It was rather late when Hervey Leslie threw the remains of a cigar from the car window, and staggered through the jumping, jerking Pullman to his berth.
The curtains were all drawn, giving to the car a funereal aspect, and lights were turned down for the night.
Jerk, jerk, jolt and jump went the train around the mountain curves, till the various hats and wraps suspended from the hooks seemed about to tumble together. Suddenly something dropped through the curtains of the upper berth opposite and lodged there. Involuntarily extending his arm to catch it if it fell, our young traveler"s eyes were riveted upon an object which he now felt inclined to catch, whether it fell or not.
It was a small white shapely hand--a woman"s hand; and the midnight tresspa.s.ser would have been less than human if he had not risen to a better view. There it was, just peeping between the heavy curtains, white and blue-veined, with tapering fingers and sh.e.l.l-like nails. How he longed to touch it! How tempting the rounded curve of the small wrist.
A prolonged lunge threw him violently forward, when grasping the rod to save himself, his lips went plump against the coveted object. It was only momentary, but it thrilled him as with an electric shock. When he recovered his equilibrium the fair sleeper had withdrawn entirely out of sight, and her involuntary a.s.sailant addressed himself to the duty of disrobing. Long he pondered upon the "touch of a vanished hand," and at last fell into uneasy dreams wherein the world had come to an end, and he found himself at the gates of heaven, with five soft white fingers turning the key on the other side.
"Last call for breakfast," shouted the porter next morning, and the confusion of voices mingled with the noisy folding of vacated berths.
Parting his curtains, Hervey Leslie peered out, possibly to catch a morning view of the pretty hand.
"By Jove! better still!" was his smothered comment, as he hastily turned away.
What he had seen was the perfection of a French boot, b.u.t.toned high, and protruding modestly below the curtains. Then a soft voice called--"Porter, I should like to get down."
The steps were adjusted, and as she gently fluttered down, the listener thought--
"What a shame I didn"t have a chance to exchange berths with her! To think of her being perched up there!"
An hour later Leslie returned from his cigar to find the Pullman in order, and the refreshed occupants enjoying the books and papers scattered about. It was not possible to mistake the owner of the hand and foot, whom a glance revealed in her corner, looking quietly upon the hurrying villages and farms. A coquettish hat rested lightly upon a fluffy ma.s.s of golden brown hair, a dainty tailored suit fitted closely the rounded figure, and the face that looked out of the window was sweet and bright even in repose. The coveted hand, in spotless kid, shielded the earnest eyes from the glare of the morning sun, and all in all, the picture was one to tempt any looker-on.
Just as Hervey Leslie was puzzling his brain for a pretext, however flimsy, to introduce himself, a lady came from the dressing-room and sat down beside the beautiful unknown--a lady still young and handsome, and so closely resembling the girl as to leave no doubt that they were mother and daughter.
"What has Charlie done with himself?" was the pleasant question, met with a smile so bewitching that the watcher was hopelessly ensnared.
"So, there"s a party of them," he mused. "And who the deuce is Charlie?"
But when that youth appeared he proved to be only a brother, and not a very big brother, at that.
Settling himself back in a corner from whence he could use his eyes and ears as he dared, young Leslie drew forth a letter which he perused with interest; in fact, he already knew it by heart. It ran thus:
"MY DEAR SON,
"Congratulate me. The all-important day is fixed for the 24th inst.
Come at once. Mrs. Dana is anxious to cultivate you, and my own impatience is an old story.
"Your affectionate father,
"H.J. LESLIE."
"Confound Mrs, Dana!" was the son"s comment, for upon the subject of his father"s second marriage he was distinctly undutiful.
For a while he lost himself in pictures of the new home, and mentally resolved to absent himself as much as possible. He knew how his opposition was grieving his father, who thought him most unreasonable: but he persisted in refusing to see the lady until after the ceremony.
Suddenly with a terrific lurch the train was derailed and plunged down an embankment, not steep but rocky. The heavy Pullman toppled over, then planted itself firmly in a bed of fresh earth, and was still. There were wild cries of fear and pain, a loud crashing of gla.s.s lamps, and some wrenching of seats. Leslie fell into a pile of great-coats, and flung out his right arm just as the two ladies were dashed against him, and a sudden sharp twinge made him oblivious of everything.
