When she came to herself the Colonel was gone.
Washington Hawkins stood at her bedside. Did
she come to herself? Was there anything left
in her heart but hate and bitterness, a sense of an
infamous wrong at the hands of the only man she had
ever loved?
She returned to Hawkeye. With the exception
of Washington and his mother, no one knew what had
happened. The neighbors supposed that the engagement
with Col. Selby had fallen through. Laura
was ill for a long time, but she recovered; she had
that resolution in her that could conquer death almost.
And with her health came back her beauty, and an
added fascination, a something that might be mistaken
for sadness. Is there a beauty in the knowledge
of evil, a beauty that shines out in the face of a
person whose inward life is transformed by some terrible
experience? Is the pathos in the eyes of the
Beatrice Cenci from her guilt or her innocence?
Laura was not much changed. The lovely woman
had a devil in her heart. That was all.
Mr. Harry Brierly drew his pay as an engineer while
he was living at the City Hotel in Hawkeye.
Mr. Thompson had been kind enough to say that it didn’t
make any difference whether he was with the corps or
not; and although Harry protested to the Colonel daily
and to Washington Hawkins that he must go back at
once to the line and superintend the lay-out with
reference to his contract, yet he did not go, but wrote
instead long letters to Philip, instructing him to
keep his eye out, and to let him know when any difficulty
occurred that required his presence.
Meantime Harry blossomed out in the society of Hawkeye,
as he did in any society where fortune cast him and
he had the slightest opportunity to expand.
Indeed the talents of a rich and accomplished young
fellow like Harry were not likely to go unappreciated
in such a place. A land operator, engaged in
vast speculations, a favorite in the select circles
of New York, in correspondence with brokers and bankers,
intimate with public men at Washington, one who could
play the guitar and touch the banjo lightly, and who
had an eye for a pretty girl, and knew the language
of flattery, was welcome everywhere in Hawkeye.
Even Miss Laura Hawkins thought it worth while to
use her fascinations upon him, and to endeavor to
entangle the volatile fellow in the meshes of her
attractions.
“Gad,” says Harry to the Colonel, “she’s
a superb creature, she’d make a stir in New
York, money or no money. There are men I know
would give her a railroad or an opera house, or whatever
she wanted—at least they’d promise.”
Harry had a way of looking at women as he looked at
anything else in the world he wanted, and he half
resolved to appropriate Miss Laura, during his stay
in Hawkeye. Perhaps the Colonel divined his thoughts,
or was offended at Harry’s talk, for he replied,
