HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1887-8-12, Page 7raasutAM
AUGUST 12, 1887,
THE BRUSSELS POST
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fulness of herself, were all so many
1 U 1 N u I p u t { sword's in the heart of Isabel I•lee°.
Yet she gave no sign. The least ire.
on, patience, irritation, or weariness would
Lady Castlemaine's Divorce 1 have boon fatal ; the least sten pique,
jealousy, o envy would ]lavree beau
By BERTHA M. CLAY)
AT/WWII oi'
"A flaunted Lire," "The Rnrra Atone,
fount," "A Struggle for a Irene,t,
etc., etc., 1110.
else in the world but Gertrude, It was
Gertrude, Gertrudo, Gertrude, from
morning to dewy eve; he thought of
nothing else; be was ber ebadow. He
wont to every place where it was likely
be should find her. lee made No many
examen for calling on Lady Craven
that that accomplished matron laughed
in amused wonder.
Still Isabel Hyde hoped on ; she
would not yield, she would not give
way.; she hoped against hope.
I am as beautiful as she lo," she
wbisperod to herself, "and I will not
own myself conquered yet,"
CHAPTER VII,
THE "WAI2 Of TRS ROSES" CONTINUED.
The world soon began to understand
the situation and to enjoy it. There
were hundreds of pretty girls in Lon-
don, just as there were hundreds of
beautiful women; yet no other two"
seemed to be singled out and pitted
against each other as wore Isabel Hyde
and Gertrude Craven. It was the old
story of Rebecca andllowena over again.
If both had been fair, or both had been
dark, then one must have yielded the
palm to the other ; as matters were the
balance was equal. Gertrude was the
queen of blondes, Isabel the queen of
brunettes, and in time people began to
call them the rival roses. Gertrude
wore white roses, and Isabel red. It
was then that the rivalry between them
became known by the name of the "war
oe the roses."
It was graceful rivalry too. Gertrude
did not quite realize that it extended to
love ; she knew that socially they were
rivals; they had the same admirers, it
was always n struggle which should be
the best dressed and leave the best
partners. She enjoyed it as Isabel
would have done, had not her love and
She happiness of hor whole life been at
stake.
The struggle was a severe one, but
Isabel's tact and patience, courage and
hope, bad never failed. They were
worthy of a better cause, and she ought
to have succeeded; no one who saw her
talking brightly to her rival, and gayly
to .Lord Castlemaine could ever have
guessed of the tempest of passion, of
peen and of love, that raged in her
heart.
The strangest thing was that Isabel
made herself so charming, Gertrude
soon grew fond of her, which was the
very thing Miss Hyde had hoped for.
Then she said to herself: "When he
seeks Gertrude he willfind me," and the
measure was a very With one. Many a tete
e.-tetefor which the lovers longed, was in
that way prevented ; when Lord Castle.
maine went in search of Gertrude he
was almost sure to find Isabel Hyde by
her side.
"I never can find you alone for one
moment, Gertrude," the impatient
young lever would cry: "You mast
have entered into an alliance with Miss
Hyde."
"I like her 'very much," said lilies
Craven; "she amuses me."
"She does not amuse me when T find
her here at your side, and I have not a
chance of saying one word to you," cried
Lord Castlemaine.
Gertrude Craven bad made a pact
of friendship with her beautiful rival.
Isabel went to her laughingly one day
and said
"Do you know the pretty name they
have for us in society ?"
"No," replied Miss Craven, "I did not
even know they had given us any
name."
Yea ; they call us the rival roses."
"Why rival roses ?" asked Miss Cra-
ven; "we are not rivals."
A strange expression came over the
beautiful face of Isabel Hyde.
"Ne," she replied. "If they would
call us the roses—yon the white and me
the red—that would be sensible. Why
should we be rivals 2"
"We are not," cried Gertrude. "I
should think our lot in life and our
place in society about equal."
"With one exception." answered
Isabel Hyde; "you have a fortune and
I have none."
