CHAPTER XXVIII.
MORE BITTER THAN DEATH.
"No--there's nothing left us now But to mourn the past; Vain was every ardent vow-- Never yet did Heaven allow Love so warm, so wild to last. Not even hope could now deceive me, Life itself looks dark and cold; Oh, thou never more canst give me One dear smile like those of old!"
Dainty dragged her trembling limbs as fast as her strength would permittoward the great house, lifting her large blue eyes eagerly up to thewindows in search of some familiar face, though hope was very weak inher trembling heart.
It was two long, weary months since the first day of August, and whatmight not have happened in that time?
If Sheila Kelly had told her the truth, her young husband must be deadand buried long ago, and the only friend left to her in the wide, cruelworld would be her mother, if indeed that dear mother lived, for whatmore likely than that she had died of heart-break at her daughter'smysterious disappearance?
Dainty, who knew so well her mother's devotion, feared that such acalamity was but too possible.
But she realized that even if her mother lived she was very unlikely tobe found at Ellsworth now. Her bitter enemies would have driven her awaylong ago.
Still a subtle yearning drew her to the home of her beloved, though, asshe drew near to the scene of her hopes or fears, her keen emotionalmost overwhelmed her, driving the faint color back from her wan cheeksto her weak heart, and making her tremble so that she could scarcelyadvance one foot beyond the other.
How changed and lonely everything seemed since she had gone away? Shedid not even meet one of the servants as she hurried on, wrappingclosely about her shivering form a thin cashmere scarf that kind SairyAnn Peters had pressed on her to protect her, in her light summer dress,from the cold autumn winds. Thus panting, trembling, starting, andalternately hoping and despairing, she came close enough at last to gazeat the upper windows of the handsome suite of apartments that belongedto Lovelace Ellsworth.
She paused with a suppressed sob of excitement, and swept her glancerapidly from window to window.
Suddenly, with a cry of ecstatic joy, the girl sank to her knees withclasped, upraised hands.
"God in Heaven, I thank Thee!"
On her pallid, hopeless face had come such a light of joy and gratitudeand boundless surprise as can only shine after long grief and pain whenthe grave seems to give up its dead and our beloved live again.
Her wistful, yearning eyes had been granted the most joyful sight thatHeaven could have given--the sight of Lovelace Ellsworth sitting at theopen window of his room, gazing with a strange, intent look at thesetting sun as it sank below the mountain-tops and left the world inshadow.
"God in Heaven, I thank Thee! He lives; my beloved one, we shall berestored to each other!" repeated the girl in an ecstacy of gladness;and her dark-blue eyes clung rapturously to the handsome face, wonderingat its pallor and strange, intent look.
"Dear Love, how pale and thin and sad he looks! He has been ill,perhaps, or it is grief for me that has changed him so! It is strangethat he never found me when I was such a short distance away; but thereare many mysteries to be unraveled yet," she murmured, rising to herfeet, and going in haste to a side entrance, where she could easily gainthe upper portion of the house without being detected.
As she mounted the stairs, she was thinking so gladly of the joyfulreunion with Love, that she did not observe, until they were face toface, a lady coming out of his room. It was Mrs. Ellsworth; and as shemet the pale, trembling girl gliding like a shadow in the semi-darknessof the corridor, a long, loud, wailing cry burst from her startled lips,and making an effort to fly from what she took for a veritable ghost,she tripped, and fell prostrate to the floor.
Dainty saw her cruel aunt distinctly, heard the startled cry and thefall; but she never looked back, but ran eagerly to her darling's room.
She tore open the door, and rushed over the threshold, across the room,with outstretched arms.
"Oh, my love, my darling!"
Her young husband was sitting at the window in an easy-chair, with avelvet dressing-gown wrapped about him, and at the sound of herentrance, he turned his face around, and looked at the intruder blankly.
Blankly!--that was the only word that described it.
If Dainty had been the greatest stranger in the world, her younghusband could not have turned upon her lovely, agitated face a morecalm, unrecognizing stare.
For a moment she stopped, and regarded him pitifully, sobbing:
"Oh, Love! am I so changed you do not know your own little Dainty, yourwife? Oh, look at me closely! I have been ill, and lost my beauty for alittle while. They had to cut my hair, but, dearest, it will soon growagain as pretty as ever!"
She moved closer, and timidly clasped her arms about his neck.
"Oh, my darling! do not look at me as if I were a stranger! Oh, do not!That cold, stony stare almost breaks my heart! Oh, Love! it is your ownlittle Dainty! I was stolen away from you, and oh! I have passed throughsuch a terrible experience! You have been ill, too, have you not, mydearest one? Oh, how thin and pale you are, but just as handsome asever!" and she clasped him close in a warm embrace, and showered fond,wifely kisses on his cold, unresponsive lips.
The door opened suddenly, and an intelligent-looking mulatto man came invery softly, as if into a sick room.
Dainty knew him at once as Love's valued personal attendant Franklin.
Her arms dropped from Love's neck, and she blushed as he exclaimed:
"So it's really you, Miss Chase?"
"Why, Franklin, you knew me at once, but your master looks on me as astranger!" she answered, in surprise that grew boundless as the manreturned, sadly:
"Alas! Miss Chase, you and all the world must ever remain strangers tomy poor master now!"
The mulatto was a clever, well-educated person, and his words, strangeas they sounded, carried the ring of truth.
"What can you mean?" she faltered.
"Miss Chase, where have you been? Have you heard nothing of Mr.Ellsworth's sad condition?" he asked, respectfully.
Still keeping her arm around Love's neck, the young girl answered,gently:
"I was kidnapped the night before my wedding, Franklin, and the next dayI was told Mr. Ellsworth had been shot and was dying. Then I was takenvery ill, and knew nothing more till I returned here to-day, when I wasoverjoyed to learn that he was still alive!"
The man looked at her with genuine sadness.
"Ah, Miss Chase! I do not know whether you should be glad or not. Is notthis more cruel than death?"
"I do not understand," she faltered, uncomprehendingly; and he answered,with intense sympathy:
"You have spoken to him, and he does not know you--you, the dearestcreature on earth to him, Miss Chase! Neither does he recognize any oneelse, nor remember anything. There is a bullet in his head that thedoctors can not extricate, and it has destroyed his mental facultiescompletely. His health is good, but he has forgotten the past, and losteven the power of speech. He will never be anything, they say, but aharmless idiot."
She cried out with a terrible anger that it was not true, that she couldnot believe it; he was trying to deceive her and break her heart.
He was usually a quiet, stolid man, but the tears came to his eyes asshe knelt on the floor and wound her arms about Love in passionateembraces, and, with tears that might have moved a heart made of stone,called on him to pity her and speak to her, his love, his Dainty, histrue wife, whose heart was breaking for one tender word from his dearlips!