful lip curled scornfully "even 
 while I must decline it. A silly little girl like me is un- 
 worthy to be raised to the dignity of the wife of so dis- 
 tinguished a gentleman as Dr. Wiseman !" 
 
 The doctor acknowledged the compliment by a grave 
 bow, while Gipsy continued : 
 
 " ^7 guardian has informed me that, unless I consent 
 to this union, he will lose Mount Sunset, be reduced to 
 poverty, and, consequently, die, he says. You, it seems,
 
 230 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 will prevent this, if I marry you. Now, Dr. Wiseman, 
 knowing this marriage is not agreeable to me, I feel that 
 you will withdraw your claim to my hand, and still pre- 
 vent Guardy from being reduced to poverty !" 
 
 " Miss Govver, I regret to say I cannot do so. Unless 
 you become my wife, I shall be obliged to let the law 
 take its course ; and all that Squire Erliston has told 
 you will prove true." 
 
 " Dr. Wiseman, you will not be so cruel ? I beg I 
 implore you to prevent this catastrophe !" 
 
 "I will, with pleasure, Miss Gower, if you will be 
 my wife." 
 
 "That I can never be, Dr. Wiseman ! I would not, to 
 save my head from the block, consent to such a thing ! 
 What in the name of heaven can make a man of your 
 age wish to marry a silly little thing like me ?" 
 
 " Love, my pretty mountain sprite," replied the doc- 
 tor, with a grim smile " love ! Years do not freeze the 
 blood, nor still the heart of man !" 
 
 " Then, sir, if you love me, renounce all claim upon 
 my hand, and save my guardian from impending ruin !" 
 
 " That I can never do !" 
 
 " Be it so, then, Dr. Wiseman. To you I will plead 
 no more. Let us be turned out ; I would die a death of 
 lingering starvation sooner than wed with a cold-blooded 
 monster like you !" exclaimed Gipsy, her old fiery spirit 
 flashing from her eyes and radiating her face. 
 
 "And will you see those you love die, too ?" 
 
 " Yes, even so ; sooner than realize the living tomb 
 of a marriage with you !" 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha ! All very fine and affectionate, my 
 dear ; yet, marry me you shall /" 
 
 " Marry you ? Not if I die for it !" flashed Gipsy, 
 with blazing eyes. 
 
 " That we shall see presently. I think I have an argu-
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 23! 
 
 ment in reserve that will bend your high spirit. You 
 love Archie Rivers?" 
 
 " That is no business of yours, Dr. Wiseman 1" 
 
 " No ; no farther than that I am glad of it. Now, 
 Gipsy Gower, I swear by all the heavens contain, unless 
 you marry me, he shall die on the scaffold!" 
 
 " What?" gasped Gipsy, appalled by his low, fearful 
 tone, even more than by his words. 
 
 " I say there is but one alternative ; marry me, or see 
 him die on the scaffold !" 
 
 "Ha! ha! that's excellent. A re you going to hang 
 him, Dr. Wiseman?" mocked Gipsy. 
 
 " Laugh, girl ; but beware ! It is in my power to 
 bring his head to the halter !" 
 
 " Where, if everybody had their dues, yours would 
 have been long ago." 
 
 "Take care, madam ; don't carry your taunts too far 
 even my forbearance has its limits !" 
 
 " That's more than can be said of your manners !" 
 
 The doctor's sallow visage blanched with anger ; but, 
 subduing his wrath, he said : 
 
 '* I can accuse him of the murder of young Henry 
 Danvers, who was so mysteriously killed. There is cir- 
 cumstantial evidence against him strong enough to con- 
 vict him in any court of justice in the world !" 
 
 " Archie kill Danvers ? Why, you horrid old monster, 
 you! Ain't you afraid of the fate of Ananias and his 
 better half, who never told half such a lie in their lives ?" 
 
 " Lie or not, girl, it can be proved that he killed him. 
 Listen, now,," said the doctor, while his repulsive face 
 lighted up with a look of fiendish exultation. "Archi- 
 bald Rivers loved you that was plain to every one. 
 This Danvers came along and fell in love with you, too 
 that, likewise, can be duly proved. Your preference 
 for the young sailor was observable from the first. Riv-
 
 232 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 ers was jealous, and I know many who can prove he of- 
 ten uttered threats of future vengeance against the mid- 
 shipman. On the night of the murder, Archie was ob- 
 served riding from here, in a violent rage. Half an hour 
 afterward the sailor went for a ride over the hills. I can 
 swear that Archie Rivers followed him. I know he was 
 not at home until late. Most probably, therefore, he 
 followed Danvers, and murdered him treacherously. 
 Jealousy will make a man do almost anything. In a 
 court of justice, many more things than this can be 
 proved ; and if he dies on the scaffold, his blood will be 
 upon your head." 
 
 Gipsy stood listening to his terrible words with 
 blanched face, livid lips, and horror-stricken eyes. For a 
 moment he thought she would faint. The very power of 
 life seemed stricken from her heart ; but, by a powerful 
 effort, she aroused herself from the deadly faintness 
 creeping over her, and exclaimed, in a voice low with 
 unspeakable horror : 
 
 " Fiend demon incarnate ! would you perjure your 
 own soul ! Would you become the murderer of your 
 own nephew ?" 
 
 " Murderer, forsooth ! Is that what you call legal 
 justice ?" 
 
 " It would not be legal justice ! Doctor Wiseman, 
 I tell you, if you say Archie Rivers killed Danvers, 
 you lie ! Yes, meanest of vile wretches, I tell you, you 
 lie!" 
 
 He leaped to his feet, glaring with rage, as though 
 he would spring upon her, and rend her limb from limb. 
 Before him she stood, her little form drawn up to its 
 full height, defiant and daring her dark face glaring 
 with scorn and hatred. For a moment they stood thus 
 he quivering with impotent rage she, proud, defying,
 
 THE BIRD CAGED. 233 
 
 and fearless. Then, sinking into his seat, he said, with 
 stern^calmness : 
 
 " No I will restrain myself; but, daring girl, listen 
 to me. As sure as yonder heaven is above us, if you 
 refuse, so surely shall Squire Erliston and all belong- 
 ing to him be turned from their home to die, if they 
 will ; and Archibald Rivers shall perish by the hand of 
 the hangman, scorned and hated by all, and knowing 
 that you, for whom he would have given his life, have 
 brought him to the scaffold. Gipsy Gower, his blood 
 will cry for vengeance from the earth against you !" 
 
 He ceased. There was a wild, thrilling, intense sol- 
 emnity in his tone, that made the blood curdle. One 
 look at his fiendish face would have made you think 
 Satan himself was before you. 
 
 And Gipsy ! She had dropped, as if suddenly stricken 
 by an unseen hand, to the floor ; her face changed to the 
 ghastly hue of death, the light dying out in her eyes : 
 her very life seemed passing away from the blue, quiver- 
 ing lips, from which no sound came ; a thousand ages 
 of suffering seemed concentrated in that one single mo- 
 ment of intense anguish. 
 
 But no spark of pity entered the heart that exulted 
 in her agony. No ; a demoniacal joy flashed from his 
 snake-like eyes as he beheld that free, wild, untamed 
 spirit broken at last, and lying in anguish at his feet. 
 
 "This struggle is the last. Now she will yield," was 
 his thought, as he watched her. 
 
 " Gipsy !" he called. 
 
 She writhed at the sound of his voice. 
 
 " Gipsy !" he called again. 
 
 This time she looked up, lifting a face so like that of 
 death that he started back involuntarily. 
 
 " What ?" she asked, in a low, hollow voice of de- 
 spair.
 
 234 THE BIRD CAGED. 
 
 " Do you consent ?" 
 
 She arose, and walked over until she stood before 
 him. Appalled by her look, he arose in alarm and drew 
 back. 
 
 " Consent !" she repeated, fixing her wild eyes on his 
 frightened face ; "yes, I consent to the living death of a 
 marriage with you. And, Dr. Wiseman, may my curse 
 and the curse of Heaven cling to you like a garment of 
 fire, now and forevermore, burning your miserable soul 
 like a flame in this life, and consigning you to everlast- 
 ing perdition in the next ! May every torture and suf- 
 fering that man can know follow the wronged orphan's 
 curse ! In this life I will be your deadliest enemy, and 
 in the next I will bear witness against you at the throne 
 of God ! To your very grave, and beyond, my undying 
 hatred and revenge for the wrong you have done me 
 shall be yours ; and now I wish you joy of your bride !" 
 
 She passed from the room like a spirit ; and Dr. 
 Wiseman, terrified and appalled, sank into a chair, with 
 the vision of that death-like face, with its blazing eyes 
 and wild, maniac words and wilder stare, haunting him 
 until he shuddered with superstitious terror. 
 
 " What a wife I will have !" he muttered ; " a perfect 
 little fiend. Mount Sunset will be dearly enough pur- 
 chased with that young tempest for its mistress. The 
 fiery spirit of the old Oranmores runs in her veins 
 that's certain. And now, as there is nothing like strik- 
 ing the iron while it's hot, I'll go and report my success 
 to that old dotard, the squire, and have the wedding-day 
 fixed as soon as possible."
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 235 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 
 
 " She looked to the river looked to the hill 
 
 And thought on the spirit's prophecy; 
 Then broke the silence stern and still : 
 
 'Not you, but Fate, has vanquished me.'" 
 
 LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. 
 
 jELESTE, Celeste! do not leave me. Oh! 
 all the world has left me, and will you 
 go, too ? This heart this restless, beating 
 heart will it never stop aching? Oh, Ce- 
 leste ! once I thought I had no heart ; but 
 by this dull, aching pain where it should be, I know 
 J must have had one some time. Stay with me, Ce- 
 leste. You are the only one in the world left for me 
 to love now." 
 
 Gipsy small, fair and fragile, with her little wan 
 face and unnaturally lustrous eyes lay moaning rest- 
 lessly on her low couch, like some tempest-tossed soul 
 quivering between life and death. Like an angel of 
 light, by her side knelt Celeste, with her fair, pitying 
 face and her soft blue eyes, from which the tears fell 
 on the small brown fingers that tightly clasped hers. 
 
 " Dear Gipsy, I will not leave you ; but you know 
 you must get up and dress soon." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; but not yet. It is so nice to lie here, and 
 have you beside me. I am so tired, Celeste I have 
 never rested since I made that promise. It seems as if 
 ever since I had been walking and walking on through 
 the dark, unable to stop, with such an aching here." 
 And she pressed her hand to the poor quivering heart
 
 236 MAY AND DECEMBER. 
 
 that was fluttering to escape from the heavy chain fate 
 was drawing tighter and tighter around it. 
 
 " What can I do for you, Gipsy ?" said Celeste, stoop- 
 ing and kissing her pale lips, while two pitying drops 
 fell from her eyes on the poor little face below her. 
 
 " Don't cry for me, Celeste. I never wept for myself 
 yet. Sing for me, dear friend, the ' Evening Hymn ' we 
 used to sing at the Sisters' school, long ago." 
 
 Forcing back her tears, Celeste sang, in a voice low 
 and sweet as liquid music : 
 
 "Ave sanctissima 1 
 
 We lift our souls to thee 
 Ora pro nobis, 
 
 Bright star of the sea ! 
 Watch us while shadows lie 
 
 Far o'er the waters spread ; 
 Hear the heart's lonely sigh 
 
 Thine, too, hath bled !" 
 
 Gipsy listened, with her eyes closed, an expression 
 of peace and rest falling on her dark, restless face, until 
 Celeste ceased. 
 
 " h, Celeste, I always feel so much better and hap- 
 pier when you are with me not half so much of a heart- 
 less imp as at other times," said Gipsy, opening her 
 eyes. " I wish I could go and live with you and Miss 
 Hagar at Valley Cottage, or enter a convent, or any- 
 where, to be at peace. While you sang I almost fancied 
 myself back again at school, listening to those dear, 
 kind sisters singing that beautiful ' Evening Hymn.' " 
 
 She paused, and murmured, dreamily: 
 
 "Watch us while shadows lie 
 Far o'er the waters spread ; 
 Hear the heart's lonely sigh 
 Thine, too, hath bled 1" 
 
 " Dear Gipsy, do not be so sad. Our Heavenly 
 Father, perhaps, has but sent you this trial to purify your
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 237 
 
 heart and make it His own. In the time of youth and 
 happiness we are apt ungratefully to forget the Author 
 of all good gifts, and yield the heart that should be 
 His to idols of clay. But in the days of sorrow and 
 suffering we stretch out our arms to Him ; and He, for- 
 getting the past, takes us to his bosom. And, dearest 
 Gipsy, shall we shrink from treading through trials and 
 sufferings in the steps of the sinless Son of God, to 
 that home of rest and peace that He died to gain for 
 us ?" 
 
 Her beautiful face was transfigured, her eyes radiant, 
 her lips glowing with the fervor of the deep devotion 
 with which she spoke. 
 
 "I cannot feel as you do, Celeste, said Gipsy, turning 
 restlessly. " I feel like one without a light, groping my 
 way in the dark like one who is blind, hastening to my 
 own doom. I cannot look up ; I can see into the dark 
 grave, but no farther." 
 
 " Light will come yet, dear friend. Every cloud has 
 its silver lining." 
 
 " Never for me. But, hark ! What is that ?" 
 
 Celeste arose, and went to the window. " 
 
 " It is the carriages bringing more people. The par- 
 lors below are full. You must rise, and dress for your 
 bridal, Gipsy." 
 
 " Would to heaven it were for my burial ! I am so 
 tired, Celeste. Must I get up ?" 
 
 " Yes, dear Gipsy ; they are waiting for you. I will 
 dress you myself," said Celeste, as Gipsy, pale, wan, and 
 spirituelle, arose from her couch, her little, slight figure 
 smaller and slighter than ever. 
 
 Rapidly moved the nimble fingers of Celeste. The 
 dancing dark locks fell in short, shining curls around 
 the superb little head, making the pale face of the bride 
 look paler still by contrast. Then Celeste went into her
 
 238 MAY AND DECEMBER. 
 
 wardrobe and brought forth the jewels, the white vail, 
 the orange blossoms, and the rich robes of white bro- 
 cade, frosted with seed pearls, and laid them on the bed. 
 
 " What is that white dress for ?" demanded Gipsy, 
 abruptly, looking up from a reverie into which she had 
 fallen. 
 
 " For you to wear, of course," replied Celeste, as- 
 tonished at the question. 
 
 "A white dress for me! Ha! ha! ha!" she said, 
 with a wild laugh. " True, I forgot when the ancients 
 were about to sacrifice a victim, they robed her in white 
 and crowned her with flowers. But I will differ from all 
 other victims, and wear a more suitable color. This 
 shall be my wedding-dress," said Gipsy, leaving the 
 room, and returning with a dress of black lace. 
 
 Celeste shrank back from its ominous hue with some- 
 thing like a shudder. 
 
 " Oh, not in black ! Oh, Gipsy ! any other color but 
 black for your wedding. Think how you will shock 
 every one," said Celeste, imploringly. 
 
 11 Shock them ! Why, Celeste, I've shocked them so 
 continually ever since I was a year old, that when I cease 
 to shock them they won't know Gipsy Gower. And that 
 reminds me that after to-day I will be 'Mad Gipsy 
 Gower ' no longer, but Mrs. Doctor Nicholas Wiseman. 
 Ha ! ha ! ha ! Wiseman ! how appropriate the name 
 will be ! Oh ! wont I lead him a life won't I make him 
 wish he had never been born won't I teach him what it 
 is to drive a girl to desperation ? He thinks because I 
 am a little thing he can hold me up with one hand and, 
 by the way, Celeste, his hands always remind me of a 
 lobster's claw stuck into a pump-handle that he can do 
 what he pleases with me. We'll see ! Hook my dress, 
 Celeste. It's a pity to keep my Adonis waiting, and dis-
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 239 
 
 appoint all these good people who have come to see the 
 fun." 
 
 " Dear Gipsy, do not look and talk so wildly. And 
 pray, take off that black dress, and wear any other color 
 you wish. People will talk so, you know." 
 
 " Let 'em talk then, my dear. They'll only say it's one 
 of Gipsy's whims. Besides, it will shock Spider, which is 
 just what I want. He'll get a few more shocks before I 
 have done with him, I rather think. Hook my dress, 
 Celeste." 
 
 With a sigh at the elf's perversity, Celeste obeyed ; 
 and with a sad face, watched the eccentric little bride 
 shake out the folds of her black robe, and fasten a dark 
 crimson belt around her waist. 
 
 " Now, if I had a few poppies or marigolds to fasten 
 in my hair, I'd look bewitching ; as I haven't, these must 
 do." And with a high, ringing laugh, she twined a dark, 
 purplish passion-flower amid her shining curls. " Now 
 for my rouge. I must look blooming, you know happy 
 brides always should. Then it will save me the trouble 
 of blushing, which is something I never was guilty of in 
 my life. No, never mind those pearls, Celeste ; I fear 
 Dr. Wiseman might find them brighter than my eye, 
 which would not do by ' no manner of means.' There ! 
 I'm ready. Who ever saw so bewildering a bride ?" 
 
 She turned from the mirror, and stood before Celeste, 
 her eyes shining like stars, streaming with an unnatur- 
 ally blazing light, the pallor of her face hidden by the 
 rouge, the dark passion-flower drooping amid her curls, 
 fit emblem of herself. There was an airy, floating light- 
 ness about her, as if she scarcely felt the ground she 
 walked on a fire and wildness in her large, dark eyes 
 that made Celeste's heart ache for her. Very beautiful 
 she looked, with her dark, oriental face, shaded by its 
 sable locks, the rich, dark dress falling with classic ele-
 
 2 4 o MAY AND DECEMBER. 
 
 gance from her round, little waist. She looked, as she 
 stood, bright, mocking, defiant, scornful more like some 
 fairy changeling some fay of the moonlight than a 
 living creature, with a woman's heart. And yet, under 
 that daring, bright exterior, a wild, anguished heart lay 
 crushed and quivering, shedding tears of blood, that 
 leaped to the eyes to be changed to sparks of fire. 
 
 " Let us go down," said Celeste, with a sigh. 
 
 " Yes, let us go. Do you know, Celeste, I read once 
 of a man whom the Indians were going to burn to death 
 at the stake, and who began cursing them when they led 
 him there for making him wait so long. Now I feel just 
 like that man; since I am to be doomed to the stake why, 
 the sooner the torture is over the better." 
 
 She looked so beautiful, so bewitching, yet so mock- 
 ing and unreal, so like a spirit of air, as she spoke, that, 
 almost expecting to see her vanish from her sight, Celeste 
 caught her in her arms, and gazed upon her with pity- 
 ing, yearning, love-lit eyes, from which the tears were 
 fast falling. 
 
 " Don't cry for me, Celeste ; you make me feel more 
 like an imp than ever. I really think I must be a family 
 relation of the goblin page we read about in the ' Lay of 
 the Last Minstrel,' for I feel like doing as he did, throw- 
 ing up my arms, and crying, ' Lost !' I'm sure that gob- 
 lin page would have made his fortune in a circus, since 
 his ordinary mode of walking consisted of leaps of fifty 
 feet high or so. Crying still, Celeste ! Why, I thought 
 I'd make you laugh. Now, Celeste, if you don't dry your 
 eyes, I'll go right up to where Aunty Gower keeps 
 prussic acid for the rats, and commit suicide right off the 
 reel. I've felt like doing it all the time lately, but never 
 so much so as when I see you crying for me. Why, 
 Celeste, I never was worth one tear from those blue eyes, 
 body and bones. What's the use of anybody's grieving
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 241 
 
 for a little, mad, hare-brained thing like me? /'// do 
 well enough ; I'll be perfectly happy see if I don't ! It 
 will be such glorious fun, you know, driving Spider 
 mad ! And, oh, wont I dose him ! Tra ! la, la, la, la, 
 la !" and Gipsy waltzed airily around the room. 
 
 At this moment there came a knock at the door. 
 Celeste opened it, and Mrs. Gower, in the well-preserved 
 silk and lace cap she had worn years before to Lizzie 
 Oranmore's wedding, stood in the doorway. 
 
 " Oh, Celeste ! why don't you hurry ? Where is 
 Gipsy ? Oh, good gracious, child ! not dressed yet ? 
 What on earth have you been doing? The people have 
 been waiting these two hours, almost, in the parlors ! 
 Do hurry, for mercy sake, and dress !" 
 
 " Why, aunty, I am dressed. Don't you see I am all 
 ready to become Mrs. Wiseman ?" 
 
 " But my dear child, that black dress " 
 
 " This black dress will do very well suits my com- 
 plexion best, which is rather of the mulatto order than 
 otherwise ; and it's a pity if a blessed bride can't wear 
 what she likes without such a fuss being made about it. 
 Now, aunty, don't begin to lecture it'll only be a waste 
 of powder and a loss of time ; and I'm impatient to ar- 
 rive at the place of execution." 
 
 Mrs. Gower sank horrified into a chair, and gazed 
 with a look of despair into the mocking, defiant eyes of 
 the elfin bride. 
 
 "Oh, Gipsy! what ever will the people say ? In a 
 black dress ! Good heavens ! Why, you'll look more like 
 the chief mourner at a funeral than a bride ! And what 
 will Dr. Wiseman say ?" 
 
 " Oh, don't, aunty ! I hope he'll get into a passion, 
 and blow me and everybody else up when he sees it !" 
 cried Gipsy, clapping her hands with delight at the idea. 
 
 "Oh, dear ! oh, dear ! did any one ever know such a
 
 242 MAY AND DECEMBER. 
 
 strange girl ? Just to think of throwing aside that 
 beautiful dress that your guardian paid a small fortune 
 for, for that common black lace thing, the worst dress 
 you have !" 
 
 "Aunty see here! you may have this 'beautiful 
 dress ' when you get married. You're young, and good- 
 looking, and substantial, too, and I shouldn't wonder if 
 you had a proposal one of these days. With a little 
 letting down in the skirt, and a little letting out in the 
 waist " 
 
 " Gipsy, hush ! How can you go on with such non- 
 sense at such a time ? Miss Pearl, can you not induce 
 her to take off that horrid black dress ?" 
 
 " I think you had better let her wear it, madam. Miss 
 Gower will not be persuaded." 
 
 ."Well, since it must be so, then come. Luckily, 
 everybody knows what an odd, flighty thing Gipsy is, 
 and therefore will not be so much surprised." 
 
 " I should think the world would not be surprised at 
 anything I would do since I have consented to marry 
 that hideous orang-outang, that mockery of man, that 
 death's-head, that 'thing of legs and arms,' that " 
 
 " Hush ! hush ! you little termagant ! What a way 
 to speak of the man you are going to promise to ' love, 
 honor, and obey,'" said the profoundly shocked Mrs. 
 Gower. 
 
 " Love, honor, and obey ! Ha, ha, ha ! Oh, won't I 
 though, with a vengeance ! Won't I be a pattern wife ! 
 You'll see !" 
 
 " What do you mean, child?" 
 
 " Nothing, aunty," said Gipsy, with a strange smile, 
 " merely making a meditation. Here we are at the stake 
 at last, and there I perceive Reverend Mr. Goodenough 
 ready to act the part of executioner ; and there, too, is 
 Dr. Wiseman, the victim who, as he will by and by find
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 243 
 
 out, is going to prove himself most decidedly a silly man 
 to-day. Now, Gipsy Govver, you are going to create a 
 sensation, my dear, though you are pretty well accus- 
 tomed to that sort of thing." 
 
 They had reached the hall by this time, where Dr. 
 Wiseman, Squire Erliston, and a number of others stood. 
 All stared aghast at the sable robes of Gipsy. 
 
 "Oh? how is it? Why, what is the meaning of 
 this ?" demanded the squire, in a rage. 
 
 " Meaning of what, Guardy ?" 
 
 " What do you mean, miss, by wearing that black 
 frock ?" 
 
 " And what business is it of yours, sir ?" 
 
 " You impudent minx ! Go right up stairs and take 
 it off." 
 
 " I won't do anything of the kind ! There now ! 
 Anybody that doesn't like me in this can let me alone," 
 retorted Gipsy. 
 
 A fierce imprecation was on the lips of the squire, 
 but Dr. Wiseman laid his hand on his arm, and said, in 
 his oiliest tones : 
 
 " Never mind her, my dear sir ; let her consult her 
 own taste. I am as willing my bride should wear black 
 as anything else ; she looks bewitching in anything. 
 Come, fairest lady." 
 
 He attempted to draw her arm within his, but she 
 sprang back, and transfixing him with a flashing glance, 
 she hissed : 
 
 " No ; withered be my arm if it ever rests in yours ! 
 Stand aside, Dr. Wiseman ; there is pollution in the very 
 touch of your hand." 
 
 " You capricious little fairy, why do you hate me 
 so?" 
 
 " Hate ! Don't flatter yourself I hate you, Dr. Wise-
 
 244 MAY AND DECEMBER. 
 
 man I despise you too much for that," she replied, her 
 beautiful lip curling scornfully. 
 
 "Exasperating little dare-devil that you are !" he ex- 
 claimed, growing white with impotent rage, " take care 
 that I do not make you repent this." 
 
 " You hideous old fright ! do you dare to threaten 
 now ?" 
 
 " Yes, and dare to perform, too, if you do not beware. 
 Keep a guard on your tongue, my lady, or you know who 
 will suffer for it." 
 
 The fierce retort that hovered on the lip of Gipsy was 
 checked by their entrance into the drawing-room. Such 
 a crowd as was there, drawn together for miles around 
 by the news of this singular marriage. All shrank back 
 and looked at one another, as their eyes fell on the omi- 
 nous garments of the bride, as she walked in, proudly 
 erect, beside her grim bridegroom. 
 
 "Beauty and the Beast!" "Vulcan and Venus !" 
 "May and December!" were the whispers that went 
 round the room as they appeared. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Goodenough approached, and the bridal 
 party stood before him the doctor glancing uneasily at 
 his little bride, who stood with her flashing eyes riveted 
 to the floor, her lips firmly compressed, proud, erect and 
 haughty. 
 
 The marriage ceremony commenced, and Mr. Good- 
 enough, turning to the doctor, put the usual question : 
 
 " Nicholas Wiseman, wilt thou have Aurora Go wer, 
 here present, to be thy wedded wife, to have and to hold, 
 for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness 
 and health, until death doth you part ?" 
 
 " Yes," was the reply, loud, clear, and distinct. 
 
 Turning to the bride the clergyman demanded ; 
 
 "Aurora Govver, wilt thou have Nicholas Wiseman,
 
 MAY AND DECEMBER. 245 
 
 here present, to be thy lawful husband, to have, and to 
 hold ?" etc. 
 
 A loud, fierce, passionate " No!" burst from the lips 
 of the bride. Dr. Wiseman saw her intention, and was 
 immediately seized with a violent fit of coughing, in 
 which her reply was drowned. 
 
 The mockery of a marriage was over, and Nicholas 
 Wiseman and Aurora Gower were solemnly pro- 
 nounced " man and wife." 
 
 A mocking smile curled the lips of the bride at the 
 words, and she turned to receive the congratulations 
 of her many friends, to bear all the hand-shaking, and 
 hear herself addressed as " Mrs. Wiseman." 
 
 " Now, beautiful fairy, you are my own at last. 
 You see fate had decreed it," said the doctor, with a 
 grim smile. 
 
 "And bitterly shall you repent that decree. Do you 
 know what I was doing when I stood up before the 
 clergyman with you ?" 
 
 " No, sweet wife." 
 
 "Well, then, listen. I was vowing and consecrating 
 my whole life to one purpose one aim ; and that is 
 deadly vengeance against you for what you have done. 
 Night and day, sleeping or waking, it shall always oc- 
 cupy my thoughts, and I will live now only for re- 
 venge. Ha ! I see I can make your saffron visage 
 blanch already, Dr. Wiseman. Oh ! you'll find what a 
 happy thing it is to be married. Since I must go down, 
 I shall drag down with me all who have had part or 
 share in this, my misery. You, viper, ghoul that you 
 aie, have turned my very nature into that of a fiend. 
 Dr. Wiseman, if I thought, by any monstrous possibil- 
 ity, you could ever go to heaven, I would take a dagger 
 and send my own soul to perdition, sooner than go there 
 with you."
 
 246 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 
 
 There was something in her words, her tone, her face, 
 perfectly appalling. Her countenance was deadly white, 
 save where the rouge colored it, and her eyes. Oh ! 
 never were such wild, burning, gleaming eyes seen in 
 any face before. He cowered from her like the soul- 
 struck coward that he was ; and, as with one glance of 
 deadly concentrated hate she glided from his side and 
 mingled with the crowd, he wiped the cold perspiration 
 off his brow, and realized how true were the words oft 
 quoted : 
 
 " Hell has no fury like a woman scorned," 
 
 and began to fear that, after all, Mount Sunset was 
 purchased at a dear price. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 
 
 " Be it so ! we part forever 
 
 Let the past as nothing be ; 
 Had I only loved thee, never 
 
 Hadst thou been thus dear to me. 
 
 " More than woman thou wast to me 
 
 Not as man I looked on thee ; 
 Why, like woman, then, undo me? 
 
 Why heap man's worst curse on me ?" BYRON. 
 
 T was the evening of Gipsy's wedding-day 
 a wet, chilly, disagreeable evening, giving 
 promise of a stormy, tempestuous night fit 
 
 weather for such a bridal ! 
 
 Lights were already gleaming in the cot- 
 tages of the villagers, and the large parlor of the "Inn
 
 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 247 
 
 of St. Mark's" was crowded every one discussing the 
 surprising wedding up at the Hall, and wondering what 
 Miss Gipsy would do next when, as James says, " a 
 solitary horseman might have been seen," riding at a 
 break-neck pace toward Deep Dale. The house looked 
 dreary, dark, and dismal unlighted save by the glare 
 from one window. Unheeding this, the "solitary horse- 
 man " alighted, and giving his horse to the care of the 
 servant, ran up the stairs and unceremoniously burst 
 into the parlor, where Minnette Wiseman sat reading- 
 alone. All her father's entreaties and commands to be 
 present at his wedding were unheeded. She had heard 
 the news of his approaching marriage with the utmost 
 coolness a stare of surprise from her bright black eyes 
 being the only outward emotion it caused. 
 
 " Why should I go to see you married ?" was her im- 
 patient reply to his stern commands. " I care nothing 
 for Gipsy Gower, nor she for me. You can be married 
 just as well without me. I won't go ! " 
 
 Therefore she sat quietly reading at home while the 
 nuptial revelry was at its height in Sunset Hall, and 
 looked up, with an exclamation of surprise, to see our 
 traveler standing before her. 
 
 " Archie ! what in the world brought you here ?" she 
 exclaimed, rising, and placing a chair for him before the 
 fire. 
 
 " Rail-cars part of the way, steamer next, and, finally, 
 my horse." 
 
 "Don't be absurd. Why have you come to Saint 
 Mark's? No one expected you here these three 
 months." 
 
 " Know it, coz. But I've found out I am the luckiest 
 dog in creation, and ran down here to tell you and an- 
 other particular friend I have. I suppose you have heard 
 of Uncle John Rivers, my father's brother. Yes ! Well,
 
 248 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 
 
 about four months ago he returned from Europe, witn 
 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the con- 
 sumption. Though he never had the honor of my ac- 
 quaintance, he knew there existed so distinguished an 
 individual, and accordingly left the whole of his prop- 
 erty to me ; and a few weeks after, gave up the ghost. 
 You see, therefore, Minnette, I'm a rich man. I've 
 pitched law to its patron saint, the hem ! and started 
 off down here post-haste to marry a certain little girl in 
 these diggin's, and take her with me to see the sights in 
 Europe." 
 
 "My dear cousin, I congratulate you. I presume 
 Miss Pearl is to be the young lady of your choice." 
 
 "No ; Celeste is too much of an angel for such a hot- 
 headed scamp as I am. I mean another little girl, whom 
 I've long had a penchant for. But where's your father ?" 
 
 Minnette laughed sarcastically. 
 
 " Getting married, I presume. This night my worthy 
 parent follows the Scriptural injunction, and takes unto 
 himself a wife." 
 
 "Nonsense, Minnette ! you jest." 
 
 "Do I?" said Minnette, quietly. "I thought you 
 knew me well enough now, Archie, to know I never 
 jest." 
 
 "But, Minnette, it is absurd. Dr. Wiseman married 
 in his old age. Why, it's a capital joke." And Archie 
 laughed uproariously. " Who is the fortunate lady that 
 is to be your mamma and my respected aunt?" 
 
 " Why, no other than that little savage, Gipsy 
 Gower." 
 
 Had a spasm been suddenly thrust into Archie's heart, 
 he could not have leaped more convulsively from his 
 seat. Even the undaunted Minnette drew back in 
 alarm. 
 