"That cannot matter with your
beautiful face," cried generous Ger-
trude; and when she was .dancing with
Lord Castlemaine that night the repeat-
ed that conversation to him.
"We are not rivals," she said, un-
eouseiqus of the weaving of the web ;
"hove could we be'?"
Ile had no suspicion either of the
wehving of the web ; but he answered,
quickly :
"You could not have any rival' in any-
thing, because you are peerless. You
ate on it throne; othersreach only the
stens;thele could be no rival for .you."
The little scenes that .took plate
would at times have been pitiful had
any one known their real meaning, but
none did. The Rival Roses would be
standing in a bail -room side .by side,
discussing the light current topics of
the day, and Lord Castlemabee would
approach them—hie eyes for Gertrude,
his earls for Gertrude, his whole heart
and goal eager for Gertrude with hard-
ly e
ard-ly,e thought for the girl ,by her side.
Then would follow .an eager .invitation
to.,daetce or to promenade hnytthing to
secure hoe to himself. 1tia.eagerness,
his desire to take Gertrudemff,.bie utter
absorption in her, ,his .complete iorget-
destregtign, She would listen patieut-
lj' for a few minutes to his conversa-
tion with Gertrude then, by some witty
remark of her own; she would ling
place in it. She bore without wincing
all the bitter pain, the heart -burning,
the jealousy ; no One know her secret
save her aunt and herself. She had
preserved it Bo wo11 that no one ovor
guessed it,
Lord Castlemaine tbougbt it fit to
proclaim his allegiance to his lady -love
by wearing white rosebuds. Most pop
mil o he
plc smiled who they saw them.
Isabel's heart aebed—it grew hard,
cold, and defiant when hor eyes fell on
them. She would rather have seen the
drawn sword of a foe than those deli-
cate white bads.
Ono morning Lord Castlemaine
called on Lady Cresson; ; he had '
y p , a tickets
for n fete which she partecularly desired
to attend, He was prevented from
goingby a previous engagomeut.
Needless to mention that Gertrude was
not expected there, or he would have
found some pertext for breaking his en-
gagement.
Isabel Hyde was alone in the draw-
ing -room when ho was announced. She
might to have been successful, the was
so wise, so patient, so cheerful.
chill of death seemed to be creeping ly ovor her.
"You are tired, Miss Hyde," he said,
gently, "or not well."
She made go azlswer for a minute;
she could not recover hor voice,
"Oh, surely, surely, he might have
greened "
roped ber heart, while hor lip smiled,
and sho said :
"Aunt Eleanor was eking yesterday
bow elle missed', those pleasant little
visits of yours."
"How kind of her. I always enjoya
conversation with Lady Crosson, She
,; will enjoy the fete, I think."
a "Shall you be there 2" she asked.
And he answered with candid in.
difference :
"Nee,
"And the White Rose; she asked,
with a smile, that had in it no bearti.
nese, "will she be there 2"
eI think not," he answered briefly.
""Good•by," she said to him with a
smiling face.
But when he bad left hor the smiles
died away, and the roses in the pretty
basket might have told a tale if they
could have done so.
In her place many girls would have
met him with reproaches, with unwise
taunts, because he visited her so eel.
don; not so Isabel; whatever she felt
she gave no outward sign. She welcom-
ed him with the sweetest of smiles, the
brightest of words; she amused and
half charmed him, as she had always
done. Lady Crosson, too, made many wise
On the table near which she was resolves. When sho heard that the ere
sitting stood a beautiful basket of roses, gagement was announced, that all was
that had been sent as an offering to settled, and Lord Castlemaine wan press.
Lady Cresson. From them Isabel
Hyde took one superb crimson rose,
half bud, half, flower. She caressed it
with her white fingers, and then she
Isabel looked up at hire, and the
pathos oilier dark, beautiful eyes struok
elm. Ile bad never near tears in her
ape before. What Was it they told ?—
what was it they said to hila, and he
could not understand ?
