Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday
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CHAPTER XXIII.
AH! THE PITY OF IT!
The oaken door clanged heavily to, and the massive bolt, as it shot intoplace, sounded in Dainty's ears like the trump of doom, shutting herinto a living grave; for now that she had heard of her husband'scondition, she had no longer the least hope of rescue.
In all the wide, cruel world, who was there that had any interest inpoor Dainty Chase save her husband and her mother?
Her husband was dying, and her poor, helpless little mother waspowerless to save her.
They would tell her that her fair daughter had eloped with a favoritelover; and how was she to know that the story was untrue?
In her desire to spare her gentle little mother pain, Dainty hadwithheld the whole story of the persecutions she had suffered atEllsworth.
In every letter home she had written the substance of these words:
"It is very pleasant here, and I am very happy. I long for you to be with me."
And the mother's heart had rejoiced in her daughter's happiness.
When she should awaken from her drugged sleep, and hear that Lovelacewas dying, and her daughter fled with another, there would be no one tocomfort her, none to say that the story was untrue. She would have tosimply accept it in all its horror, and her tender heart would breakwith the despair of it all.
"Oh, my husband; my mother!" sobbed the heartbroken girl; and shewondered how Heaven could permit such cruelties as had been practised onher by her relentless enemies.
Before the coming of her heartless jailer she had been suffering withhunger and thirst; but she forgot both now as she lay weeping andmoaning and praying, until after awhile the deep sleep of exhaustionstole over her, and she slumbered for long hours, starting fitfully nowand then and murmuring feverishly the name of her beloved.
When she started broad awake at last, the lamp had burned low, and sheknew by this that another day must have passed.
Her lips were parched with thirst, and she seized the bottle of water,and drank feverishly, though she thought bitterly:
"Most likely it is poisoned, and the draught will bring me a horribledeath! But what matter? A speedy death is better than dying by inches ina living tomb!"
But she was mistaken--the water was not drugged. Her enemies would havebeen shocked at the idea of a downright murder.
When she died of the foul air and deprivation and grief, they wouldcomplacently call it the visitation of God. If she was driven to swallowthe poison they had sent her, it would be by her own choice that she haddied a suicide's death. It would not rest like a weight on theirconsciences; and they hoped she would do it, for then they would placethe body where it might conveniently be found, and the coroner's verdictwould say she died from laudanum administered by her own hand.
Oh, the fiendish deed had been plotted well! And when Mrs. Ellsworthrevived next day, and heard from Sheila Kelly the story of Dainty'sdespair, she was well pleased, saying to herself, excusingly:
"I would not have done it, only that she wilfully defied me, andthwarted all my plans for marrying Love to one of my favorite nieces.But it can not be helped now, and her death is quite necessary to myplans; for if Love dies, as they say he is bound to, I should inheritall his money, unless Dainty should return and prove the marriage thathe claims took place between them weeks ago. How fortunate he was shotdown before he could make the story public; for now it is known to nonebut me, and it shall never pass my lips--not even to my nieces. Daintywill soon die of her imprisonment, even if she is not tempted to end hersufferings speedily with the laudanum, and then I shall adopt the twogirls as my heiresses, and take them here to live with me. As for Mrs.Chase, I hardly know what to do with the woman. They say she woke upsoon after the shooting, and is taking on pitiably about Dainty's flightand Love's condition. I shall have to show her some kindness, I suppose,just to keep up appearances."
If she could have looked into the prison to which she had heartlesslyconsigned her fair young niece, she would have felt encouraged in herschemes; for the lovely girl was fading like some fair flower rudelybroken from its stem.
Weeping and praying ceaselessly, she had eaten but a few morsels of thestale bread, for her anguish made her incapable of hunger; but thewater was all gone in four days, though Dainty tried to husband itlonger; for a fever had seized on her, and she was almost crazed bythirst, raving now and then deliriously in the darkness, for the tinycan of oil was exhausted, too, and the blackness of the tomb broodedover the cell.
She had sobbed till her throat was dry and parched and aching; she hadwept till her tears were all exhausted in their fountains; she was soweak that she could not stand upright on the floor, and she could onlylie like a stony image of despair on her bed and wait for death.
And she had looked forward so happily to this wretched week--she andLove. They were to have been upon the ocean now, en route for foreignlands, so happy in their love that listening angels might have enviedtheir bliss. Ah, the pity of it, this terrible reality of pain!
At times, when she was not asleep or delirious, her thoughts flew toLove. She wondered if he were dead yet, and prayed for his spirit tocome and visit her in her loneliness.
So the awful hours dragged by, though Dainty did not know whether theywere days or months, in the bewilderment of her mind. They seemed to herlike endless years; and the time came when she could bear her agony nolonger, when, in burning fever and delirium, she prayed for death, andrecalled her enemy's subtle temptation.
In the black darkness, the weak, white hand groped for the laudanum andunstoppered it.
"God forgive me!" cried the maddened girl, pressing the bitter draughtto her fever-parched lips.
Then the vial crashed in fragments on the stone floor, and all wasstill.