Fleming_Norines_Revenge.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
diamonds, and laces, and roses resplendent--and who was to think of the
rich ! " a clod," whom she had honored by marrying. .
was by her side, more fascinating than ever. could she find
time to think of any one so plebeian as the underbred rich man she had
married, by his entrancing side?
it was all over at last. "lights were fled, the garlands dead,"
and . up in her dressing-room, in the raw morning light, was
under the hands of her maid. lay back among the violet-velvet
cushions, languid and lovely, being disrobed, and looked round with an
irritated flush at the abrupt entrance of the master of the house.
did not often intrude; since the first few weeks of their marriage he
had been a model husband, and kept his place. , .
looked surprised, as well as annoyed now.
" you wish to speak to me, . ?" she asked, coldly; for after
an evening with . she was always less tolerant of her
_bourgeois_ husband.
"--but alone. will wait in your sitting-room until you dismiss your
maid."
in his colorless face--something in the sound of his voice
startled her; but he was gone while yet speaking, and the maid went on.
", ," her mistress said, briefly; and coiled up the
shining hair, arranged the white dressing-gown, and left her.
arose and swept into the next room. was the daintiest
_bijou_ of boudoirs, all rose-silk, and silver, and filigree-work, and
delicious paintings, smiling down from the fluted panels.
bright wood-fire burned on the hearth, and her husband stood against the
low chimney-piece, whiter and colder than the marble itself.
"," she said, "what is it?"
looked up. stood before him in her beauty and her pride, jewels
flashed on her fairy hands--a queen by right divine of her azure eyes
and tinselled hair--his, yet not his; "so near, and yet so far."
loved her, how well his own wrung heart only knew.
" is it?" she repeated, impatiently. " am tired and sleepy. me
in a word."
" can--ruin!"
"?"
" am ruined. is gone. am a beggar."
started back, turning whiter than her dress, and leaned heavily
against a chair.
"!" she repeated. " beggar!"
" words, are they not? but quite true. did not know it until last
night; came from town to tell me. last grand speculation
has failed, and in its failure engulfed everything. am as poor as the
poorest laborer on this estate; poorer than was five years ago, before
this fortune was left me."
was a sort of savage pleasure in thus hideously putting things in
their ugliest light. or poor, she despised him alike. need was
there for him to mince matters?
" are your settlements, your six hundred a-year and the farm,
that crumb of the loaf is left, and remains yours. am sorry for you,
. --sorry that your sacrifice of youth and loveliness, on the
altar of , has been in vain. had hoped, when married you, of
winning some return for the limitless love gave you. know to-night
how futile that hope has been. again, for your sake, am sorry;
for myself do not care. world is a wide place, and can win my
way. give you your freedom, the only reparation for marrying you in my
power to make. leave here to-night, to-morrow; and
so--farewell!"
stood like a stone; he turned and left her. she had made a
movement, seeing the white anguish of his face, as though to go to
him--but she did not. was gone, and she dropped down in the
rose-and-silver glitter of her fairy-room, as miserable a woman as day
ever dawned on.
month later, and she was far away, buried alive in the .
had gone; the nine days wonder was at an end; the "rich "
and his handsome wife had disappeared out of the magic whirl of society;
and society got on very well without them. had been, and they were
not--and the story was told. all who had broken bread with the ruined
man, there were not two who cared a fillip whether he were living or
dead.
wind wailed over the stormy sea, and the wintry rain lashed
the windows of the . sat before the blazing
fire in a long, low, gloomy parlor, and . stood before her.
had but just found her out, and he had run down to see how she bore
her altered fortunes. bore them as an uncrowned queen might, with
regal pride and cold endurance. exquisite face had lost its
rose-leaf bloom; the deep, still eyes looked larger and more fathomless;
the mouth was set in patient pain--that was all. man felt his heart
burn as he looked at her, she was so lovely, _so_ lovely. leaned
over, and the passionate words came that he could not check. loved
her. loved him; she was forsaken and alone--why need they part?
listened, growing whiter than a dead woman. she came and faced
him, until the cowered soul within him shrank and quailed.
" have fallen very low," she said. " am poor, and alone, and a
deserted wife. . , have not fallen low enough to be
your mistress. !"
unflickering finger pointed to the door. was that in her face
no man dare disobey, and he slunk forth like a whipped hound. as on
that night when she had parted from her husband, she slipped down in
her misery to the ground, and hid her face in her hands. she knew
the man she had loved, now she was learning to know the man who had
loved her. one would drag her down to bottomless depths of blackness
and infamy; the other had given up all for her--even herself--and gone
forth a homeless, penniless wanderer, to fight the battle of life.
