CHAPTER XXV.
"AH! IF I BUT KNEW WHERE MY TRUE LOVE IS!"
Hubert Varrick felt excessively bored at the beauty's persistent effortsto amuse him during the afternoon that followed, and he experienced agreat relief when he made his escape to his own room.
He had come there to visit his aged relatives and have a few days ofquiet and rest from the turmoils and cares of a busy life, not to danceattendance on a capricious society girl. He had been back from Europeonly a month. Directly on his return, he went to Fisher's Landing, thereto be met with the intelligence that Jessie's uncle had died a fortnightago, and that she was thrown penniless on the world, and had started outto battle for bread, none knew whither.
The shock of this intelligence nearly killed Hubert Varrick. He almostmoved heaven and earth to find her; but every effort was useless; JessieBain seemed to have suddenly vanished from the face of the earth.
Hubert had been with his grandparents but a day when he felt stronglytempted to make excuses to get away at once; but before the shadows ofthat night fell, an event happened which changed the whole current ofhis life.
It came about in this way:
When he excused himself for leaving the drawing-room late thatafternoon, under the plea of smoking a cigar and having letters towrite, Rosamond, much incensed, had retired to her own _boudoir_, forshe felt that she had made no headway with the handsome young heir.There was no one else to vent her spite on, save the young girl whom shefound bending patiently over her dresses, stitching away as though fordear life.
"Why don't you sew faster?" Rosamond cried at length. "You will neverget that done in time for me to wear this evening."
"I promise you, Miss Rosamond, that I will have it finished if thevelvet ribbon comes in time."
"Hasn't it come yet?" cried the beauty, aghast. "Why, it's almost darknow. There's nothing else for it but for you to go after it, JessieBain; and mind that you get there before the store closes. Start atonce."
Jessie laid down her work, walked slowly to the closet, and donned herhat and little jacket. After carefully learning the street and number,Jessie set out on her journey. It was fully two miles. The girl's heartsank as she stepped from the porch, and noted how deep the snow was.She wished that the heiress had given her her fare on the street-car;but such a thought had never entered the selfish head of this pamperedcreature of luxury.
Half an hour or more had passed. Long since one of the servants hadlighted the chandelier, heaped more coal in the glowing grate, and drewthe satin draperies over the frosty windows.
"Dear me, I wish I had told her to get a few flowers for me!" Rosamondmuttered. Then she sat up straight in her chair. "Gracious me! howforgetful I am," she cried. "That velvet ribbon did come just as I wasabout to go down to luncheon, and I tossed it on a divan in the corner.It must be there now."
Springing from her seat, she went to the spot indicated. Yes, the littlepackage was there.
"That Jessie Bain must have seen it," she muttered, angrily. "She musthave passed it by a dozen times. No one can tell me that she did notopen it--those girls are so prying. And now for spite she'll take asmuch time as she wishes to go and come. She ought to be back by thistime. When she does come I shall scold her."
One, two hours passed. The clock on the mantle slowly chimed the hour ofseven. Still the girl had not returned. Rosamond Lee was in a toweringrage. She had sent for her own maid to help her dress, and she wasobliged to wear a dress which was not near so becoming to her as theblue cashmere which she felt sure would fascinate handsome HubertVarrick.
When the dinner-bell rang she hurried to the dining-room. Only the oldgentleman and his wife were at the table.
"Where is Mr. Varrick?" she asked. "Surely, he has not dined yet?"
"Oh, no," said the old lady, complacently sipping her tea. "He went outfor a walk some two hours ago, and he has not yet returned."
Rosamond started. Some two hours! Why, that was just about the time thatJessie Bain had left the house.
She wondered if by any chance he had seen her. What if he should haveasked the girl where she was going, and learn that she had been sent byher so long a distance, and in the deep snow, on such a trifling errand!The girl might tell it out of pure spite. Laughing lightly, Rosamondshook off this fear.
She had never seen a man whom she liked as well as she liked HubertVarrick. She always had her own way through life, and now that she hadsettled it in her mind that she would like to have this same HubertVarrick for her husband, she no more thought it possible for her will tobe thwarted than she deemed it possible for the night to turn suddenlyinto day. Rosamond was almost beside herself with excitement when thatwedding was so summarily broken off.
"It was the hand of Fate!" she cried. "He was intended for me. That iswhy that marriage did not take place."
