Part 38 (2/2)

”It is true, Mother. Why do you look so sternly? Has your daughter committed the unpardonable sin because she felt disposed to forsake all others, if need be, and cleave to her husband?”

”Well, do you understand it? See where I now am! Look at the shame, the disgrace, the poverty, you have brought upon me! I am a wanderer without home or country, a pauper in a strange land, and you have done it. Once I would have died for you; but what have you sacrificed for me?” She turned slowly and reseated herself by the table.

”This is my mother! Cold, stern and unloving!” And sinking down upon the sofa her pent-up feelings found vent in tears.

”It is my opinion, Charlotte,” said Mrs. Cheevers, calmly, ”that the day will come when you will repent the injustice of this hour. If all you have said is true in regard to yourself, how can you afford to throw away so wantonly a daughter's proffered affection? If she can overlook the wrongs of her mother, that mother ought to clasp her tightly in the arms of love.”

”What do you mean, Mrs. Cheevers? What have I done to her that should call forth such a remark from a third party?”

”O, you need not take the trouble to tell me to mind my own business; for whatever affects my brother's wife or his child is my affair; and I repeat, it is your duty to lay aside that stately indignation, and if Lillian will extend the hand of filial love, it is yours to clasp it.”

Mr. Cheevers coming home from the store, turned the current of conversation into another channel.

”Well, well!” he exclaimed, as he recognized the bowed figure on the sofa. ”Mrs. Hamilton, as I live! Just put down that little white hand and kiss your old uncle. Just as glad to see you as though you were my own daughter. How is Pearl? Now, look here, Lillian,” he continued, as he perceived the quivering lips attempting to answer; ”none of that toward me! Anybody who draws the moisture out of those beautiful eyes while I am around must answer for the offence. There isn't another in this great city to-night who has more reason to laugh and be glad than have you, so be about it! Let that statue of dignity mump it out if she is determined to do so, but the wife of Colonel Hamilton has no good reason for tears.”

”Hiram!” interposed the wife, and she shook her head menacingly at him.

”It is all very well; but what brought you to us so unexpectedly?”

”A little business, Uncle,” Lillian replied, finding voice to speak. ”I am going farther north, perhaps to Boston, and shall return here when my object is accomplished.”

Mrs. Belmont turned hastily in her chair, and glared at the speaker with dilated eye b.a.l.l.s.

”To Boston!” cried Mr. Cheevers. ”Well, now if I were a woman I would ask 'What under the sun are you going there for?'”

”But as you are a gentleman you will wait patiently until I can tell you all.”

”Just so. Did you come on the eight train?”

”Yes.”

”Have you thought, wife, of food and rest?”

”Stupid as ever! I will go immediately.”

Mrs. Belmont soon followed the lady out of the room. An hour afterward, while sitting at the table, where a bountiful lunch had been prepared, Mrs. Cheevers told Lillian that her mother had retired to her room feeling very unwell.

”Probably!” retorted her husband, with a merry twinkle in his eye.

”That is not fair Hiram; she has been sick ever since she returned; and I think she was fearful of an approaching illness or she would not have come here. I went with her to-day to see Dr. Kehn about her head, and it was his opinion that there was some trouble with the brain that might prove serious, and you know that you have spoken of the wild look in her eyes.”

”And have not wondered at it, wife; but you are looking well, Lillian, field life agrees with you.”

”Tired though, and have come to Uncle Hiram's for a little rest.”

”That's right, my child. I only wish you could have brought Pearl along.”

There was a long talk in an upper room that night not far from the guest-chamber to which Mrs. Belmont had retired; for Lillian had desired to tell her aunt all about it, and the good lady listened and wondered.

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