As the hours wore on, poor Jessie Staples grew so alarmingly worse, and the fever increased so rapidly, that, despite her entreaties, Dorothy felt that she must summon medical aid.
Soon after the entire household had gathered about Jessie, in the greatest alarm.
A physician was sent for at once—Doctor Crandall, whom Mrs. Garner had known for long years.
It so happened that the doctor lay very ill himself from an attack ofla grippe, and, penning a line or so to Mrs. Garner, he explained that he had sent as a substitute a young doctor whom he had taken into his office to act for him during his illness. He felt sure they could rest Miss Staples' case with all safety in his hands.
That was the beginning of the terrible end.
Surely a cruel fate must have brought the situation about. It happened in this way:
When Harry Kendal had exerted every means to find Dorothy, and had failed, he commenced to look about for something to do.
It occurred to him that perhaps the best person to whom he could apply was Doctor Crandall, who had been the life-long friend of his old benefactor, Doctor Bryan.
Kendal's appeal was not in vain. He was taken inat once. Indeed, his coming was most opportune, he was told.
It so happened that his very first call was to the home of Mrs. Garner.
"Garner!" The name sounded very familiar to him. His brow darkened as he heard it. Was not that the name of the young man who had been Dorothy Glenn's lover when he first met little Dorothy in the book-bindery? Of course, it was absurd to imagine that there could be anything in common between these wealthy Garners and that poor fellow who worked hard at his trade. Still he hated the name.
When he reached the mansion and was ushered into the corridor, to his intense surprise, the first person whom he met face to face was Jack Garner! He recognized Jack at once; but the light in the corridor was low, and, besides, he had turned up his coat-collar, and with the heavy beard he had grown, Garner, as it was not to be wondered at, did not know him. Besides, Jack had seen him but twice—once as he was putting Dorothy into a coach, and again on the Staten Island boat, in the dim, uncertain moonlight.
"Your patient is this way, doctor," he said, motioning him up the broad stairway.
A sudden, strange thought came to Kendal: What if he should find Dorothy there?
He no sooner entered the room and uttered the first word than the slim figure in black, wearing the blue glasses, started violently. Dorothy recognized him at once, despite the heavy beard.
"How in the world came he here?" she gasped to herself, in the greatest amazement.
But she had no opportunity to think long over thematter, for Jessie required the most immediate attention.
"I think it will be best to send you a practical nurse," he said, as he took his departure.
He spoke to Doctor Crandall about it immediately upon his return to the office.
"There is only one young woman whom I can think of just at present," said the doctor. "She is not what you might call a trained nurse, but she claims to have had a little experience. We shall have to secure her in a case of emergency. I shall send for her to-night; she will probably be there in the morning when you arrive."
As Kendal ascended the steps of the palatial home of the Garners, he came face to face with a woman who was standing in the vestibule, just in the act of touching the bell. One glance, and he fairly reeled back.
"Nadine Holt!" he cried, aghast, "is it you—you?"
"We meet again at last!" hissed the girl, confronting him with death-white face. "I knew I should find you sooner or later, and I have been on your track."
"Hush! hush! Nadine," he cried; "what do you mean? In Heaven's name, don't speak so loud! Every one is listening. You will ruin me."
"That is what I intend to do!" she shrieked, clutching frantically at his arm with her long, thin fingers. "You deserted me and wedded another."
"What put such a notion in your head, anyhow, Nadine?" he said, evasively, thinking it best to temporize with the raging fury confronting him.
"I heard all about it," she panted, hoarsely.
"Then some one has been cruelly maligning me,"he cried; "and you, of all people in the world, Nadine, should not have believed it. Hush! some one is coming. I hear footsteps. Meet me later. I want to have a long talk with you. But, by the way, what are you doing here at this house, Nadine?"
"Did I not tell you that I answered Doctor Crandall's advertisement for a nurse, and that this is my errand here? But what areyoudoing here?"
"I may as well tell you the truth, Nadine," he said, despairingly, seeing that it would all come out sooner or later. "I—I have been studying medicine since I met you, and they have engaged me as physician. But now that surprises are in order, I suppose you know who lives here?"
"No," she answered.
"It is your old friend Garner, who used to be in the book-bindery. He has acquired sudden wealth—Heaven knows how. His mother is living with him, and also that pretty girl whom I used to think was so quiet—Miss Staples."
Before Nadine could reply, her amazement was so great, the door was opened by the quiet footman, and they were ushered into the drawing-room.
Kendal had barely time to whisper to Nadine: "These people do not know that I am the same one whom they used to know as the car conductor. Don't give me away," ere the door opened, and Mrs. Garner made her appearance.
"Ah! you have brought a nurse with you, doctor," she said, in a tone of great relief.
So saying, she led the way to the sick-room.
Nadine's entrance caused the greatest surprise to both Mr. Garner and Jessie.
No one thought of noticing the plain, dark little figure half hidden by the curtains in the bay window, or they would have seen Dorothy start and fairly gasp for breath as her eyes fell upon the nurse Kendal had brought with him, and heard them discuss the point that Nadine must be installed there as nurse.
Her brain fairly reeled, and it flashed over her mind what a villain Kendal really was.
She had quite believed all this long time that he had parted from Nadine Holt, and here he had been keeping up Nadine's friendship clandestinely through it all.
Of course Iris Vincent was expecting to marry him.
It was clear that Kendal had a good many irons in the fire.
She only wished that Iris Vincent knew of his friendship for Nadine.
Dorothy wondered if Nadine would penetrate her disguise.
Nadine assumed her duties at once, and the first thing which she did was to order the slim creature about, scarcely giving her a moment's rest.
Nadine had always heard that this was the way paid nurses invariably did.