 "What did you say?" he exclaimed, grasping her
 
 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 249 
 
 arm, unconsciously, with a grip of iron. "To whom is 
 he to be married ?" 
 
 " To Aurora Gower. What do you mean, sir ? Let 
 go my arm." 
 
 He dropped it, staggered to a chair, dropped his 
 head in his hands, and sat like one suddenly struck by 
 death. 
 
 "Archie, what is the matter ?" said Minnette, looking 
 at him in wonder. " Was Gipsy the one you came here 
 to marry ?" 
 
 " Minnette ! Minnette ! it cannot be true !" he ex- 
 claimed, springing to his feet, without heeding her ques- 
 tion. " It is absurd monstrous impossible ! My wild, 
 free, daring Gipsy would never consent to marry a man 
 she abhorred. For Heaven's sake, Minnette, only say 
 you have been jesting !" 
 
 " I have spoken the truth," she answered, coldly. 
 " My father this morning married Aurora Gower !" 
 
 "Great heavens! I shall go mad ! What in the 
 name of all the saints tempted her to commit such an 
 act ?" 
 
 "I know not. Most probabiy it is one of her strange 
 freaks or, perhaps, she thinks papa rich, and married 
 him for his money. At all events, married him she 
 has ; her reasons for doing so I neither know nor care 
 for." 
 
 " Heaven of heavens ! Could Gipsy she whom I al- 
 ways thought the pure, warm-hearted child of nature 
 commit so base an act ? It cannot be ! I will never be- 
 lieve it ! By some infernal plot she has been entrapped 
 into this unnatural marriage, and dearly shall those who 
 have forced her rue it !" exclaimed Archie, treading up 
 and down the room like one distracted. 
 
 " You always thought her simple and guileless ; I al- 
 ways knew her to be artful and ambitious. She has not
 
 250 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 
 
 been entrapped. I have heard that she laughs as merrily 
 as ever, and talks more nonsense than she ever did before 
 in her life in short, appears perfectly happy. She is too 
 bold and daring to be entrapped. Besides, what means 
 could they use to compel her? If she found them trying 
 to tyrannize over her, she would run off as she did be- 
 fore. Nonsense, Archie ! Your own sense must tell 
 you she has married him willingly." 
 
 Every word was like a dagger to his heart. He 
 dropped into a chair, buried his face in his hands, and 
 groaned. 
 
 "Oh, Gipsy ! Gipsy ! lost to me forever. What are 
 wealth and honor to me now ! For you I toiled to win 
 a home and name, believing you true. And thus I am 
 repaid for all. Oh, is there nothing but treachery and 
 deceit in this world ? Would to heaven," he added, 
 springing fiercely up, and shaking back his fair, brown 
 hair, "that the man she has wedded were not an old do- 
 tard like that. I would blow his brains out ere another 
 hour." 
 
 " My father will, no doubt, rejoice to find his years 
 have saved his life," said Minnettey in her customary cold 
 tone. " Pray, Mr. Rivers, be more calm ; there is no 
 necessity for all this excitement. If Aurora Gower has 
 deserted you for one whom she supposed wealthier, it is 
 only the old story over again." 
 
 "The old story !" exclaimed Archie, bitterly. "Yes, 
 the old story of woman's heartlessness and treachery, 
 and man's blind self-deception. Be calm ! Yes ; if you 
 had told me she whom I love above all on earth was 
 dead, and in her grave, I might be calm ; but the wife of 
 another, and that other" he paused, and ground his teeth 
 with impotent rage. 
 
 " Well, since it is so, and cannot be helped, what's the
 
 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 251 
 
 use of making such a time about it?" said Minnette, im- 
 patiently, taking up her book and beginning to read. 
 
 Archie glanced at the cold, stone-like girl before him, 
 whose very calmness seemed to madden him ; then, seiz- 
 ing his hat, he rushed from the room, exclaiming : 
 
 "Yes, I will see her I will confront her once more, 
 accuse her of her deceit and selfishness, and then leave 
 the country forever." 
 
 He was out of the house in an instant ; and in five 
 minutes was galloping madly through the driving wind 
 and rain, unheeded and unfelt, now toward Mount Sun- 
 set Hall. 
 
 The numberless blazing lights from the many win- 
 dows illumined his path before it ; the sound of revelry 
 was wafted to his ears by the wind, making him gnash 
 his teeth in very rage. 
 
 He reached the mansion, threw the reins to one of 
 the many servants standing in the court -yard ; and all wet 
 and travel-stained, pale, wild, and excited as he was, he 
 made his way through the wondering crowd, that involun- 
 tarily made way for him to pass ; and 
 
 "So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall, 
 Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers and all. 
 But ere he alighted at Netherby gate, 
 The bride had consented the gallant came late." 
 
 Heeding not the many curious eyes bent upon him, still 
 he strode on, until he stood within the crowded drawing- 
 room. 
 
 Amid all that throng his eye saw but one face, beheld 
 but one form. Standing near the upper end of the room 
 was Gipsy his Gipsy once looking far more beautiful 
 than he had ever seen her before, and flirting with all her 
 might with a dashing lieutenant. 
 
 Having gained her point, to be married in black, she
 
 252 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 
 
 had exchanged her dismal robes for the gorgeous 
 wedding-dress that fell around her in folds of light. 
 Pearls flashed amid her raven curls, gleamed in her ears, 
 shone on her white arms, and rose and fell on her rest- 
 less bosom. She needed no rouge, for her cheeks were 
 vivid crimson, her lips red and glowing, her eyes out- 
 shining the jewels she wore. Never had Gipsy been so 
 lovely, so bewildering, so intoxicating before. 
 
 The very sight seemed to madden Archie. To see her 
 there in all her dazzling beauty, the wife of another, 
 laughing and talking as gayly as though he had never 
 existed, nearly drove him to desperation. Striding 
 through the crowd of gay revelers, who drew back in 
 alarm from his wild, pale face and fierce eyes, he ad- 
 vanced through the room, and stood before the bride. 
 
 There was an instantaneous hush through the room. 
 Dr. Wiseman, already sullen and jealous, sprang up 
 from the distant corner to which he had retreated, but 
 did not venture to approach. 
 
 Gipsy's graceful head was bent in well-affected timid- 
 ity as she listened to the gallant words and whispered 
 compliments of the gay young officer, when, suddenly 
 looking up, she beheld a sight that froze the smile on 
 her lip, the light in her eye, the blood in her veins, the 
 very life in her heart. Every trace of color faded from 
 her face, leaving her white as the dead ; her lips parted, 
 but no sound came forth. 
 
 " So, Mrs. Wiseman, I see you recognize me !" he 
 said, with bitter sarcasm. "Allow me to congratulate 
 you upon this joyful occasion. Do not let the recollection 
 that you have perjured yourself to-day before God's min- 
 ister, mar your festivity to-night. No doubt the wealth 
 for which you have cast a true heart aside, and wedded 
 a man you loathe, will make you completely happy. As 
 I leave America forever to-morrow, I wished to offer my
 
 ARCHIE'S LOST LOVE. 253 
 
 congratulations to the ' happy pair ' before I went. I was 
 fool enough, at one time, to believe the promises you 
 made me ; but I did not then know ' how fair an outside 
 falsehood hath.' Farewell, Mrs. Wiseman ! you and I 
 will never meet again. All your treachery, all your de- 
 ceit, your heartlessness,'is known to me, and I will never 
 trouble you more !" 
 
 He turned, left the house, sprang on his horse, and 
 was out of St. Mark's ere any one had recovered from 
 their astonishment and stupefaction sufficiently to speak. 
 
 He heard not, as he rode along, the wild, piercing 
 cry of anguish that broke from the lips of the bride, as 
 she fell senseless to the ground. He knew not, as he 
 stood on the deck of the steamer, next morning, bound 
 for " merrie England," that the once free, wild, mountain 
 huntress, the once daring, defying Gipsy, lay raving and 
 shrieking in the wild delirium of brain fever, calling al- 
 ways in vain for him she had lost. They had caught the 
 young eaglet, and caged it at last ; but the free bird of 
 the mountains lay wounded and dying in their grasp.
 
 254 LOUIS, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 LOUIS. 
 
 A look of pride, an eye of flame ; 
 
 A full-drawn lip that upward curled ; 
 
 An eye that seemed to scorn the world." SCOTT. 
 
 T was a merry morn in June, many months 
 after the events related in the last chapter. 
 A brief retrospective glance it is necessary to 
 take ere we proceed. 
 
 For many long weeks after the fatal night 
 of her marriage, Gipsy lay hovering between life and 
 death ; and Celeste came, with her loving heart, and 
 gentle voice, and noiseless footstep, and, unheeding rest 
 or sleep, nursed the poor, pale, crazed little bride back 
 to life. No one else would Gipsy have near her not 
 even Aunty Gower ; and a physician from the city at- 
 tended her for the very mention of her detested bride- 
 groom threw her into hysterics. But, notwithstanding 
 all their care, long months passed away ere Gipsy was 
 well again, and Celeste, worn and wearied, but uncom- 
 plaining, permitted to return to the peaceful solitude of 
 Valley Cottage. 
 
 Dr. Wiseman had not yet breathed a syllable of 
 Gipsy's parentage. He could not do so during her ill- 
 ness ; and when she recovered, he wished a decent inter- 
 val of time to elapse ere he made it known, lest the 
 world should suspect his previous knowledge of it had 
 caused him to marry her. Besides, he found there was 
 no cause to hurry ; for, during Gipsy's illness, the squire 
 had invited him to shut up his house at Deep Dale, and
 
 LOUIS. 255 
 
 bring Minnette with him, to reside at Sunset Hall. "Jo 
 this the doctor eagerly assented ; and having, with some 
 trouble, prevailed upon Minnette to accompany him, 
 Deep Dale was rented, and the doctor and his daughter 
 became domesticated at Mount Sunset Hall. 
 
 Nearly nine months had elapsed. Gipsy now as 
 well as ever, and more daring and mischievous even 
 than before had just set herself to work to begin ful- 
 filling the vow she had made, and soon succeeded in 
 driving the doctor nearly wild. Though he had merely 
 married her for her money, he had, as time passed on, 
 learned to love her with a strange, selfish, absorbing 
 passion ; and the more she mocked, and scorned, and 
 laughed at him, the more infatuated he grew. The wil- 
 ful elf kept her husband in a constant state of panic and 
 terror, running into the greatest dangers with the ut- 
 most recklessness, and often barely escaping with her 
 life. Out all hours of the day and night, sometimes not 
 coming home until morning, it is not to be wondered at 
 that she kept the whole household in alarm. Often after 
 midnight, going out to search for her, they would find 
 her riding among the rocks, or, having tied up Mig- 
 nonne, she would be discovered asleep in some grotto or 
 cavern. Then her flirting ! The doctor was madly 
 jealous, and not without reason. There was not a man 
 under thirty, if at all presentable, but the reckless girl 
 had flirted unmercifully with, in a way that would have 
 completely destroyed the reputation of any other woman, 
 but which was merely noticed by the remark that it was 
 "just like Gipsy ;" and her maddest actions were list- 
 ened to with a smile and a stare of astonishment, and a 
 "wonder what she'll do next?" Poor, half-crazed little 
 Gipsy! The real goodness of her nature was too ap- 
 parent to all through her outward recklessness to make 
 them suspect her of evil.
 
 256 LOUIS. 
 
 St. Mark's had become a much gayer place than 
 when we first knew it. Many new families had moved 
 hither from the city ; and balls, and parties, and sleigh- 
 rides in winter, and picnics, and excursions, and soirees, 
 in summer, became all the rage ; and the leader of all 
 these was the "merry little Mrs. Wiseman," as these 
 new-comers called her. And no one, to see her entering 
 heart and soul into these festivities, would ever dream 
 of the miserable secret weighing on her mind, or the 
 still untamed, restless heart that struggled to find forget- 
 fulness in constant gayety. 
 
 They had never heard of Archie since his departure, 
 save once through Louis, who, in one of his letters, spoke 
 of having met him in Paris. No one mentioned his 
 name at Sunset Hall. Gipsy especially, even in the re- 
 motest way, never alluded to him ; and the good, obtuse 
 family began to hope she had quite forgotten him. 
 
 And now we have come back to that merry morn in 
 June with which this chapter opened. Gipsy, arrayed in 
 a tasteful riding-habit, which she held up with one hand, 
 while in the other she held a silver-mounted riding-whip, 
 stood in the breezy park, watching her horse, that was 
 neighing impatiently to be off. Mrs. Gower stood be- 
 hind her, looking troubled and anxious. 
 
 " My dear Gipsy," she was saying, " I wish you would 
 not go out this morning. What will people say to see 
 you out riding, and your husband having fallen from his 
 horse, and broken two of his ribs and his leg, last 
 night ?" 
 
 " I wish it had been his neck !" 
 
 " Oh, child ! don't say such sinful, wicked things. Of 
 course, I know you don't mean them ; but then it's very 
 wrong." 
 
 " I don't care, aunty ; I do wish it there ! I don't 
 see what possesses him to cumber the earth so long. If
 
 LOUIS. 257 
 
 he doesn't give up the ghost soon, I'll administer a close 
 of hemp some night for I do believe his destiny is 
 hanging. If there ever was a neck made for a rope, it's 
 his just the shape for it. Jupe, mind what you're at 
 there. Don't let Mignonne get all over dust." 
 
 " Gipsy, you will stay?" 
 
 " I wont stay, aunty not if it were Dr. Wiseman's 
 neck, instead of his ribs, that was broken. Oh, yes, I 
 would, too ; I'd stay home then for joy. I'm off now. 
 Good-bye. If his worship becomes extinct during my 
 absence, just send for me, and I'll shed a few tears, and 
 everything will go off in fashionable style." 
 
 And, laughing at Mrs. Gower's scandalized face, 
 Gipsy leaped on her horse and rode off. 
 
 As she ascended the hills behind Mount Sunset she 
 beheld, opposite to her, a horseman with his back to- 
 ward her, standing silent and motionless, gazing upon 
 Sunset Hall. 
 
 " I wonder who he is ?" thought Gipsy. " A hand- 
 some fellow, I should say, for his form is superb. Won- 
 der if he knows he's standing on my favorite point of 
 view? Well, as I've no notion of surrendering my 
 rights to him or any one else, I'll just give him a hint to 
 get out of that." And, suiting the action to the words, 
 Gipsy shouted, as she reined up her horse : " Hallo, 
 sir !" 
 
 The horseman was still gazing like one entranced. 
 He evidently did not hear her. 
 
 " I say, sir!" again called Gipsy. 
 
 Still no answer. 
 
 " Well, whoever you are," soliloquized Gipsy, " you're 
 mighty polite to refuse answering a lady. I'll try again. 
 Look here, sirrah, will you?" 
 He did not move. 
 " Well, 'pon my honor, that's decidedly cool !" said
 
 258 LOUIS. 
 
 Gipsy. " So you won't pretend to notice me, eh ? Very 
 well, sir; we'll see whether you'll pay more attention to 
 a lady than this." 
 
 And Gipsy drew a pistol from her belt, took deliber- 
 ate aim, and fired. 
 
 It was well she doubted not her own skill ; it was 
 well she had a steady hand and eye ; for the bullet 
 passed through the crown of his hat, scarcely two inches 
 above the temple. 
 
 With an exclamation of surprise and anger, the 
 stranger turned round, and likewise drew a pistol. His 
 eye wandered over the scene ; but he could see no one 
 but a young girl, who was coolly reloading her pistol, as 
 if about to send a second ball in the same direction. 
 
 "Good-morning, madam. Did you see anyone fire 
 just now," said the stranger, in a most musical voice, as 
 he rode toward her. 
 
 "Yes, sir, /fired it," replied Gipsy, impudently. 
 
 " You did !" said the stranger, with a stare of surprise ; 
 " and may I ask, madam, if it was your intention to shoot 
 me ?" 
 
 " Of course it was ! My aim was unfortunately taken 
 a little too high. If you'll just stand there again, I'll try 
 another shot," replied Gipsy gravely. 
 
 Again the stranger stared, as though doubting the 
 sanity of his companion. There was no idiocy, however, 
 in the bright, keen eyes, twinkling with suppressed mirth, 
 that were now lifted to his ; and, taking off his hat, the 
 stranger pointed to the hole, saying : 
 
 " On the whole, I think I have no particular fancy for 
 being made a target of especially for so good a shot as 
 you. May I ask the name of the fair amazon I have 
 been fortunate enough to meet ?" 
 
 " You must be a stranger here not to know it. I have
 
 LOUIS. 259 
 
 several names ; the last and least of which is Mrs. Wise- 
 man. And yours ?" 
 
 " Louis Oranmore, very much at your service," he an- 
 swered, with a courtly bow. 
 
 "Oh !" Such a stare as he got from those bright eyes 
 such a quick flush of delight as overspread the pretty 
 face beneath him such a keen scrutiny as his face un- 
 derwent at that moment. He noticed it, without pre- 
 tending to do so ; but there was an ill-repressed smile of 
 amusement hovering about his finely-chiseled lip. Yet 
 it was evident he did not recognize her. 
 
 The handsome, impetuous boy had grown into a tall, 
 elegant, princely-looking man. His complexion, dark- 
 ened by foreign suns to a clear, manly olive, was shaded 
 by a profusion of jet-black curling hair. His fine dark 
 eyes were bright, clear, almost piercing ; his upper lip 
 was shaded by a black mustache, but it did not conceal 
 its scornful upward curve. Pride and passion, genius 
 and unbending will were written in every lineament of 
 that irresistibly handsome face ; yet there was at times a 
 winning softness in it, particularly when he smiled. He 
 still bore a strong likeness to his dead father, save that 
 Louis was much handsomer. There was something 
 grand and noble in his tall yet slight figure, mingled 
 with an ease and grace of manner that bespoke his ac- 
 quaintance with polished society. His voice, that could 
 at times ring with the clarion tones of command, never 
 addressed a woman without being modulated to the soft- 
 est and most musical of sounds. Such had our old fa- 
 vorite Louis become very little like the Louis we once 
 knew, we must own very little like the guileless, inno- 
 cent Louis, this gay young man of pleasure. 
 
 Perhaps something of all this was floating through 
 the mind of Gipsy ; for in spite of the admiration that
 
 260 LOUIS. 
 
 shone in her now radiant face, she finished her scrutiny 
 with a sigh. 
 
 " Well, fair lady, do you find me so very hideous that 
 you thus turn away?" he asked, fixing his deep, dark 
 eyes in evident amusement on her face. 
 
 Gipsy would have blushed had she known how ; but 
 it was something she knew very little about, so she 
 merely answered : 
 
 " Well, I think I have seen persons almost as frightful 
 looking as you before. You are a stranger here, I pre- 
 sume?" 
 
 " Yes ; though this is my native village, yet I have 
 been absent for many years in Europe. May I ask if 
 you are acquainted with the inmates of Sunset Hall 
 yonder ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I've seen them." 
 
 "Are they all well?" 
 
 " Why, yes, I believe so ; all but Spi I mean Dr. 
 Wiseman." 
 
 " Dr. Wiseman ! What has he to do there ? he does 
 not belong to the family." 
 
 " Yes, he does." 
 
 " What?" 
 
 " He married a ward of Squire Erliston's Gipsy 
 something, I think they called her. Gow Gow 
 Gower, I believe, was the name and then, with his 
 daughter, came there to live." 
 
 " Why, is it possible? Has little Gipsy Gower mar- 
 ried that old man old enough to be her grandfather ?" 
 exclaimed Louis, in unbounded amazement. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, after that, nothing will surprise me. And 
 Archie never mentioned a word of it," said Louis, in a 
 sort of soliloquy; "and my and Mrs. Oranmore, how 
 is she ?"
 
 LOUIS. 26! 
 
 " Pretty well. She has not been very strong lately." 
 
 " Poor mother ! And the squire ?" 
 
 " Is quite well." 
 
 " You reside in St. Mark's. I presume ?" 
 
 " Why, yes. Nonsense, Louis ! Don't you know 
 me ?" 
 
 " Hallo ! No, it's not ; yes, it is, though ; it's Gipsy 
 Gower, is it not ?" cried Louis. 
 
 "No, sir. Mrs. Nicholas Wiseman, if you please," 
 said Gipsy, drawing herself up. 
 
 " My dear little Gipsy, I am delighted to meet you 
 again. How handsome you have grown ! Allow me to 
 embrace my little playmate ?" 
 
 Accepting his salute with saucy cordiality, Gipsy 
 turned her horse's head in the direction of the Hall. 
 
 " Tell me now, Louis, what brings you home so sud- 
 denly ?" asked Gipsy. 
 
 " Why, to confess the truth, I grew tired of sight- 
 seeing, and began to feel homesick for the old, familiar 
 faces ; so, wishing to surprise you all, I started without 
 sending you word, and here I am. But, Gipsy, whatever 
 possessed you to marry that old man ?" 
 
 "Love, of course. People always marry for love, you 
 know." 
 
 " Pshaw ! Gipsy, I know better than that. Why did 
 you jilt poor Archie? I met him in Paris, half crazy, 
 one would imagine. He answered my questions ration- 
 ally enough, until we came to speak of you, when he 
 burst forth into a torrent of invectives against flirts and 
 deceivers in general, and then seized his hat and fled 
 from the room, leaving me to conjecture as best I might 
 his meaning. Come, Gipsy, own up, are you not the 
 cause of all this frenzy?" 
 
 Gipsy's face had grown very pale ; her eyes were bent
 
 z63 LOUIS. 
 
 on the ground, her lips firmly compressed, as she an- 
 swered, in a low, hurried voice : 
 
 "Louis, don't talk to me on this subject. lam wicked 
 and wretched enough the best of times, but I always feel 
 like a perfect fiend when this subject is mentioned. Suf- 
 fice it for you to know that fate had decreed I should wed 
 Dr. Wiseman ; no earthly power could have prevented 
 it, therefore I became his wife." 
 
 " Did they dare to force you ?" exclaimed Louis, with 
 a kindling eye. " If so " 
 
 "No, no, Louis; I could have refused if I would. 
 Don't mention this subject more. See, there is the old 
 hall ; and there at the gate stands Minnette Wiseman, 
 my daughter now, you know. Is she not a beautiful girl ?" 
 
 "Beautiful indeed!" exclaimed Louis, enthusiasti- 
 cally, pausing involuntarily to gaze upon her. 
 
 Splendid indeed looked Minnette. Her dress of 
 black (she always wore black) fluttering in the morning 
 breeze, and confined at the slender waist by a dark crim- 
 son belt. Her long, shiny blue-black hair was twined in 
 classic braids around her superb head. Her glorious 
 black eyes were fixed on the glancing waters of the bay, 
 and no June rose ever bloomed a more brilliant crim- 
 son than the hue of her cheek. She might have been 
 an Eastern queen for her beauty was truly regal, with 
 her dark, oriental face, and splendid Syrian eye ; but 
 there was too much fire and passion in her nature, and 
 too few womanly traits and feelings. 
 
 " Oh, Minnette, guess who's come !" cried Gipsy, rid- 
 ing up to where she stood. 
 
 " Who ?" said Minnette, breathlessly, as her eye fell 
 on Louis. 
 
 The next moment she started convulsively ; the blood 
 rushed in torrents to her brow. She had recognized him, 
 though Gipsy had not.
 
 LOUIS. 263 
 
 " It's Louis," said Gipsy " Louis Oranmore ! Come, 
 Louis ! come ! Miss Minnette. I am going up to the house 
 to teJl them you have come." 
 
 She was off like a flash, up the lawn, and in the house, 
 while Louis leaped from his horse, and with courtly 
 grace raised Minnette's " hand to his lips; while she, 
 pressing her hand to her heart, that beat and throbbed as 
 though it would force its way to him, strove to return 
 his salutation, It was a strange thing to see the cold, 
 marble-like Minnette so moved. 
 
 "How everything has changed since I left home !" 
 said Louis ; " the place itself seems changed, and you 
 more than all. I left you a little girl, thoughtful beyond 
 your years, and I return to find you " 
 
 " The most beautiful woman my eyes ever rested on," 
 he would have said, but she raised her head, and some- 
 thing in the expression of her face checked him. 
 
 No marble ever was whiter or more cold, as she said : 
 
 " Yes, all has changed, and none more so than your 
 former favvrite, Celeste." 
 
 " Ah ! little Celeste how is she ? I had forgotten to 
 ask for her. I trust she is well ?" 
 
 " I presume so. I know nothing to the contrary." 
 
 " I remember her a lovely child ; I suppose she is an 
 equally lovely girl ?" said Louis, carelessly. 
 
 A scorching, scathing glance shot from the lightning 
 eyes of Minnette; but, without answering him, she 
 turned away, and walked steadily into the house. 
 
 " Strange, incomprehensible girl !" said Louis, look- 
 ing in surprise after her. " How that flashing glance 
 reminds me of the Minnette of other days ! Have I said 
 anything to offend her, I wonder ? Heigho ! what a ra- 
 diant creature she is, to be sure ! What would not some 
 of the gay court beauties I know give for that superb 
 form and glorious face ! Well, I must not fall in love
 
 264 LOUIS. 
 
 with her, however, if I can help it. Here comes that 
 airy little mountain sprite, Gipsy ! and now for my lady 
 mother !" 
 
 " Come, Louis, come !" she cried, darting in again. 
 
 Louis followed her as she led the way to his mother's 
 chamber. Then opening the door, she ushered him in, 
 and closing it after her, immediately retreated. 
 
 Lizzie sat in an easy-chair, a crimson shawl wrapped 
 around her, her eyes bright, her pale cheeks flushed with 
 expectation. She arose at his entrance, and the next 
 moment was clasped in his arms, while their mutual ex- 
 clamations were : 
 
 " My dear Louis !" 
 
 " My dearest mother !" 
 
 There was a moment's silence ; then Lizzie raised 
 her head and surveyed him from head to foot, her face 
 sparkling with pride and admiration. 
 
 " How tall you have grown ! and how handsome you 
 are ! handsome enough for a king, I think, Louis !" she 
 said, delightedly. 
 
 "Are kings handsomer than other people, my 
 dear mother?" he said, with a smile. 
 
 " Why, I suppose so ; I never saw one. You are the 
 very image of your poor dead father, too ! Dear me ! 
 what an age it seems since we parted last !" said Lizzie, 
 sinking back in her seat, with a sigh. 
 
 "I am sorry to find you so ill, mother," said Louis, 
 gazing sadly into her thin, pale face, from which the 
 bright glow was fast fading. 
 
 "Oh, I am always worse in the spring than at any- 
 other time. In a month or two I will be quite a differ- 
 ent-looking individual," said Lizzie, hopefully. 
 
 An hour passed away, and then there came a tap at 
 the door. Louis arose and opened it, and beheld Gipsy. 
 
 " Well, Louis, if you're done talking to your mother,
 
 LOUIS. 265 
 
 you'd better come down and see Guardy. He's just 
 woke up, but he doesn't know yet you've come," said 
 Gipsy. 
 
 Louis went down stairs; taking half the staircase at a 
 bound in his haste. Pushing open the parlor door, he 
 unceremoniously entered the presence of the squire, who, 
 after his old habit, lay in a lounging chair, with his feet 
 stretched upon another, smoking his pipe with the be- 
 nign air of a man at peace with himself and the rest 
 of mankind. 
 
 At the abrupt entrance of Louis he looked up with 
 a start, and muttered something suspiciously like an 
 oath at seeing a tall, dark foreigner as he supposed 
 him to be standing before him. 
 
 "Eh? who the deuce I beg your pardon, sir, sit 
 down," said the squire, staring with all his eyes. 
 
 " Do you not know me, my dear grandfather ?" said 
 Louis, advancing with extended hand. 
 
 " Why ! Lord bless me, if it is not Louis Oranmore," 
 said the squire, jumping up, " with as much hair on his 
 face as a chimpanzee monkey has on its body. Bless 
 my heart ! this is a surprise ! When did you get home ? 
 Eh, when did you come ?" 
 
 "About an hour ago, sir." 
 
 "And you're Louis? Well, well ! Why, you weren't 
 as high as that when you left," holding his hand about 
 three inches from the ground, " and here you come back 
 as tall as a lamp-post, with mustache enough for a shoe- 
 brush, and dressed like a Spanish grandee. 'All's 
 vanity,' as Solomon says. Well, and how did you get 
 on with those old humbugs you went off to see eh ?" 
 
 " What old humbugs, sir ?" 
 
 " Pooh ! you know very well the old masters." 
 
 "Oh ! I flatter myself I have seen them to some pur- 
 pose," said Louis, laughing ; " but, to change the subject,
 
 266 LOUIS. 
 
 I perceive you have made a few changes in the domestic 
 economy of Sunset Hall during my absence." 
 
 " Why, yes, my boy ; a few, a few ! Gipsy's married 
 to the old doctor, and didn't want to, either ; but we 
 coaxed her round and took her while she was ' in the 
 humor,' as Solomon says." 
 
 " I trust, sir, Gipsy was not compelled to marry this 
 old man ?" said Louis, with a darkening brow. 
 
 " Pooh ! pshaw ! of course not ! Married him of her 
 own free will just like Gipsy, always doing what no- 
 body would expect ; ' women are like mules,' as Solomon 
 says want them to go one way, and they'll be sure logo 
 t'other," said the squire, uneasily, evidently anxious to 
 change the subject. "Have you seen old Wiseman and 
 his daughter since your return ?" 
 
 " I have not seen the doctor, but his daughter I have. 
 She is a most beautiful girl," replied Louis. 
 
 "Bah! 'All that glitters is not gold,' as Solomon 
 says. She's a proud, sullen, conceited minx, that's what 
 she is never liked her. And mind, my young jacka- 
 napes, you mustn't go and fall in love with her. You 
 must look out for an heiress ; not a girl like her, without 
 a cent to bless herself with." 
 
 " I thought the doctor was rich," said Louis. 
 
 " So he is ; but stingy infernally stingy ! Won't 
 give her a copper till his death !" 
 
 "Well, sir, I have no present intention of falling in 
 love with her or any one else ; but if I had, Minnette 
 Wiseman would be just the girl for me. She is hand- 
 some, refined, intellectual, as any one can tell from her 
 conversation. What more would a man have ?" 
 
 "Stuff! moonshine! 'Fine words butter no par- 
 snips,' as Solomon says. She wants the gilt the money, 
 my boy. Love in a cottage sounds very fine, but come 
 to real life and see what it is. No, sir ; I will never heai
 
 LOVE AT FIXST SIGHT. 267 
 
 to your marrying a poor girl never ! The heir of 
 Erliston and Oranmore must find an heiress for a wife. 
 No matter about love, you know ; money's the thing. 
 ' When poverty comes in at the door love flies out of the 
 window,' as Solomon says." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 
 
 " Oh, her smile it seemed half holy, 
 As if drawn from thoughts more fair 
 Than our common jestings are j 
 And if any painter drew her, 
 He would paint her, unaware, 
 With a halo round her hair." 
 
 E. B. BROWNING. 
 
 
 WEEK had passed away at Mount Sunset 
 Hall since the arrival of Louis. 
 
 It had been a week of unremitting storm. 
 Rain, rain, rain, from morning till night, and 
 from night to morning, without ceasing. 
 No one could go abroad in such weather ; so the ar- 
 rival of Louis remained a secret in the neighborhood. 
 It is true, Gipsy, who feared storm no more than sun- 
 shine, would have ridden forth, but preparations were 
 being made for a grand party at the mansion, in honor 
 of Louis' arrival, and she was forced to stay at home to 
 assist. The whole household, with the exception of 
 Louis and Minnette, were pressed into the business. 
 Even Lizzie sat in the dining-room and stoned raisins, 
 and sorted fruit, and pickles, and preserves, and looked
 
 ?68 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 
 
 over dresses, and laces, and muslins, and flowers, with 
 unabated zeal. Gipsy might have been seen flying about 
 in calico long-shorts from morning till night, entering 
 heart and soul into the excitement. Jupiter and Mrs. 
 Gower were sent to the city for " things," and the squire 
 was continually blowing and blustering about, and over- 
 seeing all in general. 
 
 Minnette was too indolent to have anything to do with 
 it, and so was left to herself and Louis. That young 
 gentleman, seeing how busy all were, gravely offered 
 his services in the kitchen, saying, with the assistance of 
 Totty, he had no doubt but he would learn how to wash 
 dishes and make himself useful in time. His offer, how- 
 ever, like the manuscripts often sent to publishers, was 
 " respectfully declined," and he and Minnette being thus 
 thrown together, became, during the week of the storm, 
 the best of friends perhaps something more. 
 
