liane's little sewing chair was vacant the next day, and there was grief and surprise among the five girls present when miss bray explained the reason.
liane had sent her a little note the night before, she said, telling her that her grandmother was taking her to boston to see a dying relative, and she did not know when she should be back, but hoped miss bray would have work for her on her return. she left her dear love for all the girls, and hoped she should see them soon again.
every one expressed sorrow but dolly dorr, who from spite and envy had suddenly changed from a friend to an enemy of liane.
dolly tossed her pretty, flaxen head scornfully and insinuated ugly things about liane following jesse devereaux to boston. a dying relative was a good excuse, but it could not fool dolly dorr, she said significantly.
the other girls took the part of the absent one, and even miss bray gently reproved dolly for her[pg 151] slanderous words. the upshot of the matter was that she grew red and angry, and developed the rage of a little termagant. taking offense at miss bray's rebuke, she angrily resigned her position, tossed her jaunty cap on her fluffy, yellow head, and flew home.
the ambition to captivate jesse devereaux had quite turned the silly little noddle, and she was passionately angry at liane for what she denominated "her unfair rivalry."
but on reaching home and finding that her father had just been thrown out of work, dolly was a little flustrated at her own precipitancy in leaving her place, especially as mrs. dorr, a weak, hard-worked woman, bewailed their misfortunes in copious tears.
"don't cry like that, mamma, i know of a better place than miss bray's, where i can find work. miss clarke wants a maid," cried dolly eagerly.
mrs. dorr's pride rebelled at first from her pretty daughter going into service like that, but the notion had quite taken hold of dolly, and in the end the worried mother yielded to her persuasions, especially as the wages were liberal, and would help them so much in their present strait.
dolly hurried off to cliffdene, and asked for[pg 152] miss clarke, offering her services for the vacant place, as liane lester had gone away.
roma's red-brown eyes flashed with joyful fire as she cried:
"where has she gone?"
"her grandmother took her to boston to see a dying relative, miss."
"ah!" exclaimed roma, and her heart leaped with joy as she realized that granny had kept her promise to take liane far away.
"now i may have some chance of winning jesse back again," she thought.
but dolly's next words threw a damper on her springing hopes.
"liane can't fool me with a tale of a dying relative! i believe she had an understanding with jesse devereaux to follow him down to boston," she exclaimed spitefully.
roma started violently, her rich color paling to ashen gray.
"jesse devereaux gone!" she cried, in uncontrollable agitation that betrayed her jealous heart to dolly's keen eyes.
the girl thought shrewdly:
"she loves him even if he did tell me he was[pg 153] not engaged. whew! won't she hate liane when she knows all!"
and, taking advantage of roma's mood, she added:
"liane has been flirting for some time with mr. devereaux, and the night she got the beauty prize he sent her roses to wear, and voted for her, and offered to walk home with her that night, only he was disappointed, because mr. malcolm dean had asked her first."
roma, inwardly furious with jealous rage, tossed her proud head carelessly, and answered:
"mr. devereaux cares nothing for the girl! he is engaged to me, but we had a little tiff, and he was just flirting with her to pique me because i would not make up with him just yet!"
although she regarded dolly as greatly her inferior, she was placing herself on a level with her by these confidences, encouraging dolly to reply:
"of course, i know he wouldn't marry liane, but she was foolish enough to think so, and i feel certain she's down to boston with him now."
roma knew better, but she only smiled significantly, giving dolly the impression that she agreed with her entirely, and then she said:
"i will agree to give you a week's trial, and[pg 154] mamma's maid can instruct you as to your duties. when can you come?"
"to-morrow, if you wish."
