"I could tell them something if I would," she thought, as she bent
over the hemlock boughs and listened to the remarks; but, for that
time, she kept the secret and worked on moodily, while the
unsuspecting Lucy went her way and was soon alighting at the rectory
gate.
Arthur saw her as she came up the walk and went to meet her.
He was looking very pale and miserable, and his clothes hung loosely
upon him; but he welcomed her kindly leading her in to the fire, and
trying to believe that he was glad to see her sitting there with her
little high-heeled boots upon the fender and the bright hues of her
Balmoral just showing beneath her dress of blue merino.
She went all over the house, as she usually did, suggesting
alterations and improvements, and greatly confusing good Mrs. Brown,
who trudged obediently after her, wondering what she and her master
were ever to do with that gay-plumaged bird, whose ways were so unlike
their own.
"You must drive with me to the church," she said at last to Arthur,
"Fresh air will do you good, and you stay moped up too much. I wanted
you to-day at Prospect Hill, for this morning's express from New York
brought----"
She stood up on tiptoe to whisper the great news to him, but his
pulses did not quicken in the least, even when she told him how
charming was the bridal dress. He was standing before the mirror and,
glancing at himself, he said, half laughingly, half sadly: "I am a pitiful-looking bridegroom to go with all that finery: I
should not think you would want me, Lucy."
"But I do," she answered, holding his hand and leading him to the
carriage, which took him to the church.
He had not intended going there as long as there was an excuse for
staying away, and he felt himself grow sick and faint when he stood
amid the Christmas decorations and remembered the last year when he
and Anna had fastened the wreaths upon the wall.
They were trimming the church very elaborately in honor of him and his
bride, and white artificial flowers, so natural that they could not be
detected, were mingled with scarlet leaves and placed among the mass
of green. The effect was very fine and Arthur tried to praise it, but
his face belied his words; and, after he was gone, the disappointed
girls declared that he acted more like a man about to be hung than one
so soon to be married.
It was very late that night when Lucy summoned Valencia to comb out
her long, thick curls, and Valencia was tired, and cross, and sleepy,
handling the brush so awkwardly and snarling her mistress's hair so
often that Lucy expostulated with her sharply, and this awoke the
slumbering demon, which, bursting into full life, could no longer be
restrained; and, in amazement, which kept her silent, Lucy listened
while Valencia taunted her "with standing in Anna Ruthven's shoes,"
and told her all she knew of the letter stolen by Mrs. Meredith, and
the one she carried to Arthur. But Valencia's anger quickly cooled,
and she trembled with fear when she saw how deathly white her mistress
grew at first and heard the loud beating of her heart, which seemed
trying to burst from its prison and fall bleeding at the feet of the
poor, wretched girl, around whose lips the white foam gathered as she
motioned Valencia to stop and whispered: "I am dying!"