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Dreadful Temptation

<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> "Here, my man, take this," he said, putting the coins into the man's hand. "Why, this is too much, sir," said the honest fisherman, holding his hand out and looking at the gold in surprise. "You will rob yourself, sir." "No, no; keep it. It is but a trifle," said Howard, pushing his hand back. "But, pray, will you answer a few questions for me?" "As many as you like, sir—and thank you for your generosity," answered the fisherman, politely. "I am very much interested in the sad story written here," said Howard, glancing at the paper which he still held in his hand. "Yes, sir, it is very sad," assented the fisherman. "How came this unknown sick woman at the Widow Videlet's house?" inquired Howard. "The poor soul came there a few days ago, sir. She was ill and quite out of her head—could give no account of herself." "Can you tell me what day she came there?" "This makes the fourth day since she came, sir. I remember it was the same day you were brought to the hotel." The young man started. It was the same day that Lora Carroll had disappeared. Could it be Lora? Had it been some other waif the great sea had cast up from its deep? "Did you see this woman? Could you describe her to me?" asked Howard, eagerly. "I saw her the day she came wandering into Dame Videlet's cottage," was the answer. "You can tell me how she looked then," said Howard, restraining his impatience by a great effort. "Yes, sir. She was a mere girl in appearance—very young and very beautiful, with black eyes and long, black[Pg 61] hair. She was thinly clad in a fine night-dress," answered the fisherman. "Did you say she was out of her mind?" asked Howard. "Yes, sir; she raved continually." "What form did her delirium take?" "Oh, sir," cried the fisherman, in a tone of pity and sympathy for the wretched unknown, "it seemed like she had lost her baby. She was going around from one to the other in the place asking, asking everyone, for her baby. She said she was so tired and she had lost it out of her arms in the rain and the darkness, and could not find it again." Howard's heart gave a great, tumultuous bound of surprise, then almost stopped beating with the suddenness of the shock. It all rushed over him with the suddenness of a revelation. It had seemed so strange to him that Mrs. St. John should have taken the tender little babe with her in the rain and wind when she went to search for Lora. The truth flashed over him like lightning now. Xenie had found the babe upon the sand where Lora had dropped it in her fevered flight. No wonder she had been so angry and defiant when he had questioned her about it. He felt sure now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the unknown sick woman in the poor widow's cottage could be none other than Lora herself. "Poor, unhappy creature," he thought, with a thrill of commiseration. "It must be that God himself has sent me here to succor and befriend her." He rose hurriedly and took up his crutch. "How far is Dame Videlet's cottage from here?" he inquired. "But a few rods, sir—a little further on toward the beach," said the fisherman, regarding him in some surprise. "I will go down there and see that unfortunate woman, if you will guide me," said Howard. "I believe that she is a friend of mine. You may return their pence to those poor fishermen, who can ill spare it, perhaps. I will charge myself with her expenses even if she should not prove to be the person I think she is." The fisherman looked at him admiringly and hastened to do his bidding. Then they walked along to the widow's cottage very slowly, for Howard found himself exceedingly awkward in the use of his crutch. But after all it seemed but a very few minutes before they stood in the one poor little room of Dame Videlet's dilapidated[Pg 62] cot bowing to the kind old soul who had taken the poor wayfarer in beneath the shelter of her lowly roof, shared her simple crust with her, and tended her with kindly, Christian hands. "How is your patient to-day, my kind woman?" inquired the young man. "Ah, sir, ah, sir, you may even see for yourself," she answered sadly, as she turned toward the bed. Howard went forward with a quickened heart-beat, and stood by her side looking down at the sufferer. Yes there she lay—poor little Lora—with wide, unrecognizing, black eyes, with cheeks crimson with fever and parted lips through which the breath came pantingly. A heavy sigh broke unconsciously from Howard's lips. "Good sir, do you know her?" asked the woman, regarding him anxiously. "Yes, I know her," he answered; "she is a friend of mine and has wandered away from her home in the delirium of fever. You shall be richly rewarded for your noble care of her." "I ask no reward but the blessing of Heaven, sir," said the good old woman, piously; "I have done the best I could for her ever since she staggered into the door and asked me for her lost baby." As if the word struck some sensitive chord in her consciousness, Lora turned her wild, bright eyes upon Howard's face, and murmured in a pathetic whisper: "Have you found my baby—Jack's baby and mine?" Alas for Xenie's secret, guarded with such patient care and sleepless vigilance. Howard looked down upon her with a mist of tears before his sight—she looked so fair, and young, and sorrowful, lying there calling for her lost little child. "I have lost my baby, I have lost my baby!" she wailed aloud, throwing her arms wildly over her head and tangling her fingers in the long, dark tresses floating over the pillow in their beautiful luxuriance. "It is lost, lost, lost, my darling little one! It will perish in the rain and the cold!" Involuntarily Howard reached out and took one of