Mahan
My Pretty Maid / or, Liane Lester
CHAPTER I.
A DESPERATE CHANCE
"How fast the river flows! How it roars in my ears and drowns the sound of your voice, my dearest! It is bearing me away! Oh, save me! save me!"
The river was the stream of Death, and the lone voyager floating out on its rushing tide was a loved and loving young wife.
The frail white hands clung fondly to her husband's as she rested with her head upon his breast, and the faint voice murmured deliriously on:
"How it rushes on—the wild river! How it rocks me on its broad breast! It is not so noisy now; it is deeper and swifter, and its voice has a lulling tone that soothes me to sleep. Hold me tight—keep me awake, dear, lest it sweep me away to the sea!"
Ah, he would have given the world to hold her back, his darling, the dearest of his heart, but the rushing torrent was too strong. It was sweeping her away.
Several days ago a beautiful daughter—her first-born after five years' wifehood—had been laid in her yearning arms.
But, alas! the first night of its birth, during a temporary absence of the old nurse from the room, the little treasure had been stolen from its mother.
Panic seized the whole household, and rigorous search was at once begun and kept up for days, but all to no avail.
The father was frantic, but, though he would have given his fortune for the return of the child, he was powerless; and now, as a sequel to this tragedy of loss and pain, his dear young wife lay dying in his arms—dying of heartbreak for the lost babe—poor bereaved young mother!
Tears rained from his eyes down on her pallid face as he strained her to his breast, his precious one, going away from him so fast to death, while outside, heedless of his despair, the golden sun was shining on the green grass, and the fragrant flowers, and the little birds singing in the trees as if there were nothing but joy in the world.
The old family physician came in softly, with an anxious, sympathetic face, and whispered startling words in his ear.
A look of aversion crossed the young husband's face, and he groaned:
"Doctor Jay, I cannot bear the thought!"
"I feared you would feel so, Mr. Clarke, but all my medical colleagues agree with me that nothing but the restoration of her child can save my patient's life. It is the desperate chance we take when we feel that all hope is lost."
"Then I must consent!"
"You are wise," the old doctor answered, tiptoeing from the room, only to reappear a little later, followed by the nurse with a little white bundle in her arms.
The low voice of the delirious woman went babbling on.
"Darling," murmured her husband, pressing his lips to her pale brow.
"Yes, yes, dear, I'm going away from you. Hark!"
The sudden wail of an infant had caught her hearing.
Her dull eyes brightened with returning intelligence, she moved restlessly, and the nurse laid a wailing infant against her breast.
"Dear mistress, can you hear me? Here is your baby back again."
They had taken a desperate chance when all hope seemed lost.
By the advice of the consulting physicians, another child had been substituted for the stolen one, and, at its helpless cry, hope crept back to the mother's breaking heart; the rushing waves ceased to moan in her ears, silenced by that little piping voice, and the sinking life was rallied.
She lived, and the babe grew and throve in its luxurious surroundings, and the mother worshiped it. No one ever dared tell her the truth—that it was not her own infant that had been restored to her arms, but a little foundling. No other child ever came to rival it in Mrs. Clarke's love, and it was this fact alone that sealed her husband's lips to the cruel secret that ached at his heart. He feared the effect of the truth on his delicate wife, taking every precaution to keep her in ignorance, even to moving away from his own home, and settling in a distant place.
Though he never relaxed his efforts to find his lost child, the years slipped away in a hopeless quest, and Roma, the adopted girl, grew eighteen years old, and her beauty and her prospects brought her many suitors.
In his heart Mr. Clarke hoped the girl would make an early marriage, for he was tired of living a lie, pretending to love her as a daughter to deceive his wife, while an aching void in his own heart was always yearning for his own lost darling.
CHAPTER II.
FATE IS ABOVE US ALL
It was six o'clock by all the watches and clocks at Stonecliff, and the girls at Miss Bray's dressmaking establishment hastily put up their work and were starting for home, chattering like a flock of magpies, when their employer called after them testily:
"Say, girls, one of you will have to take this bundle up to Cliffdene. Miss Clarke wanted it very particularly to wear to-night. Liane Lester, she lives nearer to you than any of the others. You take it."
Liane Lester would have liked to protest, but she did not dare. With a decided pout of her rosy lips, she took the box with Miss Clarke's new silk cape and hurried to overtake Dolly Dorr, the only girl who was going her way.
"What a shame to have to carry boxes along the village street late in the afternoon when every one is out walking! I think Miss Bray ought to keep a servant to fetch and carry!" cried Dolly indignantly. "Oh, look, Liane! There's that handsome Jesse Devereaux standing on the post-office steps! Shouldn't you like to flirt with him? Let's saunter slowly past so that he may notice us!"
"I don't want him to notice me! Granny says that harm always comes of rich men noticing poor girls. Come, Dolly, let us avoid him by crossing the street."
Suiting the action to the word, Liane Lester turned quickly from her friend and sped toward the crossing.
But, alas, fate is above us all!
Her haste precipitated what she strove to avoid.
Drawing the veil down quickly over her rosy face, the frolicsome wind caught the bit of blue gossamer and whirled it back toward the sidewalk. Jesse Devereaux gave chase, captured the veil, and flew after the girl.
She had gained the pavement, and was hurrying on, when she heard him at her side, panting, as he said:
"I beg pardon—your veil!"
A white hand was thrust in front of her, holding the bit of blue gauze, and she had to stop.
"I thank you," she murmured, taking it from his hand and raising her eyes shyly to his face—the brilliant, handsome face that had haunted many a young girl's dreams.
The dazzling dark eyes were fixed eagerly on her lovely face, and his red lips parted in a smile that showed pearly-white teeth as he exclaimed gayly:
"Old Boreas was jealous of your hiding such a face, and whisked your veil away, but out of mercy to mankind I concluded to return it."
"Thank you, very much!" she answered again, and was turning away when Dolly Dorr rushed across the street, breathless with eagerness.
"How do you do, Mr. Devereaux?" she cried gayly, having been introduced to him at a church festival the evening before.
"Ah, Miss–" he hesitated, as he lifted his hat, and she twittered:
"Miss Dorr; we met at the festival last night, you know. And this is my chum, Liane Lester."
"Charmed," he exclaimed, while his radiant black eyes beamed on Liane's face, and he stepped along by Dolly's side as she placed herself between them, intent on a flirtation.
"May I share your walk?" he asked, and Dolly gave an eager assent, secretly wishing her girl friend a mile away.
But as she could not manage this, she proceeded to monopolize the conversation—an easy task, for Liane walked along silent and ill at ease, "for all the world," thought the lively Dolly to