Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 35, Number 154, 10 April 1910 — Page 8

Ends Well" a

3iy jfcenry C. Sfeowland

GILBERT CROMWELL paused on the threshold to look intently at a tall, graceful girl who was standing by the bedside of the venerable invalid. . '. "la that you, Gilbert?" asked the old man. " Yes, grandfather." Gilbert stepped to the bedside, leaned down, and his crisp mustache brushed the wrinkled cheek. The withered hand nestled in the clasp of the man's strong fingers. , . ' "Dear boy dear boy! I knew that nothing would keep you on getting my cable." His head turned weakly on the pillow. " Stella," he said to the young girl, " this is Gilbert." . In the subdued light of the sick-room the girl's beautiful face seemed pale and ethereal as she turned to Gilbert and gave him her hand. He took it gently in his and bowed as he raised it to his lips ; then his eyes met hers and the color swept into his face and flamed up to the edges of his hair. . "Gilbert,'' said the old man, feebly, "Stella has consented for my sake to have the ceremony performed at

" At once! " cried Gilbert, his blue eyes opening wide. " What do you mean by at once, grandfather? " The girl threw him a swift look, then dropped her eyes. Her pale face turned deeply crimson. The voice of the old man was querulous. "The doctors say that my heart is very bad, Gilbert; it is ant to fail me at any moment It has been the desire of my life to see you two dear children wedded" the feeble voice grew plaintive. "My entire fortune is divided between you two. Why should you not marry now? You are both heart-free have both expressed your consent to marry each other some day. Why not at once, to let an old man, who loves you dearly, die happy? He searched their faces appealingly. Gilbert glanced at the girl ; her eyes met his with a look of cool inquiry. The color had faded from her face, leaving it quite pale. "Of course, grandfather," he answered, awkwardly; "I should not think of opposing any arrangement approved by eh Miss Stewart and yourself." He glanced somewhat helplessly toward the girl, searching in vain for some hint as to her state of mind. During .the past month Gilbert, in his capacity of secretary of the great Stillwater Ship Building Company, had calmly ' faced the fire of Russia's foremost diplomats who had striven vainly to buy his ships on credit , Now, he found himself in a state of hopeless confusion at the first glance of the gray-eyed girl whom for years he had regarded as his promised wife. "I have always hoped that Miss Stewart might some day do me the. honor of becoming my wife," he said, rather stiffly, "but it seems unfair to her, grandfather, to ask her to marry me upon the second day of our acquaintance." The patriarch looked up at his grandson with an expression of affectionate irony. "Surely, you can be no more solicitous of Stella's happiness than I am, Gilbert?" ' Gilbert threw another bewildered look toward the girl. Her calm acceptance of the situation amazed him, for if ever a woman's face betrayed a highly-strung sensitiveness, hers did. " " Of course, ' grandfather" he stammered" if if you and Miss Stewart wish it, I I shall be only too honored-" " Then let us say to-morrow at five," said the old man. " To-morrow 1 " echoed Gilbert. "Really, Gilbert," protested his grandfather, "I had looked for a little more gallantry on your parti" "I think that you are both a bit unjust to me," Gilbert said ; " that you fail to catch my point of view. Nothing would make me .happier than this marriage if I were not afraid that Miss Stewart may