"Indeed it is. Why did I ever leave her? It was wrong! I fear I was negligent of my duty toward her in so doing. I do not know what to do now.
If she has gone to England, we have pa.s.sed each other, and I would desire to retrace my steps thither at once. If she is still here on this continent, I should be in despair to go home, and only find it out on the other side of the ocean."
Doctor Thornton pitied the young husband sincerely.
"You are in a very trying position, I must acknowledge, and I do not like to advise you either to go or stay. You might wait here a while, and notify your friends to cable you in case Lady Heath should go direct to England; then it would be comparatively easy to join her there."
Sir William determined to act upon these suggestions. He would cable Heathdale to be notified if Virgie should make her appearance there; meantime he would do his utmost to find her here.
He thanked the clergyman for his kindness, and bade him farewell, feeling much relieved regarding his wife, yet still very sad at heart at the mystery surrounding her.
He determined to search for Chi Lu, believing that he alone, who had always been so devoted to her, could tell him something definite as to her movements. He had an idea that he might be even now in her service.
Chapter XXI.
Nothing but Death Shall Break the Tie.
Sir William went directly back to New York, fired with something of hope by Doctor Thornton"s suggestions He determined to search the pa.s.senger lists of the different steamer lines, hoping to find Virgie"s name among them.
He half believed that, armed with the strong proofs she had secured to substantiate the legality of her marriage, she would go directly to England to a.s.sert her position there as his wife.
He realized that underneath her habitual quiet and sweetness there lay a dignity and strength of character that would stop at nothing legitimate to remove the stigma she believed was resting on her fair name.
But while he gave her ample credit for resolution and energy, he did not make allowance for the sensitive pride which had been crushed to the earth by the cruel blow which had been dealt her. He did not stop to consider that it would never allow her to force herself upon him as an unloved and rejected wife when she believed a more fortunate rival stood in her way.
But he found nothing in any of the booking offices of the different steamers to tell him that Virgie had sailed, or was intending to sail, even though he haunted them daily for three or four weeks.
Almost discouraged at the end of that time, he cabled to his sister the following message:
"I have missed my wife--perhaps crossed her path.
If she arrives at Heathdale, let me know at once."
Lady Linton was somewhat startled upon receiving this message, for it told her that her brother had some reason for thinking that Virgie might be on her way to Heathdale, and, remembering Mrs. Farnum"s account of her threats to claim her position, she began to fear that she had underrated the girl"s spirit, and that she might make her appearance at any moment and demand to be received as the mistress of the house.
This, of course, would make matters rather complicated and awkward; but, as long as her brother was not at home, she trusted to her own craft to deal with her and make her only too glad to give Heathdale a wide berth should she show herself there.
After cabling, Sir William went again to the Pacific coast, in the hope of finding Chi Lu. He spent several weeks in San Francisco, thinking perhaps those he sought might hope to lose themselves there among the mult.i.tude.
He thought right for once, had he but known it, and had he possessed a little more patience, been a trifle less restless and feverish in his search, he might have succeeded in his quest.
But he was so wretched; so worn and discouraged with his constant and fruitless seeking, that he could not remain in one place long at a time, and so wandered here and there, until, months having elapsed, he had been in nearly every State in the Union, reaping only disappointment and anguish of spirit.
Then there came again a summons for him to go home--his mother had been stricken with another shock, and, with a heavy heart, a feeling as if all the world were against him and his whole life ruined, he went back to his desolate home and the sick one there.
Lady Heath only lived a few days after the second return of her son. He reached Heathdale just in season to see the sands of her life run out and to close her eyes in their last long sleep; then they laid her in the family vault, and Sir William felt as if he had nothing now to bind him to his home.
"I cannot stay here--I must go away again he said one day, in despair, to his sister, and her heart sank at his words.
"Well, I hope you are not going to America again, whatever you do," she remarked, with some unpatience.
"If going to America would result in finding my wife, I would go a thousand times over," Sir William responded, sternly, and then added, with a note of agony in his voice: "Oh, where can my darling have hidden herself? Miriam," turning suddenly upon his sister, "can you suggest any reason for this terrible misunderstanding?--who could have intercepted all of our letters?--who could have conspired, for it seems like a conspiracy, to separate us?"
For a moment Lady Linton turned faint and sick with the fear that he had discovered something to arouse his suspicions against her; but second thought told her that such could not be the case.
"What could I suggest?" she demanded, a.s.suming an expression of surprise.
"You forget that I know nothing of this woman who lured your heart from us, save what I have been told. She may have had a rustic lover who is seeking his revenge by trying to separate you--a lover who has poisoned her mind against you, and perhaps won her allegiance back to himself."
"What utter nonsense you are talking, Miriam!" the baronet interrupted, indignantly. "How little you appreciate the refinement of the girl whom I have married! True, you have never seen her; but one look at the face that I have shown you ought to have told you that she could have been won by no rustic."
Lady Linton shrugged her shoulders expressively.
"As for your letters," she said, flashing a swift, keen glance at him, "if you think they have been tampered with on this side of the Atlantic, I advise you to question Robert, since he has the exclusive charge of your mail-bag."
"Robert, indeed! I would as soon question my own honesty as his; besides, no one has a key to it but myself," Sir William a.s.serted, confidently.
Lady Linton breathed freely now, for it was evident that he had no suspicion of her.
"True; and Robert has been faithful too many years to be lightly suspected," she remarked, appreciatively.
"But this suspense is insupportable! It is killing me!" cried her brother, rising, and excitedly pacing the floor.
"No doubt it is trying," his sister replied, coldly.
"Trying!" he repeated, bitterly; "you are very sympathetic, Miriam; you are as cold as ice."
"Well, William, you know well enough that I never approved of your marriage. It was a great blow to both mamma and me that you should marry so out of your element; and therefore you cannot expect me to be so heart-broken over the mysterious disappearance of your wife as I might have been if you married--Sadie, for instance."
"I wish you wouldn"t throw Sadie Farnum at me upon every occasion; I never had any intention of marrying her," retorted Sir William, with an angry flush.
"More is the pity; I could have loved her dearly as a sister," responded Lady Linton, in an injured tone. "But," she added, after a thoughtful pause, "it seems you were mistaken in thinking that your wife was collecting proofs of her marriage with the intention of coming here to claim her position. If that had been her plan, doubtless she would have been here long ago."
"Yes--oh! I cannot understand it; but, if I ever discover who has been at the bottom of this mischief, it will be a sad day for that individual!"
cried the" baronet, with stern emphasis.
Lady Linton suddenly stooped to brush a thread from her black dress, and when she sat upright again there was considerable more color than usual in her face.
"I am troubled to see you so unhappy, William," she said, more kindly than she had yet spoken, "and perhaps, after all, a change will be the best thing for you. What are your plans?"
"I have none. I simply wish to get away from myself, if that is possible; to steep my troubled thoughts in some excitement. I believe I will go to the Far East--Egypt, Palestine--anywhere to escape this feeling of utter desolation," he answered, dejectedly.
"When will you go?"
"At once--before the week is out, if I can arrange to do so."