Chapter 13 - Page 2

faint."

"Cornelia will echo in my heart as long as my heart beats."

Then they were silent, and Hyde drew his dog closer and watched the
blaze among some lighter branches, which a servant had just brought in.
At his entrance he had also given Annie a letter, which she was eagerly
reading. Hyde had no speculation about it; and even when he found Annie
regarding him with her whole soul in her face, he failed to understand,
as he always had done, the noble love which had been so long and so
faithfully his--a love holding itself above endearments; self-repressed,
self-sacrificing, kept down in the inmost heart-chamber a dignified
prisoner behind very real bars. Yet he was conscious that the letter was
of more than usual interest, and when the servant had closed the door
behind him, he asked, "Whom is your letter from, Annie? It seems to
please you very much."

She leaned forward to him with the paper in her little trembling hand,
and said,

"It is from Cornelia."

"My God!" he ejaculated; and the words were fraught with such feeling,
as could have found no other vehicle of expression.

"She has sent you, dear George, a copy of the letter you ought to have
received more than two years ago. Read it."

His eyes ran rapidly over the sweet words, his face flamed, his hands
trembled, he cried out impetuously--

"But what does it mean? Am I quite in my senses? How has this letter
been delayed? Why do I get only a copy ?"

"Because Mr. Van Ariens has the original."

"It is all incredible. What do you mean, Annie? Do not keep me in such
torturing suspense."

"It means that Mr. Van Ariens asked Cornelia to marry him on the same
day that you wrote to her about your marriage. She answered both letters
in the same hour, and misdirected them."

"GOD'S DEATH! How can I punish so mean a scoundrel? I will have my
letter from him, if I follow him round the world for it."

"You have your letter now. I asked Cornelia to write it again for you;
and you see she has done it gladly."

"Angel of goodness! But I will have my first letter."

"It has been in that man's keeping for more than two years. I would not
touch it. 'Twould infect a gentleman, and make of him a rascal just as
base."

"He shall write me then an apology in his own blood. I will make him do
it, at the point of my sword."

"If I were you, I would scorn to wet my sword in blood so base."

"Remember, Annie, what this darling girl suffered. For his treachery she
nearly died. I speak not of my own wrong--it is as nothing to hers."