She wondered if ho would linger by
her side and talk to her. But, no 1 As
the sunflower turns to the sun, he had
turned his face toward Gertrude, for.
getting all else, as though a magnet
drew him,
He went to ber, walking slowly, as
though he would have lingered with
Isabel but for Gertrude's irresistible
attractions.
Isabel rose from the piano. She
CHAPTER VIII, walked to the pretty nook where the
tall palm trees stood. She took up au
THE VICTORIOUS WHITS RM. engraving that lay upon the table. It
When the announcement of the en- was merely that she might have a pre-
gagement between the Earl of Castle- text for hiding her face,
maine and Miss Craven took place, "He could not stop with me," she
Isabel Hyde did not quite renounce all said, "noteven for ave minutes; he must
hope. No one knew her pain, no one go back to her becao a she looked at
him. And I love as no woman ever
loved a man before. Why should she
win himhe I could I
w n ou not it be-
cause her eyes are blue and her hair
gold? Mino are dark, but I am as beau.
tiful. lie might have loved me."
A few minutes afterward she was the
centre of a laughing group, and she
looked like one who had not a care in
the world.
One day when Gertrude Craven was
talking to her lover, she said:
"I shall not be able to keep up all the
friendships I have fdrmed in London,
but there are some that I should like
always to retain. I am really attached
to Isabel Hyde, and you like her, do you
not?"
ing for an surly marriage, the sent for I They lookedat each other. In after
her niece to her room. years the memory of that conversation
"A failure, Isabel," she said, slowly, I returned to them and stung them.
"and 1 am sorry for it. It was the best "Yes," replied Lord Castlemaine, "I
have a great admiration and a most
sincere liking for Miss Hyde.".
"I am glad to hear it," said Gertrude,
cordially. There was no jealousy in her
thoughts or words. "I am glad,'I she
repeated, "for that is one of the frieud-
shipe I should like to retain. In those
happy days to come—days you like to
speak of,Rudolph—we will ask her to
visit us,
"Yes, that will be very pleasant," he
replied, absently.
Lover•like, he was thinking far more
of the happy days than he was of Isabel
Hyde.
knew her passionate despair. No one
knew that she, smiling and bright as she
seemed, had a bitterness greater than
death in her heart. She tried in a for-
lorn fashion to console herself by a
string of proverbs.
d the li "was hes favori
"T ere is many a slip 'twist the cup
an p, te.
Many engagements were announced
that never name to anything; this might
be one of them.
I will never dive up hope," she said
to herself, "until I see them married.
Even then I will live to part them."
looked at bin. He was gazing intently "hanao, but it is useless wasting more
on her, thinking bow exact she re• time upon it.. We must be wise, and
sembled the flower on which she was i - beat a masterly retreat we must burn
tent. our boats and leave no' trace behind us.
"My emblem," she said, with a smile No one must suspect out hopes, or oar
at him. '"It was very kind of society to disappointment ; I should like yon to be
give me such a pretty name as the Red just the same as ever with Lord Castle -
Rose." maine, and more friendly than ober
"Yea deserve it," he said, but his with Miss Craven, if you can manage it
heart wasfull of tender thoughts of the without breaking down."
White Recess he spoke. g "I can do it," answered Isabel, un -
She went a step nearer to him. flinchingly. "I will do more than
"The flower you have there is fading," that—"
she said ; "let me take it away and put
weddingiia will to coniianued Lad until town the
this in its place." y
Had he been loss in love with Ger- son, "and then we will dieonsa our
trade Craven, he must have felt great future plana. I can trust you not to let
delight in Isabel's beauty and bright- any signs of diaappoitment appear."
nese, he must have been pleased to have You may trust me implicit./, aunt,"
that glorious face so near his, the white said Isabel ; but her aunt had no idea
hands touching the flower that he wore. what this would cost her.
But he had not heart for any one save I have ono .great hope, continued
Gertrude. Gertrude had given him the Lady Crosson, and it is that if this
Sower, therefore it was precious and marriage takes place you will be invited
sacred in his es. to act as bridesmaid."
