King Copethua's Wife, Chapters XIII-XIV [pp. 292-299]

King Uophetuta's Wife.
gether, while there were many whispered
confidences and merry peals of laughter at
the little table where they sat alone.
At length Miss Strafford brought me back
from my thoughts. "Are you unwell, Mr.
Eldridge? You look pale and tired; besides,
you are very silent, are you not? Let us
call Louisa and Mr. Jaquith and go home."
"No, I am not tired, and it is delightful
here; let us stay."
"You don't seem to find it very'delight ful,' judging from your face," Strafford broke
in roughly, and I could have kicked the
fellow as he spoke. "I'm going home anyway, and my sisters had better go with me."
So he went over and said a few words to
his younger sister, who rose from the bench
upon which she was sitting and came to us.
"Henry wants us to go to the hotel. He
has letters to write, and we must write ours
so that they may all be posted at the same
time; for our home people think that letters
from abroad ought to arrive in a budget."
She looked at me as she spoke, and the
blood reddened her cheeks for a moment
and sent a pink tinge even over her pretty ears.
"I will stay here with Eldridge if you
will excuse us"; and Adam stood behind me.
We watched the three go along the garden
walk, and then my friend seated himself opposite me, and putting both elbows on the
table, leaned forward and said, "WVhat is the
trouble to-day? you look as if you had seen
a ghost."
"Nothing is the trouble-that is-"
"Yes, the truth, if you please."
'"Well, nothing of a ghostly nature.
Unfortunately it is a reality, and I do not
know how to escape it."
"Foolish boy! Escape it? It is the best
thing that ever came to you, and now you want
to run away and hide from the only thing that
can bring happiness to you. I have watched
you carefully, and you have come out of a
miserable dream into a blessed reality; yet
you want to escape it. Bah! I should have
no patience with you if I were not your
sworn friend. You did not know what was
coming over you, enveloping you and lifting
you so far above your former self. I.did.
What else did I bring you into contact with
Louisa Strafford for? Face your reality and
make a man of yourself."
"But you-are not you and she-"
"I? Why, man, did you not read my
secret in your study long ago? I am bound
heart and soul, and am happy as I hope to
see you happy."
We went away from the Volksgar/en arm
in arm, and that night as I walked with
Louisa Strafford under the bright starlight,
and with the far-away music of the orchestra
sounding in our ears, I told her the story of
my past; and more: the story of my presentthe story so often told, and yet forever fresh
and new. And before her lips answered me,
I read in her eyes, even in that dim evening
light, the truth, and knew that I had found
my heart's-ease, and that it was mine forever.
CHAPTER XIV.
"Thy cheek hath lost its roundness and its bloom;
Who will forgive those signs where tears have fed
On thy once lustrous eyes, save he for whom
Those tears were shed?
"Hath not thy forehead paled beneath my kiss?
And through thy life have I not writ my name?
Hath not my soul signed thine? I gave thee bliss,
If I gave shame.
"Then, if love's first ideal now grows wan,
And thou wilt lov-e again, again love me,
For what I am-no hero, but a man
Still loving thee."
Into the small room in New York that
Madge used for her study I was shown one
winter day. No one was in the room, but
it had evidently been occupied until within
a few minutes, for a book spread open was
lying face downwardson the table. A handkerchief lay in the middle of the floor,
and the room was sweet with the mingled
smell of flowers and fruit from where the
sunshine struck upon a china dish of
oranges, and the bowl of jonquils and liliesof-the-valley that stood beside it. A woman's room this, with its upholstery of
gray and pink. Everything cushioned, luxurious and graceful in design. Such a room
as a man likes to enter, taking in with a
sort of strange bewilderment all the details
296
[Sept.