Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday Read online

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  Cover of Dainty's Cruel Rivals by Mrs. Alex. McVeighMiller]

  DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALSORTHE FATAL BIRTHDAY

  BYMRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER

  HART SERIES NO. 88

  COPYRIGHT 1898 BY GEORGE MUNRO'S SONS

  Published byTHE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY,Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A.

  INDEX

  CHAPTER PAGE I "A Sweet Girl Graduate" 3 II "The Prettiest Girl in the Room" 13 III The Happiest Day She Had Ever Known 19 IV The Old Monk 22 V "Only a Dream" 26 VI Love's Rosy Dawn 33 VII "The Trail of the Serpent" 38 VIII The Ellsworth Honor 42 IX "All That's Bright Must Fade" 48 X "The Grim Fates" 56 XI Love's Presentiments 64 XII A Maddened Lover 69 XIII Sad Forebodings 75 XIV Dainty Would Never Forget That Day 81 XV Black Mammy's Story 87 XVI The Ghost Alarm 91 XVII The Night Before the Wedding 97 XVIII The Wedding Morn 101 XIX A Madman's Deed 105 XX The End of the Day 110 XXI Would Heaven Turn Away From Her Wild Appeal 116 XXII Unmasked 120 XXIII Ah! The Pity of It! 126 XXIV The Darkest Hour 130 XXV Among Strangers 137 XXVI The Mother's Woe 142 XXVII It Seemed Like Some Beautiful Dream 146 XXVIII More Bitter Than Death 150 XXIX As We Kiss the Dead 156 XXX A Terrible Deed 163 XXXI Lost! Lost! Lost! 168 XXXII It Was the Overflowing Drop 172 XXXIII A New Home 178 XXXIV Thrown on the World 181 XXXV Grand Company 186 XXXVI "Only to See You, My Darling" 190 XXXVII A Wonderful Discovery 193 XXXVIII Good News 201 XXXIX "For All Eternity" 205 XL Conclusion 210

  DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS

  CHAPTER I.

  "A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE."

  "Her eyes Would match the southern skies When southern skies are bluest; Her heart Will always, take its part Where southern hearts are truest.

  "Such youth, With all its charms, forsooth. Alas! too well I know it!-- Will claim A song of love and fame Sung by some southern poet."

  "It's a perfect godsend, this invitation!" cried Olive Peyton, withunwonted rapture in her cold voice.

  "Yes, indeed!" assented her chum and cousin, Ela Craye, joyfully. "Ihave wondered over and over how we were going to buy our summer clothesand spare enough money for a trip, and here comes Aunt Judith'sinvitation to her country home just in the nick of time."

  "And how lucky, to think of her step-son, Lovelace Ellsworth, gettinghome at last from Europe! Either you or I must capture him, Ela!" addedOlive, eagerly, her black eyes sparkling with the hope of getting a richhusband.

  But Ela Craye snapped shortly:

  "We might--if only she had not invited Dainty Chase."

  Olive frowned, but answered, courageously:

  "Pshaw! aunt might just as well have saved her manners. Dainty can notpossibly go. She hasn't a decent thing to wear at such a grand place asEllsworth."

  "She would look pretty in a rag, and we both know it. Dainty by name,and dainty by nature," Ela returned, gloomily, yielding reluctant homageto a fair young cousin of whose charms both were profoundly jealous.

  Olive and Ela, who were school-teachers in the southern city, Richmond,Virginia, boarded with a widowed aunt who took this means of supportingherself and her only child Dainty, who had but just graduated at apublic school, and hoped to become a teacher herself next year. Theywere poor, but Dainty, with her fair face and gay good-nature, was likean embodied ray of sunshine.

  It had been very kind in the rich Mrs. Ellsworth to invite her threenieces to her grand West Virginia home, and to offer to pay the expensesof their journey. But for her generosity Dainty could not have gone; butnow, at her mother's wish, she wrote, gratefully accepting theinvitation.

  "How thankful I am!" cried the mother, joyfully. "It's just what Daintyneeds, this trip to the mountains! She looks so pale and wan since shegraduated."

  "So you really mean to let her go?" Ela exclaimed, with pretendedsurprise, while Olive added, spitefully:

  "We thought Aunt Judith might be ashamed of her shabby clothes. Shehasn't anything to wear, has she, but her last summer's gowns and thecheap white muslin she had for her graduation?"

  "Mrs. Ellsworth knows we are poor, and that Dainty must dress plainly. Idare say she is too kind-hearted to be ashamed of her deadhalf-brother's only child," Mrs. Chase returned, spiritedly; while thethought would intrude, that if only Olive and Ela would pay theirneglected board bills she might afford Dainty a new summer gown anddress.

  She summoned up courage to hint this fact to them next day, but they metthe timid appeal with angry reproaches.