 Their mornings were usually spent in the library, she 
 embroidering while he read aloud poetry dangerous 
 occupation for a young and handsome man. Then he 
 had such long stories and anecdotes to tell her, of his 
 travels, of his " hair-breadth escapes by flood and field ;" 
 and it did flatter his vanity a little to see the work drop 
 unnoticed from her hand, her cheek flush or pale, her 
 breath come quick and short at his words. Their after- 
 noons were mostly devoted to music ; she seated 
 at the piano playing and singing his favorite songs, 
 chiefly old Scotch and German love ditties, which he 
 liked better than Italian songs or opera music, in spite 
 of his usually fashionable taste. And Minnette 
 wild, passionate girl that she was who can tell the 
 tumultuous thoughts that set her heart throbbing so fast, 
 or brought so vivid a crimson to her blooming cheek, as 
 he bent over her, entranced his dark, glossy locks 
 mingling with hers ? Perhaps he did not exactly make
 
 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 269 
 
 love to her, but he was too thorough a man of the world 
 not to perceive that she loved him, as only one of her 
 fiery, passionate nature can love. The proud, haughty 
 girl, who had all her life been a marble statue to others, 
 was gentle and timid as a child before him. And he I 
 cannot excuse him but though he loved her not he 
 liked this devoted homage, this fiery heart he had tamed 
 and won ; and by his manner, almost unconsciously, 
 led her to believe her love was returned. For the first 
 time in her life, she was supremely happy, yielding her- 
 self, without restraint, to the intoxicating spell of his 
 eye and voice. 
 
 Gipsy's keen eyes saw all this, too saw it with regret 
 and apprehension, and with instinctive dread. 
 
 " Minnette's marble heart had been changed toquiver- 
 ing flesh at last," was her soliloquy. " She loves him, 
 and (it is the old story) he likes her. Heaven forbid he 
 should trifle with her ! for woe to you, Louis Oranmore, 
 if the unchained force of Minnette's lion-passions is 
 aroused. Better for you you had never been born, than 
 that the mad love of her tiger heart should turn to still 
 madder hate. She can never make him or any one else 
 happy ; she is too fierce, too jealous, too exacting. I wish 
 she had never come here. 1 will ride over to-night or 
 to-morrow, and bring Celeste here ; when he sees her, I 
 know he can never love Minnette. It may not be too 
 late yet to remedy the evil. The love of Celeste would 
 ennoble him raise him above the earth, that of Minnette 
 will drag him down, down, to darkness and doom. I 
 must prevent it." 
 
 Too late ! too late ! Gipsy. The evil has been done 
 that can never be remedied. The " marble-heart " is 
 awakened from its long repose at last. 
 
 The cards of invitation had been sent out for miles 
 around. Early in the evening of the day appointed
 
 270 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 
 
 Gipsy ordered the carriage and drove to Valley Cottage. 
 Miss Hagar, gray, grim, and unchanged, stiff and up- 
 right as ever, sat (as usual) knitting in the chimney-cor- 
 ner. A perfect bower of neatness was that little cottage 
 outside almost hidden in its wealth of vines and leaves 
 inside, bright with cleanliness, and odoriferous with the 
 perfume of flowers that came drifting in through the 
 white draped windows and open door. And there, sit- 
 ting by the window in her neat-fitting muslin dress, 
 bright, sunshiny, and smiling, sat sweet Celeste, the 
 " Star of the Valley," celebrated for her beauty for miles 
 around. 
 
 "Ah, Miss Hagar! how d'ye do? Pleasant day," 
 said Gipsy, flashing in after her old fashion. " Celeste, 
 throw down that sewing, and come right off to the Hall 
 with me ; I want you." 
 
 "Oh! really, my dear Gipsy, you must excuse me," 
 smiled Celeste ; " I am making this dress for poor old 
 Widow Mayer, and must finish it to-night. So I cannot 
 possibly go." 
 
 " Now, that's just like you, Celeste always sewing, 
 or sitting up, or writing letters, or reading the Testament 
 to some poor old unfortunate, instead of taking any 
 pleasure for yourself. I declare you ought to be a Sister 
 of Charity, at once ! But you sha'n't work yourself to 
 death for any one ; so come along. I'll send the old 
 lady over, to-morrow, every dress I have, sooner than 
 want you to-night." 
 
 " But Miss Hagar, Gipsy ; it is not right for me to 
 leave her alone. She is so lonesome without me." 
 
 " No, she's not. You're glad to get rid of her ; ain't 
 you, Miss Hagar ?" 
 
 " I should be pleased to have her go. It is right she 
 should enjoy herself with the rest of the young folks," 
 said Miss Hagar.
 
 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 271 
 
 " There ! you hear that ? Now you go and get ready !" 
 
 " But really, dear Gipsy " 
 
 " Now, none of your ' dear Gipsy-ing' me ! I won't 
 listen to another word ! You must come ; that's the 
 whole of it," said Gipsy, seizing the work, and throwing 
 it into a corner, and pulling the laughing Celeste by main 
 force from the room. 
 
 " But, Gipsy, why are you so anxious for me to go 
 with you to-night ?" said Celeste, when they had reached 
 her chamber. 
 
 "Oh, because I have my raysons for it," as little Pat 
 Flynn says. " Now I want you to look your very pret- 
 tiest to-night, Celeste. In fact, you must be perfectly 
 irresistible." 
 
 " I am afraid you are going to play me some trick, 
 Gipsy !" said Celeste, smiling and hesitating. 
 
 "Oh! honor bright! Come, hurry up! Put on 
 your white muslin ; you look better in it than anything 
 else." 
 
 " Besides being the best dress I have," said Celeste, 
 as she took it down , for the cottage maiden always 
 dressed with the utmost plainness and simplicity. 
 
 "I'll run out and gather you some rosebuds for your 
 hair," said Gipsy, as Celeste began to dress. 
 
 "But, indeed, Gipsy, I am not accustomed to be so 
 gayly attired," said Celeste, anxiously. 
 
 "Nonsense! what is there gay in a few white rose- 
 buds, I'd like to know ? You shall wear them," said 
 Gipsy, hurrying from the room. 
 
 Half an hour later and Celeste's toilet was complete. 
 Very lovely she looked in her simple white robe, fast- 
 ened at her slender waist by a blue ribbon, her shining 
 hair of pale gold falling like a shower of sunlight over 
 her beautifully white and rounded neck, and wreathed 
 with moss roses. Her fair, rose-tinted face, with its deep,
 
 272 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 
 
 blue eyes, shaded by long, sunny lashes ; her red, smil- 
 ing lips ; her softly flushed cheeks, and broad, trans- 
 parent forehead, bright with youth, and goodness, and 
 loveliness ! 
 
 "Why, Celeste, you are radiant to-night lovely, be- 
 witching, angelic !" exclaimed Gipsy, gazing upon her 
 in sort of rapture. 
 
 " Nonsense, dear Gipsy !" said Celeste, smiling, and 
 blushing even at the words of the little hoyden. " Are 
 you, too, becoming a flatterer?" 
 
 " Not I ; I would scorn to be ! You know I never 
 flatter, Celeste ; but you seem to have received a baptism 
 of living beauty to-night." 
 
 Celeste very well knew Gipsy never flattered. Can- 
 dor was a part of the elf's nature ; so, blushing still 
 more, she threw a light shawl over her shoulders, and 
 entered the sitting-room. Both girls took leave of Miss 
 Hagar, and entered the carriage, that whirled them rap- 
 idly in the direction of Mount Sunset. 
 
 "Gipsy, I know you have some design in all this ?" 
 said Celeste, as they drove along. 
 
 " Well ; suppose I have ?" 
 
 " Why, I shall be tempted to take it very hard indeed. 
 Why have you brought me here, Gipsy ?" 
 
 " Well, to meet a friend. There now !" 
 
 "Who is it?" 
 
 " Sha'n't tell you yet. Here we are at home." 
 
 Celeste glanced from the window, and saw the court- 
 yard full of carriages, the hall illuminated, and throngs 
 of people pouring in. 
 
 " Is it possible, Gipsy, this is a large party ?" 
 
 " Yes ; just so, my dear." 
 
 " Oh, Gipsy ! it was too bad of you to entrap me in 
 this way !" said Celeste, reproachfully. 
 
 "Fiddle ! it's a great thing to go to a party, ain't it?
 
 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 273 
 
 Come, jump out, and come up to my dressing-room ; I 
 have a still greater surprise in store for you." 
 
 Celeste passed, with Gipsy, through a side door, and 
 both ran, unobserved, up to her room. Then after an 
 hour or so, which it took Gipsy to dress, both descended 
 to the saloon, where the dancing was already at its 
 height. 
 
 Their entrance into the crowded rooms produced a 
 decided sensation. Gipsy, blazing with jewels, moved 
 along like a spirit of light, and Celeste, in her fair, 
 moonlight beauty, looking like some stray angel newly 
 dropped in their midst.. 
 
 Gipsy led her guest to the upper end of the room, 
 under a raised arch of flowers that filled the air with 
 fragrance. 
 
 "Stay here until I come back for you," she whis- 
 pered, as she turned, and disappeared among the throng. 
 
 Flitting hither and thither like a sunbeam, she paused 
 until she discovered Louis, with Minnette leaning on his 
 arm, calling up the smiles and blushes to her face at his 
 all-powerful will. 
 
 " Louis ! Louis ! come with me ! I want you a mo- 
 ment. You'll excuse him, Minnette, will you not ?" said 
 Gipsy. 
 
 "Oh, certainly !" said Minnette, with a radiant look, 
 little dreaming for what purpose he was taken from her. 
 
 Passing her arm through his, Gipsy led him to where 
 he could obtain a full view of Celeste, without being 
 seen by her. 
 
 " Look !" she said, pointing. 
 
 He looked, started suddenly, and then stood like one 
 transfixed, with his eyes riveted to the glorious vision 
 before him. 
 
 She stood under the flowery canopy, robed in white, 
 crowned with roses, leaning against a marble statue of
 
 274 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 
 
 Hebe, herself a thousand times lovelier than that ex- 
 quisitely sculptured form and face. This was his ideal, 
 found at last this the face and figure that had haunted > 
 his dreams all his life, but had never been found before ; 
 just such an angelic creature he had striven all his life 
 to produce on canvas, and always failed. He stood mo- 
 tionless, enchanted, drinking in to intoxication the be- 
 wildering draught of her beauty. 
 
 " Louis," said Gipsy, laying her hand on his arm. 
 
 He heard not, answered not ; he stood gazing like 
 one chained to the spot. 
 
 "Louis," she said in a louder tone. 
 
 Still she was unheeded, 
 
 " Louis, you provoking wretch !" she said, giving 
 him a shake. 
 
 " Well ?" he said, without removing his dazzled eyes 
 from the vision before him. 
 
 " What do you think of her ? Is she not lovely ?" 
 
 "Lovely!" he repeated, rousing himself from the 
 trance into which he had fallen. " Gipsy, she is divine. 
 Do not praise her beauty ; no words can do it justice." 
 
 " Whew ! caught already ! There's love at first sight 
 for you." 
 
 "Gipsy, who is she that vision of light my life- 
 dream that I have found at last ?" 
 
 " Then you don't know her? Bless your dear, inno- 
 cent heart ! that's Celeste your ' Star of the Valley,' 
 you know !" 
 
 " Yes, yes ! I recognize her now my Star of the 
 Valley, rightly named. Would she were mine !" he 
 added, in a lower tone. 
 
 "Shall I present you ?" 
 
 " Does she know I am here ?" 
 
 " No ; I didn't tell her a word about it." 
 
 "Then leave me. I will present myself."
 
 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 275 
 
 " All right ; that'll save me some trouble ; and I hear 
 somebody over there singing out for Mrs. Wiseman. 
 So au rcvoir, and Cupid be with you !" 
 
 And, laughingly, Gipsy glided away, and Louis went 
 up and stood before Celeste. 
 
 She looked up with a start, to find the handsomest 
 man she had ever seen in her life standing before her, 
 gazing upon her with such a look of intense admiration 
 in his deep, dark eyes, that the blood rushed to her cheek, 
 and the white lids dropped over the shrinking blue eyes. 
 Another moment, and both her hands were clasped in 
 his ; while he cried, in a voice that was low, but full of 
 passion : 
 
 " Celeste ! Celeste ! little sister ! do you not know 
 me?" 
 
 " Louis !" broke from her lips, in a wild exclamation 
 of joy. 
 
 " Yes, sweet sister, your boy-friend, Louis, home 
 again." 
 
 " Oh, Louis, I am so glad !" she said, lifting her cloud- 
 less blue eyes to his, radiant with delight. 
 
 " Then you have not forgotten me ? I feared you 
 had," he said, bending over her, and holding fast the 
 little hand that lay imprisoned in his. 
 
 " Forget you ! oh, no," she said, her heart fluttering 
 wildly that moment against a little golden cross his 
 parting gilt, which had lain on her bosom all those 
 years. 
 
 There was a look of eager delight on his face at her 
 words. She saw it, and grew embarrassed. Withdraw- 
 ing her hand from his, she said, in a more composed 
 voice : 
 
 " When did you arrive ?" 
 
 "About a week ago. I would have gone to see you,
 
 276 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 
 
 but the weather was so disagreeable," he replied, with a 
 pang of regret and remorse for his neglect. 
 
 " Yes, so it was," said Celeste, sincerely; for, having 
 no morbid self-love to be wounded, his excuse seemed 
 the most natural thing in the world. 
 
 "And how is my old friend, Miss Hagar?" he asked, 
 drawing her arm within his, and leading her toward the 
 conservatory, now almost deserted. 
 
 " Oh, quite well. She will be delighted to see you." 
 
 " May I go and see her to-morrow, sweet Celeste ?" 
 
 " Certainly you may. We will both be very glad to 
 see you," answered Celeste, delightedly. 
 
 " She is certainly a paragon of simplicity. No woman 
 of the world would say that," thought Louis, as he 
 glanced at her eager, happy face. 
 
 An exclamation from Celeste attracted his attention. 
 He looked up. Right before him stood Minnette, with 
 her glittering black eyes fixed upon them with a look so 
 fierce, so flamingly jealous, that he started back. 
 
 " Why, Minnette, what is the matter ? Are you ill ?" 
 asked Celeste, in alarm. 
 
 She would have turned away without answering ; but 
 the dark eye of Louis was upon her, and she replied, 
 coldly : 
 
 " I am perfectly well. Excuse me ; I fear I have in- 
 terrupted a pleasant tete-a-tete." 
 
 And, with one fierce, scorching glance at Celeste, she 
 turned, and hurried away. 
 
 Celeste shuddered ; something in the dark, passionate 
 face of Minnette frightened her. Her companion per- 
 ceived it well he understood the cause ; and with 
 matchless tact he drew her mind from the subject to fix 
 it on himself. 
 
 During the evening he devoted himself assiduously 
 to Celeste. With her he danced ; on his arm she leaned
 
 "TffE OLD, OLD STORY." 277 
 
 in the promenade ; by his side she sat at table. Stand- 
 ing alone and neglected by herself, Minnette saw it all ; 
 and, had looks power to kill, those flaming glances of 
 fire would have stricken her rival dead. 
 
 It was near morning when the party broke up. 
 Celeste who always shared Gipsy's room when at the 
 Hall sought her couch, and soon closed her weary blue 
 eyes in blissful slumbers. 
 
 That night, in the dreams of Louis, the dark, resplen- 
 dent face of MiniKtte was forgotten for a white-robed 
 vision with a haunting pair of blue eyes. And Min- 
 nette in the calm light of the stars, she trod up and 
 down her apartment until morning broke over the hill- 
 tops, with a wild anguish at her heart she had never be- 
 fore known. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 " THE OLD, OLD STORY." 
 
 " I have loved thee, thou gentlest, from a child, 
 And borne thine image with me o'er the sea 
 Thy soft voice in my soul ! Speak ! oh, yet live for me !" 
 
 REMANS. 
 
 GAY party gathered around the breakfast- 
 table at Sunset Hall the next morning. 
 
 There was Mrs. Oranmore fair, fragile, 
 but still pretty ; then Mrs. Gower, over- 
 shadowing the rest with her large propor- 
 tions until they all shrank into skeletons beside her, 
 with the exception of the squire, who was in a state of 
 roaring good humor. There was Mrs. Doctor Nicholas 
 Wiseman our own little Gipsy as usual, all life, bus-
 
 278 "THE OLD, OLD STORY." 
 
 tie and gayety, keeping up a constant fire of repartee 
 laughing and chatting unceasingly, poor little elf ! to 
 drown thought. 
 
 Then there was Louis gay, gallant and handsome 
 setting himself and everybody else at ease by his stately 
 courtesy and polished manners. By his side sat our 
 favorite Celeste, fair and fresh, and bright as a rosebud, 
 smiling and blushing at the compliments showered upon 
 her. And last, there sat Minnette, pale, and cold, and 
 silent, with the long, black lashes falling over her eyes 
 to hide the dusky fire that filled them. 
 
 " I wish you would stay all day with us, Celeste," 
 said Mrs. Oranmore. " I always feel twice as well when 
 I can look upon your bright face. It seems to me you 
 must have drank at the fountain of beauty and youth." 
 
 " In that I agree with you, madam," said Louis. 
 
 Minnette bit her lip till the blood started. 
 
 "Oh! I really cannot stay, Mrs. Oranmore," said 
 Celeste, blushing vividly. " Miss Hagar is always very 
 lonely during my absence ; and besides " 
 
 " You are engaged to make gowns and nightcaps for 
 all the old women of the parish ! I know all about it," 
 broke in Gipsy. " Formerly / used to be prime favorite 
 in St. Mark's ; but since our return from school I am 
 thrown aside like an old shoe, to make room for your 
 ladyship I'll leave it to the world in general if I 
 wasn't quoted as an oracle on every occasion. There 
 wasn't a baby spanked, nor an old dress turned upside 
 down, but I was consulted about it. Now, just look at 
 the difference ; it's Miss Celeste here, and Miss Celeste 
 there, and Miss Celeste everywhere ; while I'm nothing 
 but a poor, dethroned, misfortunate little wretch ! I 
 won't put up with it I just won't. I'll leave it to my 
 daughter-in-law over there, if it isn't unbearable."
 
 "THE OLD, OLD STORY.'' 279 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! What do you say, Miss Wiseman ?" 
 said the squire, laughing. 
 
 "I know nothing about it," coldly replied Minnette. 
 
 "And care less, I suppose," said Gipsy. "That's just 
 the way ! Even my own children treat me with disre- 
 spect. Well, never mind ; perhaps the tables will turn 
 yet." 
 
 " I am to attend you home, am I not, Celeste ?" said 
 Louis, in a low voice, as they arose from the table. 
 
 "I am sure I do not know. I suppose you may, if 
 you wish," she replied, ingenuously. 
 
 "Oh, go, by all means," said Gipsy, who overheard 
 them. " Anything to keep them away from Minnette," 
 she muttered inwardly. 
 
 Accordingly, shortly after the carriage was brought 
 round. Louis handed Celeste in, took the reins, and 
 drove off, unconscious that Minnette, from her chamber 
 window, was watching them, with a look that would have 
 appalled him had he seen it. 
 
 That drive home to what an unheard-of length was 
 it prolonged ! Had he been training his horses for a 
 funeral, Louis could not have driven them slower. He 
 had so many things to tell her ; wild yet beautiful Ger- 
 man legends of the glorious skies of glorious Italy of 
 the vine-clad hills of sunny Spain of gay, gorgeous 
 Paris and of the happy homes of " merrie England." 
 And Celeste, lying back among the cushions, with half- 
 closed eyes, drank in his low-toned, eloquent words 
 listened to the dangerous music of his voice with a 
 feeling unspeakably delicious, but hitherto unknown. 
 She saw not the burning glances of his dark eyes, as 
 they rested on her fair face, but yielded herself up to his 
 magnetic influence without attempting to analyze her 
 feelings.
 
 2 8o " THE OLD, OLD STORY." 
 
 They reached Valley Cottage all too soon. Louis 
 handed her out, and entered the cottage after her. 
 
 Miss Hagar sat in her old seat, as though she had 
 never moved from it. 
 
 " Good-morning, dear Miss Hagar," said Celeste, 
 kissing her so affectionately that Louis inwardly wished 
 he could become an old woman forthwith. " See I have 
 brought a stranger home with me." 
 
 Louis stood smiling before her. She raised her sol- 
 emn, prophetic gray eyes to his face, with a long, earnest 
 gaze. 
 
 "Louis Oranmore !" she exclaimed "welcome 
 home !" 
 
 He raised the withered hand she extended so respect- 
 fully to his lips that a radiant glance of gratitude from 
 the blue eyes of Celeste rewarded him. 
 
 How that morning slipped away, Louis could never 
 tell ; but seated, talking to Miss Hagar, with his eyes 
 fixed on the rosy fingers of Celeste Hying with redoubled 
 velocity to make up for what was lost, he " took no 
 note of time," until the little clock on the mantel struck 
 two. 
 
 " By Jove ! so it is !" exclaimed Louis, horrified at his 
 prolonged visit. " What will they think of me at home ?" 
 
 " Stay and .take dinner with us," said Miss Hagar, 
 hospitably. 
 
 He hesitated, and glanced at Celeste. 
 
 " Pray do," she said, lifting her sunshiny face with 
 an enchanting smile. 
 
 Inwardly rejoicing, he consented ; and the long sum- 
 mer afternoon vanished as the morning had done un- 
 noticed. 
 
 " I fear your cottage is enchanted, Miss Hagar," he 
 said, laughingly, as he at last arose to go ; "I find it 
 next to impossible to tear myself away from it. Or
 
 " THE OLD, OLD STORY." 281 
 
 perhaps there is some magnet concealed that keeps peo- 
 ple here against their will." 
 
 Miss Hagar smiled good-humoredly, and invited 
 him to repeat his visit an invitation, it is unnecessary 
 to say, the young gentleman condescended to accept. 
 
 Celeste accompanied him to the door. As they 
 passed out, he said : 
 
 " On this very spot we parted years ago. Do you re- 
 member that parting, Celeste ?" 
 
 " Yes," she said, softly, while her fair face grew crim- 
 son as she remembered how wildly she had wept and 
 clung to his neck then. 
 
 He read what was passing in her mind, and smiled 
 slightly. 
 
 " Your farewell gift, that shining ring of gold, I have 
 kept ever since, as a talisman against all evil," he said, 
 with a slight twinge of conscience as he remembered 
 where it was at the bottom of one of his trunks, with 
 some scores of other tresses, severed from other fair 
 heads, their owners long since forgotten. 
 
 "I am glad you did not forget me during your ab- 
 sense," said Celeste, feeling very much confused, and 
 not knowing very well what she was expected to reply. 
 
 " Forget you, Celeste ! Who could ever do so after 
 beholding you once ?" Then, seeing how painfully she 
 was embarrassed, he turned gayly away, saying : 
 " Good-bye, fairest Celeste ! When shall we meet again ?" 
 
 "I know not. Next Sunday, at church, perhaps." 
 
 " As if I could exist so long without seeing my fair 
 Star of the Valley ! May I not come to-morrow, 
 Celeste ?" 
 
 " Yes, if you will bring Gipsy." 
 
 " Oh, never mind Gipsy ! She will most probably 
 be ' over the hills and far away' long before I open my 
 eyes on this mortal life in the morning. Therefore, to-
 
 282 "THE OLD, OLD STORY." 
 
 morrow will behold me once more by the side of my 
 liege lady." 
 
 And bowing lightly, he sprang into the saddle and 
 galloped off, followed by Celeste's eyes until he was out 
 of sight. 
 
 The gloaming was falling when he reached Sunset 
 Hall. He entered the parlor. It was dark and un- 
 tenanted, save by a slender, black-robed figure, seated by 
 the window, as motionless as a statue. It was Minnette 
 her white hands clasped tightly together, and resting 
 on the window-sill, her forehead leaned upon them, her 
 long black hair falling in disorder over her shoulders. 
 
 A pang of remorse shot through his heart at the 
 sight of that despairing figure. He went over and laid 
 his hand gently on her arm. 
 
 " Minnette !" he said, softly. 
 
 At the sound of that loved voice, at the touch of that 
 dear hand, she started up, and, flinging back her long 
 hair, confronted him, with such a white, haggard face, 
 such wild, despairing eyes, that involuntarily he started 
 back. 
 
 "Dear Minnette, what is the matter ?" he said, gently 
 taking her hnnd. 
 
 She wrenched it from his grasp, with a bitter cry, and 
 sinking back into a seat, covered her face with her 
 hands. 
 
 "Minnette, are you ill? What is the matter?" he 
 asked, afraid to accept the answer that his own heart 
 gave. 
 
 " The matter !" she cried, bitterly. " Oh, you may 
 ask ! You do not know. You were not by my side from 
 morning till night, whispering your wily words into my 
 ear, until this fair, this angelic, Celeste came ! You do 
 not know what it is to have led a cold, loveless life, 
 until some one came and won all the wealth of love that
 
 "THE OLD, OLD STORY." 283 
 
 had all your days lain dormant, and then cast it back as 
 a worthless gift at your feet ! You do not know what it 
 'is to discover first you have a heart by its aching ! Oh, 
 no ! All this is unknown to you. ' 111 !' " 
 
 She laughed wildly. 
 
 " Minnette ! Minnette ! do not talk so passionately ! 
 In the name of heaven, what have I done ?" 
 
 " Done !" she repeated, springing fiercely to her feet. 
 " No need to ask what you have done ! Was not this 
 heart marble harder than marble ay, or granite till 
 you came? Did you not read it as you would an open 
 book ? Did you not strike the rock with a more power- 
 ful wand than that of Moses, and did not all the flood of 
 life and love spring forth at your command ? You never 
 said in so many words : ' I love you/ Oh, no you took 
 care not to commit yourself ; but could I not read it in 
 every glance of your eye. Yes, deny it if you will, you 
 did love me, under this fair-faced seraph this ' stray 
 angel,' as I heard you call her came, and then, for the 
 first new face, I was cast aside as worthless. I was too 
 easy a conquest for this modern hero ; and for this artful 
 little hypocrite for her pink cheeks, her blue eyes, and 
 yellow hair the heart that loves you ten thousand times 
 more than she can ever do, is trampled under foot ! But 
 I tell you to beware, Louis Oranmore ; for if I am a 
 ' tigress,' as you often called me in my childhood, I can 
 tear and rend in pieces all those who will cause my 
 misery." 
 
 She looked like some beautiful fiend, in her fierce 
 outburst of stormy passion ; her face livid, save two 
 dark purple spots on either cheek ; her eyes flaming, 
 blazing ; her lips, white ; her wild black hair falling like 
 avail of darkness around her white face. 
 
 " Minnette dear Minnette I" like a magic spell his 
 low-toned words fell on her maddened spirit "you are
 
 284 "THE OLD, OLD STORY." 
 
 mistaken. I never loved you as you fancy ; I admired 
 your beauty. I might have loved you, but I well knew 
 the fierce, jealous nature that lay smoldering in your 
 heart, under the living coals of your passions. Minnette, 
 the woman I love must be gentle and womanly, for that 
 means all ; the fawn, not the lioness, suits me. Ex- 
 tremes meet, they say ; and my own nature is too hot, 
 passionate, and fiery, ever to mate with a spirit like to 
 itself. In Celeste, gentle, tender, and dove-like sit 
 still, Minnette, you must hear me out." He held her 
 down, writhing in anguish, by the force of his stronger 
 will. " In her, I say, I find all that I would ask of a 
 woman. Therefore my heart was drawn toward her. 
 Had I found the same qualities in you, I would have 
 loved you, instead of her. And now, dear Minnette, for- 
 give me if I have occasioned you pain ; but for your 
 own peace of mind, it was necessary that I should tell 
 you this." 
 
 She was quivering, writhing in intense anguish, 
 crouching in her seat in a strange, distorted attitude of 
 utter despair. His eyes were full of deep pity as he 
 gazed upon her. 
 
 " Minnette, do you forgive me ?" he said, coming 
 over and trying to raise her head. 
 
 " Oh, leave me leave me !" was her reply, in a voice 
 so full of intense suffering that he started. 
 
 " Only say you forgive me." 
 
 " Never ! May God never forgive me if I do !" she 
 cried, with such appalling fierceness that he quailed be- 
 fore her. " Leave me, I tell you !" she cried, stamping 
 her foot, " leave me before I go mad !" 
 
 He quitted the room : and Minnette was alone, with 
 her own uncontrolled passions for company. The agony 
 of ages seemed to be concentrated into those moments ;
 
 "THE OLD, OLD STORY." 285 
 
 every fiber of her heart seemed tearing from its place, 
 and lay quivering and bleeding in her bosom. 
 
 Weeks passed. Day after day found Louis at Val- 
 ley Cottage, reading and talking, or walking with Ce- 
 leste. And she there was no mistaking that quick 
 flushing, that involuntary smile, that sudden brightening 
 of the eye, at the sound of his footstep or the tones of 
 his voice. Yes, the Star of the Valley was wooed and 
 won. And all this time Minnette sat in her own room, 
 alone, wrapped in her own gloomy thoughts as in a man- 
 tle the same cold, impassible Minnette as ever. Yet 
 there was a lurid lightning, a blazing fire, at times, in 
 her eye, that might have startled any one had it been 
 seen. 
 
 One bright moonlight night in July Louis and Ce- 
 leste were wandering slowly along the rocky path lead- 
 ing to the cottage. Even in the moonlight could be seen 
 the bright flush that overspread her fair face, as she lis- 
 tened, with drooping head and downcast eyes, to his low, 
 love-toned words. 
 
 " And so you love me, my sweet Celeste, better than 
 all the world ?" he asked softly. 
 
 " Oh, yes !" was the answer, almost involuntarily 
 breathed. 
 
 ' And you will be my wife, Celeste ?" 
 
 " Oh, Louis ! Your grandfather will never consent." 
 
 "And if he does not, what matter?" cried Louis, im- 
 petuously. " I am my own master, and can marry whom 
 I please." 
 
 " Louis Louis ! do not talk so. I would ^never 
 marry you against his will." 
 
 " You would not?"
 
 286 " THE OLD, OLD STOR Y." 
 
 "No, certainly not. It would be wrong, you know." 
 
 " Wrong ! How would it be wrong, Celeste ? I am 
 sure my mother would not object ; and as for him, what 
 right has he to interfere with my marriage ?" 
 
 " Oh, Louis ! you know he has a guardian's right a 
 parent's right to interfere. Besides," she added, blush- 
 ing, " we are both too young to be married. Time 
 enough these seven years." 
 
 "Seven years !" echoed Louis, laughing ; " why, that 
 would be as bad as Jacob and Rachel. Wasn't that 
 the name ? Come, my dear Celeste, be reasonable. I 
 cannot wait seven years, though very likely you could. 
 During all those long years of absence the remembrance 
 of you has cheered my loneliest hours. I looked for- 
 ward impatiently to the time when I might return and 
 see my Star of the Valley again. And now that I 
 have come, you tell me to wait seven years ! Say, Ce- 
 leste, may I not ask my grandfather and if he con- 
 sents, will you not be mine ?" 
 
 " I don't know I'll think about it," said Celeste, tim- 
 idly. 
 
 " And I know how that thinking will end. Here we 
 are at the cottage. Good-night, my little white dove ! 
 To-morrow I will see you, and tell you his decision." 
 
 One parting embrace, and he turned away. Celeste 
 stood watching him until he was out of sight, then 
 turned to enter the cottage. As she did so, an iron grasp 
 was laid on her shoulder, and a hoarse, fierce voice 
 cried : 
 
 " Stop !" 
 
 Celeste turned, and almost shrieked aloud, as she 
 beheld Minnette standing like a galvanized corpse be- 
 fore her.
 
 THE RIVALS. 287 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE RIVALS. 
 
 'All other passions have their hour of thinking, 
 And hear the voice of reason. This alone 
 Breaks at the first suspicion into frenzy, 
 And sweeps the soul in tempests." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 OR a moment the rivals stood silently con- 
 fronting each other Celeste pale and trem- 
 bling before that dark, passionate glance ; 
 Minnette white and rigid, but with scorching, 
 burning eyes. 
 
 " Minnette, what is the matter ?" said Celeste, at last 
 finding voice. " Good heavens ! you look as though 
 you were crazed." 
 
 "Crazed !" hissed Minnette through her teeth. "You 
 consummate little hypocrite ! Your conduct, no doubt, 
 should make me very cool and composed. Girt, I say 
 to you, beware ! Better for you you had never been 
 born, than live to cross my path !" 
 
 Her voice was hoarse with concentrated passion her 
 small hands clenched until the nails sank into the quiv- 
 ering flesh. With a shudder, Celeste covered her face 
 in her hands to shut out the scathing glance of those 
 dark, gleaming eyes. 
 
 "Oh, Minnette ! dear Minnette ! do not look at me 
 so. Your eyes kill me," she said, with a shiver. 
 
 " Would to Heaven they could !" fiercely exclaimed 
 Minnette. 
 