have given her consent entirely through a sense of duty or obligation" ... The old man raised a wrinkled hand. " Now you are doing me an injustice, Gilbert Stella is acting of her own free will." Gilbert bowed. The high color had left his face and his breath was coming quickly. " My house is in order," he said. " Miss Stewart does me great honor. I shall try to be worthy of it" Stella flashed a quick look toward him; he met it steadily, and this time it was the girl who reddened. The pitiful features of the invalid were lightened with . a glow of pleasure. "I knew, dear boy I understood !" he said, and : reached out for the strong hand of his grandson. "I taw what was in your mind what should be in the mind of a gentleman of delicacy but I feared that Stella might be offended." His voice quavered with fatigue. " Now I am growing a little tired, my dears ; and betides," a smile lightened the benignant face, "you two ' must , grow acquainted since you are to be married tomorrow. Ah, well, understanding comes quickly when the heart is young." Gilbert pressed his hand, then stepped to the door and held it open. As the bride-elect passed through she looked up and her eyes met his defiantly. - At the foot ' of the stairs she turned. "Will you come into the drawing-room, Mr. Cromwell? I wish to talk to you." "I am quite at your service," said Gilbert. He followed her to an alcove which overlooked a little garden. .Stella sank into a dark corner of the divan; Gilbert re- ! mained standing. "I hope that you quite understand, Mr. Cromwell," ' laid the girl, with a trace of sarcasm, "that we have , igreed to be married to-morrow." "Yes," answered Gilbert. "I have finally managed to get it through my head." : Stella's color heightened. " And you also understand, t am quite sure, that the wedding ceremony," she paused meaningly, " is for the sake of giving happiness to an old man in his few remaining days. He need never know that we have been married only in name. He need never learrj that we are not living together as as husband "v and wife."- v ' Gilbert's clear eyes had not left her face as she talked, nd for some reason Stella found it difficult to meet his look. ' There was a sternness in it which awakened her i rombativeness. T. - "I do not think "he said slowly" I do not think ' that I would care to trick a man to whom I owe as much as I do' to my grandfather. Would you?" ' All of the color faded from Stella's face. " Is it possible," she demanded, " that you do not see it as I do?" "I'm afraid that I don't know how you see it," re- " plied Gilbert, coldly. . ' "As any one would see it ! " cried Stella" as a mere " form to be 'gone through to pay our debt to a man to whom we are both bound by every law of gratitude and i decency." ? '-" -.-,;; ,.,;..- " Not to deceive ! " said Gilbert, sternly. Stella drew back as if he had struck her. "Pecrive! How dare you say that to me ! " Her "voice choked with passion. . V It seems to me," Gilbert said, icily, " that since you 1 are not obliged in any way to do this thing, it would be rather nicer not to do it at all than to do it under false pretenses." . " , ' ' " If we were to be married would we not have fulfilled all that we had promised?" Stella's voice quavered. " Would we not have made him happy? " " Yes," said Gilbert; " We .should have fed him with ' stolen food. To be frank, I wondered why you were so ready to marry a stranger, even though it was always understood that we two were to marry some day. I failed to catch your viewpoint Such an expedient had ' Mvcr occurred to me. Perhaps you are right; I fancy