When he recovered consciousness he found himself being pulled out of his corner, and realized by the agony of the motion, that something was broken somewhere. With one mighty protest against such vigorous handling, he relapsed into a dead faint. When he next opened his eyes he was lying between cool sheets in a pleasant room, and bending over him was the elder lady of the Pullman. The first bewildered look was rapidly merged into a frown of pain, as a sense of discomfort made itself felt.
"He is coming round, doctor;" said the lady.
Then to him she said;--"you must be very quiet. Your shoulder has been set. It is all right now. Heaven be praised that we did not kill you as we fell!" she added aside, and her sweet motherly face showed the sympathy he was in need of.
Then a voice at the door said timidly, yet eagerly,--"Mamma, come--Charlie wants you."
The ladies vanished, leaving the doctor in charge.
Hervey soon gathered that they were at a farm-house near Columbus, Ohio; that Charlie had a broken leg, that his mother and sister, along with the others who had escaped injury, were stopping over to render service to the wounded.
"Who are they?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of his pain.
"I think the name is Raynor," said the doctor; "Mrs. Raynor, Miss Eloise, and the youth, whose leg we set this morning. But say, young man, where are your people? Don"t you want some telegrams sent? You are not likely to get away from here very soon."
Young Leslie groaned as he gave his father"s address at Cincinnati, then exclamed;--"See here, doctor, can"t you stop this confounded pain? What the deuce is the matter, anyway? Do get me out of this."
The doctor gave him a soothing potion and bade him be quiet. He promised to send a nurse, then went to look after the more slightly injured patients.
Three weeks later found Hervey Leslie in dressing-gown and slippers, setting beside Miss Eloise Raynor under a large shade tree, the young lady reading aloud from Tennyson"s tender rhymes. At an open window in full view lay Charlie, still a prisoner, with his mother in close attendance.
Mr. Leslie had paid several visits, and a.s.sured his son that the only way in which he could repay him for postponing the wedding till he should be well enough to witness it, was by becoming reconciled to his new mother. At which the son smiled, for something had of late come over the spirit of his dream that predisposed him singularly in favor of weddings. A sort of low fever hung about him, which made it prudent for him to remain in the country; and he rather fixed the time of his departure when Charlie"s leg should justify the whole party"s leaving.
The young girl and her mother blamed themselves for his hurt and had paid him every kindly attention. He had gathered the story of the petted daughter, and in his enfeebled state their acquaintance made rapid progress. Even now it required no acute observer to surmise the ravages of the little G.o.d. No one interfered, and for once the course of true love seemed to glide smoothly on.
He had confessed his aversion to to the prospective mother, and endeavored to elicit sympathy by picturing to young Eloise what it would be to have another fill her dear father"s place. At such times her face was impenetrable, and he intuitively grew to avoid the topic.
Ere Charlie was able to get about, young Leslie had fallen in love with the whole family; and when he had sought and obtained the dimpled hand he had so coveted in the Pullman car, laughingly told the mother he was not so sure but that after all she was the one he loved best. A smile pa.s.sed over the regular features as she said meaningly:
"Only love me as a son, my boy, and I think we can be happy in each other. But remember, a mother-in-law is a dangerous animal!"
Mr. Leslie was so happy in his son"s good fortune,--for so he evidently considered it--that he declared there must be a double wedding.
"You shall have your way," he added, with some pique; "and not see Mrs.
Dana till we meet at the church. Afterward, I"ll risk the meeting!"
Some two months after the accident the programme was carried out. But the Raynors had remained at the farm-house till the appointed day, the young people growing all the while so distractingly fond of each other, that the really short time seemed to drag with leaden wings.
Quietly one morning, in the presence of intimate friends, and quite in the old-fashioned way, the two pairs of lovers walked up the church aisle to the minister in waiting. The ladies wore rich traveling-suits, and carriages waited to convey the immediate members of the family to the wedding breakfast. The younger bridegroom saw nothing but the sweet face at his side, though he started perceptibly when the service revealed that his father"s bride and his own bore the same musical name of Eloise.
When the first carriage closed with a snap, there was a relaxing of ceremony, and an interchange of congratulations, earnest, though somewhat amusing. For when Hervey raised his eyes to the despised mother"s face, he saw there the soft features of Mrs. Raynor, while his father smiled in contented expectancy. His own face was a study!
"Raynor?" he stammered. "Why I thought--I understood--"
"You said Raynor," was the teasing reply; "we never did."
"And whom have I married?" was his next question, with a grotesque grimace at the demure young person beside him.
"Eloise Dana, an" it please your lordship. Do you mean to get a divorce?"