 "Oh, Minnette! what have I done? If I have in- 
 jured you, I am very sorry. Indeed, indeed, it was unin-
 
 288 THE RIVALS. 
 
 tentional. I would sooner die than have any one hate 
 me !" said Celeste, clasping her hands imploringly. , 
 
 " Injured me !" almost shrieked Minnette, clutching 
 her arm so fiercely, that Celeste cried out with pain. 
 "Injured me, did you say? Yes the greatest injury 
 one woman can ever do another you have done me. 
 From early childhood you have crossed my path, and, 
 under your artfully assumed vail of simplicity, won the 
 love of the only being under heaven I ever cared for 
 won him with your silly smiles, your baby face, and 
 cowardly tears ; you, a poor, nameless beggar a de- 
 pendent on the bounty of others. Hate you! yes, from 
 the first moment I beheld you, I hated you with an in- 
 tensity you can never dream of until you feel the full 
 weight of my vengeance ; for I tell you I will be 
 avenged ; yes, I would peril my own soul, if by so do- 
 ing I could wreak still more dire revenge on your head. 
 I tell you, you began a dangerous game when you trifled 
 with me. I am no sickly, sentimental fool, to break my 
 heart jnd die no ; I shall drag down with me all who 
 have stood in my way, and then die, if need be, gloating 
 over the agonies I have made them suffer. Beware, I 
 tell you ; for no tigress, robbed of her young, can be 
 fiercer than this newly awakened heart !" 
 
 She hurled Celeste from her, as she ceased, with such 
 violence, that she reeled and fell ; and, striking her head 
 against a projecting stone, lay for some minutes stunned 
 and motionless. A dark stream of blood flowed slowly 
 from the wound ; and Minnette stood gazing upon it 
 with a fiendish smile on her beautiful face. Slowly, and 
 with difficulty, Celeste arose pressing her handkerchief 
 to her face to stanch the flowing blood ; and, lifting her 
 soft, pitying eyes to the wild, vindictive face above her, 
 she said : 
 
 "Minnette, I forgive you. You are crazed, and know
 
 THE RIVALS. 289 
 
 not what you do. But, oh ! Minnette, you wrong me. 
 I n*ver intentionally injured you never, as heaven is 
 my witness ! I have tried to love you as a sister always. 
 Never, never by word, or thought, or deed have I wil- 
 lingly given you a moment's pain. I would sooner cut 
 off my right hand than offend you. Oh, Minnette ! can 
 we never be friends ?" 
 
 "Friends!" repeated Minnette, with a wild laugh ; 
 "yes, when the serpent dwells with the dove ; when the 
 tiger mates with the lamb ; when two jealous woman 
 love each other then we will be friends. Perjure your- 
 self not before me. Though an angel from heaven were 
 to d scend to plead for you, I would neither forgive you 
 nor believe your words." 
 
 " What have I done to make you hate me so ?" 
 
 " You brazen hypocrite ! do you dare to ask me what 
 you have done ? He did, too ! A precious pair of in- 
 nocents, both of you !" said Minnette, with her bitter, 
 jeering laugh. " Little need to tell you what you have 
 done. Did you not win the love of Louis Oranmore 
 from me by your skillful machinations ? He loved me 
 before he saw you. You knew it ; and yet, from the 
 very first moment you beheld him, you set to work to 
 make him hate me. Do not deny it, you barefaced, art- 
 ful impostor ! Did I not hear you both to-night? and 
 was not the demon within me prompting me to spring 
 forward and Mab you both to the heart ? But my 
 vengeance, though delayed, shall be none the less sure, 
 and, when the time comes, woe to you and to him ; for 
 if I must perish, I shall not perish alone." 
 
 During this fierce, excited speech every word of 
 which had stabbed her to the heart Celeste had stag- 
 gered against a tree ; and, covering her face with her 
 hands, stood like one suddenly pierced by a sword ; 
 every word burned into her very brain like fire, as she 
 13
 
 290 THE RIVALS. 
 
 stood like one fainting dying. By a great effort, she 
 crushed back the flood of her emotions ; and when 
 Minnette ceased, she lifted up her face pale as death, 
 but firm and earnest. 
 
 " Minnette Wiseman," she said, in a voice of gentle 
 dignity, so unusual to her that the dark, passionate girl 
 gazed on her in astonishment, " as heaven hears me, I 
 am guilty of none of these things of which you accuse 
 me. If Louis Oranmore loved you, I knew it not, or. I 
 would not have listened to him ; if he won your heart, 
 I dreamed not of it, or he should never have won mine. 
 I thought you loved no one but yourself. I never 
 never dreamed you cared for him. For all the misery he 
 has caused us both, may heaven forgive him, as I do ! If 
 he loved you first, you have a prior claim to his heart. I 
 will tell him so to-morrow, and never listen to him more." 
 
 She strove to speak calmly to the end ; but at the 
 last her voice died away in a low tone of utter despair. 
 
 " Bah ! your acting disgusts me !" exclaimed Min- 
 nette, contemptuously. " Do you not suppose I can see 
 through this vail with which you would blind my eyes ? 
 You will tell him tormorrow, forsooth ! Yes, you will 
 tell him I came here to abuse you, and strike you, and 
 load you with vile epithets, and with what saint-like 
 patience you bore them. You will represent yourself as 
 such an injured innocent, and I as a monster of cruelty ; 
 you will tell him, when I smote you on one cheek, how 
 you turned the other. Faugh ! do not make me despise 
 you as well as hate you." 
 
 " You cannot despise me, Minnette ; you know you 
 cannot," said Celeste, with something like indignation 
 in her gentle voice, as her truth-beaming eye met un- 
 dauntedly the flashing orbs before her. " You know I 
 have spoken the truth. You know in your own heart I 
 am no hypocrite. Hate me if you will I cannot pre-
 
 THE RIVALS. 291 
 
 vent you ; but you shall not despise me. I have never 
 intentionally wronged you, and I never will. If Louis 
 Oranmore loves you as you say, I wish you both all 
 happiness. I shall no longer stand between you and his 
 heart." 
 
 " Oh ! wonderful heroism !" cried Minnette, in bitter 
 mockery. " You can well afford to say you give him up, 
 when you know he loves me no longer ; when you know 
 you have surely and unalterably won him to yourself. 
 Well do you know this pretended self-denial of yours 
 will elevate you a thousand times higher still in his esti- 
 mation, and make him love you far more than ever be- 
 fore. Oh ! you have learned your trade of deception 
 well. Pity all cannot see through it as I do. Think not 
 to deceive me as you have done so many others ; I, at 
 least, can see your shallow, selfish, eold-blooded heart." 
 
 " I will not stay to listen to your words, Minnette ; 
 they are too dreadful. Some day, perhaps, you will dis- 
 cover how you have wronged me. I am not deceiving 
 you ; he must give me up if what you say be true. I 
 will even go away if you wish it anywhere, so that you 
 may be satisfied. I will write and tell him, and never 
 see him more, if that will satisfy you." Her voice fal- 
 tered a little, but she went on ; "I will do anything 
 anything, Minnette, if you will only not call me such 
 terrible things. It is fearful horrible, to be hated so 
 without cause " 
 
 Minnette did not speak, but glared upon her with her 
 burning, flaming eyes. Two dark purple spots now 
 fading, now glowing vividly out burned on either 
 cheek ; otherwise, no snow-wreath was ever whiter than 
 her face. Her teeth were set hard ; her hands tightly 
 clenched ; her dark brows knit, as though about to 
 spring upon the speaker and rend her to pieces She 
 made one step toward her. With a piercing cry of
 
 292 . THE RIVALS. 
 
 terror, Celeste sprang away, darted through the garden 
 gate, flew up the jiarrow path, burst into the cottage, 
 closed and bolted the door, and sank, panting and almost 
 fainting, on the ground. 
 
 " Good heavens ! child, what is the matter?" asked 
 Miss Hagar, rising, in alarm. 
 
 " Oh ! save me save me from her !" was all Celeste 
 could utter. 
 
 " Save you from whom ? Who are you speaking of? 
 Who has frightened you so ?" inquired Miss Hagar, still 
 more astonished. 
 
 Celeste slowly rose from the ground, without speak- 
 ing. Consciousness was beginning to return, but she 
 was still stunned and bewildered. 
 
 " Merciful Father !" cried Miss Hagar, as Celeste 
 turned toward the light, " what has happened ?" 
 
 And truly she might exclaim, at beholding that deadly 
 pale face those wild, excited eyes the disheveled golden 
 hair the blood-stained, and torn and disordered dress. 
 
 " Nothing ! oh, nothing, nothing !" said Celeste, pass- 
 ing her hand slowly over her eyes, as if to clear away a 
 mist, and speaking in a slow, bewildered tone. 
 
 " But, child, there is something the matter !" insisted 
 Miss Hagar. " You look as though you were crazed, 
 and your face is stained with blood." 
 
 "Is it? I had forgotten," said Celeste, pushing her 
 hair vacantly off her wounded forehead. "It is nothing 
 at all, though. I do not feel it." 
 
 " But how did it happen ?" 
 
 " Oh ! why, I was frightened, and ran, and fell," 
 said Celeste, scarcely knowing what she said. 
 
 " What was it frightened you ?" pursued Miss Hagar, 
 wondering at her strange manner. 
 
 Celeste, without reply, sank upon a seat and pressed 
 her hands to her throbbing temples to collect her scat-
 
 THE RIVALS. 293 
 
 tered thoughts. She felt sick and dizzy unable to 
 think and speak coherently. Her head ached with the 
 intensity of her emotions; and her eyes felt dry and 
 burning. Her brow was hot and feverish with such vio- 
 lent and unusual excitement. Her only idea was to get 
 away to be alone that she might collect her wander- 
 ing senses. 
 
 "Miss Hagar," she said, rising, "I cannot tell you 
 what has happened. I must be alone to-night. To- 
 morrow, perhaps, I will tell you all." 
 
 " Any time you please, child," said Miss Hagar, 
 kindly. " Go to your room by all means. Good- 
 night." 
 
 " Good-night !" said Celeste, taking her lamp and 
 quitting the room. 
 
 She staggered as she walked. On reaching her room 
 she set the lamp on the table, and entwined her arms 
 above her head, which dropped heavily upon it. Unac- 
 customed to excitement of any kind, she felt more as if 
 heart and brain were on fire. Loving Louis with the 
 strong affection of her loving heart, the sudden disclos- 
 ure and jealous fury of Minnette stunned and stupefied 
 her for a time. So she lay for nearly an hour, unable to 
 think or realize what had happened only conscious of 
 a dull, dreary pain at her heart. Then the mist slowly 
 cleared away from her mental vision the fierce words of 
 Minnette danced in red, lurid letters before her eyes. She 
 started to her feet, and paced her chamber wildly. 
 
 " Oh ! why am I doomed to make others miserable ?" 
 she cried, wringing her hands. " Oh, Louis, Louis ! 
 why have you deceived me thus? What have I done 
 that I should suffer such misery? But it is wrong to 
 complain. I must not, will not murmur. I will not 
 reproach him for what he has done, but try to forget 
 him. May he be as happy with Minnette as I would
 
 294 THE RIVALS. 
 
 have striven to render him ! To-morrow I will see him, 
 and return all the gifts cherished for his sake ; to- 
 morrow I will bid him a last adieu ; to-morrow 
 but, oh! 1 cannot I cannot!" she exclaimed, pas- 
 sionately. "I cannot see him and bid him go. Oh, 
 Father of the fatherless ! aid me in my anguish !" 
 
 She fell on her knees by the bedside, and a wild, ear- 
 nest prayer broke from her tortured lips. 
 
 By degrees she grew calm ; her wild excitement died 
 away ; the scorching heat left her brain, and blessed 
 tears came to her aid. Long and bitterly she wept ; long 
 and earnestly she prayed no longer as one without 
 hope, but trustful and resigned, bending her meek head 
 to the blow of the chastening rod. 
 
 She arose from her knees, pale, but calm and re- 
 signed. 
 
 " I will not see him," she murmured. "Better for us 
 both I should never see him again ! I will write I will 
 tell him all and then all that is past must be forgotten. 
 In the creature I was forgetting the Creator; for the 
 worship of God I was substituting the worship of man ; 
 and my Heavenly Father, tempering justice with mercy, 
 has lifted me from the gulf into which I was falling, and 
 set me in the narrow way once more. Henceforth, no 
 earthly idol shall fill my heart ; to Him alone shall it be 
 consecrated ; and I will live on in the hope that there is 
 yet ' balm in Gilead ' for me." 
 
 It was very easy to speak thus, in the sudden reaction 
 from despair to joy very easy to talk in this way in the 
 excitement of the moment, after her heart had been re- 
 lieved by tears. She thought not of the wear)- days and 
 nights in the future, that would seem to have no end, 
 when her very soul would cry out in wild despair for 
 that " earthly idol " again. 
 
 And full of her resolution, with cheeks and eyes
 
 THE RIVALS. 295 
 
 glowing with the light of inspiration, she sat down at 
 the table, and, drawing pen and paper before her, began 
 to write. 
 
 A long, earnest, eloquent letter it was. She re- 
 signed him forever, bidding him be happy with Min- 
 nette, and forget and forgive her, and breathing the very 
 soul of sisterly love and forgiveness. Page after page 
 was filled, while her cheek flushed deeper, and her eyes 
 grew brighter, and her pen flew on as if inspired. 
 
 There, in the holy seclusion of her chamber, in the 
 solemn stillness of night, she made the total renuncia- 
 tion of him she loved best on earth, scarcely feeling now 
 she had lost him, in the lofty exaltation of her feelings. 
 
 It was finished at last. The pen dropped from her 
 hand, and she arose to seek for the few gifts he had ever 
 given her. A little golden locket, containing his like- 
 ness and a lock of his hair ; her betrothal-ring ; and the 
 oft-mentioned gold cross. That was all. 
 
 She opened the likeness, and through all her hero- 
 ism a wild, sharp thrill of anguish pierced her heart, as 
 she gazed on those calm, beautiful features. The sable 
 ring of hair twined itself round her fingers as though 
 unwilling to leave her ; but resolutely she replaced it, 
 and drew off the plain gold circlet of their betrothal, and 
 laid them side by side. Then her cross it had never 
 left her neck since the night he had placed it there. All 
 the old tide of love swelled back to her heart as she 
 gazed upon it. It seemed like rending her very heart- 
 strings to take it off. 
 
 "I cannot ! I cannot !" was her anguished cry, as her 
 arm dropped powerless on the table. 
 
 " You must ! you must ! it is your duty !" cried the 
 stern voice of conscience ; and, with trembling fingers 
 and blanched lips, the precious token was removed and 
 laid beside the others.
 
 296 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 
 
 Then, sealing them up, with one last, agonizing look, 
 such as we might bestow on the face of a dear friend 
 about to be consigned to the grave, she sealed and di- 
 rected the packet, and then threw herself on her bed 
 and pressed her hands over her eyes to hide out the 
 face of her dead. 
 
 But in spite of sorrow, sleep will visit the afflicted, 
 and a bright morning sunbeam fell like a halo on her 
 pale face, calm in sleep, and on the golden eyelashes, 
 still wet with undried tear-drops. 
 
 That same broad July sunbeam fell on Minnette 
 lying prone on her face in the damp pine woods, her 
 long, black hair and dark garments dropping with the 
 soaking dew. The dark, lonely woods had been her 
 couch the livelong night. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 
 
 "And by the watch-fire's gleaming light, 
 
 Close by his side was seen 
 A huntress maid in beauty bright 
 With airy robes of green." SCOTT. 
 
 T was early afternoon of that same day on 
 which the events related in the last chapter 
 occurred. Squire Erliston, in after-dinner 
 mood, sat in his arm-chair ; Louis lay idly 
 on a lounge at a little distance, and Gipsy sat 
 by the window, yawningly turning over a volume of 
 prints. Mrs. Oranmore, swathed in shawls, lounged on 
 her sofa, her prayerbook in her hand, taking a succession 
 of short naps.
 
 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 297 
 
 It was the squire's custom to go to sleep after dinner ; 
 but now, in his evident excitement, he seemed quite to 
 forget it altogether. 
 
 "Yes, sir," he was saying to Louis, "the scoundrel 
 actually entered the sheriff's house through the window, 
 and carried off more than a hundred dollars, right under 
 their very noses. It's monstrous ! it's outrageous ! 
 He deserves to be drawn and quartered for his villainy ! 
 And he will be, too, if he's taken. The country '11 soon 
 be overrun with just such rascals, if the scoundrel isn't 
 made an example of." 
 
 " Of whom are you speaking, papa?" inquired Lizzie, 
 suddenly walking up. 
 
 " Of one of Drummond's negroes a perfect ruffian ; 
 Big Tom, they call him. He's fled to the woods, and 
 only makes his appearance at night. He stabbed young 
 Drummond himself ; and since then, he's committed all 
 sorts of depredations. Simms, the sheriff, came down 
 yesterday with constables to arrest them ; and during the 
 night, the scoundrel actually had the audacity to enter 
 the sheriff's window, and decamped with a hundred dol- 
 lars before they could take him. He met one of the con- 
 stables in the yard as he was going out. The constable 
 cried ' murder,' and seized him ; but Big Tom who is a 
 regular giant just lifted him up and hurled him over 
 the wall, where he fell upon a heap of stones, breaking 
 his collar-bone, two of his legs, 'and the rest of his ribs,' 
 as Solomon says. The constable's not expected to live ; 
 and Big Tom got off to his den in safety with his booty." 
 
 " Why do they not scour the woods in a body ?" in- 
 quired Louis. 
 
 " So they did ; but bless your soul ! it's like look- 
 ing for a needle in a hay-stack couldn't find him any- 
 where." 
 
 " Oh ! it was capital fun !" said Gipsy, laughing, " it 
 13*
 
 298 GIPSY" HUNTS NEW GAME. 
 
 reminded me of ' hide-and-go-seek' more than anything 
 else. Once or twice they caught sight of me through the 
 bushes, and taking me for poor Tom, came pretty near 
 firing on me. Simms made them stop, and called to me 
 to surrender to the law, or I'd repent it. Accordingly, I 
 surrendered, and rode out, and my goodness ! if they 
 didn't look blue when they saw me ! I burst right out 
 laughing in their face, and made Simms so mad that I 
 guess he wished he had let his men shoot me. Oh ! didn't 
 I have a jolly time, though! I took them, by various 
 artifices, miles out of their way generally leaving them 
 half-swamped in a bog, or in some pathless part of the 
 woods until Simms lost all patience, and swore till he 
 was black in the face, and rode home in a towering pas- 
 sion, all covered with mud, and his fine city clothes torn 
 to tatters. Ha, ha, ha ! I guess I enjoyed it, if they 
 didn't." 
 
 " As mischievous as ever !" exclaimed the squire. 
 "Pretty way, that, to treat the officers of the law in the 
 discharge of their duty ! How will you like it, if that 
 black demon comes here some night, and murders us all 
 in our beds?" 
 
 Lizzie uttered a stifled shriek at the idea. 
 
 " I'm sure I'll be glad of it, if he only murders 
 Spider first, and so save me the trouble," said Gipsy. 
 
 " You're an affectionate wife, 'pon my word," mut- 
 tered Louis. 
 
 "Yes; but it's just like the diabolical young imp," 
 growled the squire. 
 
 "Thank you you're complimentary," muttered 
 Gipsy. 
 
 "Mind you," continued the squire, "while Big 
 Tom's at liberty you must leave off your rides through 
 the woods and over the hills because he might be the 
 death of you at any moment."
 
 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 299 
 
 " More likely I'd be the death of him. I never was 
 born to be killed by a ruffian." 
 
 "No ; for if the gallows had its dues " 
 
 " You wouldn't be here to-day," interrupted Gipsy. 
 
 "Come don't interrupt me, young woman. I posi- 
 tively forbid you or any one in this place riding oat 
 while Big Tom's roaming about." 
 
 " That's right, Guardy show your authority. Noth- 
 ing like keeping it up, you know. And now, as I'm off 
 to give Mignonne an airing, I'll think of your com- 
 mands by the way." 
 
 And the disobedient elf arose to leave the room. 
 
 " But, my dear, tantalizing little coz, it really is 
 dangerous," interrupted Louis. " If you were to en- 
 counter this gigantic negro, alone, it would be rather a 
 serious affair, I'm afraid." 
 
 "Bother !" exclaimed the polite and courteous Mrs. 
 Wiseman. " Do you s'pose I'm afraid Gipsy Gower 
 afraid! Whew! I like that! Make your mind easy, 
 my dear Louis. I could face a regiment on Mignonne's 
 back without flinching." 
 
 And Gipsy darted off to don her riding-habit, singing 
 as she went : 
 
 " Some love to roam 
 
 O'er the dark sea foam, 
 Where the shrill winds whistle free ; 
 
 But a chosen band 
 
 In the mountain land, 
 And a life in the woods for me." 
 
 Ten minutes afterward they saw her ride out of the 
 court-yard at her usual furious rate, and dash away over 
 the hills, where she was speedily out of sight. 
 
 Gipsy must have had some of the Arab in her na- 
 ture ; for she spent almost her whole life on horse-back. 
 She heeded not the flight of time, as she thundered
 
 300 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 
 
 along, riding in the most hazardous places sometimes 
 narrowly escaping being dashed to pieces over preci- 
 pices sometimes leaping yawning chasms that would 
 make many a stout hunter's head giddy. The excite- 
 ment was a part a necessity of her nature. The almost 
 stagnant life in the village would have driven the hot- 
 headed, impetuous girl wild, but for the mad excitement 
 of the chase. Brave as a young lioness bold and free 
 as the eagle of her native mountains she scorned fear, 
 and sought danger as others do safety. She knew it was 
 putting her head into the lion's mouth to venture alone 
 into this wild, unfrequented region, within arm's length 
 of a desperate villain, hunted down like a furious beast ; 
 yet the idea of not venturing here never once entered 
 her mad little head. 
 
 It was growing dark before Gipsy began to think of 
 turning her steps homeward. Reluctantly she turned 
 her horse's head, and set out for Mount Sunset half re- 
 gretting she had met with no adventure worth relating 
 on her return. 
 
 As she rapidly galloped along she discovered she had 
 ridden much farther than she had intended, and that it 
 would be late ere she reached the hall. The dim star- 
 light alone guided her path ; for the moon had not yet 
 risen. But Mignonne was so well accustomed to the 
 road that he could have found his way in the dark ; and 
 Gipsy rode on gayly, humming to herself a merry hunt- 
 ing-chorus. 
 
 Suddenly a gleam of light from between the trees 
 flashed across their path. Mignonne, like his mistress, 
 being only a half-tamed thing at best, reared suddenly 
 upright, and would have dashed off at headlong speed, 
 had not Gipsy held the reins with a grasp of iron. 
 Her strength was wonderful for a creature so small and 
 slight ; but her vigorous exercise had given her thews
 
 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 301 
 
 and muscles of steel. Mignonne felt he was in the hand 
 of a master-spirit, and after a few fierce bounds and 
 plunges, stood still and surrendered. 
 
 Rapidly alighting, Gipsy bound her horse securely, 
 and then stole noiselessly through the trees. The cause 
 of the light was soon discovered ; and Gipsy beheld a 
 sight that, daring and fearless as she was, for a moment 
 froze the very blood in her veins. 
 
 A small semicircle was before her, in the center of 
 which the remains of a fire still glowed, casting a hot, 
 reddish glare around. By its lurid light the huge figure 
 of a gigantic negro, whose hideous face was now fright- 
 fully convulsed with rage. On her knees at his feet was 
 a woman, whom he grasped with one hand by the throat, 
 and with the other brandished over her head a long, 
 murderous knife. The sight for a moment left Gipsy's 
 eyes, and her very heart ceased beating. Then, with the 
 rapidity of lightning, she drew a pistol, aimed and 
 fired. 
 
 One second more and she would have been too late. 
 With the shriek of a madman the huge negro leaped into 
 the air, and bounded to where she stood. She turned to 
 fly, but ere she had advanced a yard she was in the furi- 
 ous grasp of the wounded monster. His red eyes were 
 like balls of fire, he foamed, he roared with rage and 
 pain, as with one huge hand he raised the slight form of 
 Gipsy to dash out her brains. 
 
 In that moment of deadly peril the brave girl was as 
 cool and self-possessed as though she were seated in 
 safety in her guardian's parlor. A gleaming knife was 
 stuck in his belt. Quick as thought she drew it out, 
 and, concentrating all her strength, she plunged it in 
 his breast. 
 
 The hot blood spurted in a gush up in her face. 
 Without a cry the ruffian reeled, his hand relaxed, and
 
 302 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 
 
 Gipsy sprang from his grasp just as he fell heavily to 
 the ground. 
 
 Gipsy staggered against a tree, with a deadly inclina- 
 tion to swoon coming over her. She covered her face 
 with her hands to hide the ghastly form of the huge 
 negro, lying weltering in his own blood before her. 
 She had taken a life ; and though it was done in self-de- 
 fense, and to save the life of another, it lay on her 
 heart like lead. 
 
 The thought of that other at length aroused her to 
 action. Darting through the trees she approached the 
 fire. The woman lay on the ground, senseless, and half 
 strangled. The firelight, as it fell upon her, showed the 
 face and form of an old woman, upward of fifty, poorly 
 clad, and garments half torn off in the scuffle. 
 
 The sight restored Gipsy to her wonted composure. 
 Kneeling down, she began chafing the old woman's 
 hands and temples with an energy that soon restored 
 her to consciousness. She opened her eyes and glared 
 for a moment wildly around; then, as consciousness re- 
 turned, she uttered shriek upon shriek, making the forest 
 resound. 
 
 " Stop your screaming," said Gipsy, shaking her in 
 her excitement. " You're safe enough now. Stop, will 
 you. I tell you you're safe." 
 
 " Safe !" repeated the woman, wildly. " Oh, that 
 drefful nigger " 
 
 " He won't hurt you any more. Stop your noise, 
 and get up, and come with me !" said Gipsy, impa- 
 tiently. 
 
 " Oh ! Lor' a massey ! I can't git up. I'm all out o' 
 j'int. I'm dead entirely !" groaned the woman. 
 
 "Then I shall leave you here," said Gipsy, rising. 
 
 " Oh, don't leave me ! don't, for God's sake ! I'd
 
 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 303 
 
 die o' fear !" screamed the woman, grasping Gipsy's 
 dress. 
 
 " Then, you stupid old thing, get up and come along," 
 cried Gipsy, losing all patience, as she seized her with 
 no gentle hand, and pulled her to her feet. 
 
 <! Where '11 1 go ?" said the poor old creature, trem- 1 
 bling with mortal terror, evidently as much afraid of the 
 fierce little Amazon before her, as of the huge negro. 
 
 " This way," said Gipsy, pulling her along to where 
 stood her horse. " Now, get up there, and put your 
 arms around my waist, and hold on for your life." 
 
 " Oh ! dear me ! I never rid a horseback in my life, 
 and I'll fall off I know I will !" said the old woman, 
 wringing her hands in fresh distress. 
 
 " Well, I can't help it ; you'll have to make the at- 
 tempt, or stay here till I reach St. Mark's, and rouse up 
 the people. Which will you do ?" 
 
 " Oh ! I dassent stay. I'll go 'long with you, some- 
 how." 
 
 "Very well. Up with you then," said Gipsy, almost 
 lifting her into the saddle. " Now, I'll get on before 
 you, and mind, if you don't hold on well, you'll never 
 reach the village alive." 
 
 With the clutch of mortal fear, the old lady grasped 
 Gipsy round the waist, and held on for dear life, until 
 Mount Sunset was gained, when, more dead than alive, 
 she was assisted to alight, and consigned to the care of 
 the servants. 
 
 Louis, who had just returned from his interview with 
 Celeste, was in the parlor with the squire, meditating 
 how he should make his proposal, when Gipsy, pale, 
 wild, and disordered, her hair disheveled, and her gar- 
 ments dyed with blood, burst in upon them, electrifying 
 them with amazement. 
 
 Great was their consternation as they listened to the
 
 304 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 
 
 rapidly-told tale. There was no time left to congratulate 
 her on her narrow escape, for she impetuously com- 
 manded Louis to mount immediately and take three or 
 four of the servants to bring away the body. 
 
 With a rapidity almost as great as her own, her coun- 
 sels were obeyed, and Gipsy, with Louis beside her, 
 started back to the scene of the catastrophe, followed by 
 four of the servants. 
 
 They reached the spot at last, and Gipsy drew back 
 in dismay as she discovered the body was gone. 
 
 " Who can have carried it off ?" she exclaimed, 
 aghast. 
 
 "I rather think he has carried himself off," said 
 Louis, who had been attentively examining the ground. 
 
 "Oh, impossible ! He was dead, I tell you just as 
 dead as ever he could be," said Gipsy. 
 
 " Well, dead or not, he has made his escape," said 
 Louis. " See, the grass is dyed with blood all along, 
 showing the way he has gone. Come, the trail is plain 
 enough, let us follow it." 
 
 All dismounted and followed Louis. Not far had 
 they to go, for lying by the fire was the burly form of 
 the negro. He had evidently, with much difficulty, 
 dragged himself thus far, and then sank down exhausted. 
 
 He rolled his glaring eyes fiercely on the faces bend- 
 ing over him, and gnashed his teeth in impotent rage as 
 he saw Gipsy. 
 
 "Thank God ! I have not killed him !" was her first 
 fervent ejaculation. Then, while Louis and the ser- 
 vants began making a sort of litter, she knelt beside 
 him, and strove to stanch the flowing blood, undeterred 
 by the wild, ferocious glare of his fiery eyes. 
 
 " Now, Tom, look here," said Gipsy, as she com- 
 posedly went on with her work, " there's no use in your 
 looking daggers at me that way, because it don't alarm
 
 GIPSY HUNTS NEW GAME. 305 
 
 me a bit. You needn't be mad at me either, for though 
 I fired on you first, it was to save the life of an old 
 woman, who might have been a loss to the world ; and 
 if I made use of your knife afterward, it was to save 
 the life of Mrs. Doctor Nicholas Wiseman, who would 
 have been a greater loss still. So you see I couldn't 
 help myself, and you may as well look at the matter in 
 the same light." 
 
 By this time the rest came back with a sort of litter ; 
 and groaning and writhing with pain, the heavy form of 
 the wounded giant was lifted on their shoulders, and 
 borne toward the village, where it was consigned to the 
 care of the sheriff, who was thunderstruck when he heard 
 of Gipsy's daring. 
 
 On their return to Sunset Hall, they learned from the 
 old woman, who seemed threatened with a severe illness, 
 how it had all occurred. 
 
 She was a " poor, lone woman," she said a widow, 
 named Mrs. Donne, living by herself for ten odd years, 
 in a little cottage beyond St. Mark's. 
 
 She was reputed to be rich a rumor she never con- 
 tradicted, as it made her neighbors treat her with distinc- 
 tion, in the hope that she would remember them in her 
 will. 
 
 Big Tom, hearing the rumor, and believing it, came 
 to her cottage, and demanded money. She had none to 
 give him, and told him so, which exasperated him be- 
 yond measure. He threatened to kill her if she persisted 
 in refusing, and gagged her to stifle her cries. Then, 
 finding her still obstinate, he carried her off with him to 
 the spot where Gipsy had found them, and again offered 
 her her life if she would deliver up her money. Still 
 she was forced to refuse, and maddened with rage and 
 disappointment, he was about to murder her, when Gipsy 
 providentially appeared, and saved her life.
 
 306 CELESTE 'S TRIAL. 
 
 Not without many interruptions was this story told ; 
 and ere it was concluded, Mrs. Donne was in a high 
 fever. Gipsy installed herself as nurse, and listened in 
 wonder and surprise to her raving of infants left to per- 
 ish in snow-storms, and her wild words of sorrow and 
 remorse for some past crime. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 CELESTE'S TRIAL. 
 
 "This morn is merry June, I trow, 
 
 The rose is budding fain ; 
 But she shall bloom in winter snow, 
 
 Ere we two meet again. 
 He turned his charger as he spoke, 
 
 Upon the river shore ; 
 He gave the reins a shake, and said, 
 
 Adieu forevermore, 
 My love ! 
 
 Adieu forevermore." 
 
 ARRY Celeste Pearl ! a girl without a 
 farthing ! a beggar ! a foundling ! I'm 
 astonished, thunderstruck, speechless, sir, at 
 your audacity in proposing such a thing ! I 
 have objections, sir most <&-cided objec- 
 tions, sir ! Don't ever let me hear you mention such a 
 thing again !" 
 
 And Squire Erliston stamped up and down, red with 
 rage and indignation. 
 
 Louis stood with darkening brows, flashing eyes, and 
 folded arms, before him outwardly quiet, but compres-
 
 CELESTE 'S TRIAL. 307 
 
 sing his lips to keep down the fiery tide of his rising 
 passion. 
 
 "What are your objections, sir?" he asked, with 
 forced calmness. 
 
