A Fair Mystery: The Story of a Coquette. Charlotte M. Brame
on her."
Next day Earle brought his mother, and proudly presented Doris to her.
Mrs. Moray, making allowances for the enthusiasm of a lover, had expected to find a rosy, pretty country girl. She saw a dainty, high-bred beauty, of the most exquisite and aristocratic type. She looked in wonder at Doris, then helplessly at Mark and Patty.
"How little your daughter resembles you!" she cried.
Patty blushed, honest Mark studied the carpet pattern, the pretty lips of Doris curled scornfully.
Mrs. Moray suspected a mystery. Mark Brace spoke up:
"I'd like a word with you and your son in the garden, ma'am."
Doris watched the three angrily from the window.
"What is father saying that I may not hear? See how oddly Mrs. Moray looks, and Earle too! What is he saying?"
"Perhaps that he has no fortune to give you," hinted Patty.
"My face is my fortune," cried Doris, pettishly.
"Dear child, do not be so vain! Suppose you lost that fortune."
"Then I'd kill myself. I would not live unbeautiful!"
Poor Patty held up her hands in horror.
CHAPTER XVII
A SHINING MEMORY
Yes, Mark, in plain phrases, had told his story. Mrs. Moray had opened the way, saying, frankly:
"Have you anything to tell us?"
"Yes. Doris is not my daughter. She was left, being two months old or thereabouts, on my door-step, with a letter and a hundred pounds. Here is the letter for you to read. I have done my best for the girl, and I love her. I have tried to meet the wishes of her unknown mother. And of that mother and her history I know no more than you. If this makes a difference, now is the time to speak."
"It makes no difference," cried Earle; "only, if possible, I shall love her more than ever, she having no kith or kin."
"I saw she did not look in the least like any of you," said Mrs. Moray, thoughtfully.
Mark smiled.
"Yes, she is fine china, we are delf. I have never hinted this thing to Doris, and whatever you decide, I wish the secret rigidly kept, as I have kept it."
"What is there to decide!" cried Earle. "We are betrothed."
"Your mother may think differently," said Mark.
"Of course I am very sorry that the girl has no name or position," said Mrs. Moray.
Earle flushed.
"Her name will be our name, and her position I will make for her; and it will be honorable, I promise you."
"You are a stanch fellow," said Mark. "But I pledge you to keep this secret always. The idea of being a foundling might make Doris miserable, drive her half wild. Or it might set her up to some queer caper. She has a fine spirit of her own."
"Is she hard to manage?" asked Mrs. Moray, anxiously.
"I never found her hard to manage," said Earle, the dauntless.
"I hope you'll tell the same tale twenty years from now," said Mark, with a laugh.
He felt glad this matter was settled.
"We shall never mention it," said Mrs. Moray, yielding to the inevitable.
"And on the wedding-day I'll give her a hundred pounds, and she shall have a hundred pounds in her outfit."
"You are very generous, Mr. Brace," said Mrs. Moray.
"Doris is quick and keen. She'll ask you, Earle, what we were saying out here. You may mention the hundred pounds."
Just as he had foreseen, Doris questioned Earle, and he told her of the promised outfit and the wedding gift.
All this reconciled her more to the idea of marrying.
"My mother sha'n't interfere with what I get for my outfit," said she to herself. "I'll dress like a lady for once. One hundred pounds in clothes will make a very fair show."
Alas, Patty, in her thrifty mind, had already destined part of this hundred pounds to sheeting and table-clothes, blankets and pillow-cases! A hundred pounds for clothes! Fie on the extravagance! A white mull for the wedding gown, a black silk, a cashmere. This was Patty's notion of a suitable bridal trousseau!
"A hundred pounds on my wedding-day to use as I like."
"You may be sure I sha'n't touch it," laughed Earle.
"A hundred pounds! That is kind of him; but it is not much. I could spend it in one hour in London."
"Spend it in an hour. I'm glad you are not fond of money."
"I am fond of it. Money is the salt and essence of life."
"And you marry a man who has almost none?"
"But a man who can, who must, make a great deal."
"Suppose I should not?"
She looked at him in alarm.
"Suppose you should not? I tell you I would rather die than be mean, and plain, and poor, all my life."
"Dear child, you do not understand. You have exaggerated ideas. You shall never be left to suffer. Cheer up. I will make money, and you, my little idol, shall spend it!"
"That is fair," cried Doris, joyously. "I'll buy no end of things."
Gregory Leslie finished his picture of "Innocence," and took it away, knowing it should grace the walls of the Academy the next May. At Brackenside he had found an artistic ideal, and reached the acme of his art life. Doris wondered a little, the while she had inspired the artist, she had not conquered the man. Earle and Gregory made a compact of friendship and parted – to meet in pain.
Earle entered into a very happy winter. As Doris had inspired the artist so she inspired the poet; and Earle sang as he had never sung before. A little volume of his verses found a publisher, and public approval, and though the recompense did not at all meet the idea of Doris, yet she told herself that fame led the way to fortune.
Indulged by Mark and Patty, and waited on by Mattie, while Earle was in daily raptures over her charms, as bride-elect Doris managed to pass the winter at the farm with some content. Mark had hired for her a good piano, she had a store of French novels, and she sedulously refused to have any steps taken in the matter of wedding paraphernalia.
And yet, as the weeks crept by, Doris began to be weary of lover and friends and country home, and her longing for the gay world and all its glories filled her fantastic heart.
"Oh, why does not some lord with a coach and six come along and carry me off and marry me?" she cried one day as she sat in the window, lazily watching the falling snow.
"Surely you would not give up Earle for any lord!" cried Mattie.
"Wouldn't I! I only hope for his sake I'd not be tempted. If the lord had money enough, and jewels enough, and memorial castles enough I'm afraid, Mattie, you'd be left to console Earle."
"Child, don't talk in that reckless way," said Mrs. Brace.
"I'm only telling the truth. I find in myself a natural affinity for lords," said Doris, and Mrs. Brace sighed and flushed.
Well, the winter passed, and the love-making of Earle was becoming an old story, and farm life a weariness to the flesh, but still Doris hid her vexations and unrest in her heart. The hawthorn bloomed, when Mark came in one day, crying cheerily:
"Here's something like old days. The duke is coming home for good, and Lady Estelle is finally quite well and strong, but unmarried still – more's the pity."
"They've been away long," said Patty, uneasily.
"Ay. How long is it since I've seen his grace? Not since they all came here."
Patty looked warningly at him.
He stooped to tie his shoe.
"The duke been here!"