Home Lights and Shadows Part 22

"In one set," answered Lizzy.

"Are you engaged for the next in which you may feel disposed to take the floor?"

"No, sir."

"Then may I claim you for my partner?"

"If it is your pleasure to do so," replied Lizzy, smiling.

In a cotillion formed soon afterward in that part of the room, were Margaret Hubert and her sweet friend Lizzy Edgar. Margaret had a warmer color on her cheeks than usual, and her dignity towered up into an air of haughtiness, all of which Clinton observed. Its effect was to make his heart cold towards her, instead of awakening an ardent desire to win a proud and distant beauty.

In vain did Margaret look for the young man to press forward, the moment the cotillion was dissolved, and claim her for the next. He lingered by the side of Miss Edgar, more charmed with her than he had ever been, until some one else came and engaged the hand of Miss Hubert. The disappointed and unhappy girl now unbent herself from the cold dignity that had marked her bearing since her entrance into the ball-room, and sought to win him to her side by the flas.h.i.+ng brilliancy of her manners; but her efforts were unavailing. Clinton had felt the sweeter, purer, stronger attractions of one free from all artifice; and when he left her side, he had no wish to pa.s.s to that of one whose coldness had repelled, and whose haughtiness had insulted him.

On the next day, when Lizzy called upon her friend, she found her in a very unhappy state of mind. As to the ball and the people who attended, she was exceedingly captious in all her remarks. When Clinton was mentioned, she spoke of him with a sneer. Lizzy hardly knew how to take her. Why the young man should be so offensive, she was at a loss to imagine, and honestly came to the conclusion that she had been mistaken in her previous supposition that Margaret really felt an interest in him.

A few evenings only elapsed before Clinton called upon Miss Edgar, and from that time visited her regularly. An offer of marriage was the final result. This offer Lizzy accepted.

The five or six months that elapsed from the time Clinton became particular in his attentions to Miss Edgar, until he formally declared himself a lover, pa.s.sed with Margaret Herbert in one long-continued and wild struggle with her feelings. Conscious of her error, and madly conscious, because conviction had come too late, she wrestled vigorously, but in vain, with a pa.s.sion that, but for her own folly, would have met a free and full return. Lizzy spoke to her of Clinton's marked attentions, but did not know how, like heavy and painful strokes, every word she uttered fell upon her heart. She saw that Margaret was far from being happy, and often tenderly urged her to tell the cause, but little dreamed of the real nature of her sufferings.

At last Lizzy told her, with a glowing cheek, that Clinton had owned his love for her, and claimed her hand in marriage. For some moments after this communication was made, Margaret could offer no reply.

Her heart trembled faintly in her bosom and almost ceased to beat; but she rallied herself, and concealed what she felt under warm congratulations. Lizzy was deceived, though in her friend's manner there was something that she could not fully comprehend.

"You must be my bridesmaid," said the happy girl, a month or two afterwards.

"Why not choose some one else?" asked Margaret.

"Because I love you better than any friend I have," replied Lizzy, putting an arm around the neck of Margaret and kissing her.

"No, no; I cannot--I cannot!" was the unexpressed thought of Margaret--while something like a shudder went over her. But the eyes of her friend did not penetrate the sad secret of her heart.

"Come, dear, say yes. Why do you hesitate? I would hardly believe myself married if you were not by my side when the nuptial pledge was given."

"It shall be as you wish," replied Margaret.

"Perhaps you misunderstood me," said Lizzy, playfully; "I was not speaking of my funeral, but of my wedding."

This sportive sally gave Margaret an opportunity to recover herself, which she did promptly; and never once, from that time until the wedding day of her friend arrived, did she by look or word betray what was in her heart.

Intense was the struggle that went on in the mind of Margaret Hubert. But it was of no avail; she loved Clinton with a wild intensity that was only the more fervid from its hopelessness. But pride and a determined will concealed what neither could destroy.

At last the wedding night of Lizzy Edgar arrived, and a large company a.s.sembled to witness the holy rite that was to be performed, and to celebrate the occasion with appropriate festivities.

Margaret, when the morning of that day broke coldly and drearily upon her, felt so sad at heart that she wept, and, weeping, wished that she could die. There had been full time for reflection since, by her own acts, she had repulsed one in whom her heart felt a deep interest, and repulsed him with such imprudent force that he never returned to her again. Suffering had chastened her spirit, although it could not still the throbbings of pain. As the time approached when she must stand beside her friend and listen to vows of perpetual love that she would have given all the world, were it in her possession, to hear as her own, she felt that she was about entering upon a trial for which her strength would be little more than adequate.

But there was no retreat now. The ordeal had to be pa.s.sed through.

At last the time of trial came, and she descended with her friend, and stood up with her before the minister of G.o.d, who was to say the fitting words and receive the solemn vows required in the marriage covenant. From the time Margaret took her place on the floor, she felt her power over herself failing. Most earnestly did she struggle for calmness and self-control, but the very fear that inspired this struggle made it ineffectual. When the minister in a deeply impressive voice, said, "I p.r.o.nounce you husband and wife," her eyes grew dim, and her limbs trembled and failed; she sunk forward, and was only kept from falling by the arm of the minister, which was extended in time to save her.

Twenty years have pa.s.sed since that unhappy evening, and Margaret Hubert is yet unmarried. It was long before she could quench the fire that had burned so fiercely in her heart. When it did go out, the desolate hearth it left remained ever after cold and dark.

FOLLOWING THE FAs.h.i.+ONS.

"WHAT is this?" asked Henry Grove of his sister Mary, lifting, as he spoke, a print from the centre-table.

"A fas.h.i.+on plate," was the quiet reply.

"A fas.h.i.+on plate? What in the name of wonder, are you doing with a fas.h.i.+on plate?"

"To see what the fas.h.i.+ons are."

"And what then?"

"To follow them, of course."

"Mary, is it possible you are so weak? I thought better of my sister."

"Explain yourself, Mr. Censor," replied Mary with an arch look, and a manner perfectly self-possessed.

"There is nothing I despise so much as a heartless woman of fas.h.i.+on."

"Such an individual is certainly, not much to be admired, Henry. But there is a vast difference you must recollect, between a lady who regards the prevailing mode of dress and a _heartless_ woman, be she attired in the latest style, or in the costume of the times of good queen Bess. A fas.h.i.+onably dressed woman need not, of necessity, be heartless."

"O no, of course not; nor did I mean to say so. But it is very certain, to my mind, that any one who follows the fas.h.i.+ons cannot be very sound in the head. And where there is not much head, it seems to me there is never a superabundance of heart."

"Quite a philosopher!"

"You needn't try to beat me off by ridicule, Mary. I am in earnest."

"What about?"

"In condemning this blind slavery to fas.h.i.+on."

"You follow the fas.h.i.+ons."

"No, Mary, I do not."

"Your looks very much belie you, then."

"Mary!"

"Nonsense! Don't look so grave. What I say is true. You follow the fas.h.i.+on as much as I do."

"I am sure I never examined a plate of fas.h.i.+ons in my life."

"If you have not, your tailor has for you, many a time."