Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1901 — A Pardonable Deception. [ARTICLE]

A Pardonable Deception.

/ / 'I x UT, Bella, you can’t posI—sibly be thinking of givj ing up Paul because of r; this misfortune? You don’t really mean to break your engagement? I can’t believe it of you; It is too heartless.” Nora Clavening spoke indignantly, her cheeks flushed, and her dark eyes turned angrily on her sister. They were wonderfully alike as far as height, build and features went, but their coloring was different. Bella was fair, with light, golden hair, and forget-me-not blue eyes, while Nora’s eyes were blue, too, but almost violet in hue, and her hair was the shade of ripe chestnuts, and her skin less dazzlingly fair than her sister’s. Their voices again had a marvelous resemblance; It seemed as If the same person were speaking when the one ceased and the other spoke. They were twins, which accounted for the strong physical resemblance that they bore each other, but their characters were the very opposite, and their tastes also. Bella stood moodily by the fire shifting the little ornaments on the mantlepiece with restless fingers. Her sister continued: “You wrote me such glowing letters of Paul, giving me to understand he was everything that was perfect, and now—” “Now he is not so; that’s all,” interrupted Bella, flippantly. “How can I be expected to marry a blind man? The thing is impossible; he went away full of hope that this wonderful German oculist would cure him; now, you aee”—holding out a letter—“he writes telling me he has returned totally blind, and with little hope of ever regaining his sight, and begs that I will go and see. him as soon as possible. How can I? What am Ito say?” “What are you to say?” passionately. **Why, that you will marry him as soon as possible; that you will he eyes to him now, and by your love and care will try to compensate to him for the terrible loss of his sight,” answered Nora. •“What a pity It wasn’t you instead of me to whom he was engaged. It’s no use, Nora, the thing must be at an end, and what I want you to do is to go and break it to him. If you won’t, I suppose I must write, for it’s no use my seeing him; I can’t do that, It would only mean a painful scene, which may as well be avoided,” and Bella gave an impatient kick with her daintily-shod foot to a coal that had fallen from the bars. “I break It to him? But he does not know me; you forget I’ve not been home a week,” remonstrated Nora. “That doesn’t matter; he knows you from your letters, which he was always interested in, and said he thought you must be charming. You must do it, Nora; you have tact and can soften the blow, for he’ll feel it pretty badly, I’m afraid; still, how can he expect any girl to marry him now? Fancy being tied to a blind man! Oh, I couldn’t face such a future.” “You are cruel as well as heartless, and I’m sorry for the man who marries you. Yes, I will go, and I’ll do my best for him. I must ask for his sister, I suppose; she lives with him, doesn’t ahe?” demanded Nora. “Yes, she is faded and forty, and capricious, but not a bad sort, although she never took to me, but was only civil for her brother’s sake, whom she adores. What are you going to say?” “Heaven knows!” ejaculated Nora, fastening her sailor hat on with a jet pin. “Well, do it gently,” called her sister, as the other girl opened the glass door leading into the garden and started on her thankless errand. “She might have shut the door,” muttered Bella, with a shiver. “How cold it is for May,” she said, as she closed the glass door and turned back to the Are. She drew a low chair close tip to the fender, and, stretching out her band for a new magazine, was eoon immersed in the contents of an Interesting article on coming fashions. ***•**•• “Will you go in and see him at once? The news you bring is only what I expected; your sister never really cared for Paul; she thought she did, and admired him, and was flattered by his attentions, hut there was no real love. You have a painful task before you; do your best to comfort him. If that.be possible.” And Miss Beresford turned away, motioning Nora to enter the room where Paul Beresford was seated. He was quite alone, sitting by the fire. It looked odd to see no papers on the table beside him. He heard the soft rustle of the woman’s gown, and turned his sightless eyes in her direction. He was an extremely handsome man; his features almost perfect, and his dark-brown eyes had not yet be-" come vacant and expressionless. Nora faltered out some words of sympathy and compassion, and his face lit up at the sound of her voice; he rose and felt his way to meet her. “So you have come, and so quickly; how good