She took every opportunity to consult Doctor Kendal and waylay him for long chats. Even Jessie noticed this, as ill as she was; and she noticed, too, that the young doctor resented it; and Nadine herself was not slow in perceiving his lack of interest in herself.
"How very interested you are in your pretty white-faced patient," Nadine said, on the second day of her stay there. "I almost believe you have fallen in lovewith Jessie Staples, and mean to bring her quickly back to health, and—and marry her."
Kendal turned from her with a fierce imprecation, and muttering something that sounded very like "the cursed jealousy of some women," abruptly quitted the room, slamming the door after him.
Then Nadine feltsurethat she had stumbled upon the terrible truth.
Whenever a jealous woman is looking for something with which to feed the green-eyed monster, she usually finds it, or imagines she does, which amounts to the same thing. It was so with Nadine.
No one mentioned to Nadine the fact that Jessie was betrothed to Jack Garner. Even had she heard it, she would not have believed it. She would have imagined that it was a falsehood made up for her benefit.
She could not endure the kindly looks he gave Jessie, nor endure to see him bend over her, raise her from her pillow, and, while one strong arm supported her, coax her to take her medicine.
Such sights as these were more terrible for Nadine to endure than the pangs of death; and for hours afterward she would feel an almost uncontrollable desire to strangle the sick girl.
In Nadine's heart there rose a mad wish that Jessie would die before Harry Kendal became too fond of her.
While Jessie slept and she was not buried in thedepths of a newspaper to kill time, she would be brooding over this subject: If Jessie Staples would only die!
One day, while in this morbid mood, her eyes fell upon a fatal paragraph that riveted her attention with breathless interest.
It spoke of the death of a once noted court beauty who had been in her time the toast of all Europe. Men had fought duels for her sake, and courtiers thought it a great honor to risk life and limb to do her bidding, being repaid by only a smile or one glance from her wine-dark eyes.
It happened that while riding about in her pony-cart she had, by chance, one day encountered a poor tradesman's son who had stopped by a brook at which her own horse was slaking his thirst, to give his steed a drink.
One glance at the fair, handsome Saxon face, and the girl who had laughed to scorn full many a lover, felt her heart going from her keeping to this bonny stranger.
Although he was poor—only a tradesman's son—and she had wealth untold, yet the beauty was not fair in his eyes.
He passed her by with only a gracious bow, as any courtier might, for he was in a hurry to reach the side of his beloved Gretchen. She was only a peasant maid, but in his eyes she was more beautiful than a queen.
He loved the pretty Gretchen with all his heart.
When my lady came to inquire about him, and learned he had a pretty little sweetheart, she grew very wroth, but she said never a word.
On that day she sent for Gretchen, and employed her as her maid. But from that hour there was a change in Gretchen's life.
Slowly but surely she faded, although her distracted lover did everything in his power to prolong the life of the maid he loved.
In the early spring-time, while robins sang and the trees put forth their blossoms, he gazed his last on all that was mortal of poor Gretchen.
The great lady tried her best to comfort Gretchen's lover, but he would not be comforted.
His hopes were buried in Gretchen's grave, and she could not turn his thoughts to herself, and ere the first moon waned, they laid him, too, beside his Gretchen, in his last home.
The great lady never smiled again, and soon after the doors of the convent closed upon one of the most beautiful women of her time.
On her death-bed she called one and all of those about her to listen to her tragic story.
She cried out that they must not touch her hand, for it was stained with human blood; and it was then that her horrible story was brought to light.
And in an awful whisper, while the long shadows deepened, she made this terrible revelation: that years, before she had murdered her maid, Gretchen, because the girl was loved by him whom she would have won.
By night and by day she pondered upon how it should be done, then suddenly the way and means occurred to her.
There was a powerful drug of which she had heard that gave women the most marvelous of complexions, but which sooner or later caused death.
Gretchen should take it; it could be placed in the basin of water in which she was wont to bathe her face each morning, and it would enter the body through the pores of the skin. In this way the doctors would be completely baffled, for they would not be able to trace the poison.
She put this dastardly plot into execution, and her cruel heart did not upbraid her, though she saw the girl droop and fade daily before her eyes.
When she looked out of her window and saw Gretchen and her lover pacing up and down the primrose path in the moonlight, a horrible laugh would break from the great lady's ripe, red lips.
"There will be but a few more of these meetings, tender partings and kisses under the larch-tree boughs."
She had never dreamed, this false, cruel beauty, that a man's heart could be constant to a dead love and spurn a living one.
All these years she had lived to rue it; but neither prayers, nor suffering, nor pangs of conscience could atone for the terrible crime committed.
During all the years that had passed since Gretchen had been lying in that lonely grave, she had never known one moment's peace of mind, until this hour when she lay dying and had confessed all.
Slowly, twice, thrice, Nadine Holt read the story through, and as she read, a terrible thought came into her own mind.
Why could not she procure this same drug and administer it in the same way to Jessie Staples?
She took the paper up to her room and hid it very carefully in her satchel.
True, Jessie had taken her in this time without saying one word of the past unpleasantness, treating her as though that quarrel had never been.
But Nadine was different. She was one of the kind that "never forgets, never forgives" while life lasts.
When the household was wrapped in deep sleep that night, Nadine stole out upon her terrible mission.
Several careful druggists refused to fill her order; but this did not daunt her. She knew that among the lot she would soon come across a catch-penny, and in this supposition she was quite right.
She soon found a place, and secured the deadly drug which she called for, and she stole into the house again without any one being the wiser for her midnight trip.
The light was burning low in the sick-room as she entered it, and Mrs. Brown sat half dozing in her chair by the bedside.
She started up as Nadine crossed the threshold.
"You needn't mind staying any longer," she remarked, brusquely; "I will take charge of the patient now."