"! truest and noblest!" her heart cried, in its passionate pain, "how
have wronged you! and best heart that ever beat in man's
breast--am only to know your worth when it is too late?"
seemed so. had disappeared out of the world--the
world she knew--as utterly as though he had never been in it. slow
months dragged drearily by; but he never came. piteous advertisement
in the __ newspaper stood unanswered when the spring-buds burst;
and she was alone in her worse than widowhood, in the
still.
the glory of the brilliant new summer, new hope dawned for her.
tiny messenger, with 's great brown eyes, smiled up in
her face, and a baby head nestled against her lonely heart. ! she knew
now how she loved baby's father, when the brown eyes, of which these
were the counterpart, were lost to her forever.
, with the great world shut out, and with only baby and her
two servants, life went on in the solitary cottage. winds of winter
had five times swept over the ceaseless sea, and little could
toddle and lisp; and in 's heart hope slowly died out.
had lost him through her own fault; he, to whom she had been bound
in the mysterious tie of marriage, would never look upon her cruel face
again.
sat one stormy night, thinking very sadly of the true heart
and strong love she had cast away. boy lay asleep before the ruddy
fire; the rain and wind beat like human things against the glass.
sat looking seaward, with weary, empty eyes, so desolate--so desolate,
her soul crying out with unutterable yearning for the wanderer to come
back.
she stood there gazing sadly out at the wild night falling over the
wild sea, her one servant came hurriedly into the room with startled
affright in her eyes.
", ma'am," she cried, "such a dreadful thing! up-train from
has had an accident, has fell over the embankment just below here
and half the passengers are killed and wounded. screams as came
past was awful to hear. surely, ma'am," the woman broke off in
dismay as her mistress seized her hat and shawl, "you won't go out and
it raining and a blowing fit to take you off your feet. can't do
nothing, and you'll get your death."
. was out already, heedless of wind or rain, and making
her way to the scene of the accident. " souls," she was thinking,
"so sudden and frightful a fate. can be of help to some one."
her life trouble had done this for her; made her tender of heart,
and pitiful of soul to all who suffered.
great crowd were there from village as she drew near, beginning
to bear away the wounded, the dying and the dead. and cries of
infinite misery made the rainy twilight hideous. .
shuddered, but she stooped resolutely over a man who lay almost at her
feet, a man whom she might have thought dead but for the low moan that
now and then came from his lips.
bent above him timidly, her heart fluttering at something vaguely
familiar in his look.
" do anything for you?" she asked, " fear you are very very badly
hurt."
eyes opened; in the dim light he half arose on his elbow. ","
he said, and fell back and fainted wholly away.
so her prayers were answered after many days, and death itself
seemed to have given back her husband to 's arms.
his pillow life and fought their sharp battle, for many long
weeks, while she watched over him, and prayed beside him in what agony
of remorse, and terror and passionate tenderness only and herself
ever knew.
ceaseless, agonized prayers prevailed. the pale dawn of a
morning, the heavy brown eyes opened and fixed upon her face,
no longer in delirium, but with the kindling light of recognition, and
great and sudden joy.
"," he said faintly, "my wife."
was on her knees beside him, his weak head lying in her caressing
arms.
" dearest, my dearest, thank ; my own, my cherished husband,
forgive your erring wife."
face lit with a rare smile, as he looked up into the pale, tear wet,
passionately earnest face.
" is true then what heard, what has brought me home. have sought
me. , what if must tell you am still poor, poor as when we
parted." shrunk away as though he had hurt her.
" have deserved that you should say this to me," she said in a stifled
voice, " have been the basest of the base in the past--why should you
think me other than heartless and mercenary still. oh, ,
don't you see-- love you now, so dearly and truly, my husband, that
can never have any life apart from you more. not talk to me of
poverty--only tell me you will never leave me again." " again," he
answered, "till death us do part. , though am no longer the
millionaire you married, do not return to you quite a beggar. or
less have retrieved the past, and we can begin life anew almost as
luxuriously as we left it off." face clouded for a moment.
"! am sorry. wanted to atone: how can now? have been your wife
in the sunshine. thought to show you what could be in the shadow,
and now all that is at an end. can never show you how have repented
for--that night."
only smiles a smile of great content. in the
silence that ensues, there comes over the snowy fields the joyful bells
of the blessed morning, and in their hearts both bless for
the new life, that dawns with this holy day.