Part 5 (1/2)

”Both were arrested on the charge of creating a disturbance. At the State Street Police Station the woman said that Langdon had performed a mock marriage for a fellow student some four months ago. She had acted as a witness, for which service she was to receive $50. The money had never been paid. She stated further that the young man, whom Langdon is alleged to have married, is the son of a wealthy Boston banker, and the young woman who was thus deceived is a young relative of one of Boston's social leaders.

”Later Bertha Harris withdrew her charges, saying she was intoxicated when she made them. The affair has created a profound sensation.”

”Mock marriage!” The words whirled before the girl's eyes in letters of fire. Bertha Harris! Yes, that was the name. It had struck her at the time when Sanderson dropped the ring. Langdon had said ”Bertha Harris has found it.”

The light of her reason seemed to be going out. From the blackness that engulfed her, the words ”mock marriage” rang in her ear like the cry of the drowning.

”G.o.d, oh G.o.d!” she called and the pent up agony of her wrecked life was in the cry.

They found her senseless a moment later, staring up at the ceiling with gla.s.sy eyes, the crumpled paper crushed in her hand.

”She is dead,” wailed her mother. The old servant wasted no time in words. She lifted up the fragile form and laid it tenderly on the bed.

Then she raised the window and called to the first pa.s.serby to run for the nearest doctor.

CHAPTER VII.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

A mother's love--how sweet the name!

What is a mother's love?

--A n.o.ble, pure and tender flame, Enkindled from above, To bless a heart of earthly mould; The warmest love that can grow cold; That is a mother's love.--_James Montgomery_.

It took all the medical skill of which the doctor was capable, and the best part of twenty-four hours of hard work to rouse Anna from the death-like lethargy into which she had fallen. Toward morning she opened her eyes and turning to her mother, said appealingly:

”Mother, you believe I am innocent, don't you?”

”Certainly, darling,” Mrs. Moore replied, without knowing in the least to what her daughter referred. The doctor, who was present at the time, turned away. He knew more than the mother. It was one of those tragedies of everyday life that meant for the woman the fleeing away from old a.s.sociations, like a guilty thing, long months of hiding, the facing of death; and, if death was not to be, the beginning of life over again branded with shame. And all this bitter injustice because she had loved much and had faith in the man she loved. The doctor had faced tragedies before in his professional life, but never had he felt his duty so heavily laid upon him as when he begged Mrs. Moore for a few minutes' private conversation in the gray dawn of that early morning.

He felt that the life of his patient depended on his preparing her mother for the worst. The girl, he knew, would probably confess all during her convalescence, and the mother must be prepared, so that the first burst of anguish would have expended itself before the girl should have a chance to pour out the story of her misfortune.

”Tell me, doctor, is she going to die?” the mother asked, as she closed the door of the little sitting-room and they were alone. The poor lady had not thought of her own misfortunes since Anna's illness. The selfishness of the woman of the world was completely obliterated by the anxiety of the mother.

”No, she will not die, Mrs. Moore; that is, if you are able to control your feelings sufficiently, after I have made a most distressing disclosure, to give her the love and sympathy that only you can.”

She looked at him with troubled eyes. ”Why, doctor, what do you mean?

My daughter has always had my love and sympathy, and if of late I have appeared somewhat engrossed by my own troubles, I a.s.sure you my daughter is not likely to suffer from it during her illness.”

”Her life depends on how you receive what I am going to tell you.

Should you upbraid her with her misfortune, or fail to stand by her as only a mother can, I shall not answer for the consequences.” Then he told her Anna's secret.

The stricken woman did not cry out in her anguish, nor swoon away. She raised a feebly protesting hand, as if to ward off a cruel blow; then burying her face in her arms, she cowed before him. Not a sob shook the frail, wasted figure. It was as if this most terrible misfortune had dried up the well-springs of grief and robbed her of the blessed gift of tears. The woman who in one brief year had lost everything that life held dear to her--husband, home, wealth, position--everything but this one child, could not believe the terrible sentence that had been p.r.o.nounced against her. Her Anna--her little girl! Why, she was only a child! Oh, no, it could not be true. She never, never would believe it.

Her brain whirled and seemed to stop. It refused to grasp so hideous a proposition. The doctor was momentarily at a loss to know how to deal with this terrible dry-eyed grief. The set look in her eyes, the terrible calm of her demeanor were so much more alarming than the wildest outpourings of grief would, have been.