"No," said the other, quietly but firmly. "It is between twelve and one that the most important medicine must be administered."
"Don't you suppose I am capable of giving it?" retorted Nadine angrily enough. "You don't seem to realize what is the business of a paid nurse!"
The other made no remark, but still she lingered. Had she a suspicion that there was anything amiss?
She was a strange creature, anyhow, with that old-looking face, the great mass of thick black hair studded with gray, and the thick blue glasses.
Where had she seen some one of whom this creature reminded her so strangely and so strongly?
Even the tone of her voice, although it sounded hoarse and unnatural, was somehow familiar to her.
The very way in which Mrs. Brown crested her head she had seen somewhere before, and it had made quite an impression upon her at the time.
"I can not help thinking that she is always spying upon every movement of mine, and she listens—I am sure she does—to every word the doctor and I say; and these people who watch others so much always need watching themselves."
Seeing that Nadine Holt was determined to banish her from the sick-room, Dorothy quitted the apartment with a very heavy heart, though she could not have told why.
The days that followed were dark ones to the Garner household, for Jessie began to fail rapidly.
She grew so weak that the entire household began to grow terribly alarmed over her condition. Even the doctor had grave apprehension for his patient.
"The case of Miss Staples puzzles me completely," he said to Doctor Crandall, when he returned to his office one afternoon. "I have never known of symptoms like hers;" and he minutely described the strange turn the case had taken which had baffled him completely.
"As soon as I am able to be about I will go with you and see for myself just where the trouble is."
Meanwhile, a serious matter was agitating the brain of poor Jessie Staples.
She realized before any of the rest did that her condition was becoming alarming, and her wedding-day was drawing nearer and nearer.
But when that day dawned, a secret voice in her heart whispered that she would be "the bride of death," and not Jack Garner's.
She wondered if Heaven meant it for the best, that she must give up the life that might have held so much for her. She had longed for death many a time; but now that it seemed imminent, her very soul grew frightened because of one thought: she would have to leave Jack behind her. It seemed to her that though she should be buried fathoms deep, her soul would cling to earth—and Jack. What if, in time to come, he should forget her! Ah! that was the bitterest stroke of all; and she realized that, no matter how deeply a person may love, when the object of that affection dies, time brings balm to his woe, and mellows it into forgetfulness or to a shadowy memory.
If she were to die, would he ever love another, and stand with that other before the altar?
In her day-dreams, in times gone by, Jessie had pictured to herself—as girls will in those rosy moments—how she would stand at the altar, and listen with whirling brain and beating heart to those sweet, solemn words that would bind her forever to the man she loved with more than a passing love. She pictured how she would walk down the aisle, leaning on his arm—that great, strong arm that would be her support for evermore—a great mist of happy tears in her eyes as she clung to him.
She even pictured to herself how he would help her into the coach, and how they would drive away out into the great wide world together, to be separated never again.
Instead of all this, now she would be lying in her grave, with blue forget-me-nots and pale primroses on her breast.
Jack would be going through that scene with another as his bride; and as the years rolled by he would forget her, or think of her only now and then at times—not with keen regret, but with faint, vague indifference.
Oh, God! if it had beenhewho was destined to die, she would have shut herself up from the world, and would have lived only for his memory.
Her last prayer would have been, when death's dew gathered on her brow, to be buried beside him.
But men are more fickle than women. How few of them remain true to a dead love!
As she tossed to and fro on her pillow, these thoughts tortured her more than tongue could tell.
Then a strange fancy took possession of her.
The more she thought of it, the more her heart longed to accomplish it, until she could not restrain the longing that seemed to take entire possession of her.
And one day, when she seemed even more ill than usual, she could no longer restrain the impulse to send for Jack.
He came quickly at her bidding, sat down by hercouch, caught the little white hand—ah! terribly thin and white now—in his, and raised it to his lips.
"Did you wish me to sit with you, Jessie?" he said. "Or would you like me to read to you?"
"No; I want to talk to you, Jack," she said, with a little quiver in her voice.
"Have you ever thought how near it is to—to our wedding-day, Jack," she whispered, faintly.
"Yes," said Jack, with never a thought of what was coming.
"What—what would you do if I were still ill when it dawned?"
"The ceremony could be performed just the same," he answered, promptly. "There would be no wedding at the church, no invited guests; that would be all the difference."
"Would you wish to marry me if—if you knew that I would never be well again, and that perhaps death would be hovering very, very near to claim me, and to part me from you?"
"I will keep to my part of the compact, Jessie," he said, huskily.
"But what if I should die before it, Jack?" she questioned, faintly.
"I do not know what you mean, Jessie," he said, gravely—"what you are trying to get at."
"Oh, Jack! I mean this: I—I want to belong to you in life and in death. I do not want you to have any other love but me, even if I should be taken from you. I want you to be true to me forever. I could not rest in my grave, though they burled me fathoms deep, if you ever called another—wife! If I am todie, Jack, you must promise me one thing—that you will never wed—another!"
"How can you talk of such a thing, my dear Jessie?" he said, reproachfully. "You pain me beyond measure."
"You will give me that promise, will you not, Jack?" she pleaded. "The pangs of death will be easier to bear if my mind is but at rest on that subject."
"You are going to get well soon, and the ceremony will take place as we have arranged," he said, soothingly; but she shook her head.
"If I should not, Jack," she whispered, fixing her burning eyes wistfully on his face, "let me have the assurance from your lips that you will never, never put another in my place."
"If it will settle any doubts in your mind, I give you the promise that you ask," he answered, in a low, grave voice; and it was worth that promise to see the girl's pale face light up with a swift flush of joy.
"Oh, thank you—thank you, Jack!" she sobbed.
