CHAPTER VI.
THE SWEET AND TENDER LETTERS THAT SUDDENLY CEASED TO COME.
Gerelda Northrup neither spoke nor stirred.
"You drew me on--ay, up to the very last moment--or this would neverhave happened. I come of a desperate race, Gerelda," he went on,huskily, "and when you showed me so plainly that you still liked mysociety, even after you had plighted your troth to another, I clung tothe mad idea that there was yet hope for me, if we were far away fromthose who might come between us. On this lone island we will be all theworld to each other--'the world forgetting, by the world forgot.' Marryme, Gerelda, and I will be your veritable slave!"
He never forgot the look she turned upon him.
"When your anger has had time to cool, you will forgive me, my darling,"he pleaded, "and then I am sure you will not say me nay when I beg foryour heart and hand. I shall not force you into a marriage. I will waitpatiently until you come to me and say: 'Robert, I am willing to marryyou!'"
He remembered how she had turned from him in bitter anger and scorn tooterrible for any words. He had given her over into the hands of Marie,the little French maid.
She offered no resistance as the girl took her hand and led her into thehouse; but there was a look on her face that boded no good, while thewords she had uttered rang in his ears: "I shall never speak again untilyou set me free!"
Twice she had made the attempt, during the forty-eight hours whichfollowed, to take her own life, and both times he had prevented her.Even in those thrilling moments she had never uttered a word. She kepther vow, and Captain Frazier was beside himself at the turn affairs hadtaken.
But what else could he have done, under the circumstances? He could notstand by and see her made the bride of another.
Only that day, by the merest chance, Frazier had found out about HubertVarrick practically adopting the village beauty--saucy little JessieBain--and that he had secretly sent her to a private school, to beeducated at his own expense, and he lost no time in communicating thisstartling news to Gerelda, and giving her proof positive of the truth ofthis statement.
He saw her face turn deathly white, and he knew that the arrow of bitterjealousy had struck home; but even then she uttered no word. But whendarkness gathered she stole out into the grounds, and tried to end itall then and there, and she would have succeeded but for his timelyhappening upon the scene at the very moment that the flash-light hadshone so suddenly upon her.
Yes, the story concerning Jessie Bain had come like a thunder-bolt toGerelda Northrup. She had fallen on her face in the long green grass,and was carried into the house in a dead faint.
Only heaven knew what she suffered when consciousness came to her. Shewas almost mad with terror at finding herself snatched from the arms ofher lover at the very altar--kidnapped in this most outrageous manner.
She pictured her bridegroom's wild agony when he returned with the glassof wine which he had hurried after, and found her missing.
But the knowledge that he had consoled himself so quickly by taking aninterest in some other girl almost took her breath away. Then she sent anote to Captain Frazier. It contained but a few words, but they wereenough to send him into the seventh heaven of delight. They read asfollows:
"Prove to me, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that Hubert Varrick isreally in love with the rustic little village maid you speak of to suchan extent that he has secretly undertaken the care of her future, and,madly as I love him, I will give him up and marry you within six monthsfrom this time. But, in the meantime, you must return me at once to myhome and friends. This much I promise you: I shall not see HubertVarrick until this matter has been cleared up."
To this note Frazier sent back hurried word that she should have all theproof of Hubert Varrick's perfidy that she might ask.
There was but one thing which it was impossible to do, and that was toset her free during the six months' probation.
This was impossible. He could not do it; he loved her too madly. Hewould go away, if she liked, and leave her to reign "queen of the isle."She should have everything which heart desired--everything savepermission to leave the place.
To this Gerelda was forced to submit.
"If I were convinced that Hubert Varrick loved another, life would beall over for me," she moaned again and again.
Meanwhile, as days and weeks rolled by, and no tidings reached HubertVarrick of the bride who, he supposed, had deserted him at the veryaltar, his heart grew bitter against Gerelda.
He plunged into his practice of law, with the wild hope that he mightforget her.
The only diversity that entered his life was the letters which hereceived from little Jessie Bain.
Girl-like, she wrote to him every day.
"I do wish you would adopt me, guardy," she wrote one day, "and bring mehome; I am so tired of this place. The principal always calls upon me tolook after all the little young fry in his school. Morning and night Ihave to hear their prayers and hunt the shoes and stockings that theythrow at one another across the dormitory. Each one denies the throwing,and I slap every one of them right and left, to be sure to get the rightone. I'm sick and tired of books. I wish I could come to you."
Suddenly the letters ceased, and, to Varrick's consternation, a weekpassed without his hearing one word from little Jessie Bain, and henever knew until then, how deep a hold the girl had on the threads thatwere woven into his daily life.
In his loneliness he turned to the letters, and read and reread them. Itwas like balm to his sore heart to find in them such outpourings of loveand devotion.
Was she ill? Perhaps some lover had crossed her path.
The thought worried him. He was just on the point of telegraphing, whensuddenly there was a rustling sound at the open French window, a swishof skirts behind him, and the next instant a pair of arms were thrownabout his neck.
"Now don't scold me, guardy--please don't! I am going to own up to thetruth right here and now. I ran away. I couldn't help it, I got so tiredof hooking young ones' dresses and hearing their prayers."
With an assumption of dignity, Hubert Varrick unwound the girl's armsfrom about his neck. But somehow they had sent a strange thrill throughhis whole being, just such a thrill as he had experienced during thehour in which he had asked Gerelda to be his wife, and she had answeredin the affirmative.
He tried to hold her off at arm's-length, but she only clung to him themore, giving him a rapturous kiss of greeting.
The story of little Jessie Bain had been the only one which HubertVarrick had kept from his mother.
It seemed amusing, he had told himself repeatedly, for a young man offive-and-twenty to be guardian, as it were, to a young girl ofsixteen--that sweet, subtle, dangerous age "where childhood andwomanhood meet."
"Aren't you glad to see me, Mr. Varrick?" cried Jessie.
"Glad?" Hubert Varrick's face lighted up, and before he was aware of theaction, he had drawn her into his encircling arms, bent his dark,handsome head, and kissed the rosy mouth so dangerously near his own.There was a sound as of a groan, from the door-way, followed by amuffled shriek, and raising his eyes in startled horror, Hubert Varricksaw his lady-mother standing on the threshold, her jeweled hands partingthe satin _portieres_.
"Who is this girl, and what does this amazing scene mean, Hubert?" criedMrs. Varrick.
Jessie Bain looked at the angry lady in puzzled wonder. She nestled upcloser to the handsome, broad-shouldered fellow, murmuring audibly:
"Why don't you tell her that I am Jessie Bain, and that you are my bestfriend on earth?"
The lady had heard enough to condemn the girl in her eyes.
She advanced toward her, livid with rage, and flung the girl's littlewhite hands back from her son's arm.
"Go!" she cried, quivering with rage; "leave this house instantly, or Iwill call the servants to put you into the street? It's such girls asyou that ruin young men!"
"Mother," interrupted Hubert, "Jessie Bain must not be sent from thishouse. If she leaves, I
shall go with her!"