He drew back almost unconsciously, "Yes," replied Isabel, "that would be
quite unaware the pain his involuntary the best thing for me, and I should en.
action gave her. joy it," she added, with an expression
"No," he cried, "you moat not tench of face that, if Lady Cresson had been
that." a wiser woman, would have warned her,
"Must not touch it l" she repeated. She clung to hope, while any hope
'Why p„ was possible. There might be a gear.
eel; the marriage might be postpone
He laughed, and the proudpostponed;mass of that laugh struck her like a the beautiful white rose might even
sharp blow. , wither and die; a thousand unforeseen
2 cannot lose it," he said. "I would things might happen.
In the mean time the three met eon -
not change it for one made of diamonds• tinually—always once a day, at times
I would not give one leaf of it even for oftener than that. To all outward sp-
a golden rose," he added. pearauces there was the greatest pos.
What makes• it so precious 2" she Bible friendship between the two beau.
asked. tifuI rivals. They visited each other,
She knew by instinct, and she listen- and Gertrude talked openly of the com-
ed .with a smile, although every word in wedding.
out her heart like a knife.
""Yesterday," he replied, "it was held Perhaps the hardest part of Isabel's
lot was being compelled
by the sweetest white hand in the
compelled to listen to
these confidences; but when Gertrude
world. Today it lies here on my
heart." offered them she had not the faintest
"Whose was the hand that held. it 2" idea that Isabel cared for Lord Castle -
she asked, and he never so faintly maine.
dreamed of tho anguish that underlaid There were times when she suffered
the words. horribly. One eveuing, when, by Lady
'"Thera Cresson's invitation, Lady Craven, her
"Can you not guess 2" he said.
is but one to whom my words could daughter, and Lord Castlemaine were
apply—one White Rose, and one White
allhere, Isabel was pressed to sing.
Queen, your sister Rose." I have not heard you sing for some
She tried to look indifferent—she time, Miss Hyde," said Lord Castle-
tried to hide . the fact that her face maine.
grew pale, and her eyes lost their light. You shall hear me now," she said.
"You mean Gertrude Craven," she Years afterward she remembered this
geld, boldly. scene. Miss Craven was seated away
from the piano,quite at the other side
And his face brightened with alover's of the rom, loing most lovely in a
Azide as he answered : h
"Yee, I mean Gertrude Craven;
each leaf of this fading rose is dearer
to me than all other flowers that bloom."
"Because she has touched it 2" said
Isabel.
"Yes; I am like the poet who wrote,
'Drink to me only with thine eyes.' I
wonder when she has breathed upon a
rose that it can ever die."
Isabel Hyde laughed, but there was
neither music nor merriment in her
laughter.
"Miss Craven would be flattered if
she heard you. My emblem is rejected,
then 2"
"Nay, that is a cold, hard way of
putting it. I must be true to my colors;
you would not respect me if I Were not."
She laid the flower dowe again in the
pretty basket with its awed companions,
"We shall be so happy," she centime
ed, "that we shall be able to give awe
a great deal of happiness to others; and
we will begin with beautiful Isabel
Hyde."
He whispered to her how noble and
unselfish she was. She laughed.
',Never mind myperfeotions just now,
Rudolph," she said, laughingly. "I
want to talk about Isabel Hyde. I am
so glad you like her. She will be my
friend after we—after we are married.
She will visit us."
"You forget," he said, "that she will
probably marry herself."
And they both looked across the room
at the beautiful dark face which hid so
much.
"Yes, I had forgotten that," she an-
ewored, slowly. I cannot tell why,
but I bave au idea that she will not
marry."
"My wonder is that she has not mar-
ried before this," said Lord Castlemaine,
"she is very beautiful, very graceful
and accomplished."
Gertrude looked up at him with a
bright smile.
"How is it," she asked, "that with
all these charms you have not fallen in
love with yourself."
"My darling," cried the young lover,
rapturously, "I shall love you until I die.
It seems to me I hardly know any other
face than yours. It semis to me also
that when my eyes first fell on you, I
thought that you were the one woman
I could love, singled out from all the
world."