  "Don't think we are going to cheat you of our board bill because we cannot spare the money till school begins next fall!" cried Olive, sharply;while Ela chimed in scornfully:

  "To think of our own aunt dunning two orphan girls for board!"

  The poor lady's face fell, thinking of the rent and the grocer's bill,both due, and not enough money in her purse to meet them; but she sighedpatiently, and answered:

  "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, dears, but you know how poor I am,and that I must take boarders for a living! I'm sure I would be glad toboard you for nothing if I could afford it, though, after all, I'm notreally any kin to you, you know, only your dead half-uncle's widow."

  It was true, what the sweet, patient woman said; she was not related tothem at all, but she had boarded them at the cheapest rates, and beenmost kind and motherly. They had intended to pay what they owed thatvery day, but jealousy of her daughter, their lovely cousin, crept inbetween and made them withhold the pittance, in the malicious hope ofpreventing Dainty's trip to Ellsworth.

  Both girls were handsome and stylish in their way--Olive, a tall, dark,haughty brunette of twenty-four, while Ela Craye was twenty-two, prettyand delicate-looking, with a waxen skin, thick brown hair, and limpid,long-lashed gray eyes. Each girl cherished a hope of winning the richand handsome heir of Ellsworth, and they feared the rivalry of a girl asfresh and lovely as the morning, and with the rounded slenderness ofeighteen, piquant features, rose-leaf complexion, delicious dimples, awealth of curling golden hair, and large, deep, violet-blue eyes full ofsoul and tenderness.

  How could Love Ellsworth, as his step-mother called him, keep fromlosing his heart to such winsome beauty joined to the exquisite timidityof a very innocent and shy girl? Olive and Ela knew but too well thatfinery would not cut much figure in the case. Dainty had a real Frenchart in dress, and could look as lovely in a print gown as they appearedin their finest silk
s. Give her a cheap white gown, and a few yards oflace and ribbon, and she could look like a Peri just strayed away fromparadise.

  Her cousins fairly cudgeled their brains for some scheme to keep Daintyfrom going with them, and a happy thought struck them at last.

  They knew that Dainty had never traveled alone in her life, and that shewas an arrant little coward among strangers. If they could only give herthe slip, she would sooner give up the trip than to follow alone.

  They were to go on Wednesday morning, and Mrs. Chase and her daughterwere up betimes, packing the girl's trunk with her freshly launderedclothing, after which the mother said:

  "All is ready, dear, and you'd better go and tell Olive and Ela thatbreakfast will be ready in five minutes, for there's no time to lose."

  But when Dainty knocked at the door of the room the girls sharedtogether, it flew wide open, and she saw that it was vacant, while anote pinned on the pillow conveyed this explanation:

  "DEAR AUNT,--Just for a lark, we concluded, ten minutes ago, to start to Ellsworth to-night instead of in the morning. It will be so much cooler traveling at night, you know. As our trunks were sent down to the station this afternoon, we will have no trouble going, and will not wake you to say good-bye for fear of giving you a midnight scare. It would be no use anyway, for we knew Dainty could not go with us, as her fresh ironed clothes would not be dry enough to pack till morning. So, good-bye, and tell her she can follow us to-morrow, if she is not afraid to travel alone. Hastily,

  "OLIVE AND ELA."

  Dainty flew downstairs, the pearly tears streaming down her rose-leafcheeks.

  "They have done it on purpose, mamma! I knew all along they did not wantme to go!" she sobbed, sinking into a chair by the window, quiteunconscious that a tall young man stood outside, having just pulled theold-fashioned knocker at the cottage door.

  In their excitement they did not hear him, and Dainty continued, in ahigh-pitched, indignant young voice:

  "I didn't intend to tell you, mamma, but I overheard Olive and Elasaying to each other that they were sorry I was invited to Ellsworth,and planning not to pay their board so as to keep you from buying meanything new to wear."

  Mrs. Chase's gentle, care-worn face expressed the keenest surprise andpain as she exclaimed:

  "Oh, how cruel they were! And what good reason could they have forwishing to deprive you of the pleasure of such a trip?"

  "Jealousy, mamma!" Dainty answered, with flashing eyes and burningcheeks. "They did not tell you all that was in their letter from AuntJudith, but I overheard Olive saying that aunt's step-son, LovelaceEllsworth, had returned at last from Europe, and that they must settheir caps for him. They were afraid I might rival them. Ela said Iwould look pretty even in a rag, and she wished they could leave me athome. So you see"--bitterly--"they have succeeded in doing it."

  "Certainly not, my darling, for you shall follow them this morning, andlet them know you were not afraid to travel alone, as they no doubthoped you would be!" exclaimed Mrs. Chase, indignantly.