 " Objections ! Why, sir, there's so many objections 
 that I can't enumerate them. First place, she hasn't a 
 cent ; second, nobody knows who or what she is ; third, 
 she'll never do for my granddaughter-in-law. There- 
 fore, sir, please drop the subject ; I never want to hear 
 anything more about it for I shouldn't consent if you 
 were to plead on your knees. The girl's a good girl 
 enough in her place, but she won't do for the wife of 
 Louis Oranmore. What, sir, consent that you, the heir 
 to the richest fended estate this side the north pole, 
 should marry a poor, unknown beggar-girl, who has lived 
 all her life on the charity of others ! No, sir, never !" 
 said the squire, furiously, flinging himself into his chair, 
 and mopping his inflamed visage. 
 
 The face of Louis was white with suppressed rage, 
 and with an expression of ungovernable anger, he burst 
 from the room. In his fierce excitement he saw not 
 whither he went, until he ran full against Totty, who was 
 entering, with a letter in her hand. 
 
 " Lor', Mas'r Lou, how you scare me ! You like to 
 knock me upside down. Hi ! here's a 'pistle for you, 
 what Curly, old Miss Ager's gal, brought over, an' told 
 me her young Miss 'Sless sent you." 
 
 " From Celeste," exclaimed Louis, snatching it from 
 her hand and tearing it open. His gifts fell to the floor ; 
 and scarcely able to believe his senses, he read its con- 
 tents his brow growing darker and darker as he read. 
 He crushed it fiercely in his hand as he finished, and 
 paced up and down the long hall like a madman. 
 
 " And such is woman's love !" he exclaimed, with a 
 scornful laugh. " She gives me up, and bids me be
 
 3 o8 CELESTE 'S TRIAL. 
 
 happy with Minnette. What drove that jealous girl to 
 love me ; and to make Celeste believe I loved her first ? 
 Everything seems to cross my path this mad girl's pas- 
 sion, and my grandfather's obstinate refusal. Well, she 
 shall be mine, in spite of fate. I will marry her pri- 
 vately, and take her with me to Italy. Yes, that is the 
 only plan. I will ride over to the cottage, and obtain 
 her consent ; and then, let those I leave behind do 
 as they will, my happiness will be complete." 
 
 So saying, he quitted the house, mounted his horse, 
 and rode rapidly toward the cottage. 
 
 Celeste was in the garden, binding up a broken rose- 
 bush looking paler, but lovelier than ever. She uttered 
 a half-stifled cry as she saw him, and the last trace of 
 color faded from her face as he leaped from his horse 
 and stood beside her. 
 
 "Celeste, what means this?" he demanded, impetu- 
 ously. " Do you really believe this tale told you by 
 Minnette ?" 
 
 " Oh, Louis, is it not true ?" exclaimed Celeste, clasp- 
 ing her hands. 
 
 " True ! Celeste, Celeste ! do you take me to be such 
 a villain ? As heaven hears me, I never spoke a word of 
 love to her in my life !" 
 
 This was true in the letter, but not in the spirit. He 
 had never spoken of love to Minnette, but he had looked 
 it often enough. 
 
 "Thank heaven !" exclaimed Celeste, impulsively, 
 while she bowed her face in her hands and wept. 
 
 " Dear Celeste," said Louis, drawing her gently 
 toward him, " do you retract those cruel words you have 
 written ? You will not give me up, will you ?" 
 
 " Oh, no ! not now" replied Celeste, yielding to his 
 embrace. "Oh, Louis, what do you suppose made Min- 
 nette say such dreadful things to me last night ?"
 
 CELESTE 'S TRIAL. 309 
 
 "Because I beg you will not think me conceited, 
 dearest she fancies she loves me, and is jealous of you. 
 Perhaps, too, she thinks if I did not love you, I might 
 return her affection ; and the only way to end her chim- 
 erical hopes is by our immediate union. Say, dear love, 
 when will you be mine ?" 
 
 " Oh, Louis ! I do not know," said Celeste, blush- 
 ing scarlet. " I do not want to be married so soon, and 
 you must ask your grandfather." 
 
 <<r l have asked him, dearest." 
 
 " And he " 
 
 "Refused ! I knew it would be so. He is obstinate 
 and eccentric. But, Celeste, his refusal need make no 
 difference to us." 
 
 She raised her blue eyes to his face, with a look of 
 unconcealed wonder. 
 
 " We can be privately wedded, and I will take you 
 with me to Europe, where we will reside until I have 
 succeeded in pacifying the squire with my course." 
 
 She stood before him, looking calmly and gravely in 
 his face. His voice was low, but full of passion, and he 
 saw not that earnest, sorrowful gaze. 
 
 " Say, Celeste dearest Celeste do you consent ?" 
 he asked, his eyes filled with fire, as he strove to clasp 
 her. She shrank away, almost in fear, and pushed back 
 his hands. 
 
 "Oh, Louis ! don't, don't," she cried, sadly. 
 
 " But you will consent? you will go with me?" he 
 said, eagerly, passionately. 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! no, no ! I cannot it is impossible." 
 
 " Impossible ! Why, Celeste ?" 
 
 " It would be wrong." 
 
 "Wrong! Because an old man object to your want 
 of fortune, it would be wrong to marry me. Nonsense, 
 Celeste !"
 
 3 io CELESTE'S TRIAL. 
 
 "It would be wrong to disobey your grandfather, 
 Louis." 
 
 "Not in a case like this, Celeste. I am not bound to 
 obey him when he is unreasonable." 
 
 " He is not unreasonable in this, Louis. It is very 
 reasonable he should wish you to marry one your equal 
 in wealth and social position." 
 
 "And would you have me marry for wealth and social 
 position, Celeste ?" he asked, reproachfully. 
 
 " Oh ! no, no ! Heaven forbid ! But I would not 
 marry you against his will. We can wait a few years 
 will not make much difference, dear Louis. We are 
 both young, and can afford to be patient." 
 
 " Patience ! Don't talk to me of patience !" he ex- 
 claimed, passionately. "You never loved me ; if you had 
 you would riot stand thus on a little point of decorum. 
 You are your own mistress you have no parents to 
 whom you owe obedience ; my mother is willing enough, 
 and yet, because an old man objects to your want of 
 money, you stand there in your cold dignity, and exhort 
 me to be patient and wait. Celeste, I will not wait. You 
 must come with me to Italy !" 
 
 But she only stood before him, pale and sad, but firm 
 and unyielding. 
 
 Long and eloquently he pleaded, passionately and ve- 
 hemently he urged her, but all in vain. She listened and 
 answered by silence and tears, but steadily and firmly 
 refused to consent. 
 
 " Well, Celeste, will you come ?" he asked, at length, 
 after a long and earnest entreaty. 
 
 "Louis, I cannot. Not even for your sake can I do 
 what my conscience tells me would be wrong. You say 
 your grandfather has no right to control you in your 
 choice of a wife. It may be so ; but even in that case I 
 would not marry you against his wishes. Perhaps I am
 
 CELESTE'S TRIAL. 311 
 
 proud and sinful ; but, Louis, I could never enter a fam- 
 ily who would not be willing to receive me. Besides, 
 my duty is here with Miss Hagar. If I were to marry 
 you, what would become of her, alone and childless. No, 
 Louis, I am not so utterly selfish and ungrateful. Do 
 not urge me further, as I see you are about to do, for my 
 resolution is unalterable. Yielding as my nature natur- 
 ally is, I can be firm at times ; and in this case, nothing 
 that you can say will alter my determination." 
 
 He stood erect before her, his fine face clouded with 
 anger and mortification. 
 
 " This, then, is your last resolve ?" he said, coldly. 
 
 " It is. Dear Louis, forgive me if I have caused you 
 pain. Believe me, it has grieved me deeply to be obliged 
 to speak thus," she said, laying her hand upon his arm, 
 and looking up pleadingly, sorrowfully, in his face. 
 
 " Oh ! do not trouble yourself about grieving me, 
 fair Celeste," he said, scornfully ; the glamour has faded 
 from my eyes, that is all. I fancied you little less than 
 an angel. I was fool enough to believe you loved me 
 well enough to brave even the opinion of the world for 
 my sake. I find you are only a woman, after all, with 
 more pride and ambition than love for me. Well, be it 
 so. I have never sued for the favor of any one yet, and 
 cannot begin now. Farewell, Celeste ; forgive me for 
 trespassing thus long upon your time, but it will be long 
 before it happens again." 
 
 He turned away with a haughty bow. She saw he 
 was angry, disappointed and deeply mortified, and tears 
 sprang to her gentle eyes. 
 
 " Oh, Louis !" was all she could say, as sobs choked 
 her utterance. 
 
 He turned round and stood gazing coldly upon her. 
 
 "Well, Miss Pearl," he said, calmly. 
 
 "Oh, Louis! dear Louis! forgive me! do not be
 
 312 CELESTE'S TRIAL. 
 
 angry with your Celeste. Oh, Louis ! I am sorry I have 
 offended you." 
 
 "I am not angry, Miss Pearl; only a little disap- 
 pointed. You have a perfect right to reject me if you 
 choose. My only regret is that I should have troubled 
 you so long. I have the honor to wish you good-day." 
 
 And with the last bitter words he sprang on his horse, 
 and in a few minutes was out of sight. 
 
 All Celeste's fortitude gave way then ; and sinking 
 on a seat, she hid her face in her hands and wept the 
 bitterest tears she had ever shed in her life. Louis was 
 gone, and in anger, believing her proud, artful, and 
 fickle perhaps he would love her no more ; and her 
 bosom heaved with convulsive sobs at the thought. 
 
 All that day and the next, and the next, Louis came 
 not. How wearily the hours dragged on while she sat 
 listening in vain for his coming. Taking her work, she 
 would sit by the window commanding a view of the 
 road, and strain her eyes in the fruitless endeavor to 
 catch a glimpse of his tall, elegant figure. At every 
 noise she would start convulsively, and a wild thrill 
 would dart through her heart, in the hope that it might 
 be his footsteps. Then sinking back disappointed, she 
 would close her eyes to force bark the gathering tears, 
 and strive to keep down the choking sensation that would 
 arise to her throat. And when night fell, and still he 
 came not, unable longer to restrain herself, she would 
 hastily seek her own chamber, and weep and sob until, 
 utterly prostrated in mind and body, the morning would 
 find her pale, ill, and languid, with slow step and heavy, 
 dimmed eyes. 
 
 The morning of the fourth day came, and this sus- 
 pense was growing intolerable. Breakfast had passed 
 untasted, and suffering with a dull, throbbing headache, 
 she was about to quit the room, when the sound of a
 
 CELES TE 'S TRIAL. 3 1 3 
 
 horse's hoofs thundering down the road made her leap 
 to her feet with a wild thrill of joy that sent new light to 
 her, eyes and new color to her cheeks. 
 
 " He is come ! he is come !" she exclaimed, rushing 
 to the door. A cry of disappointment almost escaped 
 her, as her eye fell on Gipsy in the act of dismounting. 
 
 " Here I am, all alive, like a bag of grasshoppers," 
 exclaimed Gipsy, as, gathering her riding-habit in her 
 hand, she tripped with her usual airy motion up the 
 garden walk. " How have you been this age, Celeste ? 
 My stars ! how pale you are ; have you been ill ?" 
 
 " I have not been very well for the past week," said 
 Celeste, forcing a smile. " I am very glad to see you. 
 Come in." 
 
 Gipsy entered ; and having saluted Miss Hagar, 
 threw herself into a chair, and snatching off her hat, be- 
 gan swinging it by the strings. Celeste took her sewing 
 and seated herself by the window. 
 
 "Well, I declare ! we have had such times up at the 
 Hall this week," said Gipsy. " Have you heard how I 
 captured Big Tom ?" 
 
 "No," said Celeste, in surprise; whereupon Gipsy 
 related what had occurred, ending with : 
 
 " Old Mrs. Donne is still very sick, and raves at an 
 appalling rate about babies, and snow-storms, and all 
 such stuff. Big Tom's in prison, rapidly recovering 
 from his wounds, which is good news for me ; for I 
 should be sorry to think I had killed the poor wretch. 
 I should have come over to see you sooner, only Louis 
 is going away, and we've all been as busy as nailers." 
 
 "Going away!" echoed Celeste, growing deadly 
 pale. 
 
 " Yes ; he leaves here to-morrow morning. He is 
 going to Italy, and will not be back for several years. 
 14
 
 3 1 4 CELES TE ' S TRIA Z. 
 
 But, my goodness ! Celeste, what's the matter ? You 
 look as though you were going to faint !" 
 
 " It's nothing only a sudden spasm," said Celeste, 
 in a low, smothered voice, dropping her forehead on her 
 hand, while her long, golden ringlets, falling like a vail 
 over her face, hid it from view. 
 
 "The notion took him so suddenly," continued 
 Gipsy, " that we have scarcely begun to recover from 
 our astonishment yet. It's no use trying to coax him 
 not to go, for he puts on that iron face of his, and says, 
 ' the thing's decided.' Men of genius always are a queer 
 crotchety set, they say. Thank Minerva, I'm not a 
 genius, anyway one of that sort's enough in any family. 
 Minnette, too, went off the other day with the Carsons 
 for Washington good riddance of bad rubbish, I say. 
 So, when Louis goes, I'll be alone in my glory, and you 
 must come over and spend a few days with me. Won't 
 you, Celeste ?" 
 
 There was no reply. Gipsy gazed in wonder and 
 alarm at her, as she sat still and motionless as a figure 
 in marble. 
 
 " Celeste ! Celeste ! what's the matter ?" she said, 
 going over and trying to raise her head. " Are you sick, 
 or fainting, or what ?" 
 
 Celeste looked up, and Gipsy started back as she saw 
 that white, despairing face, and wild, anguished eyes. 
 
 " You are ill, Celeste," she said, in alarm. " Your 
 hands are like ice, and your face is cold as death. Come, 
 let me assist you to your room." 
 
 "Thank you I will go myself. I will be better, if 
 let alone," said Celeste, faintly, as she arose to her feet, 
 and, sick and giddy, tottered rather than walked from 
 the room. 
 
 Gipsy looked after her, perplexed and anxious. 
 
 "Well, now, I'd like to know what all this is about,"
 
 CELESTE'S TRIAL. 315 
 
 she muttered to herself. "Wonder if Louis' departure 
 has anything to do with it ? They've had a quarrel, I 
 suppose, and Louis is going off in a huff. Well, it's 
 none of my business, anyway, so I sha'n't interfere. 
 Louis looked as if he'd like to murder me when I asked 
 him what he was going to do without Celeste, and 
 walked off without ever deigning to answer me. But I 
 guess I ain't afraid of him ; and if he hasn't behaved 
 well to poor Celeste, I'll tell him a piece of my mind 
 anyway before he goes." And the soliloquizing Gipsy 
 left the house and rode thoughtfully homeward. 
 
 During the rest of that day and night Celeste did not 
 leave her room. Miss Hagar grew anxious, and several 
 times came to her door to beg admittance, but the low 
 voice within always said : 
 
 " No, no ; not now, I will be better to-morrow only 
 leave me alone." 
 
 And, troubled and perplexed, Miss Hagar was forced 
 to yield. Many times she approached the chamber door 
 to listen, but all within was still as death not the faint- 
 est sound reached her ear. 
 
 *' Has Miss Celeste left her room yet ?" inquired Miss 
 Hagar, the following morning, of her sable handmaid, 
 Curly. 
 
 " Laws ! yes, missus ; she corned outen her room 
 'fore de sun riz dis mornin' : an' I 'clare to goodness ! I 
 like to drop when I seed her. She was jes' as pale as a 
 ghos', wid her eyes sunken right in like, an' lookin' 
 drefful sick. She'd on her bunnit and shawl, and tole 
 me to tell you she war a-goin' out for a walk. 'Deed, she 
 needed a walk, honey, for her face was jes' as white as 
 dat ar table-doff." 
 
 "Where was she going?" inquired Miss Hagar, 
 alarmed. 
 
 " 'Deed, I didn't mind to ax her, 'cause she 'peared in
 
 316 CELESTE'S TRIAL. 
 
 'stress o* mind 'bout somefin or udder. I looked arter 
 her, dough, an' seed her take de road down to de shore," 
 replied Curly. 
 
 Still more perplexed and troubled by this strange 
 and most unusual conduct on the part of Celeste, Miss 
 Hagar seated herself at the breakfast-table, having 
 vainly waited an hour past the usual time for the return 
 of the young girl. 
 
 When Celeste left the cottage, it was with a mind 
 filled with but one idea that of seeing Louis once more 
 before he left. But few people were abroad when she 
 passed through the village ; and descending to the beach, 
 she seated herself behind a projecting rock, where, un- 
 seen herself, she could behold him going away. 
 
 Out on the glittering waves, dancing in the first rays 
 of the morning sunlight, lay a schooner, rising and fall- 
 ing lazily on the swell. It was the vessel in which Gipsy 
 had told her Louis was to leave St. Mark's, and Celeste 
 gazed upon it, with that passionate, straining gaze, with 
 which one might look on a coffin, where the one we love 
 best is about to be laid. Hours passed on, but she 
 heeded them not, as, seated on a low rock, with her hands 
 clasped over her knees, she waited for his coming. 
 
 After the lapse of some time, a boat put off from the 
 schooner, and, propelled by the strong arms of four 
 sailors, soon touched shore. Three of them landed, and 
 took the road leading to Mount Sunset. Half an hour 
 passed, and they reappeared, laden with trunks and 
 valises, and followed by Louis and Gipsy. 
 
 He seemed careless, even gay, while Gipsy wore a 
 sad, troubled look, all unused to her. Little did either 
 of them dream of the wild, despairing eyes watching 
 them, as if her very life were concentrated in that agon- 
 izing gaze. 
 
 " Well, good-bye, ma belle" said Louis, with a last em-
 
 CELESTE'S TRIAL. 317 
 
 brace. " You perceive my boat is on the shore, and my 
 bark is on the sea, and I must away." 
 
 " Good-bye," repeated Gipsy, mechanically. 
 
 He turned away and walked toward the boat, entered 
 it, and the seamen pushed off. Gipsy stood gazing after 
 his tall, graceful form until the boat reached the schoon- 
 er, and he ascended the deck. Then it danced away in 
 the fresh morning breeze down the bay, until it became 
 a mere speck in the distance, and then faded altogether 
 from view. 
 
 Dashing away a tear, Gipsy turned to ascend the 
 rocks, when the flutter of a muslin dress from behind a 
 cliff caught her eye. With a vague presentiment flash- 
 ing across her mind, she approached to see who it was. 
 And there she beheld Celeste, lying cold and senseless 
 on the sand.
 
 318 "THE QUEEN OF SONG" 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 " THE QUEEN OF SONG. 
 
 " Give me -the boon of love 
 
 Renown is but a breath, 
 Whose loudest echo ever floats 
 
 From out the halls of death. 
 A loving eye beguiles me more 
 
 Than Fame's emblazon'd seal ; 
 And one sweet note of tenderness, 
 
 Than triumph's wildest peal." TUCKERMAN. 
 
 RANMORE, my dear fellow, welcome back 
 to Italy!" exclaimed a distinguished-look- 
 ing man, as Louis the day af ler his arrival 
 in Venice was passing through one of 
 the picturesque streets of that " palace- 
 crowned city." 
 
 " Ah, Lugari ! happy to see you !" said Louis, ex- 
 tending his hand, which was cordially grasped. 
 
 " When did you arrive ?" asked the Italian, as, linking 
 his arm through that of Louis, they strolled toward the 
 "Bridge of the Rialto." 
 
 "Only yesterday. My longings for Venice were too 
 strong to be resisted ; so I returned." 
 
 " Then you have not heard our ' Queen of Song ' 
 yet?" inquired his companion. 
 "No. Who is she?" 
 
 " An angel ! a seraph ! the loveliest woman you ever 
 beheld ! sings like a nightingale, and has everybody 
 raving about her !" 
 
 " Indeed ! And what is the name of this paragon ?" 
 " She is called Madame Evelini a widow, I believe 
 English or American by birth. She came here as poor
 
 "TUB QUEEN OF SONG." 319 
 
 as Job and as proud as Lucifer. Now, she has made a 
 fortune on the stage ; but is as proud as ever. Half the 
 men at Venice are sighing at her feet ; but no icicle ever 
 was colder than she it is impossible to warm her into 
 love. There was an English duke here not long ago, 
 who with reverence be it spoken ! had more money 
 than brains, and actually went so far as to propose mar- 
 riage ; and, to the amazement of himself and everybody 
 f Ise, was most decidedly and emphatically rejected." 
 
 " A wonderful woman, indeed, to reject a ducal 
 crown. When does she sing ?" 
 
 " To-night. You must come with me and hear her." 
 
 " With pleasure. Look, Lugari what a magnificent 
 woman that is !" 
 
 " By St. Peter ! it's the very woman we are speaking 
 of Madame Evelini herself !" exclaimed Lugari. 
 " Come, we'll join her. I have the pleasure of her ac- 
 quaintance. Take a good look at her first, and tell me 
 if she docs not justify my praises." 
 
 Louis, with some curiosity, scrutinized the lady they 
 were approaching. She was about the middle height, 
 with an exquisitely-proportioned figure a small, fair, 
 but somewhat melancholy face, shaded by a profusion of 
 pale-brown ringlets. Her complexion was exquisitely 
 fair, with dark-blue eyes and beautifully chiseled fea- 
 tures. As he gazed, a strange, vague feeling, that he had 
 seen that face somewhere before, flashed across his mind. 
 
 " Well, what do you think of her ?" said Lugari, 
 rousing him from a reverie into which he was falling. 
 
 " That she is a very lovely woman there can be but 
 one opinion about that." 
 
 " How old would you take her to be?" 
 
 " About twenty, or twenty-three at the most." 
 
 "Phew! she's over thirty." 
 
 " Oh, impossible !"
 
 320 " THE QUEEN OF SONG." 
 
 " Fact, sir ; I had it from her own lips. Now, I'll 
 present you ; but take care of your heart, my boy few 
 men can resist the fascinations of the Queen of Song." 
 
 " I have a counter-charm," said Louis, with a cold 
 smile. 
 
 " The memory of some fairer face in America, I sup- 
 pose. Well, we shall see. Good-morning, Madame 
 Evelini," he said, acknowledging that lady's salutation. 
 " Charming day. Allow me to present to you my friend 
 Mr. Oranmore." 
 
 From the first moment the lady's eyes had fallen on 
 the face of Louis, she had gazed as if fascinated. Every 
 trace of color slowly faded from her face, leaving her 
 cold and pale as marble. As his name was uttered she 
 reeled, as if she were faint, and grasped the arm of Lu- 
 gari for support. 
 
 " Whom did you say ?" she asked, in a breathless 
 voice. 
 
 " Mr. Oranmore, a young American, "replied Lugari, 
 looking in amazement from the lady to Louis who, 
 quite as much amazed as himself, stood gazing upon 
 her, lost in wonder. 
 
 "Oranmore !" she exclaimed, unheeding their looks 
 " Oranmore ! Surely not Barry Oranmore ?" 
 
 " That was my father's name," replied the astonished 
 Louis. 
 
 A low cry broke from the white lips of the lady, as 
 her hands flew up and covered her face. Lugari and 
 Louis gazed in each other's faces in consternation. She 
 dropped her hands at last, and said, in a low, hurried 
 voice : 
 
 " Excuse this agitation, Mr. Oranmore. Can I have 
 the pleasure of a private interview with you ?" 
 
 "Assuredly, madam," said the astonished Louis. 
 
 " Well, call at my residence in the Palazzo B , this
 
 "THE QUEEN OF SONG." 321 
 
 afternoon. And now I must ask you to excuse me, gen- 
 tlemen. Good-morning." 
 
 She hurried away, leaving the two young men over- 
 whelmed with amazement. 
 
 " What the deuce does this mean ?" said Lugari. 
 
 "That's more than I can tell. I'm as much in the 
 dark as you are." 
 
 " She cannot have fallen in love with him already," 
 said Lugari, in the musing tone of one speaking to him- 
 self. 
 
 Louis laughed. 
 
 " Hardly, I think. I cannot expect to succeed where 
 a royal duke failed." 
 
 " There's no accounting for a woman's whims ; and 
 he's confoundedly good-looking," went on Lugari, in 
 the same meditative tone. 
 
 " Come, Antonio, none of your nonsense," said Louis. 
 " Come with me to my studio, and spend the morning 
 with me. It will help to pass the time until the hour 
 for calling on her ladyship." 
 
 They soon reached the residence of the artist. The 
 door was opened for them by a boy of such singular 
 beauty, that Lugari stared at him in surprise and ad- 
 miration. His short, crisp, black curls fell over a brow 
 of snowy whiteness, and his pale face looked paler in 
 contrast with his large, melancholy, black eyes. 
 
 " Well, Isadore," said Louis kindly, " has there been 
 any one here since ?" 
 
 " No, signer," replied the boy, dropping his eyes, 
 while a faint color rose to his cheek, as he met the pene- 
 trating gaze of the stranger. 
 
 " That will do, then. Bring wine and cigars, and 
 leave us." 
 
 The boy did as directed, and hurried from the room. 
 14*
 
 322 " THE QUEEN OF SONG." 
 
 " Handsome lad, that," said Lugari, carelessly. " Who 
 is he ?" 
 
 " Isadore something I forget what. He is, as you 
 say, remarkably handsome." 
 
 " He is not a Venetian ?" 
 
 " No ; English, I believe. I met him in Naples, 
 friendless and nearly destitute, and took charge of him. 
 Have a glass of wine ?" 
 
 Lugari looked keenly in the face of his friend with a 
 peculiar smile, that seemed to say : " Yes I understand 
 it perfectly ;" but Louis, busy in lighting a cigar, did 
 not observe him. 
 
 The morning passed rapidly away in gay conversa- 
 tion ; and at the hour appointed, Louis sat in one of the 
 
 magnificent rooms of the Palazzo B , awaiting the 
 
 entrance of the singer. 
 
 She soon made her appearance, quite bewitching in 
 blue silk, but looking paler, he thought, than when he 
 had seen her in the morning. 
 
 "I see you are punctual," she said, holding out her 
 hand, with a slight smile. " Doubtless you are at your 
 wits' end trying to account for my singular conduct." 
 
 "My only wonder is, madam, how I could have 
 merited so great an honor." 
 
 " Ah ! I knew you would say something like that," 
 said the lady. " Insincere, like the rest of your sex. 
 Well, you shall not be kept long in suspense. I have sent 
 for you here to tell you my history.'' 
 
 " Madam !" exclaimed Louis, in surprise. 
 
 " Yes, even so. It concerns you more nearly, per- 
 haps, than you think. Listen, now." 
 
 She leaned her head in her hand, and, for a moment, 
 seemed lost in thought ; while Louis, with eager curi- 
 osity, waited for her to begin. 
 
 "I am Irish by birth," she said, at last, looking up ;
 
 "THE QUEEN OF SONG." 323 
 
 " I was born in Galway. My father was a poor farmer, 
 and I was his only child. I grew up a wild, untutored 
 country girl ; and reached the age of fifteen, knowing 
 sorrow and trouble only by name. 
 
 " My occupation, sometimes, was watching rny father's 
 sheep on the mountain. One day, as I sat merrily sing- 
 ing to myself, a horseman, attracted by my voice, rode 
 up and accosted me. I was bold and fearless, and 
 entered into conversation with him as if I had known 
 him all my life told him my name and residence ; and 
 learned, in return, that he was a young American of 
 respectable and wealthy connections, who had visited 
 Galway to see a friend. 
 
 " From that day forth, he was constantly with me ; 
 and I soon learned to watch for his coming as I had 
 never watched for any one before. He was rash, daring, 
 and passionate ; and, captivated by my beauty (for I was 
 handsome then), he urged me to marry him privately, 
 and fly with him. I had never learned to control myself 
 in anything ; and loving him with a passion that has 
 never yet died out, I consented. I fled with him to 
 England. There we were secretly wedded. He took 
 me to France, where we remained almost a year a year 
 of bliss to me. Then he received letters demanding his 
 immediate presence in America. He would have left me 
 behind him, and returned for me again ; but I refused 
 to leave him ; I therefore accompanied him to his native 
 land, and a few weeks after one stormy Christmas 
 Eve my child, a daughter, was born. 
 
 " I never saw it but once. The nurse must have 
 drugged me for I have a dim recollection of a long, 
 long sleep, that seemed endless ; and when I awoke, I 
 found myself in a strange room with the face of a strange 
 woman bending over me. To my wild, bewildered in- 
 quiries, she answered, that I had been very ill, and my
 
 324 "THE QUEEN OF SONG.'' 
 
 life despaired of for several weeks ; but that I was now 
 recovering. I asked for my husband and child. She 
 knew nothing of them, she said. I had been brought 
 there in a carriage, after night, by a man whose features 
 she could not recognize he was so muffled up. He had 
 paid her liberally for taking charge of me, and promised 
 to return to see me in a few weeks. 
 
 " I was a child in years and wisdom, and suspected 
 nothing. I felt angry at his desertion, and cried like the 
 petted child I was, at his absence. The woman was very 
 kind to me, though I saw she looked upon me with a 
 sort of contempt, the reason of which I did not then 
 understand. Still, she took good care of me, and in a 
 fortnight I was as well as ever. 
 
 " One evening, I sat in my room silent and alone 
 (for / was not permitted to go out), and crying like a 
 spoiled baby, when the sound of a well-known voice 
 reached my ear from the adjoining room. With a cry of 
 joy, I sprang to my feet, rushed from the room, and fell 
 into the arms of my husband. In my joy at meeting 
 him, I did not perceive, at first, the change those few 
 weeks had made in him. He was pale and haggard, and 
 there was an unaccountable something in his manner 
 that puzzled me. He was not less affectionate ; but he 
 seemed wild, and restless, and ill at ease. 
 
 " My first inquiry was for my child. 
 
 "' It is dead, Eveleen,' he answered, hurriedly ; ' and 
 you were so ill that it became necessary to bring you 
 here. Now that you are better, you must leave this and 
 come with me.' 
 
 " ' And you will publicly proclaim our marriage, 
 and we will not be separated more ?' I eagerly inquired. 
 
 " He made no answer, save to urge me to make 
 haste. In a few moments I was ready ; a carriage at the
 
 "THE QUEEN OF SONG." 325 
 
 door. He handed me in, then followed, and we drove 
 rapidly away. 
 
 " ' Where are we going ?' I asked, as we drove along. 
 
 " ' Back to Ireland ; you are always wishing to re- 
 turn.' 
 
 " ' But you will go with me, will you not ?' I asked, 
 in vague alarm. 
 
 " ' Yes, yes ; to be sure,' he answered, quickly. Just 
 then, the murmur of the sea reached my ear ; the carriage 
 stopped, and my husband assisted me out. 
 
 "A boat was in waiting on the shore. We both en- 
 tered, and were rowed to the vessel lying in the harbor. 
 I reached the deck, and was conducted below to a well- 
 furnished cabin. 
 
 "'Now, Eveleen, you look fatigued and must retire 
 to rest. I am going on deck to join the captain for a 
 few hours,' said my husband, as lie gently kissed my 
 brow. His voice was low and agitated, and I could see 
 his face was deadly pale. Still, no suspicion of the truth 
 entered my mind. I was, indeed, tired ; and wearily dis- 
 engaging myself from the arms that clasped me in a 
 parting embrace, I threw myself on my bed, and in a few 
 minutes was fast asleep. My husband turned away and 
 went on deck, and I never saw him more." 
 
 Her voice failed, and her lips quivered ; but after a 
 few moments she went on. 
 
 "The next morning the captain entered the cabin and 
 handed me a letter. I opened it in surprise. A draft 
 /or five thousand dollars fell out, but I saw it not ; my 
 eyes were fixed in unspeakable horror on the dreadful 
 words before me. 
 
 "The letter was from my husband. He told me that 
 we were parted forever, that he had wedded another 
 bride, and that the vessel I was in would convey me 
 home, where he hoped I would forget him, and look
 
 326 "THE QUEEN OF SONG." 
 
 upon the past year only as a dream. I read that terrible 
 letter from beginning to end, while every word burned 
 into my heart and brain like fire. I did not faint nor 
 shriek ; I was of too sanguine a temperament to do 
 either ; but I sat in stupefied despair ; I was stunned ; I 
 could not realize what had happened. The captain 
 brought me a newspaper, and showed me the announce- 
 ment of his marriage to some great beauty and heiress 
 some Miss Erliston, who " 
 
 " What !" exclaimed Louis, springing fiercely to his 
 feet. " In the name of heaven, of whom have you been 
 talking all this time?" 
 
 " Of my husband of your father of Barry Oran- 
 more !" 
 
 He staggered into his seat, horror-stricken and 
 deadly white. There was a pause, then he said, 
 hoarsely : 
 
 "Go on." 
 
