CHAPTER XXXIII.
EVA ACCEPTS REGGIE.
“Congratulate me, Ada. I have concluded to try auntie’s and papa’s remedy for a misplaced love. I have promised to marry Reggie!”
Ada threw down her novel, and, springing up, caught her friend to her heart.
“I wish you joy, Eva! You will have a splendid husband. I almost envy you,” she declared, with a stifled sigh.
“You need not envy a queen. You will have Doctor Ludington,” Eva cried, with bitter emphasis.
“Nonsense! He cares nothing about me, Eva.”
“It looks like it, Ada, when he has called on you and taken you out every day since you came.”
“That is only ten days, dear.”
“I know it; but if it were fifty it would have been the same. He is madly in love with you, Ada, and has forgotten that he ever loved poor little me!” cried Eva, in a voice that betrayed all the bitterness of a wounded heart.
And as Ada hesitated for an answer, she continued in a different tone:
“But I will show him that I do not care, that I can love another as well as he! Reggie is a better match, anyway. I will be married to him directly and goaway to Europe on my bridal tour. We have planned it all out this evening, since I reconsidered my rejection and told him I would try to love him as dearly as he loves me. Oh, Ada, you cannot think how happy I have made the dear boy by my promise. After all, he is very lovable!”
“He is perfectly charming! Indeed, I envy you, darling,” exclaimed Ada frankly, while Eva responded with sudden recklessness:
“And I envy you, Ada, and wish we could make a fair exchange of lovers! Oh, what nonsense I am talking! Reggie is the dearest old darling in the world, and I want you to tell Doctor Ludington you heard me say so. Tell him, too, that I felt I never really loved before. Will you, Ada?”
“If you wish me to, dear. But I am afraid that it is not the truth, although to my mind Mr. Hamilton is actually adorable!”
“Oh, yes, he is all that is charming, I know; and he has been in love with me for years—for years, Ada; ever since papa first brought me home, a shy little country girl, ignorant of city ways and untrained in everything. But I have improved, haven’t I, dear?”
“You were always adorable, dear Eva. Then you were like the sweet, wild rose; now you are like the cultivated flower. But tell me now when the wedding is to be.”
“Reggie has coaxed for a short engagement—toget ready in three weeks and sail with a delightful party of our friends who are going at that time. Not that I want to shorten your visit, darling Ada. You are to accompany me as my guest, if you will, and we both wish it. Reggie admires you very much, you see. Will you accept our invitation, Ada?”
“I—I don’t know just yet, Eva. Give me time to think it over. This is so very sudden, you see,” the beautiful brunette answered with paling cheeks and a throbbing heart.
She spoke truly when she assured her friend that she envied her, for the first sight of Reginald Hamilton had inspired in her that sweet emotion known as love at first sight.
If she had ever cherished for Doctor Ludington the secret tenderness that Eva jealously suspected, she forgot it when she met Eva’s lover, the handsome young man of the world, with his society airs and graces all brought into play for the entertainment of his sweetheart’s pretty friend from the country.
Ada lost her heart in secret to the fascinating young millionaire and wondered how Eva could remain so cold to her grand lover.
Doctor Ludington was all very well, grand and handsome, and would be very rich from his oil wells in time. But Ada had known him so long that he lacked the charm of novelty. Besides, she was convinced, in spite of his show of indifference, that his heart would never really stray from Eva, its idol.
She dared not cherish any hope of winning Hamilton,yet it came as a great shock to her when Eva announced her engagement to him.
Her very lips whitened with emotion, and she added gaspingly:
“I—I—am sorry that I ever came to New York. It has only brought sorrow to us all!”
Poor Eva, distressed beyond measure, faltered:
“Oh, Ada, and we have all tried in our poor way to make you happy! I am surprised at you. If I were free, like you, to marry Doctor Ludington I would not envy the very angels in heaven!”
“Eva, you have no right to marry Reggie if you cannot give him your heart!” Ada cried out, almost harshly in her jealous pain.
“But, Ada, I am really fond of him in a way. We have always been quite good comrades, and they all say I will love him dearly when we are married. And I am willing to try it, for I need something to change the tenor of my thoughts, to take me quite out of myself. We shall be happy, I’m sure, Reggie and I together, and I want you to make Doctor Ludington think so, too,” Eva answered eagerly.
“It almost seems to me, dear, that you are marrying another just to spite Doctor Ludington, and that would be very wrong,” protested Ada.
Eva’s pale lips parted in a mocking laugh.
“What queer fancies you have, Ada! It is nothing of the kind. I am marrying to please papa, auntie, Reggie, and, of course, myself! Think how grand I shall be. I shall have the Hamilton diamonds,the finest in New York. Good night, dear,” and with a burning kiss on Ada’s cheek she flitted from the room.
Ada threw herself down weeping in a paroxysm of the bitterest despair, sobbing:
“I must have it all out with myself now, and that must be the last of it. He belongs to another, and I must forget him!”
Hot, burning tears flowed down her cheeks, and she did not restrain them. She said to herself that it was the funeral of hopes she had dared to vaguely cherish, she had scarcely understood why.
He had been kind to her, very kind, every time they met, that was true, but then, of course, it was only because she was Eva’s friend. No doubt Eva had asked him to do so.
But believing that Eva never intended to marry him, she had let some romantic fancies creep into her mind along with admiration for his sparkling black eyes, broad shoulders, and musical voice.
When the tempest of grief and disappointment was over she sat up and scolded herself.
“Ada Winton, you have been a silly goose!” she cried, wiping her eyes. “Whatever made you even hope he could look twice at you, you little country mouse? Even if Eva hadn’t married him, he would have turned to some others of his set, rich and fashionable girls, not you, who have no wealth, but a pretty face and true heart. Now, don’t waste another tender hope on him, but put self aside, and try toteach Eva to love him as he deserves to be loved, not with the poor half-hearted fancy she is giving for his genuine passion.”