At that moment a strange incident was taking place in Dorothy's room.
Almost thoroughly exhausted with night-watching, Dorothy had fallen asleep in a chair, in which she had sat down for a few moments' rest.
Was it only a vision? she wondered, or did she hear some one call her name softly: "Dorothy! Dorothy!"
She turned her head quickly, but she could see no one, although some one was whispering:
"Why do you nurse Jessie so carefully? If it is destined that she should die, I wonder that you grievewhen you know that her death will bring freedom to Jack Garner and love to you!"
The idea was so startling that for a time it nearly took her breath away.
"Let her drift quietly on to the end which is near. If you do not work too zealously to save her, your reward will be the heart of him whom youlove at last. Take warning, and heed my words!"
Dorothy sprang from her chair, quivering with excitement.
She had been fast asleep, and the words that still rang in her ears shocked her yet, even though she knew it was but a dream—though such a vivid one—and the voice that whispered those words to her seemed so like Jack's.
Still the idea was in her head. If Jessie Staples died, her lover would be free again, and she knew what that would mean for herself.
She tried to put the thought from her, but she could not; it haunted her continually.
She tried to tell herself that even if Jessie were to die, she would never make herself known to Jack.
But, even after she had said all that, she knew in her own mind that she would be sure to let Jack know at last, for she would never realize a moment's happiness until she was once more what she had been to Jack in the past.
It had been such a slight affair that had parted them, and that had drifted two hearts asunder.
Alas! how light a cause may moveDissensions between hearts that love—Hearts that the world in vain had tried,And sorrow but more closely tied;That stood the storm when waves were rough,Yet in a sunny hour fell off,Like ships that have gone down at seaWhen heaven was all tranquillity."
Alas! how light a cause may moveDissensions between hearts that love—Hearts that the world in vain had tried,And sorrow but more closely tied;That stood the storm when waves were rough,Yet in a sunny hour fell off,Like ships that have gone down at seaWhen heaven was all tranquillity."
During the week that followed, the words that Dorothy had heard in her dream constantly recurred to her.
At first she fought against the feeling that seemed to be forced upon her.
She cried out to herself that Jessie must live; but with that thought always came the one that, if Jessie recovered, it would mean the downfall of all her own future happiness.
At last her growing love for Jack Garner conquered her. She yielded to it. It was like the intoxication of rare wine, of sweet, subtle perfume, until at last, in secret, she confessed to herself that she loved him. She thought of nothing but that she loved Jack with all the strength and fervor of her despairing soul, and the only barrier between them was—Jessie.
To make matters all the worse, the sick girl made a confidante of her, and would talk to her for long hours at a time over her approaching marriage—that is, if she should recover.
Every word she said was like the sharp thrust of a sword to Dorothy; but day by day Dorothy could not help but notice the terrible change that was taking place in Jessie Staples.
Every afternoon her couch was drawn to the bay-window. She liked to be propped up where she could look out into the sunlit garden, with its green foliage and bright-hued flowers; for it was in the garden that Jack could be seen, pacing up and down under the trees, smoking his afternoon cigar.
She would always call for Jack when she saw him, and when he came into the room she would hold out her arms to him with a strange, low cry.
He would always kneel down by her side, talk to her, try to cheer her. Sleep would never come to her unless he sat by her side, holding her hands in his.
It was with great relief that Mr. Garner heard at length that Doctor Crandall was so much better that he would visit Jessie the next afternoon.
When he came Doctor Kendal took him at once to the sick-room, and there they held a long and secret consultation.
"I am obliged to say, sir, that I shall have to abandon the case," said Kendal. "I am completely dumbfounded with it. I have most carefully followed out your every suggestion, and yet the patient fails rapidly before my eyes day after day."
Doctor Crandall looked thoughtful.
When he left Jessie's couch he found Mr. Garner awaiting him in the library.
"What do you think of her, sir?" he asked, quickly.
"There is not much the matter," he replied; "agood tonic, rest, and a little cheerful society will soon set the young lady right again."
"It is the first time that you have seen her, doctor," said Jack, rather dubiously. "You never saw her in health, sir. You do not know how alarmingly she has changed for the worse. She had a brilliant color, but it has all gone."
"It will soon return," said the doctor, encouragingly; and with a few further words he left Jack, more mystified than ever.
For forty odd years he had enjoyed a large practice, but in all that time he had never had a case exactly like this.
He made up his mind then and there that there was something about this case which was beyond him—there was something about it that he could not fathom, that was shrouded in mystery.
He wired without delay, an urgent message to an eminent physician with whom he was on excellent terms. It was almost midnight when Doctor Schimpf arrived at the Garner mansion.
His friend, Doctor Crandall, was awaiting him, and together they made their way at once to the sick-room.
"This is an urgent case, I suppose," said Doctor Schimpf.
"I am afraid so," was the reply. "You will be able to judge when you see the patient."
Doctor Schimpf's stern face grew sterner still as he made his examination of poor Jessie. Then the doctors quitted the room and commenced their consultation.
Nadine Holt looked after them with a strange smile on her face, her black eyes glittering.
"Well," said Doctor Crandall, "I wonder if we both have the same opinion in regard to this case."
"It can admit of but one," returned Doctor Schimpf, with a shake of his head.
"And that is?"
"It is a case of slow poisoning," was the answer.
Doctor Crandall grasped his friend's hand.
"That was my view exactly," he said, huskily.
"There is but one way to proceed," returned Doctor Schimpf: "we must set a watch upon the inmates of the sick-room, and discover who is the perpetrator of this awful crime; and in the meantime make minute inquiries if there is any one under this roof who would be likely to be benefited by this poor girl's death. I propose that we proceed without an hour's delay."