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most women would feel as you do, but for my part I should hate myself if I knew' that even to make him happy I had deceived in his last hours a man whom I love and to whom I owe everything. This is, I expect, purely a man's logic." , He turned to the window again and drummed softly with his fingers on the pane. For many minutes there was utter silence ; from outside there came the muffled growl of the traffic in the crowded streets. A rustle from the divan drew Gilbert's eyes away from the window. Stella looked up as he turned and her eyes met his abstractedly. "You are right," she said, very quietly. "You have been very cruel to me ; but there is no doubt that you are right I never thought of it in that way and then, you see her voice became eager, "the whole thing our being married seemed to me to be simply an old man s whim, but one which I felt in duty bound to hu-mor-1Pn't yu see? Don't you understand? AH my life I had. been trying to express my sense of obligation in some way and this this was the first and only thine that he had ever asked of me!" .

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'POOR She stared straight in front of her, pondering the problem. Something in her pose, the troubled expression in the drooping figure, the sweetness of her profile, called forth all of his protective strength. He was ashamed of the brutal force with which he had protested against what he felt to be deceit. Then a new, , disquieting thought gripped something deep within him. " Tell me," he said, " are you in love with anybody ? " She turned her troubled face to his. " No," she answered. " Are you ? " " No unless one can be in love with an ideal." "Are you in love with an ideal?" Gilbert did not answer. He did not appear to have heard the question. His face was partly turned from her, and she looked curiously at the lines of his strong, stern features, the broad shoulders and the sweep of the straight back. " I think that perhaps we have both been in the dark," she began, gently. Gilbert turned to her sharply " Did you think that I had agreed to marry you in order- to inherit his money?" he demanded. : Stella nodded. Gilbert drew a deep breath. " Let me tell you something," he said. " I have always loved my grandfather and tried to please him, but do you think that I would have consented to this runless there had been more? When he first began to tell me of you I was in college. One day he sent me your photograph, taken when you were in the convent I I think that I fell in love with it I kept it to myself never let another person see it Later on, he sent me another then another. When we were together he would tell me about you, and when, one day, he told me that it was his wish that we should marry and that you had consented, I felt as though I had gained my heart's desire. I I suppose that I had been in love with you from the time that I first saw your picture you know how boys are In spite of the feeling that had thrilled through his voice his speech ended lightly, but he had grown pale and his blue eyes shone like sap- .. phires. He began again, in a low, even voice : " I never

thought of the possibility of anything like this ! of our being called upon to marry before I was given the chance of trying to win your love. When you consented so readily I was shocked stunned. It meant so much to me, and you appeared to treat it as so light a thing 1 I did not know what to think and just now, when you told me that it was all a trick, a deception, it seemed as if my world were flying to pieces around me. My idol was overturned. Don't you understand? If I was rude I am sorry, and I hope that you will forgive me." - Stella rose to her feet and faced him. Her face was very pale ; all the light had gone out of her eyes. " I am very sorry for you," she said. " 1 am very sorry that I have shattered the ideals with which you had surrounded me. I gave a promise and then got frightened and tried to evade it I should never have bound myself to begin with or, if I had, I should have set my teeth and and gone ahead without whimpering ! " She laughed hysterically. Gilbert stared in surprise and some dismay. "Now you are unjust to yourself 1 " he exclaimed. " You were

IDEAL ! " SAID STELLA, SOFTLY. " POOR, DETHRONED LADY OF A

DREAM ! '

doing what seemed right to you. It was different with me, because well, you see, I had been in love with you all of the time ! " Stella laughed ; her eyes softened. " You mean that you were in love with your picture of me. Poor drtamer of dreams!" she added, half mockingly. The blood rushed into Gilbert's face. " Please don't joke about it!" he said quickly. "No doubt it was silly, but it was sincere. At any rate, that's not the point WTiat are we to do? Have you anything to suggest?" , , . Stella turned to him slowly. Her fascinating face wore an expression inscrutable as the sphinx. "Absolutely nothing! " she replied. . . "I. Gilbert, take thee Estelle " Gilbert held in his a small hand, cold as ice, and repeated the words mechanically. The venerable invalid, propped among his pil!ows listened, with eager eyes, and one withered hand against his ear. A faint color glowed in either sunken cheek. The ceremony was concluded ; there was a low-toned murmur of congratulation from the small family group assembled, a blessing in the choking voice of the grandfather. . The life of Washington Square was pursuing its even course as Gilbert placed his bride in the motor-car and seated himself at her side. "Where are we going?" asked Stella, in a lifeless voice. . "To Central Park West," Gilbert answered quietly. " My apartments there have been prepared for you. , I shall stop at the University Club until I saiL" "Until you sail?" " Yes. I am going to Japan. You know I have just returned from Russia, where they have been trying to wheedle me into selling them submarines on credit. I have hopes that I may be able to do better with the Japs--Stella did not reply, and for several moments they rode on in silence. " Since our talk of yesterday ," said Gilbert, " the whole - situation has changed." COPYRIGHT, tgoS.

