“He promised to love, honour, cherish me, as long as life lasted, and Mr. Hargrove pronounced me his wife, and blessed me.  How dared we expect a blessing!  Cuthbert knew that he was defying, outraging his father’s wishes, and I had earned my title by deception and disobedience.  God help all those who build their hopes upon the treacherous sands of human constancy.  Mr. Hargrove laid his hand upon my head, and said in a strangely warning tone, I might have known was prophetic:  ’Mrs. Laurance, you are the youngest wife I ever saw, you are not fit to be out of the nursery; but I trust this union will not fulfil my forebodings, that the result will sanction my most reluctant performance of this hallowed ceremony.’

“How supremely happy I was!  How unutterably proud of my handsome tender husband!  I do not know whether even then he truly loved me, or if he merely intended me as a pretty toy to amuse him during the tedium of college sessions; I only remember my delirious delight, my boundless exultation.  We returned home, and Cuthbert resumed his college studies, but through the co-operation of his room-mate, he spent much of his time in our cottage.  Peleg became troublesome, and invidious reports were set afloat.  I am not aware whether grandmother had always intended to publish the marriage as soon as consummated, or whether her breach of faith sprang from some facts she subsequently discovered; but certainly she distrusted Cuthbert’s sincerity of purpose, and taking Peleg into her confidence, despatched him to inform General Laurance of all that had occurred.  From that hour Peleg Peterson became my most implacable and dangerous foe.

“Dreaming of no danger, Cuthbert and I had spent but three weeks of wedded happiness, when, without premonition, the sun of my joy was suddenly blotted out.  A letter arrived, speedily followed by a telegram summoning him to the bedside of his father, who was dangerously ill.  Oh, fool that I was!  I fancied heaven designed to remove a cruel parent, and thus obliterate all obstacles to the completion of my bliss.  What blind dolts young people are!  Cuthbert was restless, suspicious, unwilling to leave me, or appeared so, and when we parted, he took me in his arms, kissed away my tears, implored heaven to watch over his bride, his treasure, his wife; and swore that at the earliest possible moment he would hold ’darling Minnie’ to his heart once more.  Turn away your face, Regina, for it too vividly, too intolerably recalls his image as he stood bidding me farewell; his glossy black hair clinging in rings around his white brow, his magnetic blue eyes gazing tenderly into mine!  Oh, the wonderful charm of that beautiful treacherous face!  Oh, husband of my love I father of my innocent baby!”

She threw herself into a corner of the sofa, and the dry sob that shook her frame told how keen was the torture.  Regina followed, kneeling in front of her, burying her face in her mother’s dress.