MUSIC HATH CHARMS.
MUSIC HATH CHARMS.
MUSIC HATH CHARMS.
Dana D. Wallace.
{Illustrations by A. W. Stone.}
drop-cap
Theysat upon the wide piazza of the St. Sauveur hotel, gazing through the August twilight upon the extended purple of Frenchman’s Bay, the low-lying islands and erratic cliffs that have made Mt. Desert the Mecca of so many pleasure-seekers.
“It is strange that we should have come here together!” exclaimedGrace Egerton, folding her wraps about her gracefully.
“It is, indeed,” responded Ralph Leighton. “Of course, Grace, we rather hoped to meet you here; but you, George, who would have thought it!”
“It was certainly a pleasant surprise to meet you,” answered George Wardsworth. “I must truly consider myself fortunate,” with an emphasis on the last word, as he glanced at the beautiful face of Grace Egerton.
The glance was intercepted by Ralph, who was becoming annoyed at his friend’s earnest endeavors to be agreeable to his betrothed. It was with great pleasure thatRalph heard his sister’s voice asking George Wardsworth if the evening air wasn’t becoming a little chilly. Compelled to respond, George gallantly escorted her into the parlors.
Drawing his chair closer, Ralph dwelt with loving words upon his favorite topic, their engagement. “And when that happy day shall come,” he said, “when our engagement is over and real love begins, do you think, Grace, that we will be happier?
“No, Ralph; for it is already over.”
“What! My God—not that, Grace: why, but yesterday you vowed you loved me!”
“Yes,” she interrupted, her eyes seeking the ground. “You are right: one day ago I was yours, to-day I am another’s. Then I thought I knew what love was, but I find that I was ignorant of that passion. It is cruel,” she said, “but with my soul in sympathy with another’s, I could not be faithful to you, Ralph. Forget me, as unworthy of your love. I regret the pain I have caused you. But I”——
“Stop,” he cried. “It is true you never loved me. Oh! that I should be deceived by a woman’s love. Go, and may the curse”——but with an angry movement she was gone. With a muttered curse for George Wardsworth, whom heknew too well was to be Grace’s successful suitor, and almost maddened with grief, he strode down the gravel walk and was lost in the gathering night.
An hour later he returned, haggard and broken-hearted; and with little wonder, for in a few short minutes all that earth held dear had been ruthlessly snatched from him. Yet not all: there was his sister, whom he loved so sincerely, she would be his one comfort in life; but ever before him lingered the vision of Grace Egerton’s lovely face.
As he neared the hotel, he paused and listened. Sweetly floated from the parlors on the still evening air,the grand words and melodious strains of “Lead, Kindly Light.” It was his sister’s voice, singing as she never had before, so it seemed to him. Almost divine became the music. Such strains as cause us for the moment to forget the outside world with its laughter and tears, and fill our minds with nobler and better thoughts.
Lead kindly light
And though the singer knew it not, there was one who heard and never forgot that hymn, which for the time soothed his wearied heart as he listened in the silence of the night.
The bustling, good-natured throng,crowding New York’s busy thoroughfares, and the brilliantly lighted show-windows, told to all that Christmas eve, with all that it suggests, had fallen upon the city.
On Fifth avenue a man hurried past the wealthy and cheerful homes of the most fortunate citizens. The electric light glared upon him and revealed the face of an old friend, Ralph Leighton. But how changed from the handsome Ralph of former days! His unfortunate love affair, followed by the death of that sister whom he so dearly loved, had added many a year to the once youthful face.
“I might do it,” he muttered as he strode along, “I might dashGeorge Wardsworth from his proud position to the level of a beggar; I wonder if the haughty Grace would come to him then. To-night George Wardsworth stands on the verge of financial ruin; if he can stave off his creditors for another week, the tide will change, and he will remain as he is, wealthy, happy, and loved. To-morrow I will tell the secret to his creditors, they will foreclose, and George Wardsworth will be a penniless man, and I shall have had my revenge.”
Wrapping his ulster more closely about him to keep warm his revengeful spirit, he passed on, but in a short time paused, attracted by the unusually cheerful appearanceof one of the mansions. He gazed into the window. The sight for a moment unnerved him. There seated at the piano amid all the luxury of the Egerton mansion was the one who had made him the hardhearted, revengeful man that he had become,—with her face turned to a sofa on which easily reclined George Wardsworth. How contented and happy they looked!
Woman playing paino
He had not known where Grace was living, and this sudden discovery maddened him, and he muttered, “I will do it. George Wardsworth, beware!” He started on to carry out his threat, when the sound of music recalled him. As though guided by the hand of fate, Grace hadturned to the piano and run her fingers over the ivory keys. Now instrument and voice chorded together, and softly there came to the revengeful listener, the sweet harmony of Cardinal Newman’s hymn. He waited through it all, and as
“And with the morn those angels’ faces smile,Which I have loved, long since and lost, a while.”
“And with the morn those angels’ faces smile,Which I have loved, long since and lost, a while.”
“And with the morn those angels’ faces smile,Which I have loved, long since and lost, a while.”
“And with the morn those angels’ faces smile,
Which I have loved, long since and lost, a while.”
lingered and died away, Ralph recalledthe same hymn, that other night, when his hopes had forever vanished. He heard again the voice of his beloved sister. Even now she might be watching him from the star-lit heavens above. How false was he to her trust, meditating such vengeance. He hurried away, humming to himself the words of the sacred hymn, and the business house of Wardsworth & Co. weathered the financial storm.
Christmas bells
Next day as the glad Christmas bells heralded the story of Christ throughout the land, they mingledwith the merry bells of Grace Egerton’s wedding; but they told not to the world the message which had come into one man’s heart on Christmas eve.