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She has fallen asleep there, as she so often does, for youth and health defy carking cares. How lovely they are! Floyd Grandon suddenly counts himself a happy man, and yet he does not waken her with the kisses he longs to shower on brow and cheek and lip. If he did, how brave she would be for the temptation of to-morrow. After breakfast Floyd summons his mother and Eugene into the library.
If she is never the heiress he hopes she will be, he must be more than thankful then that she is wife instead of ward. Violet spends nearly all the morning arraying herself, to Cecil's intense delight. Denise looks on with glistening eyes. She is as anxious as Grandon that her young mistress shall hold up her head with the best of them. "But you have a prince for a husband, ma'm'selle," she says.
A little color comes into her face, and Grandon remarks nothing amiss; indeed, she looks very pretty and interesting, as she sits talking of her father. "Where is Eugene?" he asks presently, as he sees Mr. Murray and his daughter walking in the grounds. It seems to Violet as if she must scream. Is she his brother's keeper?
Some one must tell him. She ought to be with him." St. Vincent is awake and quite revived. Grandon touches carefully on this little scene, and proposes that Violet shall be allowed in the sick-room, since the sad secret has been betrayed.
All the air is sweet with pine and spruce, and that indescribable fragrance of spring. Floyd Grandon is so happy to-day that he almost wishes he had a little world of his own, with just Violet and Cecil. If it were not for this wretched business; but then he is likely to get it off his hands some time, and as it is turning out so much better than he once feared, he must be content.
The doctor administered a second dose in brandy, of the antidote, and then the sick woman seemed quite revived for the time. "There is a plot to ruin one of the most exemplary young men in Grandon," proceeded Shanks in a low tone. "The man who has plotted his destruction is the man who left you but a few minutes since after believing that you were removed from his path forever.
And, mamma, you surely ought to rejoice at the prospect of having one daughter well married," with a little exultant ring in her voice. She is only eighteen, and has captured both wealth and position, and is longing so ardently to try her new world. These Grandon girls are not particularly amiable with one another.
"It was fate," pleads Eugene, weakly, "and your wish. I saw it in your eyes." "Love her," she answers, with a convulsive shiver, "love her with your whole soul." Floyd Grandon knows who entered the hall a moment ago and who now emerges in the soft light. You have heard with what toil Secunder penetrated to the land of darkness, and that, after all, he did not taste the water of immortality.
He must inquire into the young man's character and habits; but if Mr. Floyd Grandon is a sample of the manhood of the family, there can be no trouble on that score. Grandon Park is aristocratic, undeniably elegant, and, so far as he can see, less given to "shoddy" than many of the new places. The evening is perfection to those who dance and full of enjoyment to those who do not.
He sends one of the men out for some breakfast, and shortly after that is despatched, the Grandon carriage drives up, its occupants more than astonished. The brief alarm in the night has not reached them. Floyd leads them into the office and the door is closed. He relates his singular story with concise brevity, and the little group listen in amazement.
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