the restless white hands in his, and held it in a firm and tender clasp. "Lora, Lora," he said, in a gentle, persuasive voice, "listen to me. The baby is found. Xenie found it on the shore where you lost it out of your arms. It is safe—it is well, with Xenie." Lora turned her hollow glance upon his face, and though no gleam of recognition shone in her eyes, his impressive words penetrated her soul. She threw out her arms yearningly. [Pg 63] "It is found, it is found! Oh, thank God!" she murmured, happily. "Bring him to me, for the love of Heaven! Lay him here upon my breast, my precious little son!" "Oh, sir, then it is true she had a child; and it is living. I thought perhaps it was dead," said the poor widow. "She has a child, indeed, and she lost it in her delirious flight; but her sister found it soon afterward. It is at this moment not more than four miles from here," answered the young man, without reflecting that many things might have happened during his long imprisonment of four days in the lonely little fishing village. "Then, if you will take my advice, sir, as she is a friend of yours, you will try to get that child here as soon as possible. I will do the best I can for her, and the doctor has promised to do all in his power; but I believe that the child is the only thing that will save her life," said Dame Videlet, gravely shaking her head in its homely white cap. "It shall be brought," said Howard, earnestly, and without a doubt but that he could keep the promise thus made. Dame Videlet thanked God aloud, then added that the sooner it were brought the better it would be for the mother. All the while poor Lora lay tossing in restless pain, and begging piteously for her little child to be laid upon her breast. Howard bent over her as tenderly and gently as a brother. "Lora, my poor child, try to be patient," he said. "I will bring the child to you; only be patient a little while." But it was all in vain to preach patience to that racked heart and weary, fevered brain. He stole away, followed by despairing cries for the little child—cries that echoed in his heart and brain many days afterward, when his warm heart was half-broken because he could not keep the promise he had made in such perfect confidence and hope. "How shall I get back to the village four miles away from here?" he asked of the man who had accompanied him and was still waiting for him. "I can take you in my fishing-boat and row you there, and welcome, sir," was the hearty response. "It's a wee bit leaky, but as good as any other craft about, and there's no conveyance to be had by land." "What a great simpleton I have been, by George, never to have thought of a boat before," said Howard, looking vexed at himself. "Here I have been four days, and wanting to get back to the village badly, and never thought of all the little boats and the great, wide ocean." [Pg 64] "Mayhap it's all for the best, sir," said the fisherman. "If you had gone back sooner, you might never have found the sick lady, your friend. You should see the hand of the Lord in it, my young sir." "It looks like it," admitted Howard, "though, truth to tell, mon ami, I do not usually look for such intervention in my affairs. His Satanic Majesty is at present controlling my mundane affairs." "The Lord rules, sir," answered the man, launching his little boat, and trying to make a comfortable and dry seat for his crippled young passenger. The little boat shot out into the blue and sparkling waves, and danced along like a thing of life in the beautiful spring sunshine. "We must go a mile below the village to the home of my friend's mother," Howard explained, as they went along. Then he fell to wondering how Xenie would receive him when he came to her with the glad tidings of Lora's discovery. "How strange that I should carry her glad tidings," he thought. "I am afraid I do not keep to the letter of my vow of hatred as firmly as she does. Would she bring me good news as willingly?" His heart answered no. The keel grated on the shore, and springing out, they went up to the pretty cottage were Mrs. Carroll had lived in strict retirement for several months with her two daughters. But there a terrible disappointment awaited Howard. The cottage was untenanted. They knocked several times, eliciting no response, and finally opening the doors, they found that the occupants had moved out. All was still and silent, and Howard's heart sank heavily as he thought of poor Lora lying in the widow's cot and moaning for the child he had promised to bring her. "They are gone away," said Howard in a more hopeless voice than he knew himself. "We must return to the village. We may hear news from them there." And in his heart he was fervently praying that he would, for how could he return to Lora without the child? They went to the little village where the dead body had been washed upon the sands, and he asked everyone he met if they knew where the occupants of the little cottage had gone. No one could tell him anything of their whereabouts. They had identified the drowned woman as their relative, had buried her, and then quietly left the place, taking Ninon, the little maid, with them. [Pg 65] He could not obtain the least clew by which he might follow them and bring them back to the sick girl whom they mourned as dead. Howard did not know what to do now, for he remembered that Dame Videlet had said that the child was the only thing that could save Lora's life. He went into the churchyard and looked at the new-made grave with the cross of white marble, and the simple inscription "Lora, ætat 18." "Perhaps the inscription might come true after all in a few—a very few days," he thought, sadly. <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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