 " I know not how that voyage passed it is all like a 
 dream to me. I reached Liverpool. The captain, who 
 had been well paid, had me conveyed home ; and still I 
 lived and moved like one who lives not. I was in a 
 stupor of despair, and months passed away before I re- 
 covered ; when I did, all my childishness had passed 
 away, and I was in heart and mind a woman. 
 
 "Time passed on. I had read in an American paper 
 the announcement of my false husband's dreadful death. 
 Years blunted the poignancy of my grief, and I began 
 to tire of my aimless life. He had often told me my 
 voice would make my fortune on the stage. Acting on 
 this hint, I went to London, had it cultivated, and 
 learned music. At last, after years of unremitting ap- 
 plication, I made my debut. It was a triumph, and every 
 fresh attempt crowned me with new laurels. I next 
 visited France ; then I came here ; and here I have been
 
 "THE QUEEN OF SONG," 327 
 
 ever since. To-day, when I beheld you, the very image 
 of your father as I knew him first, I almost imagined the 
 grave had given up its dead. Such is my story every 
 word true, as heaven hears me. Was I not right, when 
 I said it concerned you more nearly than you im- 
 agined?" 
 
 "Good Heaven ! And was my father such a villain?" 
 said Louis, with a groan. 
 
 " Hush ! Speak no ill of the dead. I forgave him 
 long ago, and surely you can do so too." 
 
 " Heaven help us all ! what a world we live in !" said 
 Louis, while, with a pang of remorse, his thoughts re- 
 verted to Celeste ; and he inwardly thought how similar 
 her fate might have been, had she consented to go with 
 him. 
 
 " And was your child really dead ?" he inquired, after 
 a pause, during which she sat with her eyes fixed sadly 
 on the floor. " He may have deceived you in that as in 
 other things." 
 
 " I know not," she answered ; "yet I4iave always had 
 a sort of presentiment that it still lives. Oh, if heaven 
 would but permit me to behold her alive, I could die 
 happy !" 
 
 Louis sat gazing upon her with a puzzled look. 
 
 " I know not how it is," he said, " but you remind me 
 strangely of some one I have seen before. I recognize 
 your face, vaguely and indistinctly, as one does faces 
 they see in dreams. I am sure I have seen some one re- 
 sembling you elsewhere." 
 
 "Only fancy, I fear," said the lady, smiling, and 
 shaking her head. " Do you intend hearing me sing 
 to-night ?" 
 
 " Oh, decidedly ! Do you think I would miss what 
 one might make a pilgrimage round the world to hear 
 once ?"
 
 328 A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 
 
 "Flattery! flattery! I see you are like all the rest," 
 said Madame Evelini, raising her finger reprovingly. 
 
 " Not so, madam ; I never flatter. And now I regret 
 that a previous engagement renders it necessary for me 
 to leave you," said Louis, taking his hat and rising to 
 leave. 
 
 " Well, I shall expect to see you soon again," she 
 said, with an enchanting smile ; and Louis, having 
 bowed assent, left the house ; and, giddy and bewil- 
 dered by what he had just heard, turned in the di- 
 rection of his own residence. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 
 
 " Fixed was her look and stern her air ; 
 Back from her shoulders streamed her hair ; 
 Her figure seemed to rise more high ; 
 Her voice, Despair's wild energy 
 Had given a tone of prophecy." MARMION. 
 
 EEKS passed away. Louis became a daily 
 
 visitor at the Palazzo B . His growing 
 
 intimacy with the beautiful "Queen of 
 Song " was looked upon with jealous eyes by 
 her numerous admirers ; and many were the 
 rumors circulated regarding her affection for the hand- 
 some young American. But Madame Evelini was either 
 too proud or too indifferent to heed these reports, and 
 visited Louis in his studio whenever she pleased, leav- 
 ing the world to say of her what it listed. Louis, too, 
 was winning fame as an artist, and, next to madame her-
 
 A STARTLING DISCOVERY, 329 
 
 self, was becoming one of the greatest celebrities in 
 Venice. 
 
 " What a handsome boy that attendant of yours is !"' 
 said the lady, one day, to Louis, as Isadore quitted the 
 room ; " all who visit you vie with each other in their 
 praises of his beauty." 
 
 " Who ? Isadore ? Yes, he is handsome ; but a most 
 singular youth silent, taciturn, at times almost fierce, 
 and at others, sullenly morose." 
 
 " He seems to have a strong antipathy to ladies, and 
 to me in particular," said Madame Evelini ; "he looks 
 as if he wished to shut the door in my face every time I 
 come here." 
 
 " Yes, that is another of his oddities ; in fact, he is 
 quite an unaccountable lad.' 1 
 
 " He is very much attached to you, at all events. If 
 he were a woman, I should say he is in love with you, 
 and jealous of the rest of us," said madame, laughing. 
 " As it is, it can only be accounted for by ill-nature on 
 his part. Well, adieu !" said madame, rising to take her 
 leave. 
 
 Louis soon had a most convincing proof of the lad's 
 attachment. Being detained one evening, by some busi- 
 ness, in one of the narrow courts inhabited by the lower 
 class in Venice, he returned with a violent headache. 
 He grew worse so rapidly, that before night he was in a 
 high fever, raving deliriously. 
 
 A physician was sent for, who pronounced it to be a 
 dangerous and most infectious fever, and advised his 
 immediate removal to a hospital, where he might receive 
 better attendance than he could in his lodgings. But 
 Isadore positively refused to have him removed, vehe- 
 mently asserting that he himself was quite competent to 
 take care of him. 
 
 And well did he redeem his word. No mother ever
 
 330 A- STARTLING DISCOVERY. 
 
 nursed her sick child witn more tender care than he did 
 Louis. Night and day he was ever by his side, bathing 
 his burning brow, or holding a cooling draught to his 
 feverish lips. And though his pale face grew paler day 
 after day, and his lustrous black eyes lost their bright- 
 ness with his weary vigils, nothing could tempt him 
 from that sick room. With womanly care, he arranged 
 the pillows beneath the restless head of the invalid ; 
 drew the curtains to exclude the glaring light, totally 
 unheeding the danger of contagion. With jealous 
 vigilance, too, he kept out all strangers. Madame Eve- 
 lini, upon hearing of her friend's illness, immediately 
 came to see him, but she was met in the outer room by 
 Isadore, who said, coldly : 
 
 " You cannot see him, madame ; the physician has 
 forbidden it." 
 
 " But only for one moment. I will not speak to him, 
 or disturb him," pleaded Madame Evelini. 
 
 "No ; you cannot enter. It is impossible," said Isa- 
 dore, as he turned and left the room, fairly shutting the 
 door in her face. 
 
 In his wild delirium, Louis talked incessantly of 
 Celeste, and urged her with passionate vehemence to fly 
 with him. At such times, the dark brow of Isadore 
 would knit, and his eyes flash with smoldering fire 
 beneath their lids. But if his own name was mentioned, 
 his beautiful face would light up with such a radiant 
 look of light and joy, that he seemed recompensed for 
 all his weary watching and unceasing care. 
 
 At length, a naturally strong constitution, and the 
 tender nursing of Isadore triumphed over disease, and 
 Louis became convalescent. And then he began to 
 realize all he owed to the boy who had been his guardian- 
 angel during his illness. 
 
 " How can I ever repay you, Isadore ?" he said, one
 
 A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 331 
 
 day, as the youth hovered by his side, smoothing the 
 tossed pillows, and arranging the bed-clothes with a 
 skill few nurses could have surpassed. 
 
 " I wish for no return, signor. I am only too happy 
 to have been of service to you," said the boy, dropping 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Well, at least, you will find I am not ungrateful. 
 Once I am well, you shall no longer remain a servant. 
 I will place you in a fair way to make your fortune," 
 said Louis. 
 
 " Signor, I beg you will not think of such a thing. 
 I have no wish to leave you," said Isadore, in alarm. 
 
 "But with me you will only be an obscure servant, 
 while it is in my power to place you in a situation to 
 become honored and wealthy." 
 
 " I would rather remain with you." 
 
 " Strange boy ! Why are you so anxious to stay 
 with me ?" 
 
 " Because " 
 
 " Well ?" 
 
 " Because I love you, Signor," said the boy, while 
 his whole face, a moment before so pale, grew vivid 
 crimson. 
 
 Louis looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " And what have I done for you, that you should 
 love me so ?" he asked, at length. 
 
 " Do we only love those who have conferred favors 
 upon us, Signor?" 
 
 " Well, generally speaking, among men it is so. If 
 you were a woman, now, it would be different," said 
 Louis, laughing. 
 
 ''Would you love me, if I were a woman ?" asked the 
 boy, in a tone so abrupt and startling, that Louis gazed 
 at him in wonder. 
 
 "Not more than I do now. One cannot love two
 
 332 A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 
 
 women at a time, as you will find out when you grow 
 older." 
 
 " Then the signor is already in love ?" asked Isadore, 
 raising his dark eyes, now filled with dusky fire. 
 
 There was no reply. Louis turned aside restlessly, 
 so that the boy could not see the expression of his face. 
 And Isadore, paler than before, seated himself in silence, 
 and fixed his burning black eyes steadily on the 
 ground. 
 
 Louis now rapidly recovered, and in a short time 
 was able to resume his duties. During his first inter- 
 view with Madame Evelini, she related the scene that 
 had taken place between her and Isadore. 
 
 "His motive in keeping me out was certainly other 
 than the physician's commands," she said. " In fact, 
 my dear Louis, I should not be surprised if your Isadore 
 should turn out to be a female in disguise. His conduct 
 savors so strongly of jealousy that I more than half sus- 
 pect him. Some fiery Italian might have conceived a 
 romantic passion for you, and taken this means of fol- 
 lowing you. Those hot-blooded Venetians will do such 
 things sometimes." 
 
 The words were lightly spoken, but they set Louis to 
 thinking. What if they were true? A number of 
 things, trifling in themselves, rushed on his mind, tend- 
 ing to confirm this opinion. He started up, seized his 
 hat, bade madame a hasty farewell, and started for home, 
 fully resolved to discover immediately whether or not 
 her words were true. 
 
 On entering, he found Isadore standing with folded 
 arms, gazing with eyes almost fiendish with hate upon a 
 picture on the easel. It was the portrait of Celeste as a 
 child, standing as when he first beheld her caressing her 
 wounded bird. No words can describe the look of fierce 
 hatred with which the boy regarded it.
 
 A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 333 
 
 " Well, Isadore, you seem struck by that painting. 
 Did you ever see a sweeter face?" asked Louis, pointing 
 to Celeste, but keeping his eyes fixed steadily on the face 
 of the boy. 
 
 " Do you love her ?" asked Isadore, hoarsely, without 
 looking up. 
 
 " Yes, with my whole heart and soul !" replied Louis, 
 fervently. 
 
 "Ungrateful wretch !" cried the youth, in a voice of 
 intense passion ; and lifting his head, he disclosed a face 
 so pale, and eyes so full of fire, that Louis started back. 
 " Was it for this that I left home, and country, and 
 friends, that I assumed a disguise like this to follow you ? 
 Was it for such a turn as this I risked my life for yours? 
 Was it for words like these I cast aside my pride, and 
 became your menial ? Was it not enough for you to call 
 on her unceasingly during your delirium she who 
 feared the opinion of the world more than she loved you 
 while I, who braved disgrace and death for your sake, 
 was unnamed and forgotten ? Look on me, most un- 
 grateful of men," he continued, almost with a shriek. 
 "Look at me ; and say, do you yet know me?" 
 
 He dashed his cap to the ground, and with features 
 convulsed with contending passions, stood before him. 
 Louis looked, turned deadly pale, and exclaimed, in a 
 voice of utter surprise : 
 
 " Merciful heaven ! Minnette !"
 
 334 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 " By the strong spirit's discipline 
 By the fierce wrong forgiven 
 By all that wrings the heart of sin, 
 Is woman won to Heaven." WILLIS. 
 
 HERE was a moment's profound silence, 
 during which Louis stood like one thunder- 
 struck, and Minnette glared upon him with 
 her fierce black eyes. 
 
 "And you have been with me all this time, 
 Minnette, and I knew it not," said Louis, at length. 
 
 " No," she said, with a bitter laugh. " You did not 
 know me. Had it been Celeste, do you think you would 
 have recognized her ?" 
 
 " Minnette, do not look so wildly. Good heaven ! 
 who would ever think of seeing you here, and in such 
 disguise?" he added, still scarcely able to realize it was 
 Minnette who stood before him. 
 
 "And it was for your sake," she replied, in a voice 
 almost choked by contending emotions. 
 
 "For me, for me ! wretch that I am !" he said, with 
 bitter remorse. "Oh, Minnette! I am unworthy such 
 devoted love." 
 
 Something in his manner inspired her with hope. 
 She clasped her hands, and said, wildly : 
 
 " Only say you will not cast me off. Only say you 
 will yet love me, and I will be a thousand-fold repaid 
 for all I have endured for your sake. Oh, Louis ! is it for 
 the cold, prudish Celeste you reject such love as mine?" 
 
 " We cannot compel our affections, Minnette. Ce-
 
 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 335 
 
 leste is the only woman who can ever possess my heart ; 
 but you you shall always be to me as a dear sister. 
 You must throw off this disguise, and return with me 
 home immediately. Your friends shall never know of 
 this they do not dream you are here; and you will soon 
 learn to look back to this time as a troubled dream, hap- 
 pily past." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! You might take me back to America, 
 that I might witness your marriage with Celeste. No, 
 Louis Oranmore, never shall she enjoy such a triumph ! 
 I have hated her all my life ; and I shall hate her with 
 my last breath. Do you think I could live and survive 
 this disgrace ? You have driven me to madness ; and now 
 behold its fruits." 
 
 Her voice was hoarse with concentrated passion ; her 
 eyes burning like fire ; her face ghastly and livid. As 
 she spoke, she drew from within the doublet she wore a 
 gleaming dagger. As the quick eye of Louis saw the 
 motion, he sprang forward and seized her by the wrist. 
 She struggled madly to free herself from his grasp ; and 
 in the struggle the point of the dagger entered her eye. 
 
 A torrent of blood flowed over his hands. Shriek 
 after shriek of mortal agony broke from the lips of 
 Minnette The fatal dagger dropped from the hand of 
 Louis he staggered back, and stood for a moment par- 
 alyzed with horror. Mad with agony, Minnette fled 
 round the room, the blood gushing from her sightless 
 eye and covering her face, her agonizing screams making 
 the house resound. It was an awful, ghastly, appalling 
 spectacle. Louis stood rooted to the ground, unable to 
 remove his gaze from the terrible sight. 
 
 Her piercing shrieks soon filled the room. Among 
 the crowd came Lugari, who instantly guessed what had 
 happened. A surgeon was sent for, and poor Minnette, 
 struggling madly, was borne to her room and laid upon
 
 336 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 her bed. The surgeon, an Englishman, at length arrived ; 
 and Louis, at last restored to presence of mind, speedily 
 expelled the gaping crowd, and shut himself up in his own 
 room, unable to endure the harrowing sight of Min- 
 nette's agony. For upwards of two hours he trod up 
 and down, almost maddened by the recollection of the 
 dreadful scene just past. Bitter, indeed, was his anguish 
 and remorse ; in those two hours seemed concentrated 
 ages of suffering. 
 
 Suddenly the sound of footsteps announced that the 
 physician was about to take his leave. Hurriedly leav- 
 ing the room, Louis followed him, scarcely daring to ask 
 the question that hovered upon his lips. 
 
 "Tell me !" he exclaimed, vehemently, "is she will 
 she " 
 
 " No, she will not die," replied the doctor, who knew 
 what he would ask. " The wound is dangerous, but not 
 mortal. She must be taken care of. I will have her im- 
 mediately removed from here." 
 
 " Then she will recover !" said Louis, fervently, 
 "Thank God ! " 
 
 " Yes, she will recover," said the doctor, hesitating- 
 ly, "but " 
 
 " But what ?" exclaimed Louis, in vague alarm. 
 . " She will be blind for life .'" 
 
 " Great heaven !" 
 
 " Her right eye is already gone, and the other, I fear, 
 will never more see the light. Still, you should be 
 grateful that her life will be preserved." And the sur- 
 geon took his hat and left. 
 
 " Blind ! blind for life !" murmured Louis, in horror ; 
 "a fate worse than death. Oh, Minnette ! Minnette !"
 
 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 337 
 
 The lingering glory of an Italian sunset was stream- 
 ing through the open window of the room where Min- 
 nette lay. It was a plainly, but neatly furnished room, 
 in one of the Scuole, or benevolent institutions of the 
 city. Two months had passed since that unhappy day 
 on which we saw her last. She lies now on the bed, the 
 sunlight falling brightly on her wan face ; that blessed 
 sunlight she will never see more. A Sister of Mercy, 
 with holy face and meek eyes, sits by her side, holding 
 one of her hands in hers. 
 
 And this is Minnette ; this pale, faded, sightless girl, 
 the once beautiful, haughty, resplendent Minnette ! All 
 her beauty was gone now ; the glowing crimson of high 
 health rests no longer on those hollow, sunken cheeks ; 
 the fierce light of passion will never more flash from 
 those dimmed orbs ; from those poor, pale lips, bitter, 
 scathing words can never more fall. But through all 
 this outward wreck shines a calmer, holier beauty than 
 ever rested on her face before. In the furnace, she has 
 been purified ; the fierce, passionate spirit has been sub- 
 dued by grace ; the lion in her nature has yielded to the 
 Lamb that was slain ; the wrung, agonized heart has 
 ceased to struggle, and rests in peace at last. 
 
 Not without many a struggle had her wild, fierce 
 nature yielded to the soothings of religion. Long, 
 tempestuous, and passionate was the struggle ; and 
 when her good angel triumphed at last she came, not as 
 a meek penitent, but as a worn, world-weary sinner, 
 longing only for peace and rest. 
 
 She had not seen Louis during her illness. Often he 
 came to visit her, but still her cry was : " Not yet ! not 
 yet !" Her wild, mad love was dying out of her heart, 
 and with it her intense hatred of Celeste. Her days, 
 now, were spent in meditation and prayer, or listening 
 to the gentle, soothing words of Sister Beatrice. 
 15
 
 338 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 " The sun is setting, sister, is it not ?" she asked, turn- 
 ing her head towards the windows, as though she still 
 could see. 
 
 "Yes ; a more glorious sunset I never beheld." 
 
 " And I can never see it more ; never behold the 
 beautiful earth or sky ; never see sun, or moon, or stars 
 again !" said Minnette, in a voice low, but unspeakably 
 sad. 
 
 " No, my child, but there is an inward vision that can 
 never be seen with corporeal eyes. Now that those out- 
 ward eyes are sealed forever, a glimpse of heaven has 
 been bestowed upon you, to lighten the darkness of your 
 life." 
 
 "Oh ! Sister Beatrice, if I were always with you, I 
 feel I could submit to my fate without a murmur. But 
 when I go out into the world, this fierce nature that is 
 within me, that is subdued but not conquered, will again 
 arise ; and I will become more passionate, selfish, and 
 sinful than ever." 
 
 " Then why go out into the world any more? Why 
 not enter a convent, and end your days in peace ?" 
 
 " Oh, sister ! if I only might," said Minnette, clasp- 
 ing her hands ; " but I, poor, blind, and helpless, what 
 could I do in a convent ?" 
 
 " You could pray, you could be happy ; if you wish 
 to enter, your blindness shall be no obstacle," said Sister 
 Beatrice. 
 
 At this moment a servant entered and handed the 
 sister a note, addressed to Minnette. She opened it, 
 and read aloud : 
 
 "Every day for a month I have called here, and you 
 have refused to see me. Minnette, I conjure you to let 
 me visit you ; I cannot rest until I have seen you, and 
 obtained your forgiveness. Louis."
 
 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 339 
 
 Minnette's pale face flushed deep crimson, and then 
 grew whiter than before, as she said, vehemently : 
 
 " No, I will not ! I will not ! I cannot see him more !" 
 
 "Why not?" said Sister Beatrice. "Confess, my 
 child, that vanity still lingers in your heart. You do 
 not wish to see him because you think he will be 
 shocked to find you so changed and altered. Is it not 
 so ?" 
 
 " Yes, yes !" replied Minnette, in a fainting voice. 
 
 "But this is wrong ; you ought to see him. As you 
 are desirous of taking the vail, it is but right that you 
 should see him, and bid him farewell, and let him inform 
 your friends when he sees them. Come, my dear child, 
 cast out this spirit of pride, and let me admit him, if 
 only for a moment." 
 
 There was a fierce struggle in the breast of Minnette. 
 It was but momentary, however, as, shading her face with 
 one hand, she said : 
 
 " Be it so ; I will endure the humiliation ; let him 
 come." 
 
 Sister Beatrice pressed her lips to the brow of the in- 
 valid, and left the room. A moment later, and Louis, 
 pale, thin, and careworn, entered. He started, and grew 
 a shade paler, as his eyes fell on that poor, pale face, 
 robbed of all its beauty, and with a suppressed groan, 
 sank on his knees by the bedside. 
 
 "Minnette! Minnette!" he said, hoarsely. "Can 
 you ever forgive me ?" 
 
 The sightless eyes were turned toward him, in the 
 vain effort to see. Alas ! All was darkness. She held 
 out one little, transparent hand, which he took between 
 both of his. 
 
 "I have nothing to forgive," she said, meekly. "All 
 that has happened to me I deserved. Do not grieve for
 
 34 o LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 me, Louis, you have nothing to reproach yourself with ; 
 it was all my own fault." 
 
 He bowed his forehead on her hand, and tears, that 
 did honor to his generous heart, fell from his eyes. 
 
 " Tell Celeste, when you see her, how sorry I am for 
 all my cruelty and injustice toward her. Ask her to for- 
 give me ; she is good and gentle, I feel she will do it. 
 If I only had her pardon, I feel I could die content. 
 And, Oh Louis ! when she is happy with you, will you 
 both sometimes think of Minnette, blind, and alone in a 
 foreign land ?" 
 
 " Oh, poor Minnette !" he said, in a choking voice. 
 
 " Do not pity me, Louis ; I am very happy," but the 
 pale lips trembled as she spoke ; " happier than I ever 
 was when I was full of life and health. Oh, Louis, 
 when I look back and think of what I have been so 
 selfish, and hard-hearted, and cruel I tremble to think 
 what I might yet have been if God in his mercy had not 
 sent me this affliction. And Celeste ; no words can ever 
 tell how I have wronged her. You know how I struck 
 her, in my blind rage, and the angelic patience and for- 
 giveness with which she afterward sought to love me, 
 and make me happy. Oh, Louis ! all her sweetness and 
 meekness will haunt me to my dying day." 
 
 Her voice faltered, then entirely failed, and for the 
 first time in her life the once haughty Minnette wept. 
 
 " Tears are strange visitors to these eyes,"- she said, 
 with a sad smile ; "there may be hope for me yet, since 
 I can weep for the past. Louis, in a few weeks I will 
 enter a convent, and the remainder of my life shall be 
 spent in praying for you and Celeste, and the rest of my 
 friends. And now you must leave me farewell, a last 
 farewell, dear Louis. Tell them all at home how I have 
 learned to love them at last, and ask them to forgive 
 poor Minnette."
 
 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 341 
 
 He could not speak ; she made a sign for him to go. 
 Raising the thin, pale hand to his lips, and casting one 
 long, last look on the sad, yet peaceful face of the once 
 beautiful Minnette, he quitted the room. And thus they 
 parted, these two, never to meet in life again. 
 
 Meantime, we must revisit St. Mark's, and witness 
 the startling events that are bringing matters to a rapid 
 denouement there. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 
 
 " Her wretched brain gave way, 
 And she became a wreck, at random driven, 
 Without one glimpse of reason. or of Heaven." 
 
 T was a bleak, stormy December evening, a 
 week before Christmas. A bright fire was 
 burning in the well-known parlor of Sunset 
 Hall. 
 
 In his easy-chair, with his gouty legs, 
 swathed in flannels, reposing on two others, lay our old 
 friend the squire, literally " laid up by the legs." In the 
 opposite corner was Lizzie, dozing, as usual, on her sofa ; 
 while good Mrs. Gower sat with her fat hands folded in 
 her lap, reposing after the cares of the day. Dr. Wise- 
 man had not yet sufficiently recovered from his wounds 
 and bruises to go abroad, and had just retired to his 
 room, while his affectionate spouse was enjoying herself 
 at a grand ball in the village. 
 
 The worthy trio had sat in solemn silence for upwards
 
 342 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 
 
 of an hour, when the door was flung open, and Jupiter 
 rushed in to announce " dat a boy commanded to see 
 ole marster 'mediately." 
 
 "To see me?" said the squire, in amazement. 
 " What does he want ? I won't see anybody to-night." 
 
 " He's got a letter, and says he must d'liver it to-night 
 it's very important," said Jupiter. 
 
 " Humph ! well, admit him then. I never can get a 
 minute's peace. ' No rest for the wicked,' as Solomon 
 says. Well, here he comes." 
 
 As he spoke, a youth, apparently about sixteen, en- 
 tered the apartment, bearing every evidence of having 
 journeyed fast. 
 
 " You are Squire Erliston, I believe," said the lad, 
 bowing respectfully. 
 
 " Well, you may believe it," said the squire, testily ; 
 " it's a name I was never ashamed of. What do you want 
 of me at this hour of the night, young man ?" 
 
 " I have been sent with this letter," said the boy, pre- 
 senting one ; " it's a matter of life and death." 
 
 "Matter of life and death! Lord bless me!" ex- 
 claimed the astonished squire, " what can it mean ? 
 Hand me my spectacles, Mrs. Gower, and put them on 
 my nose, till I overhaul this document. Maybe it con- 
 tains state-treason, a gunpowder plot or something. 
 ' The pen is mightier than the sword,' as Solomon says ; 
 though I'll be shot if I believe it. Solomon didn't know 
 much about swords, and acted queer sometimes didn't 
 behave well to his wife, they say. Humph ! well, here 
 goes." 
 
 So saying, the squire opened the letter and began to 
 read. And as he read, his eyes began to protrude, till 
 they threatened to shoot from his head altogether. The 
 letter ran as follows :
 
 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 343 
 
 " MAGNUS ERLISTON : Come to me immediately am 
 dying. I have something to tell you of the utmost im- 
 portance, and I cannot die with it on my conscience. 
 Above all things, do not, for your life, breathe a word of 
 this to Dr. Wiseman. Come instantly, or you may re- 
 pent it. MADGE ORANMORE." 
 
 " Now, what in the name of Beelzebub does the 
 woman mean ?" exclaimed the squire, as he finished 
 reading this. "How does she expect a man to turn out 
 on a December night, with the gout in his legs? I say, 
 youngster, do you know who sent you with this precious 
 letter ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir ; my mistress, Mrs. Oranmore." 
 " And what's the matter with her, may I ask ?" 
 " She has been ailing for some time ; and a week ago, 
 her illness took a dangerous turn. The doctors say she 
 has but few days to live, and she seems to be anxious 
 about some secret that preys on her mind. I have not 
 rested day or night since I started for this place. I fear 
 she will not live until I get back, unless you make 
 haste." 
 
 " I know not what to do," said the squire, evidently 
 appalled. " I'd like to see the old lady before she leaves 
 this 'vale of tears,' as Solomon says, but how the mis- 
 chief I'm to go, I can't tell. If she could only put off 
 dying for a month or two, now, I'd go with pleasure, 
 but I suppose she can't conveniently. 'Time and tide 
 wait for no man,' as Solomon says. I mustn't tell old 
 Wiseman, either, it seems hum-m-m ! 'Pon my life, I 
 don't know what to say about it." 
 
 All this was muttered in a sort of soliloquy ; and as 
 he ceased, the merry jingle of bells approaching the 
 house saluted his ears. The next moment, Gipsy,
 
 344 THE DEATH BED CONFESSION. 
 
 wrapped up in shawls, and hoods, and furs, fresh and 
 bright as a daisy, danced into the room, exclaiming : 
 
 " Here I am, good folks ! The ball was a horrid 
 stupid affair, without a bit of fun, so I thought I'd come 
 home." Here, catching sight of the stranger, Gipsy 
 favored him with a stare of surprise, and was about to 
 leave the room, when the squire called : 
 
 " Come back here, monkey ; I'm in a confounded 
 scrape, and I want you to help me out of it." 
 
 " All right ; just hint what it is, will you ? and I'll 
 have you out of it in a twinkling." 
 
 " Read that," said the squire, placing the mysterious 
 letter in her hand. 
 
 Gipsy read it, and then exclaimed : 
 
 " Well, there's some mystery here that's certain. 
 But you can't go, can you, Guardy ?" 
 
 ".To be sure I can't. You might as well expect Mrs. 
 Gower, there, to dance the double shuffle, as expect me 
 to go on such a journey." 
 
 " Well, Spider's not to know of it, and he couldn't 
 go if he did, with his dilapidated continuations ; Aunty 
 Liz can't travel and lie asleep on a sofa at the same time ; 
 and Aunty Gower, poor woman ! can't travel up stairs, 
 under half an hour's panting and groaning ; so none of 
 them can go, that's demonstrated as old Mr. Black- 
 board used to say. Eh ! Guardy ?" 
 
 " Yes, yes. But what's to be done ?" 
 
 " Why, it's very clear what's to be done. /7/go !" 
 
 " You" said the squire, with a stare. " What good can 
 you do ?" 
 
 "Come, now! I like that ! I'll leave it to every- 
 body, if I'm not worth the whole of you put together. 
 Ain't I, now ?" 
 
 "Mrs. Oranmore won't tell you her secret." 
 
 "Well, if she don't, she'll lose the wisest, nicest
 
 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 345 
 
 sensiblest confidante ever anybody had, though I say it. 
 Any way, I'll try ; and if she won't tell, why, she'll have 
 to leave it alone that's all. When do you start ?" she 
 asked, turning to the youth. 
 
 " Now, if you're ready," replied the lad. 
 
 " Yes, I'm ready. How did you come ? by the stage?" 
 
 "No, in a sleigh it's at the door." 
 
 "Well, then, I won't detain you. Good-bye for a 
 week, Guardy ; good-bye, Aunty Gower. Off we go !" 
 
 " Hadn't you better stay till morning," said Mrs. 
 Gower, anxiously. " It is too cold and stormy to travel 
 by night." 
 
 " And in the meantime this old lady may give up the 
 ghost. No ; there's no time to lose ; and besides, I 
 rather like the idea of a journey, to vary the monotony 
 of St. Mark's. Good-bye all I leave you my blessing," 
 said Gipsy, with a parting flourish, as she left the room 
 and took her place by the side of the boy in the sleigh. 
 Nothing remarkable occurred on the journey. Gipsy, 
 comfortably nestled under the buffalo robes, scarcely felt 
 the cold. The next morning they halted at a wayside 
 inn to take breakfast, and then dashed off again. 
 
 Owing to the state of the roads it was late in the 
 afternoon when they readied the city ; and almost dark 
 when Gipsy, preceded by her companion, entered the 
 gloomy home of Mrs. Oranmore. 
 
 " My stars ! what a dismal old tomb. It really smells 
 of ghosts and rats, and I should not wonder if it was 
 tenanted by both," was Gipsy's internal comment as she 
 passed up the long, dark staircase, and longer, darker 
 hall, and entered the sick-room of Mrs. Oranmore the 
 longest and darkest of all. Stretched on a hearse-like 
 bed stiff, stark, and rigid, as though she were already 
 dead lay Madge Oranmore her face looking like some 
 15*
 
 346 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 
 
 grim, stern mask carved in iron. An old woman, whom 
 the boy addressed as " mother," sat by her side. 
 
 The invalid started quickly at the sound of their 
 footsteps ; and seeing the boy, exclaimed, in a faint, yet 
 eager and imperious tone : 
 
 " Has he come ?" 
 
 " No ; he is ill, and could not come," said Gipsy, 
 stepping forward. " He is unable to walk, so I have 
 come iu his stead." 
 
 " Who are you ?" demanded Mrs. Oranmore, sharply. 
 
 "Well, really, I'd be obliged to anybody who would 
 tell me at present, it's more than I know. I used to 
 think I was Gipsy Gower Squire Erliston's ward ; but, 
 of late, I've found out I don't belong to anybody in par- 
 ticular. I was picked up, one night, as if I had been a 
 piece of drift-wood ; and I expect, like Venus, I rose 
 from the sea." 
 
 " Girl, have you come here to mock me?" exclaimed 
 Dame Oranmore, fiercely. 
 
 "The saints forbid ! I'm telling you the truth, the 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I was picked 
 up one Christmas eve, nineteen years ago, on the beach, 
 about a quarter of a mile from here ; and good Heaven ! 
 what's the matter with you ?" exclaimed Gipsy, springing 
 back. 
 