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" Apparently," replied Stella in a cold voice. " I have done the best that I could," said Gilbert quickly. "As I was absolutely unable to come to any conclusion of my own l.went to my grandfather and laid the whole matter before him." " You did ! " cried Stella. " What did he say ? " " You will be disappointed," Gilbert said dryly"What did he say? Tell me, please." "Well he laughed!" "Laughed!" "Yes. Laughed so heartily that I was alarmed. Stella sank back among the cushiops. Gilbert glanced at her curiously. " What did he say," asked Stella coldly, " when he had finished laughing?" " Do you really insist upon knowing?" " Of course I do," Stella replied haughtily. " Well, then, he said now don't be angry, I am giving his precise words 4 You two have fallen in love with each other more quickly than I had ever dared hope." " What! "

"Those were his words," answered Gilbert "Of course, he is a very old man and an invalid." " How sad ! " murmured Stella. "His mind seemed quite clear yesterday ! " "Also, he said that he thought it a very good plan for me to go immediately to Japan, and that until I sailed he did not think that I should intrude upon your privacy ; that while I was gone you would have time to accustom yourself to the idea of my being your husband." There was a protracted silence. " Then," said Stella sarcastically, " there appears to have been some justification for my point of view after all!" " Yes," admitted Gilbert, " it appears that my views were quixotic All the same, I am glad that I told him." Neither spoke for several minutes, then Gilbert said: " I hope that you will like your apartments. They are very bright and sunny and overlook the Park. The cook and" a Japanese boy have been there right along, and I am leaving- you my man, Jerrems, as butler. The chauffeur will call every morning for his orders. Your maid has gone t:p there already. There is room and to spare in the place, so if you like you can have any of your "friends spend the winter with you. There are a good, many of my things about the place, and if they are in the way have Jerrems pack them up." When the heavy vehicle drew up before "The Marquise " it was quite dark, and there was a sharp tingle to the keen air. , " I will show you the place, if I may," said Gilbert, as he helped his bride from the car. " Then, if you are not too tired and feel graciously disposed, you might ask me to dinner." He smiled. " There is really no reason why we should not be good friends; is there? " V " Stella shook her head, not quite trusting herself to speak. She was filled with an odd. bewildering emotion which dimmed her eye and brought a lump into her throat. Somewhat blindly she entered the vestibule and walked towards the elevators. Her maid, who had just come down, passed her with a shy bow and took her wraps from the chauffeur. Gilbert relieved her of the necessity of srwech bv talking quietly on the way up.

