He resolved that as soon as his mother should be better, he would have a plain talk with her, also, and insist upon an announcement of Lady Heath"s existence and her expected arrival. But until the invalid was out of danger he deemed it advisable not to create any excitement on the subject.
Chapter XII.
"I Will Join You Heart and Hand."
Later in the day, while Sir William was engaged with the Stewart looking over accounts and inquiring into the condition of Heathdale generally, Lady Linton went quietly up to her brother"s rooms to attend to the unpacking of his trunks and putting his wardrobe in order.
While thus engaged she came across a worn portfolio filled with papers of various kinds.
She knew at once that it was nothing that belonged to her brother, and surmised that its contents might contain much of interest regarding the despised girl whom he had married in the far West of America.
The key was attached by a ribbon to the portfolio, and was tucked into a fold of the leather, and no sense of either delicacy or honor prevented her making use of her opportunity for gratifying her curiosity regarding the young wife, without the necessity of asking questions.
Accordingly, she boldly and unhesitatingly unlocked the portfolio, and began examining its contents.
These proved to be mostly business papers and legal doc.u.ments, with some letters directed to a name that she had never heard before. She would have liked to read them, but she feared being interrupted while doing so, and she of course had no wish to have her brother know she was prying thus into his affairs so she laid them back in their place, resolving at some future time to examine them more thoroughly. But there was one envelope among them of much fresher appearance than the others, and with no address upon it, although it contained a doc.u.ment of some kind.
Lady Linton slipped it out, and, unfolding it, found it to be the marriage certificate of her brother and his wife.
She was astonished to find that the ceremony had occurred in some place in Nevada, remote from any city or town--a little settlement of which she had never heard--and as she read further, her eyes grew wide with astonishment and her face dark with anger.
"He wrote us that her name was Virginia Abbot," she cried, indignantly, a crimson flush mounting to her brow, "and here it is given as Virginia--"
A step sounded outside the door in the hall just then, and her ladyship paused, affrighted, to listen, that last name unspoken on her lips.
But it proved to be only a servant pa.s.sing on some duty, and she went on with her investigations.
"There is some inexplicable mystery about this thing," she murmured. "The name is the same as that on those letters, and I am sure he has deceived us shamefully. He said that she was the daughter of a once wealthy Californian, but it seems that they were not in California at all. There must have been some reason for their burying themselves in that isolated place, and--I will yet find out what it was!"
She returned the certificate to the envelope, and put back the papers in their proper places.
All at once her face lighted.
"Sara was going directly to San Francisco. I will write her to look this thing up. I will have that girl"s secret before she is a month older, and then we will see whether she comes here to Heathdale to queen it over us."
She resumed her work, but there was a sullen, resolute expression on her face which told of some purpose that she was determining to carry out at all hazards.
When Sir William"s trunks were at length emptied, she rang for a servant to take them to a storeroom, after which she repaired to her own apartment, where she wrote steadily and rapidly for more than an hour.
At the end of that time she folded and sealed her letter, and directed it to "Mrs. Sara Farnum, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Cal.," and the very next post from Heathdale carried on its way the missive that was destined to help accomplish one of the greatest wrongs that had ever been perpetrated.
The reader will doubtless remember that when the dowager Lady Heath and Lady Linton were discussing Sir William"s sudden marriage the name "Sadie"
was mentioned in connection with the baronet.
Sadie was a beautiful English girl of two or three-and-twenty and the youngest child and only daughter of Mrs. Sara Farnum, to whom Lady Linton had just written.
Sadie Farnum had said and thought a great deal upon learning of Sir William"s union with the American maiden, for the news had been a terrible death-blow to her own hopes and ambitions.
She had long entertained the desire and intention of one day becoming the mistress of Heathdale; it had been the dearest wish of her heart, and for years she had used every art in which she was skilled to bring the man she loved to her feet, and thus accomplish her purpose.
Mrs. Farnum and Lady Linton had been intimate friends from girlhood, and it had also been a darling scheme of theirs to marry the daughter of the one to the brother of the other, thus securing a fine position and t.i.tle to Sadie, and adding to the already well-filled coffers of Heathdale the handsome fortune which the young girl would bring to her husband.
