CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GOOD NEWS.
The two personals caught the eyes of Ailsa Scott the eighteenth day ofApril, as she was tying up a bundle in a copy of _The Richmond Times_several days old.
Her sad thoughts had been fixed on Dainty; for only to-day Miss Whitehad called to acquaint her with Dainty's flight.
She had also mentioned the girl's bad behavior and delicate condition,blaming Ailsa for having recommended such a girl to her favor.
The young girl's brown eyes flashed with resentment as she answered:
"Miss White, I will not allow you to speak unkindly of my dear friend.She was very unhappy, I know, and, to speak plainly, I suspected hercondition some time ago; but I would not wound her feelings by referringto it, hoping that she would see fit to explain matters herself lateron. But she is a noble girl, and I have not lost confidence in her bywhat you tell me, for I believe Dainty was secretly married, and thatthe truth will come out some day."
"Perhaps you know where she is now? I feel very uneasy over her fate,and am sorry now that I spoke so harshly to the poor girl in mysurprise!" exclaimed Miss White, softening under the influence ofAilsa's loving faith.
"Sorrow will not bring her back now. You should have shown a moreChristian spirit to the unhappy girl, and perhaps she might have givenyou her confidence, showing you that she was not as bad as you thought.But I do not know where she is. You know, Miss White, I have had tonurse the dear little children through bad colds, and have not seenDainty for over two weeks. Perhaps the poor girl thought I had forsakenher, too," added Ailsa, bursting into tears.
Miss White was a weak woman, but not a cruel one. Ailsa's distress movedher to such keen sympathy that she wept too, declaring that if only shecould find the sweet, unfortunate child she would make amends for herunkindness.
"If you hear from her you'll let me know, Ailsa, won't you? And I shalltell Mr. Sparks he did wrong to try to turn me against Dainty. She is agood girl, I believe, after all, and I'll stand her friend, even afterI'm married, if she will forgive me for last night," she said, beforeshe went away.
Ailsa wept most bitterly, for she feared that it would be long ere shesaw Dainty's sweet face again.
"She thinks I have forsaken her, and she will be too proud to let meknow where she is," she thought.
Then came the startling discovery of the personals offering a reward fornews of Dainty Chase, and of the marriage license that had been grantedto her and Love Ellsworth.
Ailsa hunted up the back numbers of the newspapers, and found that thepersonals had been running more than a week, and that they were insertedin all the city journals.
She thought:
"Fidelio--that means faithful--so it must be some dear friend ofDainty's that wants to find her so badly--perhaps her husband; for I ambound to believe she was secretly married. So I will write to Fidelio,and tell him all I know of the dear girl's fate."
On the same day, almost the same hour, a pretty, sad-faced woman at theinsane asylum in Staunton sat reading the same personals in somenewspapers the matron had given her that morning.
It was Mrs. Chase, and a great change had come over the sweet littlewoman. In fact, the doctors and attendants declared that she was quitewell of her suicidal mania, and that at the next meeting of the board ofdirectors, on the twentieth of April, her discharge would be asked foras a cured woman. Every one would be sorry to see her go, she was sogentle and refined and helpful now, and the violence of her first sorrowhad subsided into patient, uncomplaining resignation.
But the strangest thing about her was that she did not seem to have afriend in the world. No one ever came to see her or wrote to inquire howshe was. They wondered where she would go when she was discharged.
One of the new supervisors, a pale, middle-aged woman in widow's weeds,passed through the ward when Mrs. Chase was reading the papers, andfound her weeping violently. She stopped, and asked kindly what was thematter.
"Read these personals and I will tell you," was the sobbing reply.
The supervisor, Mrs. Middleton by name, obeyed, and cried out insurprise:
"How very, very strange!"
"Is it not?" cried Mrs. Chase, pathetically. "You see, that girl, DaintyChase, is my own child. I went crazy about her, they say; but betweenyou and me, Mrs. Middleton, I don't believe I ever was really insane,you know, only just wild and hysterical over my lost child, fearing hercruel enemies had killed her, and if only they had not shut me up inthis place, I believe I should have found her long ago. If you had timeto listen, I would like to tell you my whole sad story."
"I will take time, for I am more deeply interested than you can possiblyguess," said the kind supervisor.
"Did you ever hear anything so sad? And is it any wonder that Itemporarily lost my mind and tried to throw away my life?" cried Mrs.Chase; adding: "Is it not strange that the search for Dainty is beingrevived now? It would almost seem as if Lovelace Ellsworth has recoveredthe use of his senses."
"Perhaps the bullet in his head has been discovered by the use of thatwonderful X-ray we have been reading about in the newspapers. It must beso, for who else could have an interest in that marriage license?"exclaimed the supervisor, excitedly; adding: "I have something wonderfulto tell you, Mrs. Chase. I am the widow of the preacher that marriedyour daughter to Lovelace Ellsworth, and I have in my possession thelicense and the certificate of marriage, given me by my husband to keepuntil called for. And I also witnessed the marriage ceremony, peepingthrough the vestry door, as Mr. Middleton said there ought really to beone witness, although the young pair insisted not. But now you see howimportant it was, for my husband died soon after, and in my grief Iforgot all about the secret marriage till recalled to memory of it bythis personal. So now I shall write to this Fidelio with my good news,and tell him all about your case too, poor thing!"