The next morning she was calm and composed, and deceived every one with her superb acting.
Mrs. Hamilton, who already thought her a charming girl, was more pleased than ever, and condescended to say graciously:
“Really, all the West Virginia girls I have seen are beautiful and charming. It is no wonder my fastidious brother loved and married one.”
She was anxious that the girl should accept Eva’s invitation to accompany her abroad, and wondered at her gentle refusal that she could not be coaxed into reconsidering.
“She does not wish to go away from Doctor Ludington,” Eva said, with bitterness she could not repress.
Ada did not try to defend herself, and the lady looked curiously from one to the other. The tone of bitterness in Eva’s voice reminded her of the angry accusations of Patty Groves the morning of her memorable call.
Eva had promised to explain everything, with her father’s permission, but the truth was that he had sternly refused his consent.
He did not know whether his sister could be brought to believe in Eva’s innocence as he did. He knew that circumstances looked very dark against her, and he preferred not to run the risk of telling Mrs.Hamilton, and have her betray everything to her stepson, and perhaps arouse a prejudice against Eva that would destroy all chances of the match on which he had set his heart.
The day came when he bitterly repented his reticence, but now he was immovable to Eva’s entreaties. It was much better his sister should not learn the truth, he said.
When he learned of the engagement and approaching speedy marriage he was delighted, and applauded himself for the reticence with which he had kept the secrets of Eva’s shadowed past.
He did not believe that they could ever rise like unquiet ghosts to vex her brilliant future. Had he known of the presence of her cousins in New York he might have felt a little uneasy, but neither Eva nor her aunt had spoken to him of their visit. They did not even know whether they were still in New York.
Without a thought of future disaster, he lent himself with eagerness to the preparations for Eva’s marriage.
As she was his only child and heiress, everything must be on a grand scale befitting his daughter and the fine match she was making.
The trousseau was ordered, putting to work an army of dressmakers, and invitations were sent out two weeks ahead of the date. Society was all agog over the expected event.
And Eva became the centre of a little whirlwindof joyous bustle and confusion that left her little time for grief or retrospection.
There was one comfort in it all, Doctor Ludington did not come so much. Not that he had ever taken up any of Eva’s time. His visits had been to Ada alone, and they had never met by accident again as on the evening in the conservatory, when they had so cruelly wounded each other in the efforts to appear mutually indifferent.
But when he was in the house Eva was always subtly conscious of the fact, always a prey to restlessness and suspense.
Not dreaming of the pain he gave her, he continued his attentions to Ada, with the sole purpose of showing Eva he did not care, that his heart was very likely engaged by another.
In her turn, Eva sent him wedding cards. It was a stunning blow. He had believed her betrothed to Hamilton, but never realized the nearness of the wedding day.
In his bitter pride he had never even shown his heart to Ada, never asked her any questions of his old love. And she, dreading that the subject might be distasteful to him, had volunteered no information.
So the blow came without warning. With her own fair hands Eva had addressed her wedding cards to her old lover.
“He shall see me wedded to another,” she said bitterly. “Perhaps then he will feel a pang at his own inconstancy.”
Doctor Ludington received the cards, and for some days he did not call in Fifth Avenue again. He had some difficulty holding his feelings in check, now that he realized Eva was lost to him forever.
He realized now that always, up to the present moment, there had been a little spark of hope glowing warmly in his heart that some day Eva might repent the prejudice that had parted their lives and call him back again.
The die was cast, the hope was dead. He remained away a while to bury the corpse. Then he called on Ada again, but, quite fortunately for Eva, she was at the opera with her father and her lover, and did not have to bear the pain of knowing he was in the house.
He forced himself to speak calmly of the coming event, yet the clever girl heard the pain in his voice, and saw the ravages that grief had wrought in his looks the last few days. Her generous heart ached for him—for Eva, too, and for Reggie, who was going to get so poor a sham of love in return for his devotion.
She knew it would pain her visitor to praise his rival, so she only said:
“The family are well pleased with the match, and Eva believes she will be very happy with him.”
“Oh, no doubt,” sarcastically.
“And yet,” with gentle sympathy, “I believe she might have been happier still with her first love, had not a cruel fate forced you apart.”
“She was wrong; she had no right to throw me over so coldly and unforgivingly. All my fault was love of her, and even the law acquitted me of blood guiltiness in her cousin’s death. As for that foolish vendetta between our families, it were best that we had ended it by marriage. Oh, how it all comes back to me—our love, the broken marriage! I must not dwell on it; that way madness lies,” the poor fellow cried, giving way to passionate vehemence long repressed.
“You do not know how I feel for you,” she sighed from the depths of her own kindred pain. “Can you bear to come to the wedding?”
He laughed bitterly.
“I shall not fail to be there. She has bidden me come to the sacrifice, honored me by writing the address with her own fair hand. She wishes it. I will come. I shall even send her a wedding gift. Will you come with me to select it to-morrow?”
“With pleasure.”
“Thank you.”
When he went away she wept for him in his proud despair. She was reading his heart by the light of her own.
“He loves her with the most constant love in the world, and she does not deserve it,” she thought. “As for her, love is all merged in pride, and pique, and despair. She is jealous of me. She would have him love no one else, though she will not take him herself. Will she learn to love her splendid husband atlast, or find out too late that she has made a terrible mistake? Oh, how strange is a woman’s heart!”
The next morning she said to Eva:
“Doctor Ludington called last evening, and I am to go out with him this morning.”
Eva gave a strange little laugh.
“Reggie and I had a lovely time at the opera last night,” was her only answer.