" Morton," he said to the maid, as the butler swung open the heavy door, " show Mrs. Cromwell to her apartments." A sharp effort of will brought back her self-posses sion ; her exquisite apartments claimed her interest Sh knew that there had been only since noon of the previous day in which to convert a bachelor apartment uite the dainty feminine boudoir prepared for her; yet nothing in the place conveyed the slightest impression of raw newness. Her own things were laid out as if she had but just quitted the rooms. Stella looked about her curiously. She passed on into the adjoining room. Her eyes examined tenderly the homelike, familiar things. Here was a school portrait "of Gilbert and three other boys in rowing costumes j how chubby and jolly and serious the boyish facet looked ! There was a hunting pastel, a photograph of a university eight, in the foreground of which she recognized Gilbert. Farther on there was a photograph ol the launching of a battleship Gilbert's work I Here and there were little things of her own, arranged that day by her maid; amongst them were scattered trifles of his cups, trophies, ornaments. The place seemed hers already; she felt no strangeness there, and yet how absolutely it was his! Again the bewildering rush of emotion swept through her. She continued her slow inspection. Presently she came upon a little alcove lighted by a mullioned window, and there, as though enthroned, was an exquisitely framed photograph of herself, taken the year before. In front of it, in a way that suggested a votive offering, stood a vase of roses. She choked back a sob. The kind thoughtfulness ol the man, displayed in every detail, touched her deeply. She looked again at her picture and wondered it Gilbert had always placed flowers there ; some subtle instinct told her that he had. He had said that his thought of her had always been as of his his own to love and cherish as he had sworn that very day to dot And now that she was his wedded wife she had suddenly become less his than ever before ! - ; - A quick, fierce jealousy of the girl in the picture ros suddenly within her; for the moment she was filled with a wild impulse to snatch it up and fling it through the window. . . - ? She called her maid. . " Morton," she said, pointing to the photograph, "is that old gown among my things?" " Yes, miss I mean, madam." . - ; Stella flushed. " Make me look as much like that photograph as yoif can," she said "hair, gown, jewels everything!" Gilbert leaned back in his great leathern armchair, holding on his knee a round morocco case, stained with age and frayed about the edges. He was looking at it . meditatively when his ear caught a rustle behind him and he rose. Stella was standing in the doorway, and as Gilbert's eyes fell upon her he caught his breath quickly. The girl's cheeks were rosy, her dark-gray eyes were bright and there was a faint, half-frightened smile -upon her. '. mouth. .. - ' - " You startled me," said Gilbert "I thought that my portrait had stepped down from her frame." Stella flushed and without answering took the chair which he drew out for her. Gilbert, standing at her elbow, opened the leather case and took from it a ropa of pearls. " . "These were my mother's," he said. "They are my. wedding present to you. Will you wear them?" A flood of color swept into Stella's face. Her eyes filled; "she tried to speak, then turned away her head. Gilbert stepped to her side, leaned down and clasped the lustrous jewels about her white neck. His hand brushed the girl's hair, and a tremor ran through her. "It is cold for you here," said Gilbert, seating himself on the other side of the hearth. . "My habits ara those of a polar bear." - O " I am used to the cold," murmured Stella. , " I like it "I have ordered dinner at eight," Gilbert went on calmly. " Is not that too long for you to wait? Wouldn't you like to have a bite now? It is not yet quite seven." " I am not hungry, thank you," Stella answered. . She stared into the flames with humid eyes. His thoughtfulness touched her, but she found her mind going back persistently to the flowers in front of her photograph and the desire to know if he had always kept them there, The wish for this knowledge became imperative She turned, to Gilbert; the warm, ruddy light of the fire was reflected from her face and neck and shoulders. - "Tell me," she said, "have you always kept flowers in front of my picture?" " Gilbert looked embarrassed. Stella, watching him closely, recognized the conscious, chubby-faced boy of the college pictures. "Yes, he answered. "I suppose you will think ma a sentimental chump, but I've got to think of that picture as a real person " He stared into the flames. "Poor ideal I" said Stella, softly. "Poor, dethroned lady of a dream I " "No," said Gilbert, "she is not dethroned. She still has my allegiance and my. faith in her." "How strange 1" murmured Stella. She leaned forward, her chin resting on one closed hand, staring into the fire. The crimson light glowed on her bare arms and gleamed in the depths of her half-closed eyes. Gilbert watched her closely. It was precisely thus that he had so often pictured her sitting in front of his fire and staring into the flames. ' :

"I see nothing strange," he saia, in my naving Decome attached to your picture. There has been very little romance in my life. There was no time for it; rt has been all cold, hard, grinding work. Every man has some softening influence, and that was mine." " How odd! " murmured Stella. "What is odd?" " That you should have been in love with that photograph of me, when all the time I was so fiercely deter mined to hate you 1 " Gilbert stared at her in astonishment " You amaze me ! " he cried. " Do you mean to say that it was as bad as that? You poor little girl 1 " . " It was my own fault" "It was nothing of the sort They should have brought us together. I should have gone to see you but I did not because I wanted first to succeed ; to have something to offer you besides what other people had given me." - He took several short impatient steps. " What a fool I have been!" he cried, remorsefully. "And to think of my smug criticism of you yesterday! What a fool you must think me and justly!" Stella rose to her feet and turned to him with a radiant smile. "But I thought nothing of the kind 1" she cried. "You made me feel ashamed of myself IT - Gilbert stepped quickly to her side. " Stella," he said, and a thrill passed through the girl as for the first time she heard her name upon her husband's lips. "1 have done my best to make an awful mess of our happiness. I have behaved like a pig-headed school boy! WUl yoo forgive me, dear?" He took her hand in hsfc-f "Perhaps it is better that I should go away and do penance, and come back in time and try to win your heart just as though this ceremony had never taken place. But before I go I mean to tell you," his voice sank lower, that I have always loved you but I have never loved you as I love you now I" ' " .-; Stella looked up into his face. . "Gilbert" she whispered " my husband! Oh, do you really love me? " . ' . The answer was told her an the clasp of her tosfcaadV strong arms. . ' Nixon Wafcmaini

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