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Dreadful Temptation

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<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> Howard did not know what to do: it seemed such a terrible thing to go back to Lora with bad tidings. Perhaps the shock would kill her. Oh, if Mrs. St. John had but waited a little longer! Why need she have hurried away so precipitately? Well, there was no help for it. He must go back and tell her how inopportunely things had turned out, and how sorry he was that he could not keep his promise. He would get Dame Videlet to break it to her very gently. She would not bungle over it like a great, awkward fellow like himself. The good old woman was waiting for him outside the door. Her face was radiant, but it changed and grew very anxious as he came up to her, and she saw that his arms were empty. "Where is the child?" she whispered. Briefly and sadly he told the story of his disappointment, and the widow wiped the tears of sorrow from her eyes as he concluded. "How is she now?" he inquired, anxiously. "She has been better, much better, since you told her the child was found. Her reason has returned to her, and she has wept tears of joy. She is impatiently waiting for you now, for I told her just now that you were returning. Alas, alas!" groaned Dame Videlet, her tender heart quite melted by the thought of Lora's disappointment. Howard groaned in unison with her. "Will it go hard with her?" he asked, sorrowfully. The dame shook her head mournfully. "Alas, alas!" she groaned again. "You will break the news to her—will you not?" asked Howard. "It would be better for you to do it; I am a[Pg 66] great, awkward fellow, and could not tell her tenderly and gently like a woman. Tell her we will try to find her mother and sister as soon as possible. Do not let her despair." "I will tell her," said the good woman, turning toward the door, "but I am afraid the disappointment will nearly kill her. She is very ill. She cannot bear much. Do you remain outside while I go in." Howard sat down on a rough bench outside the door and waited, his heart heavy with grief for the poor, unfortunate girl within. "Far better that I had not seen her at all, than have given her such hope only to be followed by disappointment," he thought sadly to himself. Suddenly a wild, piercing, delirious shriek issued from the widow's cot, causing him to spring up in alarm, and rush into the room. He met the bereaved mother in the center of the floor, trying to make her escape from the feeble arms of Dame Videlet who was drawing her back to the bed. She looked like a mad creature struggling with the weak, old woman, her dark hair flying loose in wild confusion, her arms flung upward over her head, while shriek after shriek burst from her foam-flecked lips. "Take her," cried the old woman, excitedly. "Hold her tightly in your arms a minute." Howard obeyed her quickly, and in his strong, yet gentle clasp, the mad girl was held securely while Dame Videlet poured something from a bottle upon a sponge and held it to the girl's dilated nostrils. Directly her wild cries grew fainter, her eyelids fell, her head dropped heavily upon Howard's breast. "Lay her down upon the bed, now, sir," said the dame, "and fetch the doctor as quickly as you can. This delirium will soon return upon her. The effect of the drug will not last very long." <hr class="tb" /> "She cannot live the night out," said the doctor, sadly. Three weary days and nights had Lora been tossing restlessly in the delirium of fever. Everything that money or skill could do had been done for her, but all to no avail. Now, as they stood around the bed and listened to her wild, delirious ravings, the kind old doctor shook his head and sighed at the sight of so much youth and beauty going down to the grave. "She cannot live the night out," he said again, in a voice of deep feeling. "Can nothing more be done?" asked Howard Templeton,[Pg 67] his blue eyes resting sadly on the wreck of the beautiful Lora. "I have done all that the medical art can do," declared the physician, "but all to no avail. She has sustained a terrible shock. Her dreadful tramp through the wind and rain the day she came here was enough to have killed her. But her constitution was a superb one, and I believed that I might have saved her after all, if the child could have been restored to her." "Why did we not think of procuring a substitute for the child?" exclaimed Howard, suddenly. "If we could have put another child in its place might not the innocent deception have saved her life?" "Such a plan might have been tried," said the doctor, thoughtfully. "But it must have been a terrible risk to tell her the truth even after her recovery. She is very nervous, and her organization is high-strung." Even as he spoke, the grayness and pallor of death settled over Lora's beautiful, wasted features. <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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