"Agreed!" returned the other, promptly. "And I would suggest, as well, that a woman be secured, if possible, to undertake this task of ferreting out who is responsible for this awful crime that will soon terminate fatally if not nipped in the bud."
The next morning a young colored girl duly presented herself at the Garner mansion.
"I have brought you an assistant," said Doctor Crandall, leading her into the presence of Dorothy and Nadine Holt, and bowing to each in turn. "She is to obey your orders implicitly, and wait upon you. The medicines we have left are of an extremely pungent odor, and likely to overcome a person unused to them. She can attend to mixing the preparations for you, if you both consider her competent to do so, which you can tell after a short trial;" adding, besides: "One drop of this stains the hands, and it can not begot off for months. I thought this might be sufficient reason for placing this young girl at your disposal."
"You are very thoughtful, sir," said Nadine Holt, sweetly; but Dorothy spoke never a word.
Both doctors turned and looked keenly at her; then the conversation drifted quickly into another channel; but both had made up their minds that this boded no good for the slender, dark-looking woman with the blue glasses who hovered continually about the sick girl's couch.
As the doctors were leaving, under guise of giving a few words of instruction to Myra, the mulatto girl, they whispered hurriedly in her ear.
"I understand," she answered, with a nod of her head. "Nothing shall escape my eye."
The next day Doctor Crandall made minute inquiries regarding every member of the household, and every addition that had been made to it for the past few months; and he learned, casually, that the only person under that roof with whose history the Garners were not thoroughly acquainted was—Mrs. Brown.
Furthermore, he discovered that she had secured the place without proper recommendations. This he considered a serious affair. He was quite willing to give her the benefit of a doubt; still, it was too grave a matter of which he had charge. Every moment of time wasted in discovering the perpetrator of the awful crime was dangerous to Miss Staples, his beautiful patient, exposed to such deadly peril.
All unmindful of the espionage placed upon her, Dorothy went about her duties in the same faithful manner.
In the morning she read to and amused old Mrs. Garner. In the afternoon she attended to all the duties of the household; for in the midst of their difficulties their housekeeper had left them.
In the evening she relieved Nadine Holt from her arduous duties in the sick-room.
The only gleam of brightness that fell athwart her path was meeting Jack Garner at the table three times a day. Her life merged into one great longing to be near him.
She tried to picture how it would be when Jessie recovered and he should marry her. Of course, they would still dwell beneath that roof. Could the same home that held them hold her?
She could not endure seeing them so happy in each other's love. Whenever Jack entered the sick-room, Dorothy always made some pretense to leave it.
The sight of him bringing a flower to Jessie would be enough to almost break her heart with poignant grief.
She could not help but notice how handsome he was growing day by day.
Oh, what would she not have given for just one of the kindly words he used to speak to her, a tender look, a caress!
Not one thought did Dorothy give to Harry Kendal during these days. It is strange what a power some young girls possess in throwing off all tender thoughts from their hearts when the object of them has proven himself unworthy.
All love for Harry Kendal had gone out of her heart when she saw him choose Iris' society instead of her own, and she at the time his betrothed bride.
Dorothy's only hope was that Kendal would not penetrate her disguise, and never know what had become of her.
She did not know but what he was now betrothed to Iris, andshe did not care. She was glad to be rid of him at any cost. She only wished that Nadine Holt—who was still so insanely in love with her false lover—knew how treacherous he was. She wished she dare tell her about Iris.
In her hours of loneliness little Pearl was a great comfort to Dorothy. She almost lost sight of her troubles at times in taking care of the child, who was quite as desolate in the world as herself.
She never forgot one morning that broke sunny enough for her, but ended in desolation more bitter to endure than death.
Mrs. Garner and herself were seated at the breakfast table, when Jack entered and took his seat opposite Dorothy. He bent his fair, handsome head, and kissed his mother as he passed her, and bowed courteously to "Mrs. Brown."
Both noticed that his fair, handsome face was verypale, and his right hand looked bruised. Mrs. Garner spoke of it at once.
"What is the matter—what has happened, Jack, my boy?" she asked, earnestly. "What does your agitation mean? You must tell me at once. Your—your appearance alarms me more than I can tell you."
He tried to laugh the matter off, but his mother would not be persuaded to change the subject.
"Well, then, if youmustknow, I will tell you when—we—are—alone," he said, a little unsteadily.
"You need not mind Mrs. Brown," she answered, quickly. "I do not hesitate speaking before her on any topic."
Dorothy rose hurriedly to her feet.
"I—I have finished my breakfast," she said, in the low tone she had assumed, and which so charmed every one; "and if you will excuse me, I shall be grateful."
Jack bowed courteously; but Mrs. Garner held out a fluttering hand to stay her steps.
"Do not go very far, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I may need you at any moment. Step into the conservatory and wait for further orders there."
With a bow of assent Dorothy glided from the room. She was sorry that Mrs. Garner had requested her to remain in the conservatory, for she knew full well that more or less of the conversation between mother and son must needs reach her ears.
The door had no sooner closed behind the slim, retreating figure ere Mrs. Garner turned quickly to her son, who was now pacing up and down the breakfast-room, with his arms folded tightly over his breast,his head crested proudly erect and a strange look in his eyes.
"Well, Jack." she said, at length, seeing that he was in no hurry to break the silence, "what is the matter? You used to tell your mother all your troubles when you were a little boy. Come to me with them now. Something has happened to disturb you greatly. I can see it in your face. Tell me what it is, my boy. Tell your mother what annoys you, my dear."
"You are right, mother; somethinghashappened to disturb me," he said. "I ought not to worry you with it, but if you care to hear it you shall know all. You remember a conversation we had several months ago about—about little Dorothy, mother?"
"Wedidhave a conversation about that girl, but I do not remember specially all that was said."
