CHAPTER XXIII.
TWO RINGS.
Love and hope had such patent power for good that Lelia had an almost miraculously swift recovery from the effects of the drug she claimed to have taken in her despair at Laurie’s obstinacy.
In her joy at his restoration to her sovereignty, and her anxiety to keep a tight rein upon him hereafter, she exerted all her will-power to restrain her imperious nature and fairly astonished the young man with her sweetness and humility.
Within a few hours she was seated by his side on the long, Colonial porch, exquisitely dressed, and sparkling with animation, trying to dazzle him with her rare blond beauty, and provoke him to some manifestation of reviving tenderness.
But Laurie remained gravely and courteously cold, with a constrained air that was secretly maddening to her love and pride alike.
“Oh, Laurie, my darling, how strange you seem--how cold, how altered. Will you never smile on me again?” she sighed gently.
“It is scarcely a time for smiles, Lelia, with dear Aunt Cyrilla lying in her room at the point of death,” he gravely replied.
“Oh, forgive me, Laurie, I deserve your rebuke! But, indeed, I am not forgetting our dear old aunt. Yet--yet my whole being is jubilant with the joy of winning you once more, dear Laurie! Oh, you cannot guess all I suffered after you left me, the despair, the remorse, the yearning to have you back again. I could have groveled at your feet praying your pardon for my jealous madness! And then, when you returned and repulsed me in bitter pride and anger, it broke my heart. I could not live without you, I determined to end my life. You would have been sorry for your cruelty when you looked on my poor, dead face, would you not, darling? But mama, uneasy over me, came to my room and found out in time what I had done in my desperation. She raised the alarm and brought the doctor. But I would not take his antidotes. I had quite determined on death. I declared to her frankly I would not live except as your dear wife. She went to you, and in your goodness of heart you came and saved me to life and love and happiness again. Oh, Laurie, I will never be jealous and naughty again as long as I live. I will be so grateful and so good you will love me again better than ever before!”
Soft, white hands clinging to his, golden locks pressed against his shoulder, upturned blue eyes full of adoration, rose-red lips inviting caresses, how could any man’s heart withstand such charms?
Yet every word fell on his heart coldly as drops of winter rain, and he felt a mad impatience to thrust away the soft hands and the golden head and to avert his face from the fair one upturned in such tender pleading. He asked himself impatiently how he had ever fancied himself in love with his beautiful, artful cousin.
Suddenly she held up her white hand before his face.
“Do you miss anything?” with tender archness.
“No, I do not,” carelessly.
“Oh, Laurie, my ring! I have missed it so much! Please let me have it back again.”
He was so agitated himself he did not notice how her voice trembled and her eyes drooped as she spoke; he was seeing again a blushing, mignonne face, with dark-fringed lashes sweeping to a crimson cheek, as he slipped Lelia’s diamond on a dear little, tremulous hand. My God, was he never to hold that little hand again, never to gaze on that exquisite face until he met her in the Great Beyond among the radiant angels?
“My ring, please, Laurie dear,” Lelia murmured again, and, rousing himself, he muttered:
“The ring? I--oh, yes, Lelia, you shall have another as soon as I go to town; but--but I have lost that one.”
He was startled when she faltered, tenderly:
“You must buy two rings this time, please, dear Laurie--another diamond as big as the one you lost, and--and a plain gold one--my wedding-ring.”
“A wedding-ring!” he started, and recoiled like one stung.
“Yes, Laurie dear, for I have one dear wish that I am ashamed almost to breathe aloud. I want to be your wife, Laurie, very soon; for, oh, I have been so frightened when I had so nearly lost you that I cannot ever be quite happy again until you are mine tight and fast, bound by the wedding-ring! Oh, Laurie, will you humor my fancy, because I love you so? Will you ride into Lewisburg to-morrow for the rings, and the license, and the minister; and let us be quietly married to-morrow evening in the parlor, with no guests but just our family?” pleaded Lelia, winding her white arms about his neck and pressing her warm, red lips to his own.
If it had been a blow instead of a caress Laurie could not have recoiled more sharply, or answered more bitterly:
“You shall have your own way, Lelia.”