Part 61 (2/2)

For the moment she could not speak--she could only bow her a.s.sent to his request.

”I want to ask if--if, since you left my house, you have learned anything regarding my previous history?” he inquired, with pale lips.

”Yes,” she said, sadly, ”I know it all. My mother told me only because I demanded the truth. She would have preferred to keep some things from me, for your sake as well as mine, but I could not be satisfied with any partial disclosure.”

”How you must hate me!” the man burst forth, while great drops of agony gathered about his mouth.

He had never believed that a human being could suffer as he suffered at that moment, in knowing that by his own vileness he had forever barred himself outside the affections of this lovely girl, toward whom he had always--since the first hour of their meeting--been strangely attracted, and whose love and respect, now that he knew she was his own child, seemed the most priceless boons that earth could hold for him.

At first Edith could make no reply to his pa.s.sionate outburst.

”No,” she said, at last, and lifting a regretful look to him, ”I hope that there is not an atom of 'hate' in my heart toward any human being, especially toward any one who might experience an honest, though late, repentance for misdeeds.”

”Ah! thank you; then have you not some word of comfort--some message of peace for me?” tremulously pleaded the once haughty, self-sufficient man, while he half extended his hands toward her, in a gesture of entreaty.

Her lips quivered, and tears sprang involuntarily to her eyes, while it was only after a prolonged effort that she was able to respond.

”Yes,” she said, at last, a solemn sweetness in her unsteady tones, ”the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”

She often wondered afterward how it happened that those words of blessing, once uttered by a patriarch of old, should have slipped almost unconsciously from her lips.

She did not even wait to note their effect upon her companion, but, gliding swiftly past him, went on her way.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

CONCLUSION.

Three months after the incidents related in our previous chapter a large and fas.h.i.+onable audience a.s.sembled, one bright day, in a certain church on Madison avenue to witness a marriage that had been antic.i.p.ated with considerable interest and curiosity among the smart set.

Exactly at the last stroke of noon the bridal party pa.s.sed down the central aisle.

It was composed of four ushers, as many bridesmaids a maid of honor and two stately, graceful figures in snow-white apparel.

One of these latter was a veiled bride, her tall, willowy figure clad in gleaming satin, her golden head crowned with natural orange blossoms, and she carried an exquisite bouquet of the same fragrant flowers in her ungloved hands--for the groom had forbidden the conventional white kids in this ceremony--while on her lovely face there was a light and sweetness which only perfect happiness could have painted there.

Her companion, a woman of regal presence and equally beautiful in her way, was clothed in costly white velvet, richly garnished with pearls and rare old point lace.

The fair bride and her attendant were no other than Isabel Stewart and her daughter.

”Who should give away my darling save her own mother?” she had questioned, with smiling but tremulous lips, when this matter was being discussed, together with other preparations for the wedding.

Edith was delighted with the idea, and thus it was carried out in the way described.

The party was met at the chancel by Roy, accompanied by his best man and the clergyman, where the ceremony was impressively performed, after which the happy couple led the way from the church with those sweetest strains of Mendelssohn beating their melodious rhythm upon their ears and joyful hearts.

It was an occasion for only smiles and gladness; but, away in a dim corner of that vast edifice, there sat a solitary figure, with bowed head and pale face, over which--as there fell upon his ears those solemn words, ”till death us do part”--hot tears streamed like rain.

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