"You remember that I told you then, mother, that—that I still loved Dorothy, and if I ever came across the man who lured her away from me it would go hard with him or with me."
"I was in hopes that you were getting over that nonsense," she said, "especially since your betrothal to poor Jessie."
"I told you then, as I tell you now, mother, that I shall never forget Dorothy nor cease to love her. But for the story I have to tell: An hour since, as I was taking an early morning stroll to get a cigar, a little incident happened which caused me to pause and to quite forget my errand. It was only a little lame boy singing for pennies on the street, and the song that he sang touched my heart, as it has not been touched for long months, and thrilled every fiber of my being with a sharp, keen pain.
"You have heard the same song, mother. You remember how I rose and abruptly left the room when some young girl commenced to sing it in our drawing-room only a few short weeks ago. To-day I listened to it, spellbound; and the boy's accompaniment on the violin held me as one fascinated. I tried to move away, but could not, as you can judge by what occurred afterward. There was a strange fate in my standing there.
"I stood quite still and listened to the well-remembered words which carried me back so forcibly to my own past with Dorothy:
"'Far away in summer meadows,Where the merry sunbeams played,Oft I lingered 'mid the cloverSinging to a village maid.She was fairer than the fairest,Ever faithful, fond and true,And she wore beneath her bonnetAmber tresses tied with blue."'Ere the summer days departed,We had made a solemn vow,And I never, never weariedKissing her sweet cheek and brow.She was dearer than the dearest,Pure as drops of morning dew,And adown her back were hanging,Amber tresses tied with blue."''Twas decreed that fate should part usEre the leaves of autumn fell,And two loving hearts were severed,That had loved each other well.She was all I had to cherish,We have bade our last adieu.Still I see in every visionAmber tresses tied with blue.'
"'Far away in summer meadows,Where the merry sunbeams played,Oft I lingered 'mid the cloverSinging to a village maid.She was fairer than the fairest,Ever faithful, fond and true,And she wore beneath her bonnetAmber tresses tied with blue.
"'Ere the summer days departed,We had made a solemn vow,And I never, never weariedKissing her sweet cheek and brow.She was dearer than the dearest,Pure as drops of morning dew,And adown her back were hanging,Amber tresses tied with blue.
"''Twas decreed that fate should part usEre the leaves of autumn fell,And two loving hearts were severed,That had loved each other well.She was all I had to cherish,We have bade our last adieu.Still I see in every visionAmber tresses tied with blue.'
Just at that moment a step sounded on the pavement.
"A man rushed down, hatless, from an adjacent mansion, and in a twinkling seized the offending young musician by the throat, and hurled him from the sidewalk, crying, fiercely:
"'I will teach you to come here every morning and to sing that accursed song of all others in front of my door. I have ordered you away twice before. I'll teach you better than to come back again.'
"The unprovoked assault upon the helpless cripple awoke all the anger in my nature.
"I sprang forward and separated them; but when I saw who the cripple's assailant was, my amazement knew no bounds.
"It was the young doctor who comes here to attend Jessie.
"He turned on me with terrible ferocity; then I recognized the fumes of wine on his breath.
"'This is the second time you have interfered in my business, Garner!' he cried, fairly foaming with rage. 'Once when you attempted to take Dorothy Glenn from me on the Staten Island boat, and—now.'
"I fell back as though he had struck me a terrible blow. In an instant I recognized him. I had been looking for him ever since Dorothy's flight. I had caught but a fleeting glimpse of him in the past, andhis whiskers made such a change in him, no wonder I did not recognize him as he crossed our threshold; and this accounted for the manner in which he had managed to avoid me in my own household.
"'You! You fiend incarnate, have I found you at last? I could kill you here and now!' I cried as my fingers tightened around his throat. 'But I will give you one chance to save yourself. Name your own place as to where you will meet me. I did not recognize you before. You shall tell me what you have done with Dorothy Glenn, or I will kill you!'
"Those words seemed to recall him to his senses. He drew back defiantly, and his flashing black eyes met mine, while a terrible sneer curled his lips.
"'You shall never know whether Dorothy Glenn is living or dead!' he cried.
"I could have borne anything better than those scathing words from the lips of the man who had taken from me the girl I loved.
"'You will find me at my home up to the hour of noon,' he said. 'Make any arrangements you deem necessary.'
"I turned on my heel and left him; and here I am, awaiting a summons from him."
Mrs. Garner had risen slowly to her feet. The import of his words had just begun to dawn upon her.
"Jack!" she cried, wildly, throwing herself upon her knees at his feet, "is it to be a duel? Oh, my God, Jack, answer me!"
They heard a crash in the conservatory, but both were too excited to mind it.
"Let me go in your place," cried a hoarse voice from the doorway of the conservatory. "Pardon me,but I could not help overhearing all;" and Mrs. Brown advanced excitedly into the breakfast-room, and up to Jack's side. "Let me go in your place," she repeated. "Let me give my life for yours. I—I have nothing left to live for; you have."
Jack was deeply touched.
"You forget your little child," he said, gently. "Besides, any man might reasonably take up the quarrel of a lady, and, if need be, die in her defense, be she friend or stranger; but no woman should make such a sacrifice for a man. I thank you for the kindness of heart that prompted the words; but it can not be. I am sorry that you overheard my words to my mother. See! she has swooned away. I beg that you will take care of her, and let none of the household know what is about to occur."
As Jack Garner uttered the words, he kissed the prostrate form of his mother, and, turning, walked hastily out of the room.
Dorothy then set about restoring Jack's mother, and with the first breath of returning consciousness she fled from the room and up to her own.
She was just about to seize her hat and cloak, and to dash out into the street, in the mad hope of overtaking him, all heedless of little Pearl's cry, as she woke from her sleep and held out her hand, when there came a sudden knock upon the door.