 With the shriek of a dying panther, Mrs. Oranmore 
 sprung up in her bed, with her eyes starting from their 
 sockets, as she fairly screamed : 
 
 " What ! Heaven of heavens ! did he not drown 
 you ?" 
 
 " Why, no ; I rather think not at least, if I ever was 
 drowned, I have no recollection of it. But, my good- 
 ness ! don't glare at me so you're absolutely hideous 
 enough to make every hair on a body's head stand per- 
 pendicular, with those eyes of yours."
 
 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 347 
 
 " How were you saved ?" Answer me that ! How 
 were you saved?" again screamed the excited woman. 
 
 "Well, I don't recollect much about it myself; but 
 Mrs. Gower told me, the other day, that she found me 
 rolled up in a shawl, on the beach, like an Esquimaux 
 papoose asleep in a snow-bank. I haven't any notion 
 who the ' he' is you speak of ; but if ' he' left me there to 
 turn into an icicle, I only wish I could see him, and tell 
 him a piece of my mind that's all." 
 
 "And this was Christmas eve, nineteen years ago?" 
 exclaimed Madge Oranmore, breathlessly. 
 
 ' Yes." 
 
 "Great Heaven ! how just is thy retribution ! And 
 at last, in my dying hour, I behold before me the child of 
 Esther Erliston and Alfred Oranmore !" exclaimed the 
 dying woman, falling back on her pillow, and clasping 
 her hands. 
 
 " What!" exclaimed Gipsy, springing forward, and 
 seizing her by the arm. "Whose child, did you say I 
 was ?" 
 
 "The only daughter of Esther Erliston and Alfred 
 Oranmore ; and heiress, in your mother's right, of Mount 
 Sunset Hall," replied Mrs. Oranmore. 
 
 " And grandchild of Squire Erliston ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Gipsy staggered back, and covered her face with her 
 hands. Her emotion was but momentary, however ; and 
 again approaching the bed, she said, in a tone that was 
 perfectly calm, though her wild, excited eyes spoke a 
 different tale : 
 
 " Tell me all about this. How came I to be left to 
 perish on the shore ?" 
 
 " Leave the room, both of you," said the sick woman, 
 to her attendants. They obeyed. "Now, sit down
 
 348 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 
 
 beside me," she continued, turning to Gipsy ; " and tell 
 me, are you married ?" 
 
 " Yes, they say so to old Dr. Nicholas Wiseman." 
 
 " Great heaven ! what did you say ?" exclaimed Mrs. 
 Oranmore, in a voice of horror. 
 
 " Yes. It's surprising, ain't it, that I married that old 
 man. But that's got nothing to do with your story. Go 
 on," urged Gipsy. 
 
 " Child ! child !" said the dying woman faintly, "you 
 have wedded the murderer of your mother." 
 
 With a low, sharp cry Gipsy sprang to her feet her 
 countenance blanched to the hue of death. 
 
 "Did he know your history?" asked Mrs. Oranmore, 
 breaking the long pause that followed. 
 
 " Yes ; he heard it a few weeks before we were mar- 
 ried," said Gipsy, in a voice that was hoarse and un- 
 natural. 
 
 "Then he married you that he might possess Mount 
 Sunset. Oh, the villainy of that wretch ! But let him 
 beware ! for the day of retribution is at hand." 
 
 "Tell me all, from the beginning," said Gipsy, seat- 
 ing herself, and speaking in a tone as stern, and with a 
 face as firm and rigid, as that of the grim invalid her- 
 self ; but those eyes those eyes how they blazed ! 
 
 There is little need to recapitulate the tale told to 
 Gipsy she related only what the reader already knows; 
 the death of Esther by her instigation, but by his hand ; 
 and the infant left to perish in the waves. 
 
 " I suppose he left you on the shore, thinking the 
 waves would wash you away," concluded Mrs. Oran- 
 moie, " when you were providentially saved by the same 
 Almighty power that guarded Moses in his cradle of 
 bulrushes. I supposed you had perished, and so did he ; 
 but the agonies of remorse I have suffered for what I 
 have done, I can never reveal. Night and day, sleeping
 
 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 349 
 
 or waking, the last dying shrieks of Esther Oranmore 
 have been ringing in my ears. My son married Lizzie 
 Erliston ; and his violent death was but the beginning 
 of my living punishment. For his son's sake, I have 
 kept my dreadful secret during life ; but now, at the 
 hour of death, a power over which I have no control 
 compels me to reveal all. I am beyond the power of the 
 law I go to answer for my crimes at the bar of God ; 
 therefore, I fear not in making these disclosures. My 
 hour has come." 
 
 " But he shall not escape !" said Gipsy, rising from 
 the chair, on which she sat as if petrified, while listening 
 to the story of her birth. " No ! by the heaven above 
 us bot*h, his life shall pay for this ! Woman," she con- 
 tinued, turning fiercely upon Mrs. Oranmore, "you shall 
 not die until you have done justice to the child of her 
 you have murdered ! I will send for a magistrate ; and 
 you must make a deposition of all you have told me to 
 him. Death shall not enter here yet, to cheat the gal- 
 lows of its due !" 
 
 She sprang to the bell, and rang a peal that brought 
 all the servants in the house flocking wildly into the 
 room. 
 
 "Go to the nearest magistrate," she said, turning to 
 the boy who had accompanied her from St. Mark's 
 "fly ! vanish ! Tell him it is a matter of life and death. 
 Go! and be back here in ten minutes, or you shall rue it !" 
 
 The boy fled, frightened out of his wits by her fierce 
 words and looks. Shutting the door in the faces of the 
 others, Gipsy seated herself ; and setting her teeth hard 
 together, and clenching her hands, she fixed her eyes on 
 the floor, and sat as immorable as if turning to stone. 
 Mrs. Oranmore lay in silence either not willing or not 
 able to speak. 
 
 Ere fifteen minutes had thus passed, the boy re-
 
 350 THE DEATH-BED CONFESSION. 
 
 turned, accompanied by a magistrate a short, bluster- 
 ing, important personage. He bowed to Gipsy who 
 arose upon his entrance and began drawing off his 
 gloves, making some remark upon the inclemency of the 
 weather, which she abruptly cut short, by saying : 
 
 " This woman is dying, and wishes to make a depo- 
 sition. Here are writing-materials ; sit down and com- 
 mence you have no time to spare." 
 
 Hurried away by her impetuosity, the little man 
 found himself, before he was aware of it, sitting by the 
 bed-side, pen in hand, writing and listening, with many 
 an ejaculation of wonder, horror, and amazement. 
 
 At length the deposition was duly drawn up and 
 signed, and he arose, exclaiming : 
 
 "But, good heaven ! madam, do you not know, if 
 you survive, you will be arrested too, and " 
 
 "Hush !" said Gipsy, sternly ; "she is dying." 
 
 " I tell you I did not murder her," she exclaimed, 
 almost springing up in bed ; " it was he who gave her 
 the poison ! I never did it. Listen ! do you not hear 
 her shrieks ? or is it not the cries of the fiends I hear al- 
 ready ? He was afraid. Ha! ha! ha!" she said, with a 
 horrid laugh, " I mocked him until he ventured to do it. 
 He drowned her child, too ; he said he did he threw it 
 into the sea ; and dead people tell no tales. Who said it 
 was alive ? I will never believe it ! It is dead ! It is 
 dead !" 
 
 She sank back exhausted. The magistrate gazed, 
 white with horror ; but Gipsy was calm, stern, and still. 
 
 " Look, look ! they come for me their arms are out- 
 stretched they approach they strangle me. Off, 
 demon off, I say !" A wild, piercing shriek rang 
 through the house, then she fell back, her jaw dropped, 
 her eyes grew glazed, her face rigid, and Madge Oran- 
 more was dead.
 
 RE TRIE UTION. 35 1 
 
 There was a moment's appalled silence. Then the 
 magistrate said : 
 
 " Let us leave this dreadful place ; the very air seems 
 tainted with blood." 
 
 Without a word, she turned and followed him from 
 the room, and the house. Rejecting all his invitations 
 to let him find lodgings for her in the city during the 
 night, she accompanied him to his office, received a war- 
 rant for the arrest of Dr. Wiseman ; and with two con- 
 stables, set off immediately for Sunset Hall. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 RETRIBUTION. 
 
 " Oh, woman wronged can cherish hate 
 
 More deep and dark than manhood may, 
 And when the mockery of fate 
 
 Hath left revenge her chosen way." 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
 T was the afternoon of the following day. The 
 squire sat alone, muttering to himself: 
 " Singular ! most singular ! most ex-<rm- 
 ively singular ! wants a private interview, 
 eh ! What the dickens can be in old Wise- 
 man's noddle now? Maybe he wants to divorce Gipsy, 
 and marry Lizzie. Ha ! ha ! ha ! that would be a joke. 
 Wonder what old Mother Oranmore wanted ? that's 
 another secret. I suppose she told Gipsy and ha ! 
 here's Gipsy herself. ' Speak of Old Nick, and he'll 
 appear,' as Solomon says. Well, what's the news ?" 
 " Where's Dr. Wiseman ?" inquired Gipsy, abruptly. 
 "Up stairs. He sent down word some time ago,
 
 352 RE TRIE UTION. 
 
 that he had something important to tell me, and wanted 
 a private interview. Think of that ! But what is the 
 matter with you ? You look as if you'd been riding on 
 a broomstick all night as if you were the Witch of 
 Endor, who told King Saul's fortune long ago." 
 
 As he spoke, a slow, heavy footstep was heard de- 
 scending the stairs. 
 
 "There's old Wiseman now, pegging along," said 
 the squire. " I never see him walking, since he broke 
 his shin-bone, that he doesn't remind me of Old Nick 
 himself. Now for this wonderful secret of his." 
 
 " Guardy, don't mention that I am here," said Gipsy, 
 hurriedly. " I have a project in hand, that I fancy will 
 astonish him a little, by and by." 
 
 " Well, be sure you're right, then go ahead, as Solo- 
 mon says you always have some project or other in 
 your cranium to bother his brains." 
 
 " I fancy I will bother him a little more than usual 
 this time," said Gipsy, with a low, bitter laugh gliding 
 through one door just as the doctor entered by another. 
 
 Dr. Wiseman, thin and attenuated by illness, looked 
 even more ghastly and hideous (if such a thing were pos- 
 sible) than when we saw him last. He advanced, and 
 took a seat near the fire. 
 
 " Well, Wiseman, what's this wonderful affair you 
 have to tell me?" said the squire, adjusting himself in 
 his seat to listen. 
 
 " It concerns my wife," replied the doctor, slowly. 
 
 "Yes, some complaint, I'll be bound! Now, I tell 
 you what, Wiseman, I won't listen to your stories about 
 Gipsy. She has always done what she liked, and she 
 always shall, for what I care. If she likes to enjoy her- 
 self, she will, and you nor no one else shall interfere," 
 said the squire, striking, the table with an emphatic 
 thump.
 
 RE TRIE U HON. 353 
 
 "Don't jump at conclusions so hastily, my dear sir," 
 said the doctor, dryly. " I have no complaint to make 
 of Mrs. Wiseman. It is of her birth and parentage I 
 would speak." 
 
 " Her birth and parentage ! Is the man mad ? Don't 
 you know she's a foundling?" said the squire, staring 
 with all his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, but lately I have discovered who she is. You 
 need not excite yourself, Squire Erliston, as I see you in- 
 tend doing. Listen to me, and I will tell you all about 
 it. The time has come for you to know. 
 
 " Perhaps you are not aware that for many years I 
 have been the friend and confidant of Mrs. Madge Oran- 
 more ; but so it is. I was bound to her by the strongest 
 ties of gratitude, and willingly served her in all things. 
 
 "One Christmas eve, just nineteen years ago, she sent 
 for me in most urgent haste. I followed her messenger, 
 and was shown to the lady's room. There I found an 
 infant enveloped in a large shawl, which she told me I 
 was to consign to the waves in a word, to drown it. 
 You start, Squire Erliston, but such was her command. 
 She refused to tell me what prompted her to so fiendish 
 an act. I was in her power, and she knew I dared not 
 refuse ; I therefore consented " 
 
 "To drown the child?" said the squire, recoiling in 
 horror. 
 
 " Listen I feared to refuse, and promised to do it. 
 I went to the beach, the tide was out ; while I stood hes- 
 itating, I heard a sleigh approaching. I wrapped the 
 child up closely, and laid it right in their way, and stood 
 aside to watch the event ; determined, in case they did 
 not see it, to provide for it comfortably myself. Fortu- 
 nately, they saw it. A woman who was in the sleigh 
 took it with her that woman was Mrs. Gower that 
 child is now my wife."
 
 354 RETRIBUTION. 
 
 " Goo-oo-d Lord !" ejaculated the squire, whose 
 mouth and eyes were open to their widest extent. 
 
 " When you told me how she had been found, I knew 
 immediately it was the same. I had long felt remorse 
 for what I had done, and I at once resolved to make re- 
 paration to the best of my power, by marrying the 
 foundling. This, Squire Erliston, was the secret of my 
 wish to marry Gipsy, which puzzled you so long. 
 
 "Still, I was completely ignorant of her parentage. 
 Owing to my accident, I was unable to visit Mrs. Oran- 
 more ; but I wrote to her repeatedly, threatening her 
 with exposure if she did not immediately reveal the 
 whole affair. She grew alarmed at last, and sent me a 
 letter that explained all, only begging me not to disgrace 
 her, by letting the world know what she had done. That 
 letter, I regret to say, has been unhappily lost." 
 
 " Well !" said the squire, breathlessly, seeing he 
 paused. 
 
 "Well, sir, she told me all. My wife is the child of 
 your eldest daughter, Esther, and Alfred Oranmore." 
 
 Bewildered, amazed, thunderstruck, the squire sat 
 gazing upon him in 'a speechless horror. 
 
 "The way of it was this" continued the doctor, as 
 calmly as though he was ordering him a prescription. 
 "Alfred Oranmore, as you know, was accidentally 
 drowned, leaving his wife in the utmost destitution. 
 Mrs. Oranmore heard of it, and had Esther privately 
 conveyed to her house, while she caused a notice of her 
 death to be published in the papers. What her object 
 was in doing this, I know not. Esther, she says, died in 
 her house. How she came by her death, I cannot even 
 guess. I knew nothing of it at the time, as I told you 
 before. Mrs. Oranmore wished this child removed, that 
 it might not be in the way of her son, Barry ; and think- 
 ing I was as heartless and cruel as herself, she employed
 
 RETRIBUTION. 355 
 
 ( me to drown it. Such, Squire Erliston, is this singular 
 story. I thought it my duty to inform you immediately." 
 
 "And Gipsy is my grandchild," said the squire, in 
 the slow, bewildered tone of one who cannot realize 
 what he says. 
 
 "Yes; and the rightful heiress of Mount Sunset," 
 said the wily doctor, in a slow, triumphant tone. 
 
 " And the avenger of her mother !" cried the voice of 
 Gipsy herself, as she stood before them. " Oh, wonder- 
 ful Doctor Wiseman ! astonishing indeed is thy talent 
 for invention and hardihood. What a strain on your 
 imagination it must have been, to invent such a story ! 
 Have you ever heard of the proverb, ' Murder will out,' 
 my lord and master ? Ho, there ! Burke and Johnston, 
 enter ! here is your prisoner !" 
 
 She opened the door as she spoke, and the constables 
 entered. 
 
 " What in the devil's name means this?" exclaimed 
 the doctor, growing deadly pale. 
 
 " Yes, call on your master," mocked Gipsy ; "he has 
 stood by you long, but I fear he will not serve you more. 
 Quick, there, Burke ! on with the handcuffs. Gently, 
 Doctor Wiseman -gently, my dear sir ; you will hurt 
 your delicate wrists if you struggle so. Did any pro- 
 phetic seer ever foretell, Doctor Wiseman, your end 
 would be by the halter?" 
 
 " What means this outrage ? Unhand me, villains !" 
 exclaimed the doctor, hoarse with rage and fear, as he 
 struggled madly to free himself from the grasp of the 
 constables. 
 
 " Softly, doctor, softly," said Gipsy, in a voice, low, 
 calm, and mocking; "you are only arrested for the 
 murder of my mother, Esther Oranmore, just nineteen 
 years ago. Ah ! I see you remember it. I feared such 
 a trifle might have escaped your memory !"
 
 356 RETRIB Ul ION. 
 
 The face of the doctor grew perfectly ghastly. He 
 staggered back, and would have fallen, had he not been 
 upheld by one of the men. Gipsy stood before him, 
 with a face perfectly white, save two dark purple spots 
 burning on either cheek. Her wild eyes were blazing 
 with an intense light, her lips wreathed in a smile of 
 exultant triumph ; her long hair, streaming in dis- 
 order down her back, gave her a look that awed even 
 the constables themselves. 
 
 "And now, Doctor Wiseman," she said, in a slow, 
 bitter, but exulting voice, "I have fulfilled my vow of 
 vengeance ; my revenge is complete, or will be, when 
 your miserable body swings from the gallows. I see 
 now, your aim in compelling me to marry you ; but you 
 have failed. Satan has deserted his earthly representa- 
 tive, at last. No earthly power can save you from hang- 
 ing now. Away with him to prison ! The very air is 
 tainted which a murderer breathes." 
 
 The men advanced to bear off their prisoner. At 
 that moment the recollection of the astrologer's fell pre- 
 diction flashed across his mind. Word for word it had 
 been fulfilled. Before him, in ghastly array, arose the 
 scaffold, the hangman, his dying agonies, and the terri- 
 ble hereafter. Overcome by fear, horror, and remorse, 
 with a piercing shriek of utter woe.) the wretched man 
 fell senseless to the floor. 
 
 "Take him away," said Gipsy, sternly, turning aside 
 with a shudder of disgust ; " my eyes loathe the sight 
 of him !" 
 
 They bore him away. Gipsy stood at the window 
 listening, until the last sound of the carriage died away 
 ia the distance ; then, abruptly turning, she quitted the 
 room, leaving the squire stunned, speechless, and bewil- 
 dered by the rapidity with which all this had taken place.
 
 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 357 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 ANOTHER SURPRISE, 
 
 " No heiress art thou, lad)', but the child 
 Of one who's still unknown." 
 
 REAT was the excitement and consternation 
 which the news of Dr. Wiseman's crime and 
 arrest created in St. Mark's and the neigh- 
 boring city. The peculiar and romantic 
 circumstances attending it, imperfectly 
 known as they were, the respectability of the parties 
 implicated, the high standing of the prisoner in so- 
 ciety all contributed to add to the general interest of 
 the case. 
 
 The rapid and exciting events, the startling dis- 
 covery that Gipsy was his grandchild, so confounded 
 and bewildered the squire, who was never noted for 
 the brightness of his intellect, that it completely upset 
 his equilibrium ; and his days were passed alone, smok- 
 ing and staring stupidly at every one he saw. As for 
 Lizzie, she was too feeble and languid either to feel hor- 
 ror or surprise, and a faint stare and shiver was the only 
 effect the news produced upon her. Mrs. Gower groaned 
 in spirit over the depravity of mankind in general, 
 and Dr. Wiseman in particular; and generally passed 
 her days in solemn exhortations to the servants, to be 
 warned by his fearful example, and mend their ways. 
 
 On Gipsy, therefore, all the business of the house- 
 hold devolved. A great change had come over the elf ; 
 her laughing days seemed passed ; and quietly establish- 
 ing herself as mistress of the household, she issued her
 
 358 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 
 
 orders with a quiet dignity and calm authority, that 
 commanded obedience and respect. She wrote to Louis, 
 informing him of all that had occurred, and desiring 
 him to return home immediately. 
 
 The only moments of relaxation which Gipsy ever 
 allowed herself were her visits to Valley Cottage, listen- 
 ing to the gentle words of Celeste " dear Celeste," as 
 Gipsy called her. Day by day she had grown paler and 
 frailer, her step had lost its airy lightness, her cheeks no 
 longer wore the hue of health ; but no complaint ever 
 passed her lips. Gipsy often passed her nights at the 
 cottage, feeling it a comfort to pour her troubles into 
 the sympathizing ears of her friend. And Celeste would 
 forget her own sorrow in soothing and consoling the 
 poor, half-crazed little elf. 
 
 Miss Hagar, whose health had for some time been 
 failing, was now unable to leave her bed. Fearing the 
 shock might prove fatal, Celeste had taken care she 
 should not hear of her brother's arrest. As for Minnette, 
 no one knew where she was ; and, indeed, few cared 
 for her hard, selfish nature had made her disliked by 
 all. 
 
 One evening, Mrs. Govver sat in one of the upper 
 chambers conversing with Mrs. Donne, whose life, it 
 will be remembered, Gipsy saved. That worthy old lady 
 was still an inmate of Sunset Hall, and unwilling to 
 leave her comfortable quarters while suffering with the 
 " rheumatiz." In the confusion and excitement follow- 
 ing the arrest, she had been almost totally neglected, and 
 had as yet no opportunity of learning the particulars. 
 Providentially encountering Mrs. Govver, when really 
 dying of curiosity, she began plying her with questions ; 
 and the worthy housekeeper, delighted to find so atten- 
 tive a listener, sat down, and with much gravity began
 
 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 359 
 
 narrating .the whole affair, while the attention of her 
 auditor deepened every moment. 
 
 " Laws a massy 'pon me !" exclaimed Mrs. Donne, as 
 she ceased ; "was she picked up on the beach, Christmas 
 eve, nineteen years ago ?" 
 
 " Yes ; astonishing, isn't it ?" 
 
 "'Stonishing ! I guess so!" said Mrs. Donne; "if 
 you knew what I do, you'd say so." 
 
 " Why, what do you know ? do tell me," said Mrs. 
 Gower, whose curiosity was aroused. 
 
 " Well, I don't mind if I do ; though I did intend to 
 carry the secret to the grave with me. But as I couldn't 
 help it, they can't do nothing to me for losing the child. 
 
 "On the very night you speak of, Christmas eve, 
 nineteen years ago, I was brought by a young man to a 
 house in the distant part of the city to nurse a woman 
 and child. The young man was tall, and dark, and 
 powerful handsome, but sort o' fierce-looking ; and she 
 oh, she was the loveliest creature I ever laid my eyes 
 onto ! She was nothin' but a child herself, too, and a 
 furriner, I suspect, by her tongue. 
 
 " Well, I staid there 'long with her, till nigh onto 
 midnight ; and then I wrapped myself up to come home. 
 As I was going out, he called on me to stop. So I sat 
 down to listen, and he told me, if I'd take the child 
 home with me, and take care on't, he'd pay me well. I 
 had neither chick nor child of my own, besides being a 
 widder, and I took him at his word. He gave me a 
 purse with a good round sum of money in it, on the 
 spot, and promised me more. 
 
 " I took the little one, wrapped it up in my shawl, and 
 set out for home. 
 
 "On the way I got tired; and when I reached the 
 beach, I sat down to rest. Two or three minutes after, 
 there was a great cry of fire. I became frightened ;
 
 360 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 
 
 dropped the baby in my confusion ; wandered off I 
 know not how ; and when I came back, not long after- 
 ward, it was gone. 
 
 " Well, I 'clare to man ! I was most crazy. I hunted 
 up and down the beach till nigh mornin', but I could see 
 no signs of it ; and I supposed the tide carried the poor 
 little thing away. I was dreadfully sorry, you may be 
 sure ; but as it couldn't be helped, I thought I'd make 
 the best of it, and say nothing about it. So when the 
 young man came, I told him it was doing very well. 
 And he never asked to see it, but gave me some money, 
 and went away. 
 
 "For some time after he continued sending me 
 money; but he soon stopped altogether, and I 'never 
 heard from either of them more." 
 
 "Did you ever find out his name?" inquired Mrs. 
 Gower. 
 
 "Yes. One day he dropped his handkerchief, going 
 out. I picked it up, and his name was written on it in 
 full : it was, Barry Oranmore /" 
 
 "Barry Oranmore !" repeated Mrs. Gower, thunder- 
 struck. 
 
 " Yes, that was his name ; and they were the hand- 
 somest pair ever I saw. I'm sure I'd know either of 'em 
 again, if ever I saw them." 
 
 Much agitated, Mrs. Gower arose, and going to where 
 she had laid the miniature she had found on his neck 
 when dead, she handed it to Mrs. Donne. That person- 
 age seized it, with a stifled shriek, as she exclaimed : 
 
 " My goodness gracious ! it's the picter of the lady 
 I 'tended. I'd know that face anywhere." 
 
 " Oh ! dear ! dear ! dear ! what would Miss Lizzie say 
 if she heard this?" ejaculated Mrs. Gower, holding up 
 her hands. " And the child, poor thing ! are you sure 
 it was drowned ?"
 
 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 361 
 
 " Well, no ; 1 ain't to say sure ; but it's most likely. 
 It was an odd-looking little thing, too, with a nat'ral 
 mark, like a red cross, right onto its shoulder, which is 
 something I never seed on any baby before." 
 
 But to the surprise of Mrs. Donne, Mrs. Gower 
 sprang panting to her feet, and grasped her by the arm, 
 exclaiming : 
 
 " On which shoulder was that mark ? Say on which 
 shoulder !" 
 
 " On the left. Laws a massy 'pon me ! what's the 
 matter?" said the astonished Mrs Donne. 
 
 " Good heavens ! Can the child she speaks of have 
 been " 
 
 "Who's?" inquired Mrs. Donne, eagerly. 
 
 Before Mrs. Gower could reply, she heard Gipsy's 
 foot in the passage. Going out, she caught her by the 
 arm and drew her into the room. Then before the 
 young lady could recover from her astonishment at this 
 summary proceeding, she had unfastened her dress, 
 pulled it down off her left shoulder, and displayed a 
 deep-red cross. 
 
 Recovering herself, Gipsy sprang back, exclaiming 
 indignantly : 
 
 " What in the name of all that's impolite, has got 
 into you, Aunty Gower ? Pretty work this, pulling the 
 clothes off a lady's back without even saying, by your 
 leave." 
 
 But Mrs. Donne had seen the mark, and fell back, 
 with a stifled cry. 
 
 " That's it ! that's it exactly ! She's the child saved, 
 after all." 
 
 " Why, whose child am I now ?" said the astonished 
 Gipsy. 
 
 " Can you describe the shawl the child you speak of 
 
 16
 
 362 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 
 
 was wrapped in ?" inquired Mrs. Gower, without giving 
 her time to answer Gipsy's question. 
 
 " Yes, that I can it was my own wedding shawl, as 
 my blessed husband, who is now an angel up above, 
 bought for me afore we were married. It was bright 
 red with a white border, and the letters J. D. (which 
 stands for Jane Donne) in one corner, and the letters 
 J. D. (which stands for James Donne) in t'other," re- 
 plied Mrs. Donne, with animation. 
 
 Mrs. Gower sank into a seat and covered her face 
 with her hands ; while Gipsy stood gazing from one to 
 the other in the utmost perplexity. 
 
 " What does all this mean ?" she asked, at length. 
 
 Without replying, Mrs. Gower left the room, and 
 presently re-appeared with a faded crimson shawl, which 
 she spread upon the bed. Mrs. Donne uttered a cry of 
 joy when she saw it. 
 
 " Sakes alive ! that is the very one. Where on earth 
 did you get it ?" 
 
 " Wrapped around the child." 
 
 " Aunty, pray tell me what in the world does all this 
 mean ?" exclaimed Gipsy. 
 
 For reply, Mrs. Gower briefly narrated what had 
 been told her by Mrs. Donne. The surprise of Gipsy 
 may be imagined, but her surprise scarcely equaled her 
 pleasure. 
 
 "Thank God!" she fervently exclaimed, as Mrs. 
 Gower ceased, "then I have not married the murderer of 
 my mother that thought would have rendered me 
 wretched to my dying day. My mother, then, may be 
 living yet, for all you know." 
 
 In her exultation Gipsy first rode over to tell Celeste, 
 then coming home she seated herself and wrote the fol- 
 lowing letter to Louis :
 
 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 363 
 
 " SUNSET HALL, ST. MARK'S, ) 
 December 23, 18 . ) 
 
 " DEAR Louis : In my last I told you I was the child 
 of your Aunt Esther, and Alfred Oranmore ; since then 
 I have discovered we were mistaken. My father and 
 yours, Louis, were the same who my mother was, I 
 know not ; but Aunty Gower has shown me a likeness 
 found on my father's neck when dead, representing a 
 young and lovely girl, who must have been my mother ; 
 for though the picture is fair, and I am dark, yet they 
 say they can trace a strong resemblance between us. It 
 seems I was taken away by the nurse the night of my 
 birth, and left on the shore, where aunty found me. 
 What has become of their infant is yet unknown, but it 
 may be it, too, was saved, and will yet be found. How 
 singularly things are turning out ! Who would ever 
 think we were brother and sister? Do hasten home, 
 dear Louis, more hearts than one are longing for your 
 coming. I have a thousand things yet to tell you, but 
 you know I hate writing, so I will wait until I see you. 
 Your affectionate sister, GIPSY."
 
 364 THE HEIRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE HEIRESS OF SUNSET HALL. 
 
 " A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To warm, to comfort, and command ; 
 And yet a spirit still and bright, 
 With something of an angel light." WORDSWORTH. 
 
 HE darkened rooms, the hushed footfalls, the 
 whispered words, the anxious faces, betoken 
 the presence of sickness. Like some long, 
 dark effigy, Miss Hagar lies on her bed, pros- 
 trated in body and mind, and sick unto death. 
 By her side sits Celeste, in a quiet dress of soft gray, 
 her golden hair lying in bands on her fair cheeks, pale 
 and thin with long days and nights of unceasing watch- 
 ing. 
 
 Never had the tender love and cherishing care of the 
 young girl been so manifested as in the sick-room of 
 her benefactress. Night and day, like some angel of 
 mercy, she hovered over the couch of the invalid 
 ready at the slightest motion to hold the cup to her 
 parched lips, or bathe her burning brow. Nothing 
 could induce her to leave her side, save, when tired 
 Nature could watch no longer, she sought her couch to 
 catch a few moments' sleep. And Miss Hagar, with the 
 usual fretful waywardness of illness, would have no 
 one near her but Celeste. Gipsy had offered her services 
 as assistant nurse, but was most promptly rejected. 
 
 " I want Celeste. Where is Celeste ?" was ever the 
 cry of the invalid. 
 
 It was the second week of Miss Hagar's illness. For 
 days she had been raving deliriously, recognizing no
 
 THE HEIRESS. 365 
 
 one, not even Celeste. Toward the close of the tenth 
 day she grew worse, and the doctor pronounced the 
 crisis of her disease at hand. 
 
 Evening was approaching, the evening of a bleak 
 January day. The snow was falling drearily without ; 
 and the cold wind wailed and moaned around the lonely 
 house. The fire, burning low in the grate, cast a red, 
 fitful, uncertain light through the room, giving every- 
 thing an unearthly, spectral appearance. Celeste sat by 
 the window, her chin resting on her hand, her eyes fixed 
 on the desolate prospect without, her mind and heart far 
 away far away. Her face was wet with tears, but she 
 knew it not ; sobs, long and deep, that she struggled in 
 vain to repress, swelled her bosom. Never in her life 
 had she felt so utterly desolate ; yet a sort of awe 
 mingled with her tears, as she felt herself in the pres- 
 ence of death. 
 
 Night fell in storm and darkness. In the deep gloom, 
 nothing could be discerned save the white ; unearthly 
 light of the drifting snow. Celeste arose, drew the cur- 
 tain, lit a small lamp, and was about to resume her seat, 
 when she heard her name pronounced by the lips of the 
 invalid. 
 
 In a moment she was bending over her. Reason had 
 returned to its throne ; and for the first time in many 
 weeks, Miss Hagar recognized her. 
 
 "Thank God !" exclaimed Celeste, joyfully. " Dear 
 Miss Hagar, do you not know me ?" 
 
 " Certainly, Celeste," said the invalid, passing her 
 hand across her eyes, as if to clear away a mist. " I have 
 been ill, have I not ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but now you will recover. I feared you would 
 never speak to me more ; but now you will get well, and 
 we will be happy together once more." 
 
 " No, child, I will never get well. Something here
 
 $66 THE HEIRESS. 
 
 tells me that I am called," said Miss Hagar, solemnly, 
 laying her hand on her heart. "I am sinking fast, and 
 perhaps I may never see the morning dawn. I wish I 
 could see them all before I die. Send for my brother 
 and Archie Rivers, and little Gipsy, and Minnette ! 
 Poor Minnette ! I have been harsh to her sometimes, I 
 am afraid ; and I would ask her pardon before I depart. 
 Why don't you send for them, Celeste?" 
 
 What should she do ? What ought she to say ? 
 How could she tell her what had happened? 
 
