She saw by the uncertain glimmer of the
carriage lamp the two forms spring out into the darkness and come back
in search of her, and a piteous cry of unutterable fear rose to her
blanched lips from the very depths of her panting, terror-stricken
heart.
She tried to spring to her feet and fly, but the depth to which she sank
with every step exhausted her quickly, and she sank down among the white
drifts awaiting her doom like a wounded bird in the brush whom the
cruel sportsmen are nearing with their hounds.
She raised her lovely young face to the dark night sky, calling upon God
and the angels to protect her, to save her from the man she had loved
with all the passionate strength of her heart up to that hour, and whom
she hated and feared now a thousandfold more than she had ever loved
him.
All in a few moments of time her idol had fallen from its high pedestal
of manly honor and lay in ruins at her feet.
How could she ever have believed Lester Armstrong noble, good and true,
a king among men? Where was the tenderness in voice and manner that had
won her heart from her, and his oft-repeated assurance that he cared for
her for herself alone; that he wished to Heaven she were no heiress, but
as poor as himself, that he might show her the power of his great love?
An hour ago--only an hour ago--yet it seemed the length of a lifetime in
the shadowy past, she had crept out of the house to meet her lover at
the trysting place, her heart beating with love for him, sobbing out to
Heaven to send her true love quickly back to her.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44