"Were you never in the least degree
in love with anyone else," she asked.
"Never, my darling; if I had not met
you, the chances are that I should have
gone unmarried to my grave. I cannot
even imagine myself cariug for anyone
else."
"It seems strange," shosaid, musingly.
'"i do not think so; it would have been
dress of white silk, trimmed wit lace stranger had I done anything else ex.
and pretty clusters of pink hawthorne sept throw my fortune, my love, and my
Lord Castlemaine had left ber side for life at your feet. But you have never
a few minutes, and no 008 else had cared for any one else, have you Ger-
taken his place. It was something new trade 2"
for him to leave Gertrude for Label, and The" swept laugh` that answered biro
her hopes rose at once. Her dark eyes was like music in his ears.
brightened, and her face grow fairer
with hope. Ire steed by her side while
the sang. She had hardly time to think
whas oho should sing. Almost involun-
tarily, her fingers strayed into a sweet
and plaintive melody—a pretty, pathetic
little ballad, called:
"I," she cried. "You forgot that I
have not had time to care for any one
but you. This is my first gears= ; you
say that you fell in love with me the
first time that yon saw me, and you
have monopolized all my time since
then. No, indeed, Rudolph, I have
"ponOET ani NOT." never oared for any one but you."
Bananas you found a fresher heart, she said, suddenly :
To give it all that oaoo was mine ;
I say farewell, and part, "Rudolph, T shall ask Miss Hyde to
f be my chief bridesmaid."
"Forgot ma nob though I repine She was silent for a few minutes, then
A
A n nooblbleer nna ame, lovelier lot, ound a fairer taco, "Who will have eyes for the brides.
a .
but when he bad gone alis drew it ant I'll meekly bow and yiold my piton;
But, oh, forgot me not."
maids when you are the bride 2" he Me
again, she tore it leaf from leaf, and as tliShe had be un the songshun t claimed. "Ask whom you will, I shall
1 the sweet red'petals fell elle trampled inkingiyg be Content."
s un- ; but as Oho proceeded the /sabre Hyde was (sired, and the vow
them under her feet.
words went home to her very heart, her
Was there a with in her mind that it she took at that wedding she kept, and
had been the face of her rival, ayoe duped with tears, her voice faltered. this story tells how she carried it out.
Yet the had pride and spirit enough to e�Y,aaua this i�if Oen ,ebai q e trmei°.
laugh and talk gooey to him while be re- d flowed from hes lips �ut .. her Wes
reamed, y p , y CHAPTER IC.
"Yep moat b8 enjoying the season," met bitr a, and he Bmomentaer the tehe weears in them. ' 115 110ta'MOotf la vete=S.
the seid. "You seem to 1i0 enjoying it but
t one thought of himself b t' moon
wag, neverd soL bright at bonen
•---you baso many engagements." head t g a moon as cure," said Lbrd Castlemaine
"I think," he said, half shyly, "they „ „ to his beautiful young wife.
aro all merged into ono." Surely he will understvad now, sho They were in Venice; watching the
She would not understand him, the thHebo htt b s habit some head ve y kind• sun set over the glai"ing gee, luxuriously
seated in a gondola, listening to the
music that seemed to come from all 1
sides, the splashing of the ears in the
water, the gondolier's song, the distant
touch of .a lute, the faint chiming of the
church bolls, the musical ripple of the
water as it wasbed the base of the
grand pillars, Venice, • elle beautiful,
the fair, the city of towers, of music and
dowers, the home of poetry en'dromence,
the city of which tree poets love to sing.
`These newly wedded lovers had enjoyed
it to their heart's content.
The sunlight and the moonlight, the
glamour of the stare, the sweet, solemn
bush of the water, the brilliant hues of
the sky and the foliage, had all been so
many pictures to them. Lord Castle.
maine had traveled; Gertrude had
never quitted q rte Z;ngfish shores ; every-
thing
very
thing was new and beautiful to her ;
she was full of enthusiasm and delight,
and her husband was delighted with her
happiness.