 "Dear Miss Hagar," she said, gently, ''neither the 
 doctor, nor Minnette, nor Archie, are at home. But if 
 you will see Gipsy, I will go for her." 
 
 "All gone ! all gone !" murmured the sick woman, 
 feebly, " scattered far and wide. But you, Celeste, you 
 have stood by me through all ; you have been the staff 
 and comfort of my old age. May God bless you for it ! 
 Truly has he said : ' Cast thy bread upon the waters, and 
 it shall return unto thee after many days.' But, child, 
 have you never wondered who you were ; have you never 
 wished to know who were your parents?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, often !" replied Celeste, eagerly, " but I 
 knew, when the proper time came, you would tell me ; 
 so I never asked." 
 
 " Well, that time has come at last. It is but little I 
 can tell ; for I neither know who you are, nor what is 
 your name. The way you came under my care is simply 
 <his: 
 
 " One night, as I was returning home from the vil- 
 lage, at an unusually late hour, a little girl came running 
 out from a wretched hovel, and begged me to enter with 
 her, for her aunty, as she called her, was dying. I went 
 in, and found an old woman lying on a heap of rags and 
 straw, whose end was evidently at hand. I did what I 
 could for her ; but I saw she was sinking fast. Her
 
 THE HEIRESS. 367 
 
 whole care seemed to be for her little girl, who crouched 
 at the foot of the bed, weeping bitterly. In her anxiety 
 for her, she seemed to forget her own sufferings. 
 
 " ' What will she do when I am gone ? Who will pro- 
 tect her and care for her in this selfish world ?" 
 
 " ' Is she an orphan ?" I asked. 
 
 " 'That I do not know. The child is a foundling, 
 and no relation to me ; but I love her as though she 
 were my own child. Oh ! what will become of her 
 when I am gone ?" 
 
 " 'And have you no clue to her birth ?" 
 
 " ' None. One Christmas eve, about twelve years ago, 
 
 my husband was caught in a storm coming from A . 
 
 As he was hurrying along by the shore road, he saw a 
 sleigh in advance of him, and hastened on in hopes to 
 overtake it. In his hurry his foot struck against some- 
 thing on the ground, and he stumbled and fell. As he 
 arose, he turned to examine it ; and judge of his sur- 
 prise at finding it to be a young infant, wrapped in a 
 long shawl, and sweetly sleeping. In his astonishment 
 he stood rooted to the ground, unable to move, and the 
 sleigh passed on, and was soon out of sight. It was evi- 
 dent to him that the inmates of the sleigh had either left 
 it there to perish, or it had accidentally fallen out. In 
 either case, the only thing he could do was to take it 
 home, which he did ; and handed it to me, half frozen, 
 the next morning. Our own little girl was dead ; and 
 this child seemed so like a god-send to fill her place, that 
 I received it with joy, and resolved to adopt it, if its 
 parents never claimed it. For months we lived in the 
 constant dread that it would be taken from us ; but years 
 passed on, and no inquiry was ever made concerning it. 
 We named her Celeste ; for there was something truly 
 celestial in her sweet, angel-like face, and loving nature ; 
 and never did parents love any only child as we did her.
 
 368 THE HEIRESS. 
 
 " ' We were in very comfortable circumstances then ; 
 but when Celeste was about eight years old, my husband 
 died ; and after that everything seemed against us. We 
 got poorer and poorer ; and I was forced to take in sew- 
 ing, to keep us from starving. For nearly four years I 
 worked at this, stitching away from daylight till dark ; 
 and then scarcely able to keep soul and body together. 
 Celeste assisted me nobly ; but at length my health began 
 to fail, and I resolved to leave the city. My husband's 
 friends had formerly resided here, and I was in hopes of 
 finding them ; but when I came, I learned that they were 
 all gone. Last night I was taken dangerously ill ; and 
 now I feel that I am dying ; and my poor Celeste will be 
 left utterly friendless and alone. She is beautiful, as 
 you see ; and what her fate may be, should she live to 
 grow up, I dare not think of. My poor, poor Celeste !' 
 
 " The deep affliction of the dying woman, and the 
 heartfelt grief of the child, touched me deeply. I re- 
 solved that the poor orphan should not be left to strug- 
 gle alone through the world. I was not rich, but still I 
 was able to provide for her. In a few brief words I told 
 her my resolution ; and never shall I forget the fervent 
 gratitude that beamed from the dying eyes, as she list- 
 ened. 
 
 " ' May God forever bless you !' she exclaimed, ' and 
 may the Father of the fatherless reward you for this !' 
 
 "That night she died; and* next day she was buried 
 at the expense of the parish. I took you home ; and 
 since then you have been my sole earthly joy, Celeste; 
 and now that 1 am dying, I leave you, as a legacy, your 
 history. Perhaps some day you may yet discover your 
 parents, if they live." 
 
 Utterly exhausted, Miss Hagar's lips ceased to move. 
 During all the time she had been speaking, Celeste had 
 remained as if riveted to the spot, with an emotion un-
 
 THE HEIRESS, 369 
 
 noticed by Miss Hagar. Her pale face grew whiter and 
 whiter, her ejes were slowly dilating, her lips parted ; 
 until, when the spinster ceased, her head dropped on her 
 hands, while she exclaimed, half aloud : 
 
 " Can I believe my ears ? Then I am that other child 
 left to perish on the beach that stormy Christmas Eve. 
 Good heavens ! Can it be that I am the child of Esther 
 Erliston ? Have I discovered who I am at last ?" 
 
 " What are you saying there ?" said Miss Hagar, 
 feebly. 
 
 "Miss Hagar!" exclaimed Celeste, starting with 
 sudden energy to her feet, " I am going to Sunset Hall, 
 for Squire Erliston. You must repeat this story to him ; 
 it concerns him more than you are aware of, and will 
 clear up a mystery he cannot now penetrate." 
 
 " As you please, child," said Miss Hagar, too weak to 
 resist ; " but you will not stay long ?" 
 
 "No; I will be back in less than an hour," replied 
 Celeste, whose cheeks were now flushed, and her eye 
 burning with excitement, as she seized her cloak and 
 hood, and hurried into the kitchen. 
 
 Curly, their only servant, was dozing in her chair by 
 the hearth. Rousing her up, Celeste sent her in to 
 watch with her patient until her return. 
 
 "Remember you must not fall asleep until my re- 
 turn ; I will be back very shortly," said the young mis- 
 tress, as she tied on her mantle. 
 
 " But laws ! misses, you ain't a goin' out in de storm 
 to-night !" said Curly, opening her eyes in wonder. 
 
 " Yes, I must, for an hour or so. Secure the door, 
 and do not leave Miss Hagar until I come back," said 
 Celeste, as she opened the door. 
 
 A blinding drift of snow met her in the face ; a fierce 
 gust of wind pierced through her wrappings, and sent 
 the embers on the hearth whirling redly through the 
 16*
 
 370 THE HEIRESS. 
 
 room. It required all her strength to close the door 
 after her, but she succeeded, after two or three efforts, 
 and stepped out into the wild wintry storm. 
 
 At length St. Mark's was reached ; and looking up, 
 she could see the welcome lights of Sunset Hall stream- 
 ing redly and warmly on the cold, drifting snow. Ele- 
 vated above the village, its windows glowing with light, 
 it looked the very picture of a home of ease and luxury. 
 
 The sight imparted new energy to her drooping 
 limbs ; and hurrying still more rapidly forward, in five 
 minutes more she stood before the astonished inmates 
 of the hall, all white with falling snow. 
 
 For a wonder Gipsy was at home. She sat gazing 
 into the glowing fire a sad, dreamy look on her usually 
 bright, dark face her little hands folded listlessly in 
 her lap, thinking of one far away ; the squire, utterly 
 disregarding all the laws of etiquette, was smoking his 
 pipe placidly in his arm-chair ; and Mrs. Gower sat 
 dozing in the chimney corner ; Lizzie had been driven 
 to her chamber by the choking fumes of the tobacco. 
 
 " Good Heavens ! Celeste ! what has happened ? 
 What has brought you out to-night in this storm ?" ex- 
 claimed Gipsy, springing in dismay to her feet, as 
 Celeste her garments covered with snow-flakes stood 
 before them, like a moving frost-maiden. 
 
 The squire, equally dismayed, had taken his pipe 
 from his mouth, and sat staring at her in utter bewilder- 
 ment ; while Mrs. Gower, roused from her slumbers, 
 arose from her seat, and drew her over to the fire. 
 
 "No, thank you, Mrs. Gower, I cannot sit," said 
 Celeste, hurriedly. " Miss Hagar is dying, and has an 
 important revelation to make to you, sir. It is necessary 
 you should hear it. Will you accompany me back ?" 
 she said, turning to the squire. 
 
 " Dying ! important revelations ! Lord bless me !"
 
 THE HEIRESS. 371 
 
 ejaculated the squire ; " won t it do to-morrow ?" he 
 added, as a wild blast made the windows rattle. " I 
 don't care about venturing out in this storm." 
 
 " You shall go, Guardy," said Gipsy, rising impet- 
 uously, "and I'll go, too. Sit down and warm yourself, 
 Celeste we'll be ready in five minutes. Aunty Gower, 
 please ring for Jupe. Pity if you can't venture out in 
 the storm, when Celeste has walked here in it to tell you. 
 Jupe," she added, as that sable individual entered, " be 
 off and bring round the carriage, and don't be longer 
 than five minutes, at your peril ! Here, Totty ! Totty ! 
 bring down my hood, and mantle, and furs ; and your 
 master's hat, gloves, and greatcoat. Quick, there !" 
 
 Utterly bewildered by the rapidity with which these 
 orders were given, the squire, unable to resist, found 
 himself enveloped in his fur-lined greatcoat, seated in 
 the carriage, between the two girls, ere he found voice to 
 protest against such summary proceedings. 
 
 The fierceness of the storm, which increased in vio- 
 lence, precluded the possibility of entering into conver- 
 sation ; and the explanation was, therefore, of necessity, 
 deferred until they stood safely within the cozy kitchen 
 of Valley Cottage. 
 
 In a few brief words, Celeste gave them to under- 
 stand that it concerned that " other child," left that event- 
 ful Christmas eve on the bleak stormy beach. This was 
 sufficient to rivet their attention ; and the squire, in his 
 anxiety and impatience, forced his way into the sick- 
 room, and stood by the bed-side of Miss Hagar. 
 
 " Sorry to see you so sick, Miss Hagar ; 'pon my life I 
 am. 1 never expected to see you confined to your bed. 
 Celeste Miss Pearl, I mean has told me you have 
 something of the greatest importance to communicate 
 to me." 
 
 " I do not see how it can possibly concern you,
 
 372 THE HEIRESS. 
 
 Squire Erliston," said Miss Hagar, faintly ; " but since 
 it is Celeste's desire, I have no objection to relate to 
 you what I have already told her. Oh !" said the sufferer, 
 turning over with a groan. 
 
 "Curly, leave the room," said Gipsy, who now en- 
 tered : while Celeste tenderly raised the head of the in- 
 valid, and held a strengthening draught to her lips. 
 Brokenly, feebly, and with many interruptions did the 
 dying woman repeat her tale. Wonder, incredulity, and 
 amazement were alternately depicted on the counte- 
 nances of the squire and Gipsy, as they listened. She 
 ceased at last ; and totally exhausted, turned wearily 
 aside. 
 
 "Then you, Celeste, are that child. You are the 
 heiress of Sunset Hall ! Wonderful ! wonderful !" 
 ejaculated Gipsy, pale with breathless interest. 
 
 " And my grandchild !" said the squire, gazing upon 
 her like one bewildered. 
 
 " Hush !" said Celeste, in a choking voice, " she is 
 dying." 
 
 It was even so. The mysterious shadow of death 
 had fallen on that grim face, softening its gaunt outline 
 into a look of strange, deep awe. The eyes had a far- 
 off, mystic gaze, as if striving to behold something dim 
 and distant. 
 
 All had fallen on their knees, and Celeste's choking 
 sobs alone broke the silence. 
 
 The sound seemed to disturb Miss Hagar. She 
 turned her face, with a troubled look, on the grief-bowed 
 head of the young girl. 
 
 "Do not weep for me, Celeste, but for yourself. Who 
 will care for you when I am dead ?" 
 
 " I will !" said the squire, solemnly ; "she is my own 
 flesh and blood, and all that I have is hers. She is the 
 long-lost, the rightful heiress of Mount Sunset Hall."
 
 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 373 
 
 A smile of ineffable peace settled on that dying face. 
 "Then I can go in peace," she said ; " my last care is 
 gone. Good-bye, Celeste. God bless you all ! Tell my 
 brother I spoke of him ; and ask Minnette to forgive me. 
 Minnette Minnette " 
 
 The words died away. She spoke no more. Her 
 long, weary pilgrimage was over, and Miss Hagar was 
 at rest. 
 
 " Don't cry don't cry," said the squire, dashing a 
 tear from his own eyes, as he stooped over the grief- 
 convulsed form of Celeste. " She's gone the way of all 
 flesh, the way we must all go some day. Everybody 
 must die, you know ; it's only natural they should. ' In 
 the midst of death we are in life,' as Solomon says." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 " Then come the wild weather, come sleet, or snow, 
 We will stand by each other, however it blow 
 Oppression, and sickness, and sorrow, and pain, 
 Shall be to our true love as links to the chain." 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 WO months have passed away. It is a balmy, 
 genial day in March. Never shone the sun 
 brighter, never looked St. Mark's fairer ; but 
 within Sunset Hall all is silent and gloomy. 
 The very servants step around on tiptoe, 
 with hushed voices and noiseless footfalls. The squire 
 is not in his usual seat, and the parlor is tenanted only 
 by Gipsy and Celeste. The former is pacing up and 
 down the room, with a face almost deadly pale, with 
 sternly-compressed lips, and sad, gloomy eyes. Celeste
 
 374 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 is kneeling like one in prayer, her face buried in her 
 hands ; she, too, is pale with awe and horror. To-day, 
 Dr. Wiseman dies on the scaffold. They needed no evidence 
 to condemn him. Fear seemed to have paralyzed his 
 cowardly soul, and he confessed all ; and from the 
 moment he heard his sentence, he settled down in a 
 stupor of despair, from which nothing could arouse him. 
 
 The sound of carriage-wheels coming up the avenue 
 roused them both, at last. Celeste sprang to her feet, 
 and both stood breathless, when the door opened, and 
 Squire Erliston entered. 
 
 " Well ?" came from the eager lips of Gipsy. 
 
 "All is over," said the squire, gloomily, sinking into 
 a seat. "I visited him in prison, but he did not know 
 me he only stared at me with a look of stupid imbecility. 
 I could not arouse him for a long time, until, at last, I 
 mentioned your name, Gipsy ; then he held out his arms 
 before him, as well as his chains would allow, and cried 
 out, in a voice of agony I will never forget : ' Keep her 
 off! keep her off ! she will murder me !' Seeing I could 
 do nothing for him, I came away; and in that state of 
 stupid insensibility, he was launched into eternity." 
 
 Celeste, sick and faint with terror, sank into a seat 
 and covered her face with her hands, and Gipsy shud- 
 dered slightly. 
 
 " And so he has perished died in his sins," she said, 
 at last. ' Once, I vowed never to forgive him ; but I 
 retract that oath. May heaven forgive him, as I do ! 
 And now, I never want to hear his name again." 
 
 " But Minnette, where can she be ? Who will tell her 
 of this ?" said Celeste, looking up. 
 
 " It is most strange what can have become of her," 
 said the squire. " I have spared no pains to discover 
 her, but, so far, all has been in vain. Heaven alone 
 knows whether she is living or dead." 
 
 " It is like her usual eccentricity," said Gipsy. " I know
 
 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 375 
 
 not where she is, yet I feel a sort of presentiment we 
 will meet her again." 
 
 ****** 
 
 "Gipsy, come here," called good Mrs. Gower, one 
 day, about a fortnight after, as that young lady passed 
 by her room on her way down stairs. 
 
 " Well, what is it?" said Gipsy, entering, and stand- 
 ing with her back to the door. 
 
 "Just look at this likeness ; have you ever seen any- 
 body like it?" 
 
 Gipsy took it, and looked long and earnestly. 
 
 "Well," said she, at length, "if I were a little less 
 tawny, and had blue eyes and yellow hair, I should say 
 it looked remarkably like myself only I never, the best 
 of times, had such a pretty face.' 
 
 " Well, I was just struck by its resemblance to you. 
 I think it must be your mother's picture." 
 
 " My mother's picture ! My dear Aunty Gower, 
 whatever put such an absurd notion into your head ?" 
 
 "Because I am quite sure it is. Its very resemblance 
 to you proves this ; besides, 1 found it on your poor 
 father's neck when he was dead." 
 
 " It is a sweet face," said Gipsy, heaving a wistful 
 little sigh. " Who knows whether the original be liv- 
 ing or dead ? Oh, Aunty Gower ! it may be that I still 
 have a mother living in some quarter of the globe, who 
 is ignorant she yet has a daughter alive. If I could 
 only think so I would travel the world over to find her." 
 
 At this moment Totty burst into the room, her black 
 face all aglow with delight. 
 
 " Oh, misses ! Oh, Misses Sour ! Oh, Misses Gipsy! 
 guess who's 'rived," she breathlessly exclaimed. 
 
 "Who? who?" exclaimed both, eagerly. 
 
 "Young Marse Louis ! he's down in de parlor 
 wid " 
 
 But without waiting to hear mote, Gipsy sprang from
 
 376 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 the room, burst into the parlor, and beheld Louis stand- 
 ing in the middle of the floor, and the living counter- 
 part of the picture she had just seen, leaning on his arm ! 
 
 " Gipsy ! my sister !" he exclaimed, but before he 
 could advance toward her, a wild, passionate cry broke 
 from the lips of the strange lady, as she sprang forward, 
 and clasped the astonished Gipsy in her arms. 
 
 " My daughter ! my daughter !" she cried, covering 
 her face with burning kisses. 
 
 Gipsy grew deadly pale ; she strove to speak ; but 
 wonder and joy chained her ever-ready tongue. 
 
 "She is your mother, Gipsy," said Louis, answering 
 her wild look. " I leave her to explain all to you ; your 
 letters first revealed all to me. But Celeste where is 
 she ?" 
 
 " In the drawing-room, reading," was the reply. 
 
 He hastily quitted the room, and noiselessly opened 
 the drawing-room door ; Celeste was there, but not read- 
 ing. She was lying on a lounge, her face hidden in the 
 cushions, her hands clasped over her eyes to repress her 
 falling tears, her heart yearning for the living and the 
 dead. Her thoughts were of him she believed far away ; 
 what were wealth and honors to her, without him ? Her 
 tears fell fast and faster, while she involuntarily ex- 
 claimed : " Oh, Louis, Louis ! where are you now ?" 
 
 " Here, by your side, Celeste, never to leave it more !" 
 he answered, folding her suddenly in his arms. 
 
 " 'Twas his own voice, she could not err 1 
 
 Throughout the breathing world's extent 
 There was but one such voice for her 
 So kind, so soft, so eloquent." 
 
 With a wild cry, she unclasped her hands from her 
 eyes and looked up looked up to encounter those dear, 
 dark eyes, she had never expected to see more. 
 
 Great was the surprise of everybody, at this double 
 arrival ; and many were the explanations that followed.
 
 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 377 
 
 There was Louis, who had to explain how he had met 
 Madame Evelini, and how he had learned her story ; and 
 how, on reading Gipsy's account of the tale told by Mrs. 
 Donne, he had known immediately who was her mother. 
 Then, though the task was a painful one, he was forced 
 to recur to the fate of Minnette, and set their anxiety as 
 rest about her. She had gone to Italy with some friends, 
 he said ; he met her there, and learned from her she was 
 about to take the vail, and there they would find her, 
 safe. Then Gipsy had to recount, at length, all that had 
 transpired since his departure which was but briefly 
 touched upon in her letters.. 
 
 It was a strange meeting, when the two living wives 
 of the dead husband stood face to face. Lizzie, too list- 
 less and languid to betray much emotion of any kind, 
 listened with faint curiosity ; but tears sprang into the 
 eyes of Madame Evelini, as she stooped to kiss the pale 
 brow of the little lady. She refused to be called Mrs. 
 Oranmore ; saying that Lizzie had held the title longest, 
 and it should still be hers. 
 
 " And now there is one other matter to arrange," said 
 Louis, taking the hand of Celeste ; " and that is, your 
 consent to our union. Will you bestow upon me, sir, 
 the hand of your grandchild ?" 
 
 " To be sure, I will," said the squire, joyfully. " I 
 was just going to propose, myself, that we should end 
 the play with a wedding. We've all been in the dismals 
 long enough, but a marriage will set us all right again. 
 Come here, you baggage," turning to Celeste, who was 
 blushing most becomingly ; " will you have this grace- 
 less scamp, here, for your lord and master? He needs 
 somebody to look after him, or he'll be running to Tim- 
 buctoo, or Italy, or some of those heathenish places, to- 
 morrow or next day just as he did before. Do you 
 consent to take charge of him, and keep him in trim for 
 the rest of his life?"
 
 373 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 " Ye-es, sir," said Celeste, looking down, and speak- 
 ing in the slow, hesitating tone of her childhood. 
 
 " Hooray ! there's a sensible answer for you. Now I 
 propose that the wedding takes place forthwith. Where's 
 the good of losing time ? ' Never delay till to-morrow 
 what you can do to-day,' as Solomon says. What's your 
 opinion, good folks ?" 
 
 " Mine's decidedly the same as yours, sir," said Louis, 
 promptly. 
 
 " Then suppose the affair comes off to-morrow," said 
 the squire, in a business-like tone. 
 
 " Oh ! no, no !" said Celeste, with such a look of 
 alarm, that the others laughed outright ; "a month two 
 months " 
 
 " Nonsense," said the squire, gruffly, " two months 
 indeed no, nor two weeks, either. Next Thursday, at 
 the furthest. You can have all your trumpery ready by 
 that time." 
 
 " You will have to yield, Celeste," said Gipsy. 
 "Just see how imploringly Louis looks !" 
 
 "That's too soon," said Celeste, still pleading for a 
 reprieve. " I never could be ready " 
 
 " Yes, you could," cut in Gipsy. " I'll engage to have 
 everything prepared ; and, like Marshal Ney, when I 
 enter the field, the battle is won. Now, not another 
 word. Louis, can't you make her hold her tongue? My 
 dear mother, you must try your eloquence." 
 
 "You will have to yield, my dear," said Madame, 
 smiling; "there is no use attempting to resist this im- 
 petuous daughter of mine." 
 
 " Of course there's not, said Gipsy " everybody does 
 as I tell them. Now, Louis, take the future Mrs. Oran- 
 more out of this. Aunty Gower and I have got to lay 
 our heads together (figuratively speaking) ; for on our 
 shoulders, I suppose, must devolve all the bother and 
 bustle of preparation."
 
 " LAST SCENE OF ALL." 379 
 
 Gipsy was in her element during the rest of the 
 week. 
 
 The wedding was to be private the recent death of 
 Miss Hagar and Dr. Wiseman rendering the country 
 fashion of a ball in the evening out of the question ; but 
 still they had a busy time of it in Sunset Hall. It was 
 arranged that the newly-wedded pair should go abroad 
 immediately after their marriage, accompanied by Gipsy 
 and her mother. 
 
 The wedding-day dawned, bright and beautiful, as 
 all wedding-days should. Celeste wished to be married 
 in the church, and no one thought of opposing her will. 
 Gipsy stood beside her, robed in white ; and if her face 
 rivaled in pallor the dress she wore, it was thinking of 
 her own gloomy bridal, and of him who had bade her 
 an eternal farewell that night. Mrs. Gower was there, 
 looking very fat, and happy, and respectable, in the 
 venerable brown satin, that was never donned save on 
 an occasion like the present. Lizzie was there, too, 
 supported by Madame Evelini, and looking less listless 
 and far more cheerful than she had been for many a day. 
 There was the squire, looking very pompous and dog- 
 matical, waiting to give the bride away, arid repeating, 
 inwardly, all the proverbs he could recollect, by way of 
 offering up a prayer for their happiness. There was 
 Louis, so tall, and stately, and handsome, looking the 
 very happiest individual in existence. And lastly, there 
 was our own Celeste our "Star of the Valley" 
 sweeter and fairer than ever, with her blushing face, and 
 drooping eyes, and gentle heart fluttering with joy and 
 happiness. 
 
 The church was crowded to excess ; and a universal 
 buzz of admiration greeted the bridal pair, as they 
 entered. Beneath the gaze of a hundred eyes they 
 moved up the aisle, and
 
 380 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 " Before the altar now they stand the bridegroom and the bride ; 
 And who can tell what lovers feel in this, their hour of pride." 
 
 A few words and all was over ; and leaning on the 
 arm of the proud and happy Louis, Celeste received the 
 congratulations of her friends. 
 
 Breakfast awaited them on their return to the hall. 
 Immediately after, they were to start for Washington ; 
 but before departing, Celeste, turning to Louis, said : 
 
 " Before I go, I would visit the grave of poor Miss 
 Hagar. Come with me." 
 
 It was not far from Sunset Hall. A white marble 
 tombstone marked the spot, bearing the inscription : 
 
 SACRED TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 HAGAR WISEMAN. 
 
 And underneath were the words : 
 
 " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 
 
 Tears fell fast from the eyes of Celeste, as she knelt 
 by that lonely grave ; but they were not all tears of 
 sorrow. 
 
 "And this is Venice ! Bless me ! what a queer-look- 
 ing old place !" exclaimed Gipsy, lying back amid the 
 cushions of a gondola. " How in the world do they 
 manage to make everything look so funny ? This 
 gondola, or whatever they call it, is quite a comfortable 
 place to go to sleep in. I'll bring one of them home 
 to sail on the bay I will, as -sure as shooting. Maybe 
 it won't astonish the natives, slightly. Well this is a 
 nice climate, and no mistake. I don't think I'd have any 
 objection to pitching my tent here, myself. What's this 
 the poet says
 
 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 381 
 
 "If woman can make the worst wilderness dear, 
 Think, think what a heaven she would make of this 'ere !" 
 
 " Oh, what a shame ! to parody the ' Light of the 
 Harem,' " said Celeste, laughing. " But here we are, on 
 land." 
 
 It was the day after their arrival in Venice ; and, now, 
 under the guidance of Louis, they were going, in a body, 
 to visit Minnette. 
 
 They reached the convent, and were admitted by the 
 old portress who, as if it were a matter of course, 
 ushered them into the chapel and left them. 
 
 For a moment, the whole party stood still in awe. 
 The church was hung with black, and dimly lighted by 
 wax tapers. Clouds of incense filled the air, and the 
 black-robed figures of the nuns looked like shadows, as 
 they knelt in prayer. Many strangers were present, but 
 a deep, solemn hush reigned around. 
 
 The cause of all this was soon explained. At the 
 foot of the altar, robed in her nun's dress, the lifeless 
 form of one of the sisterhood lay in state. The beautiful 
 face, shaded by the long, black vail, wore an expression 
 of heavenly peace ; the white hands clasped a crucifix to 
 the cold breast. A nun stood at her head, and another 
 at her feet holding lighted tapers in their hands so 
 still and motionless, that they resembled statues. 
 
 // was Minnette ! Their hearts almost ceased to beat, as 
 they gazed. The look of deep calm of child-like rest 
 on her face, forbade sorrow, but inspired awe. More 
 lovely, and far more gentle than she had ever looked in 
 life, she lay, with a smile still wreathing the sweet, 
 beautiful lips. The blind eyes saw at last. 
 
 Suddenly, the deep, solemn stillness was broken, by 
 the low, mournful wail of the organ ; and like a wild 
 cry, many voices chanted forth the dirge :
 
 382 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 " Dies irae, dies ilia 
 Sol vet saeclum in favilla. 
 Pie Jesu Dominie, 
 Dona eis requiem." 
 
 Not one heart there, but echoed the burden of the grand 
 old hymn : 
 
 " Lord of mercy Jesus blest, 
 Grant thy servant light and rest !" 
 
 " Let us go this scene is too much for you," said 
 Louis, as Celeste, clung, pale and trembling, to his arm. 
 And together they quitted the convent. 
 
 They were followed by one, who, leaning against a 
 pillar, had watched them intently all the time. He 
 stepped after them into the street ; and Louis, suddenly 
 looking up, beheld him. 
 
 " Archie !" he cried, in a tone of mingled amazement 
 and delight. 
 
 A stifled shriek broke from the lips of Gipsy, at the 
 name. Yes, it was indeed our old friend Archie no 
 longer the laughing, fun-loving Archie of other days, 
 but looking pale, and thin, and almost stern. 
 
 " O, dear Archie ! how glad I am to see you again !" 
 exclaimed Celeste, seizing one of his hands, while Louis 
 wrung the other ; and Gipsy drew back, turning first 
 red, and then pale, and then red again. Madame Evelini, 
 alone, looked very much puzzled what to make of the 
 whole affair. 
 
 "Surely; you have not forgotten your old friend, 
 Gipsy ?" said Louis, at last, stepping aside and placing 
 them face to face. 
 
 " I am happy to meet you again, Mrs. Wiseman," said 
 Archie, bowing coldly. 
 
 " Well, if you are" said Louis, looking at him with 
 a doubtful expression, "your looks most confoundedly 
 belie your words. Let me present you to Madame 
 Evelini, Mrs. Wiseman's mother."
 
 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 383 
 
 " Her mother !" cried the astonished Archie. 
 
 " Why, yes. Surely, you don't mean to say you have 
 not heard of the strange events that have lately taken 
 place at St. Mark's ?" 
 
 " Even so ; I am in a state of most lamentable ignor- 
 ance. I pray you, enlighten me." 
 
 " What ! have you not even heard that your uncle 
 Dr. Wiseman and Miss Hagar were dead ?" 
 
 " Dead !" said Archie, starting, and looking at Gipsy, 
 whose face was now hidden by her vail. 
 
 " Yes ; but I see you know nothing about it. Come 
 home with us, and you shall hear all." 
 
 " Yes, do," urged Celeste ; " Louis and I will be de- 
 lighted to have you join us." 
 
 " Louis and /," repeated Archie, rather mischiev- 
 ously ; " then I perceive I have the honor of addressing 
 Mrs. Oranmore." 
 
 Of course, Celeste laughed and blushed, according 
 to the rule in such cases. But the scene they had just 
 witnessed had saddened the whole party ; and the jour- 
 ney back was performed in silence. Gipsy was the grav- 
 est of all ; and, leaning back in the gondola, with her 
 vail over her face, she never condescended to open her 
 lips, save when directly addressed ; and then her answers 
 were much shorter than sweet. 
 
 But when they went home, to their hotel, and every- 
 thing was explained, and he had learned how Gipsy had 
 been forced into a marriage she abhorred, and the ter- 
 rible retribution that befell the murderer, matters began 
 to assume a different appearance. Mr. Rivers had long 
 been of the opinion that " it is not good for man to be 
 alone," and firmly believed in the scriptural injunction 
 of becoming a husband of one wife ; and concluded, by 
 proposing in due form to Gipsy who, after some press- 
 ing, consented to make him happy.
 
 384 "LAST SCENE OF ALL." 
 
 " But not till we go home," was the reply to all his 
 entreaties. " I'm just going to get married at dear old 
 St. Mark's, and no place else ; and give Aunty Gower a 
 chance to give her brown satin dress another airing as 
 ours is likely to be the last wedding at Sunset Hall for 
 some time, unless guardy takes it into his head to get 
 married. Now, you needn't coax ; I won't have you till 
 we get home, that's flat." And to this resolution she ad- 
 hered, in spite of all his persuasions. 
 
 The bridal tour was, of necessity, much shortened by 
 the desperate haste of Archie who, like the man with 
 the cork leg, seemed unable to rest in any place ; and 
 tore like a comet through Europe, and breathed not 
 freely until they stood once more on American soil. 
 
 And three weeks after, a wedding took place at St. 
 Mark's, that surpassed everything of the kind that had 
 ever been heard of before. Good Aunty Gower was in 
 ecstasies ; and the squire, before the party dispersed, 
 full of champagne and emotion, arose to propose a 
 toast. 
 
 "Ladies and fellow-citizens : On the present inter- 
 esting occasion, I rise to " here the speaker took a 
 pinch of snuff " I rise to " here a violent sneeze inter- 
 rupted him, and drew from him the involuntary remark : 
 " Lord ! what a cold I've got ! as I was saying, I rise to 
 propose the health and happiness of the bride and bride- 
 groom ;" (cheers) "like the flag of our native land, long 
 may they wave !" (desperate cheering). " Marriage, like 
 liberty, is a great institution ; and I would advise every 
 single man present to try it. If he has heretofore given 
 up the idea, let him pluck up courage and try again. 
 ' Better late than never,' as Solomon says." 
 
 THE END.
 
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