"very well. i shall expect you," returned roma, abruptly ending the interview.
when dolly was going back the next day, she stopped in at the post office for her mail, and the smiling little clerk in the window, as he handed it out, exclaimed:
"don't miss liane lester work with you at miss bray's, miss dolly? there's a letter for her this morning, the first letter, i believe, that ever came for her, and now that i come to think about it, she never calls here for mail, anyhow!"
dolly's cheeks flushed guiltily, and her heart gave a strangling thump of surprise, but she said, quite coolly:
"yes, liane works at miss bray's with me, and i'm going down there now, so i'll take her letter, if you please, and save her the trouble of calling for it."
the unsuspecting clerk readily handed it out, and dolly clutched it with a trembling hand, hurrying out so as to read the superscription and gratify her curiosity.
"what a beautiful handwriting! a man's, too,[pg 155] and postmarked boston. now, it must be devereaux or dean writing to her!" she muttered, longing to open it, yet not quite daring to commit the crime.
she placed it at last in her pocket, thinking curiously:
"as i don't know where liane is, of course i cannot forward this letter to her, and—i would give anything in the world to know what is in it, and who wrote it! perhaps miss clarke would know the writing."
that evening, when she was brushing out the long tresses of roma's hair, she ventured on the subject:
"to-day the postmaster gave me a letter from boston to liane lester, but i don't know where to send it, and i am wondering who wrote it!"
she felt roma give a quick start as she cried:
"let me see it!"
dolly giggled, and brought it out of her pocket.
"oh! it is mr. devereaux's writing," cried roma excitedly.
"so i thought, miss. now i wonder what he wrote to her about? i must be mistaken thinking he knew she had gone to boston," cried dolly.
roma turned the letter over and over in her[pg 156] hand, her eyes blazing, her cheeks crimson, her heart throbbing with jealous rage.
how dared he write to liane? how dared he forget her, roma, so insolently, and so soon? she would have liked to see them both stretched dead at her feet!
they looked guiltily at each other, the mistress and maid, one thought in either mind. dare they open the letter?
dolly twittered:
"i shouldn't think you would allow him to write to her! he belongs to you!"
she felt like making common cause with roma against liane, in her bitter envy forgetting how often she had inveighed against roma's pride and cruelty. she continued artfully:
"the letter can never do her any good, because we don't know where to send it. and—and would it be any harm for us to take a peep at it?"
"i think i have a right," roma answered, her bosom heaving stormily, then she clutched dolly's arm:
"girl, girl, if we do this thing—you and i—will you swear never to betray me?" she breathed hoarsely.
"i swear!" dolly muttered fiercely, in her anger[pg 157] at liane, and then roma's impatience burst all bounds. she quickly broke the seal of the letter, her angry eyes running over the scented sheets, while dolly coolly read it over her shoulder.
and if ever two cruel hearts were punished for their curiosity, they were roma's, the mistress, and dolly's, the maid.
it was an impassioned love letter that devereaux had written to liane, and it ended with the offer of his hand, as she already possessed his heart.
the young lover had chosen the sweetest words and phrases to declare his passion, and he explained everything that she might have misunderstood.
he had fallen in love with her at first sight, but he was bound by a promise to one he no longer even admired. in honor he could not speak to liane, but his betrothed had herself broken the fetters that bound him, and he was free now to woo his darling. he had intended to tell her so that night of the beauty contest, but malcolm dean had rivaled him. then had come the summons to his sick father, tearing him away from stonecliff. he must remain some time in boston with his sinking father, and his impatience[pg 158] prompted this letter. would liane correspond with him? would she be his beloved wife, the treasure of his heart and home? he should wait with burning impatience for her reply.
roma threw the letter on the floor and stamped on it with her angry foot.
not in such tender, passionate phrases had he wooed her when she promised him her hand, but in light, airy words, born of the flirtation through which she had successfully steered him to a proposal so quickly regretted, so gladly taken back. oh, how she loved and hated him in a breath!
as for the girl, thank heaven, granny had promised to keep her out of the way. ay, even to kill her, if she commanded it. it was strange how the old woman had fallen so slavishly under her sway, but she was thankful for it, though she shuddered still with disgust at remembrance of granny's fond caress.
she said to herself that it were better for liane lester that she never had been born than to cross her path again, and to take from her the love of the man she had worked so hard to win, and then so rashly lost.