It was the colored maid.
"If you please, ma'am, you are wanted in Miss Staples' room."
"I—I can not go now," cried Dorothy, incoherently. "I have an urgent errand that I must attend to at once."
"But you must come, madame," said the girl, slowly, but very impressively.
"It is impossible," returned Dorothy, attempting to pass her by. "Every moment of my time is precious."
"But madame must go to the sick-room," reiterated the girl so earnestly that Dorothy paused.
"I will look in at the sick-room one moment," she said. "Then you—you must not detain me."
Suddenly she turned and asked:
"Do you know whether Mr. Garner is in the house?"
"He is in the library, ma'am."
"You are sure?" gasped Dorothy.
"Quite sure, ma'am. He also has had a message to come to the sick-room. I stopped and gave it to him myself on my way here."
Thus assured that he had not yet left the house, Dorothy breathed a great sigh of intense relief.
"I—I do not mind going to the sick-room with you now," she whispered, in a low, unsteady voice; and, all unconscious of what was to accrue from it, Dorothy followed her companion from the room and up to Jessie's chamber.
The silence of death was upon all things as she parted the silkenportièresand entered the room where the sick girl lay, white and gasping, upon the couch.
The two doctors made way for her, motioning her to advance to the couch.
"Oh! she is not dying—not dying?" gasped Dorothy, with a wild wail of terror. "You must not tell me that!"
"Are you so very much surprised?" asked Doctor Crandall, slowly and impressively.
"Oh, she must not die—-she must not die!" she cried. "Where is all your vaunted skill if you can not save her life?"
"Man can work against the skill of man," significantly replied Doctor Crandall, "but not against the will of Heaven."
"But is she dying?" wailed Dorothy, grasping the ice-cold hands.
"She shall not die if we can save her," simultaneously echoed both doctors.
They uttered the words in so strange a tone that Dorothy turned and looked at them in wonder.
At that moment Mr. Garner entered the room. His face was still very pale, but he was outwardly calm.
He was just in time to catch the last words, and he stepped up hurriedly to the doctor ere he could utter another word to Dorothy.
"Do you say that my betrothed is dying?" he cried, hoarsely, flinging himself on his knees beside the couch, on the side opposite to where Dorothy was.
"What we have to say had better be deferred for a few moments, until he is more calm and better able to bear the shock," said Doctor Schimpf, nodding in the direction where Mr. Garner knelt prostrated with grief.
Dorothy had become strangely calm, and both doctors noticed that she intently watched the actions of young Mr. Garner.
"I think I have unearthed the secret of the whole affair," whispered Doctor Crandall to his friend. "Watch the gaze Mrs. Brown is bending upon the betrothed lover of the girl who lies sick unto death!"
He motioned the doctor back into the recess of the bay-window.
"Let me finish my story here," he whispered under his breath. "This is what I would say: This strange woman in the black dress loves Mr. Garner. Ah! you start, my friend. So did I when the thought first flashed across my mind. Within the last few moments this thought has settled into a conviction. She is the only one interested in the death of Miss Staples. Look carefully into the chain of evidence I present to you, and you will have the same opinion that I have formed, no doubt.
"In the first place, as we both know, Miss Staples' sudden attack of illness dated from a few days after this mysterious young woman crossed this threshold.
"Who she is, or whence she came, no one seems to have been clever enough to find out.
"She has come and gone from this house, alone, and at all hours, no one questioning her movements.
"She has taken full charge of the patient, from midnight until early morning, and each forenoon our patient seems to have grown alarmingly worse. We have both discovered the presence of arsenic, which has been administered to her.
"And now last, but by no means least, I have been observing this mysterious woman with keen scrutiny. I could stake my life upon it she wears a wig, that hercomplexion is a 'made-up' one. By this you will understand me to say that the lines we see traced upon her face are the work of art, not time. The eyes covered by those blue glasses are bright as stars. In short, she is not the middle-aged personage that she appears, but is a young woman, or rather a fiend incarnate, in disguise.
"I propose within the next few moments to lay the matter before Mr. Garner, and to gain his sanction to compel her to throw off this disguise before she leaves this room, to confront her with the evidence of her crime, and to force her to make a full confession at the bedside of her would-be victim."
"I quite agree with your plan," assented the other. "But there is one precaution which we must not forget: the key must be turned in the lock and removed, if you would have your bird securely caged. Delays are dangerous. Let Mr. Garner be told the terrible truth without a moment's delay, and we will rest the case wholly with him."
Without attracting attention, Doctor Crandall called Mr. Garner into the recess of the bay-window, while Doctor Schimpf engaged Dorothy in conversation to pass the time away.
To attempt to describe Jack Garner's astonishment, which gradually deepened into the most intense horror as the terrible story was unfolded to him, can better be imagined than described.
"Jessie suffering from the effects of poison?" he gasped, incredulously. "Great Heaven! how can I believe such an uncanny tale? Miss Staples has not an enemy in the whole world, I am sure. No one couldhave a motive in attempting to put her out of the way."
"Will you answer one question?" said the doctor, looking earnestly at the young man.
"Anything which you may ask," quickly returned the other.
"Did you ever have any other sweetheart than Miss Staples? Did any other woman ever love you in the past?"
For a moment Jack hesitated, and his fair, handsome face flushed; then he frankly raised his eyes and met the keen gaze fixed upon him.
"I have no hesitancy in acknowledging that I did have a romance in my life before my betrothal to poor Jessie. But she knew about it from beginning to end."
"Did you give this girl up for Miss Staples? Pardon me for asking such a direct question, but your answer is vitally important."
The handsome face into which the old doctor gazed grew very white, and the lines about the firm mouth deepened into an expression of pain.