But Sir William had never appeared to be particularly fond of the society of ladies, at least he was not what would be termed a ladies" man, although he went frequently into company, and did not fall in with those plans for his future happiness as readily as their projectors desired.
He liked Sadie well enough as a friend, and had been in the way of seeing a great deal of her, as Lady Linton frequently invited her to spend several weeks with her. He even promised to correspond with her when he left England to travel in America, and at the time of his first meeting with Virgie, he had in his pocket a voluminous letter indited by her.
But she had never touched his heart; she was bright, beautiful, and accomplished, yet there was something lacking in her nature which his own demanded and which he recognized at once in the lovely mountain maiden the moment that he met her that wild night when he came a stranger to her home.
But Sadie was so broken-hearted over the blighting of all her fond hopes, and grieved so sorely that her health began to suffer in consequence, and when Sir William"s return began to be talked of, Mrs. Farnum decided to take her daughter traveling and thus avoid any unpleasant meeting and fresh grief when the young Lady Heath should come to take possession of her new home.
Accordingly they sailed for America, and knowing that the baronet was in New York, went directly to the Pacific coast about a fortnight previous to Sir William"s return to Heathdale.
The letter which Lady Linton sent her friend was written, as we know, the morning following her brother"s return, and five weeks later, upon the very day of little Virgie May Heath"s birth, there came to her an exceedingly gratifying reply.
A portion of it read thus:
"Regarding the important questions which you have asked about the ----"s.
I will not write the name for fear this letter might sometime chance to meet other eyes. I find that such a family resided here a number of years ago. They occupied a high position in society appeared to have unlimited means at their command and were much respected, but they were suddenly overtaken by terrible misfortunes which cut them instantly down from their high estate and they were obliged to flee from the city in disgrace. It is quite a complicated story, and I have not been able to learn all the details. I can do so, however, if you wish.
"But what is your object? What do you know about the family? Has it anything to do with that girl whom your brother so rashly married in such a romantic manner? If it has, let me know, and I will gladly search the continent over for material to make her bitterly repent for striking such a blow to my Sadie"s, and indeed to all our hopes. Answer immediately and whatever instructions you may give me, I will follow most faithfully. I am ready to join you heart and hand in any vendetta against the disturber of our peace."
Lady Linton smiled curiously after reading this epistle.
"I imagined as much," she muttered, "and they presumed to aspire to an alliance with a Heath of Heathdale, when their own name was so hopelessly disgraced that they did not dare to own it or be known by it, and were forced to hide their guilty heads in that low mining district. No, sir; my Lord of Heath, your shameless bride shall never enter this sacred ancestral house if there are any means, lawful or otherwise to prevent it."
After the examination of the portfolio which she had found in her brother"s trunk, Lady Linton"s curiosity had been insatiable, and simulating an air of friendliness and resignation which she was far from feeling, she had encouraged him to talk of his wife, hoping thus to learn more of her history, and trap him into acknowledging something of the mystery which surrounded her.
But though Sir William was never loth to talk of his darling, and always spoke of her in the fondest terms, he would never commit himself regarding her past; that was to be a sealed book in England, and not even to his mother and sister would he ever breathe one word of that sad story, that Mr. Abbot had told him when he pleaded for his daughter"s hand, or aught that would cast a shadow upon any member of her family.
"She was the daughter of a once wealthy Californian whom reverses had impoverished," he invariably told them. "She was finely educated and fitted, both by nature and culture, to shine in any circle."
"By whom were you married, William?" his mother asked, having at last deigned to show some interest in the circ.u.mstance.
"By the Rev. Dr. Thornton, an Episcopalian clergyman
"Of San Francisco?"
"No, of Virginia City;" and Sir William smiled that she was not familiar enough with the geographical location of the place to know that it was not in California at all.
"Oh, then you were not married in San Francisco?" interrupted Lady Linton, looking up eagerly, and hoping now to get something definite regarding that outlandish place in Nevada.
"No," he replied, not thinking it necessary to enter into particulars, and leaving them to infer what they chose.
Her ladyship was baffled again, not daring to press him further lest he should suspect that she had been tampering with his papers.