  "Oh, mamma, I dare not venture alone! I shall stay at home with you, andlet them have Mr. Ellsworth!" protested Dainty; but just then the loudclangor of the door-knocker made both start in alarm.

  Mrs. Chase stepped quickly out into the narrow little hall, and openedthe door to a tall, handsome stranger, in whose dancing dark eyes shefailed to read the fact that he had listened with interest to every wordexchanged between her and her daughter.

  With a well-bred bow he presented her with a card, on which she read,with astonishment:

  "LOVELACE ELLSWORTH. "Introduced to Mrs. Chase by Judith Ellsworth."

  "I am Mrs. Chase, and I am glad to see you," she said, wonderingly, asshe gave him a cordial handshake, and ushered him into the littleparlor, where he saw a girl, fairer than any flower, wiping the tearsaway from lovely eyes that looked like violets drowned in dew.

  "My daughter Dainty, Mr. Ellsworth," said the widow; and as he took thesoft little hand, he did not wonder that her cousins had feared to riskher rivalry for his heart.

  With his charmed eyes lingering on her perfect face, he explained:

  "I have been in New York for a few days, and mother wrote me to stop inRichmond and join a party of her nieces who would start to-day on avisit to Ellsworth."

  Dainty's bright eyes laughed through their tears as she replied:

  "Oh, how sorry they will be to have missed you! But they went lastnight!"

  "But were not you, Miss Chase, to accompany them?" he demanded; and shehanded him the girls' note, saying, demurely:

  "That explains everything."

  Lovelace Ellsworth read it with a somewhat malicious smile, exclaiming:

  "How fortunate that I came in time to protect you on your journey!"

  Mrs. Chase hastened to say:

  "We shall indeed be grateful for your escort, as Dainty was about togive up her trip through her timidity at venturing alone. Now, as soonas we have breakfast, she will be ready."

  Oh, how angry Olive and Ela would have been to see that pleasant littleparty at breakfast, and afterward setting forth for the station inEllsworth's carriage, Mrs. Chase accompanying to see her daughter off,and both of them perfectly delighted with their genial new acquaintance,of whom the mother could not help thinking:

  "How admiringly he looks at my bonny girl, as if indeed Olive and Elawere right in fearing her rivalry for his heart! And how good and truehe looks, as if he might make any girl a kind, loving husband! What agrand thing it would be for Dainty--"

  She broke off the thought abruptly, for the parting was at hand, and herdaughter clung tearfully about her neck.

  In a minute it was all over, and Dainty was seated in the parlor-carwith Ellsworth by her side, saying in his musical voice:

  "No more tears now, Miss Dainty; for you must try to amuse me, to makeup for your cousins, who have left us in the lurch. But how glad I amthey went on ahead of us--are not you? For we shall have such a lovely_tete-a-tete_ journey!"

  Dainty emerged from her wet handkerchief, like the sun from behind acloud, blushing and dimpling with girlish mischief, as she exclaimed:

  "But they will be so sorry! They will never get over it!"

  She was only a girl, not an angel, so she could not help being pleasedwith the thought of the discomfiture of her scheming cousins who had socleverly overreached themselves.

  The train sped on through the beautiful sunshine of early June, leavingthe heated city far behind, and Dainty's heart felt as buoyant as themorning, her journey was so pleasant and her companion so attractive,placing her so completely at her ease, except when he would fix hisbrilliant dark eyes so ardently on her face that she would blush inspite of herself and look down in sweet confusion while her innocentheart throbbed wildly with a new, sweet sensation almost akin to pain.

  After one of these confusing episodes, Dainty tried to shake off herembarrassment by saying:

  "Tell me all about Ellsworth! Is it indeed so grand that my aunt will beashamed of me, as my cousins declared?"

  "No one could be ashamed of _you_!" declared Ellsworth, with anotherglance that set her pulses beating wildly, though she answered,demurely:

  "Thank you; but, of course, you are not a judge of clothes. Olive andEla said I had nothing fit to wear at Ellsworth."

  "I have never seen a prettier or more becoming gown than the one youhave on now," he replied, with an approving glance at her crisp, freshlylaundered blue linen, while he added: "We have some very nice young menin the neighborhood of Ellsworth, and I am sure they will all fall inlove with you at sight."

  "Flatterer!" she cried with shy archness; but his words and looksthrilled her heart, and made her think, with sudden passion:

  "If only he would fall in love with me, I could excuse all the rest!"

  What a change had come to the tired and weary schoolgirl of onlyyesterday! She was parted from her mother for the first time in heryoung life, among new sce
nes and strangers, and Cupid was knocking atthe door of her heart. Hitherto she had known only tranquil happinessand little sorrow. How would it be now?

  "Love and pain Are kinsfolk twain."

  Love changes all the world to the heart that admits him as a guest; butDainty was not wise enough to bar the charming little stranger out.