"My little sweetheart disappeared one day with a handsomer man than I," he said, huskily, "and from that time to this I have never looked upon her false but fair face."
"Did she love you in those days?" was the next query.
"I wonder that you can ask the question," said Jack, with a touch of haughty bitterness. "Does it look very much as though she loved me when she ran away with another man? On the contrary, any one could see that, in pursuing the course she did towardme, she must have detested me. I never saw this Mrs. Brown before we engaged her as a companion to my mother, nor has Jessie, I am sure. I am completely at sea," Jack added, "and therefore I leave the matter entirely with you. If Jessie is dying of slow poison, I beseech you to discover the perpetrator of the deed, at any cost—aye, and though it takes every dollar of my fortune, the wretch shall be punished to the full extent of the law."
Quietly the doctors filed into the room, and one of them turned the key in the door.
It was Dr. Crandall who undertook the delicate task of unmasking the suspected would-be murderess.
"I will tell you," he said, slowly. "The poor girl on the couch beside which you have often knelt is dying of slow poison, administered to her by some person beneath this roof."
Dorothy sprang from her chair and reeled backward, looking at him with widely dilated eyes. She never knew how it happened, but in that instant of time a terrible thought came to her. Could Jack Garner be guilty of administering it to her, to free himself from the bonds he so cruelly hated?
Oh, God! how the thought tortured her. She would not—she could not believe it.
"Some one under this roof has been guilty of this most atrocious act," continued the doctor, in a sternvoice. "We suspect—we know the guilty party, and that party is in this very room!"
Dorothy clasped her hands in dumb agony, and her terrified eyes never left the form of him who had once been her lover.
"You do not answer me, Mrs. Brown," said the doctor, frowning. "What have you to say?"
"What could I say?" she sobbed, piteously.
"The one who is guilty of this diabolical deed must be held accountable for it," said the doctor, facing her sternly. "A just punishment must and shall be meted out to the wicked party. If you say that you will not admit the truth, then I will turn the affair over to Mr. Garner, here and now!"
What would they do with Jack? In imagination she saw him in a prison cell, perhaps doomed to drag out all the after years of his life there, and the thought seemed to drive her to madness.
"I will take it upon myself, and Jack shall go free," she said to herself—"yes blameless and free."
Slowly the doctor stepped around to Jack's side.
"What have you to say in this matter, Mr. Garner?" he said.
"Let me answer instead of him," Dorothy panted, hoarsely. "He knows nothing about it. Oh, hear me!—listen to me, I pray you! It is I—I whom you must hold guilty. Do with me as you will!"
Both of the doctors nodded toward each other. A groan broke from Garner's lips—this acknowledgement was so terrible for him to hear from this strange woman's lips.
"Who are you, and what was your motive for this horrible crime?" asked the doctor, sternly. "Youmust make a clean breast of why you attempted to poison Miss Staples, here and now."
There was one person in that room who listened to Dorothy's most extraordinary confession, white with terror, and that was—Nadine Holt.
She knew full well that the stranger was entirely guiltless; then why under heaven had she placed herself in such a horrible position?
Nadine recovered her outward composure by a great effort, and listened intently to what they were saying.
"You must reveal your identity here and now," Doctor Crandall was repeating, vehemently, "or I shall force you to do so. When we once become convinced who you are, and your motive for this crime, then we will know how to proceed against you. In the first place, I order you to remove both the wig and glasses which we have discovered that you are wearing. Your identity is the first step in this matter."
Like a flash Dorothy flung herself at Jack Garner's feet.
Ere he could put out his hand toward her, Doctor Crandall had sprung forward, and with a quick motion gently but deftly snatched the wig from her head and the glasses from her eyes, and Dorothy—Dorothy Glenn stood revealed, in all her terror, before the astonished gaze of Jack Garner and Nadine Holt.
"You—you!" cried Jack, in horror too great for words.
"Save me—save me!" gasped the girl.
He wondered that he did not go mad, then and there at the sight of her.
"Let me go!" she panted, imploring.
The doctor shook his head.
"You must be held answerable for your crime," he said, sternly. "You showed no pity to the girl lying here so helpless, and why should it be shown you? She lies here in a deep sleep, and when she awakens we shall know whether it is life or death she has to face. We hope it is life, but we can not be too sure. In the interim, while we decide your fate, you should thank Heaven that your plans are frustrated. We can not decide, until the crisis is past, as to what is best to be done."
"Jack," she whispered again, "let me go far away and leave you with Jessie. She will recover, and you will marry her and be happy after all, and I—I will never cross your path again."
He tore away the white little hands that clung to him, and turned to the doctors. They were awed at the sight of his white, desperate face.
"You have both assured me that Miss Staples will not die from this poisoning," he said, hoarsely; "and I—I, the one most vitally interested in this affair, say to you: Open that door and let her go her way."
Ah, God! that they should meet and part like this, after all those weary months of heartache!
"God only knows her object in coming here in disguise and committing this awful crime," was his mental thought; but aloud, he only said:
"Go, and may Heaven forgive you! Go to the father of your child."
A terrible lump rose in his throat; he could say no more.
The little one had crept out of Dorothy's arms, and out into the middle of the floor; but Dorothy never, in that awful moment, thought of the child. She wasso stunned that the full import of his words did not strike her just then.
She only knew that he was opening the door for her, and harshly commanding her to go.
Like a storm-driven swallow, with one quick glance in his face, the girl turned and fled from the room, and out of the house.
"You were too generous toward her," cried one of the doctors. "See! she has abandoned her little child, Mr. Garner."
Then suddenly the doctor stopped short, and looked first at the fair-haired, beautiful babe, then at Mr. Garner, and said no more.