She had made numerous little excuses to go to Boston with her maid, andalways called at his mother's house, making herself most agreeable tothe haughty mother, for the sake of the handsome son.
Rosamond had quite wormed herself into the good graces of Hubert'smother. She had not been there for over six months, however, andconsequently had never heard of Jessie Bain.
She had been waiting long and patiently, when suddenly she had read ofhis marriage to Geralda Northrup, and almost immediately after came thestartling intelligence of the disaster in which he had lost his bride.And again Rosamond Lee said that Gerelda was not to have him, that Fateintended him for her; and she timed her visit to her guardian's when sheknew he would be there.
Rosamond tried hard to take an interest in the dinner, but everythingseemed to go wrong with her. The tea was too weak, the biscuits toocold, and the tarts too sweet.
She did her best to keep up the conversation with her guardian and hischatty old wife, but it was a dismal failure. At every footstep shestarted. Why did he not come?
It was a relief to her when the meal was over. She walked slowly intothe drawing-room, angry enough to find old Mr. Bassett and his wife hadpreceded her, and that they had settled themselves down there for a longevening. Up and down the length of the long room Rosamond swept to andfro, stopping every now and then to draw the heavy curtains aside, inorder to strain her eyes out into the darkness of the night.
Ah, what a terrible storm was raging outside! What a wild night it was!The snow drifted in great white mountains against the window-panes, andas far as her eyes could reach, the great white snow-drifts greeted hersight. The bronze clock on the mantle struck the hour of eight in loud,sonorous strokes. With a guilty thrill of her heart, she thought ofJessie Bain. Hastily excusing herself, she hurried to her room.
Of course the girl would be there--there was no doubt about that. With anervous hand Rosamond flung open the door, crossed the handsome_boudoir_ with swift step, and looked into the little room beyond. Butthe slender form which she had expected to see was not there.
"Janet!" she called, sharply, "where is that Jessie Bain? I sent her onan errand--hasn't she returned yet? What in the world do you think iskeeping that girl?"
"Look out of that window, ma'am, and that will tell you," returnedJanet, laconically. "I tell you, Miss Rosamond, your sending the girlout on such a night as this is the talk of the whole house."
"Did she go round tattling in the servants' hall?" cried the heiress,quivering with rage.
"I'll tell you how it came about," said Janet. "One of the maids, whowas at the window, called to her as she was going out. I heard it allfrom another window.
"'Why, where are you going, Miss Bain?' she called, 'you are mad to stepout-of-doors in the face of such a storm as this!'
"'I'm going on an errand for Miss Rosamond,' she answered.
"'You will have a hard time getting to the street-car.'
"'I shall not ride,' said Jessie Bain, 'I shall walk!'
"'Walk?' screamed the other. 'Oh, Jessie Bain, don't you do it; you willperish; and all because that Rosamond Lee was too stingy to give youyour car-fare. I wish to Heaven tha
t I had the money with me, I'd giveit to you in a minute. But hold on, wait a second-- I'll go and tell theservants about it, and I reckon that some of them can raise enough moneyto see you through.'
"With that I slipped down to the servants' hall, to be ahead of her, andto hear what she would say, and, oh! bless my life, what atongue-lashing they all gave you! It's a wonder your ears didn't burnlike fire, miss.
"They said it was a beastly shame. They wished a mob would come in andgive you a ducking out in the snow-drift, and see how you would like it.They were not long in making up the money, but when they went to lookfor Jessie she was nowhere to be seen.
"I am almost certain that Mr. Hubert Varrick must have heard somethingof what was said, for one of the girls saw him standing in the door-way,listening intently. Before she could utter a word of warning he turned,with something very like a muttered threat on his lips, and strode downthe corridor.
"When night fell and Jessie Bain had not returned, the anger of theservants ran high. I attempted to take your part, saying that you didn'tknow how bad the day really was, when they set upon me with the fury ofdevils.
"'Don't attempt to shield her!' they cried, brandishing their fists inmy face, some of them grazing my very nose.
"'Like mistress, like maid.' We hate you almost as much as we do her.None of us shall close our eyes to-night until Jessie Bain has beenfound; and if she lies dead under the snow-drifts, we will form alittle band that will avenge her! If Jessie Bain has died from exposureto the terrible storm, Rosamond Lee, who caused it all, shall suffer forit! If she is not here by midnight--hark you, Janet! bear this messagefrom us to your mistress, the haughty, heartless heiress--"
But what that message was, Janet whispered in her mistress's ear.