of you Bella! Come here, dear, and let me feel your hands in mine. Oh, my darling, If I have you I can bear this terrible blow. Your love and sympathy and sweet faithfulness are more than sight to me,” he said, hi a voice that shook a little with emotion, and then, before Nora could answer him, she felt his arms round her and his lips pressed against her own. Sometimes love steals into a woman’s heart step by step; sometimes it comes with a sudden leap. With that kiss and passionate embrace Nora’s heart gave a great throb, and her pulses beat with a strange, overwhelming passion. When she drew away from the shelter of his arms her face was crimson, her eyes full of tears, and she was trembling violently. He had mistaken her for Bella—how was she to tell him? Miss Beresford sat In her drawingroom waiting, and wondering greatly when half an hour went by and Nora had not returned. She went into the hall and listened for a moment, thinking, perhaps, the girl had left without seeing her again, but she heard voices, and, stranger still, the sound of a laugh fell on her ear. Paul was actually laughing, and it was a natural laugh of pure gladness. Marcia Beresford went back to her room greatly puzzled. Another half hour passed and then she heard the library door open, and the voice, so mimh like Bella’s, saying, “Yes? I will come to-morrow, quite early, by ten o’clock, and will read to you as long as you like. Now, you are not to get downcast while I’m gone. Oh! do you really want me to say good-by again, but I shall never go!” Then there was the sound of her skirts fluttering across the room again, and a few minutes afterwards she reappeared in the drawing-room with flushed cheeks, eyes bright with tears, and trembling lips. “My dear, I don’t understand,” exclaimed Miss Beresford. The girl closed the door, and then flung herself on her knees beside the elder woman’s chair. “Oh, what have I done! What have I done!” she sobbed. “What! What have you done?” cried Miss Beresford, more and more mystified by her visitor’s manner. “I could not tell him; it was so sudden; he thought— he thought I was Bella!” “Bella! Oh, 1 see; I understand!” “And I comforted him. I made him forget his misery, because he thought I was Bella. Oh, Miss Beresford, what am I to do?” A flash of hope came into Marcia Beresford’s worn face. “Could you go on with it?” she asked, in a low voice. “What do you mean?” and Nora looked up, bewildered. “Go on being Bella,” was the reply. “But he must know sooner or later.” “Yes, but if it be later he will have grown to love you so much that he will never regret the real Bella, hut will love the false one better. Think of how dreary his life will he without you, and the difference your love and care will make to him. A wife is so different from a sister. It is true. I am urging you to choose a life of selfsacrifice—”, “Self-sacrifice! Oh, no! It wouldn’t be that,” murmured Nora. “Then, you will come again to-mor-row?” “Yes, I will come!” was the answer. And so the days slipped by, and Nora became everything to Paul Beresford, and no one but his sister knew of the strange deception that was being practiced. The real Bella was glad to get her freedom, and chaffed her sister about her daily visits as reader to the blind man. ‘Who knows? You might console him after all, Nora,” she said, one day, jokingly. “More unlikely things might happen, certainly,” was the reply. Nora was cutting some roses to take to Paul. “Don’t take all the best,” said her sister. “You surely don’t grudge him the pleasure of your flowers,” exclaimed Nora, hotly. , “Well, give him one from me. I’ve half a mind to go and see him myself to-day. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be friends. Nora. I’ll tnko him the roses. Here, give them to me,” said Bella, holding out her hands for the flowers. Nora’s face turned pale. “What’s the matter? Why shouldn’t I? Marcia Is gone down to the village, so I sha’n’t run across her, thank goodness. I saw her go by a few minutes ago. Gome, Nora, I’ll go. A month has passed. It is time we shook hands and he forgave me. Who knows when once I see him again old feelings may be roused once more. I feel as if I want to see him again.” When Bella was determined to do a thing she did It, and she walked deliberately down the garden and through the gate. The Beresfords lived but a few steps down the road in

a pretty house, with a garden eloping to the river. Nora knew that Paul would be seated under the big beech, there, waiting for her. It was a shel-i tered corner at the bottom of the garden, where they spent many hours now that the days were warm and sunny. What was she to do? She had never thought of this. She had let things drift, and had shut out of her mind all thought of the future. But he must know now; the truth must be told; and the full sense of her deception stood out clearly before her. He would never forgive her. She had done a terrible, an unwomanly thing, and she loved him—she loved him with her whole heart and souL Nora quickly overtook her sister and accompanied her. They went across the smooth, turfed lawn with soft steps, but the blind man’s ear was quick to hear, and he was listening for Nora. It was she who spoke. “My sister has come to see you,” she said. “I have brought you some roses,” said Bella. Paul looked from one to the other. “Your voices are exactly alike. How am I to tell one from the other?” “By touch,” said Bella. “See, we will each give you a rose; touch the hand that gives it, and you will know then.” “But why? Our hands are the same size,” said Nora, beginning to tremble. “The touch of the woman I love wll" thrill me; the other will give me no sense of rapture,” said Paul, with confidence. Tig. two girls advanced, each offering a rose. In Bella’s hand was one of deepest crimson; in Nora’s one of purest white. Her heart was throbbing painfully. Would his love for Bella be awakened by her touch? She glanced at her sister; her lips were; parted expectantly, and there was an eager look in her eyes. The blind man clasped the hands of each. Then, taking the rose from Bella’s fingers, he gently dropped her hand; but Nora’s he held close in his. “This is the hand of the woman I love,” he said, softly, and touched the white rose with his lips. Bella flashed a look of uncomprehending astonishment at both faces; then the color fled from her cheeks. She understood. Her voice was slight-' ly husky when she next spoke. “Yes, Paul, that is the woman you love, and the woman who loves you. Nora, I think I will leave you now,” and she went across the sunny lawn into the shadow of the house. “Why did she call you Nora?” exclaimed Paul. And she told him. ******** It was a long time that they lingered beneath the dark branches of the copper beech, and when they moved from beneath its shadows and stood in the broad sunshine the day of their marriage was fixed. They had not been married six months when the skill of Professor Pratt, the famous oculist, began to attract the attention of the press. His cures were wonderful—some of them were really considered miraculous. Paul Beresford was induced to put himself under his care. The result was favorable, although for a long time the efforts of the physician seemed useless. At tne end of three months Paul Beresford’s vision was restored. So, after all, Nora had excellent reasons for congratulating herself on the part she had enacted in a pardonable deception.—New York Weekly.