"If I never had any more happiness
in my life," she said to him on this
moonlight evening, "I should still have
had more than falls to the lot of most
women. I wonder, Rudolph–. –"
She stopped suddenly, and he saw f
that her eyes were filed on the moonlit
sky.
"You wonder what, Gertrude 2"
"I am almost afraid to say," she re-
plied. "I was wondering if, after all,
heaven can be much happier than
earth."
Earth as we find it," he replied,
thoughtfully. "Yon meet remember
that very few are happy as we are."
"That is because we married for
love," she said, gayly.
"Yes, and also because the love lives
on, never to die."
"I oannotima ins "' said
g Lady Castle-
maine, "how love ever dies. The world
is so fair that its beauty alone, I should
think, would keep love alive in every
heart, I love yon the better for the
beautiful moonlight, and the silent
water, and the golden stars. How does
love die, Rudolph ?"
"In a hundred different ways," be
answered.
"Not one of which we shall ever
know," she said, brightly,
"No, I am sure not, Gertrude," he re-
plied.
"Tell me how it dies—in what man.
nor, in what fashion. I do not mean
lover's love, but the lova that lives be-
tween man and wife, such as you and I."
"The difficulty would be rather to tell
you how it lives than how it dies, SO
many things conspire to kill it. I must
frankly admit that in most oases the
husband is to blame; he grows tired of
his wife; his own fervid love changes
to indifference ; she resents it; quarrels.
dislike, and hatred follow."
"That is a cruel death for love to die,"
she said, with a faint, sweet sigh.
"Cruel, but very common," he replied,
""There's another common reason foz
the death of love—in jealousy," he con.
tinned. "Perhaps the husband is older
than the wife, and she loses all the
gayeties and pleasures of which he is
tired. Jealousy is almost sure to step
in there, and again love dies."
"Ours will never die ir, that fashion,"
she said, raising her beautiful fade to
his and kissing his lips ; "never, will it.
Rudolph 2"
"No, my darling," he said; bet to her
eager ears his answer seemed long in
coming, and cold when it came.
"You could never be jealous of me,"
she said, hastily; "because you know
that every beat of my heart is yours—
every thought is yours. I live in a
would of shadows, and the only real
thing in it is yourself. Could any man
ever be jealous of a woman who loved
him so well 2"
I should say not," replied Lord
Castlemaine.
"Then our love can never die in that
fashion," she said, decidedly. "And yon
know, Rudolph, that I can never be
jealous of you. How could I, when you
love me above all other women, and
alone out of all women ? I could not be
jealous of you. In none of these fashions,
therefore, could our love die. Tell me
some other cause."
"Love often dies," he said, "because
husband and wife resemble each other
so entirely that they grow tired to death
of each other, and find nothing but
monotony and weariness."
"That will most certainly never be
our ease," she said, brightly. "In many
things, I am glad to say, we entirely
differ, Rudolph. Give me another ex-
ample."
"I have heard of oases," he continued,
"whore love has died because husband
and wife have been of so entirely dif-
ferent a type that there could be no pos-
sible peace or harmony between them."
"Again, that can never be our case,"
she said, "for fn many things we are ex-
actly alike."
"I am pleased to agree with you," re-
plied Lord' Castlemaine.
"How does love die the hardest death?"
she asked again.
"I should say, Gertrude, in a case
like ours, where it is deep and true,
where it seems to be immortal, and pre-
suming on its' strength, no coo is taken
to preserve it. That is, mistakes are
made and misunderstandings creep in.
Then, psrhape both are proud; neither
will make the grab advance. Time
passes on, and love dies,"
"That is a sad death, too," sho said ;
"but, Rudolph, there again we are safe
—there never could bo any misundor-
standing between us. How could that
be possible when we have no secrete
between els, and my heart is like an open
book to you:?"
"There is no fear, my darling," he
said, gently.
Het beautiful blue eyes were fixed on
the moonlit sky.
"I like to think that," she said. "I
like to remember that our love is eternal, ot
that it will never die; that it will last
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