The People of the Mist | Page 7

to you, Jane. It was
because your father has dismissed me from the house and forbidden me
to have any more to do with you."
"Oh, why?" asked the girl, lifting her hands despairingly.
"Can't you guess?" he answered with a bitter laugh.
"Yes, Leonard," she whispered, taking his hand in sympathy.
"Perhaps I had better put it plainly," said Leonard again; "it may
prevent misunderstandings. Your father has dismissed me because my
father embezzled all my money. The sins of the father are visited upon
the children, you see. Also he has done this with more than usual
distinctness and alacrity, because he wishes you to marry young Mr.
Cohen, the bullion-broker and the future owner of Outram."
Jane shivered.

"I know, I know," she said, "and oh! Leonard, I hate him!"
"Then perhaps it will be as well not to marry him," he answered.
"I would rather die first," she said with conviction.
"Unfortunately one can't always die when it happens to be convenient,
Jane."
"Oh! Leonard, don't be horrid," she said, beginning to cry. "Where are
you going, and what shall I do?"
"To the bad probably," he answered. "At least it all depends upon you.
Look here, Jane, if you will stick to me I will stick to you. The luck is
against me now, but I have it in me to see that through. I love you and I
would work myself to death for you; but at the best it must be a
question of time, probably of years."
"Oh! Leonard, indeed I will if I can. I am sure that you do not love me
more than I love you, but I can never make you understand how odious
they all are to me about you, especially Papa."
"Confound him!" said Leonard beneath his breath; and if Jane heard, at
that moment her filial affections were not sufficiently strong to induce
her to remonstrate.
"Well, Jane," he went on, "the matter lies thus: either you must put up
with their treatment or you must give me the go-by. Listen: in six
months you will be twenty-one, and in this country all her relations put
together can't force a woman to marry a man if she does not wish to, or
prevent her from marrying one whom she does wish to marry. Now you
know my address at my club in town; letters sent there will always
reach me, and it is scarcely possible for your father or anybody else to
prevent you from writing and posting a letter. If you want my help or to
communicate in any way, I shall expect to hear from you, and if need
be, I will take you away and marry you the moment you come of age. If,
on the other hand, I do not hear from you, I shall know that it is
because you do not choose to write, or because that which you have to

write would be too painful for me to read. Do you understand, Jane?"
"Oh! yes, Leonard, but you put things so hardly."
"Things have been put hardly enough to me, love, and I must be plain--
this is my last chance of speaking to you."
At this moment an ominous sound echoed through the night; it was
none other than the distant voice of Mr. Beach, calling from his
front-door step, "Jane! Are you out there, Jane?"
"Oh! heavens!" she said, "there is my father calling me. I came out by
the back door, but mother must have been up to my room and found me
gone. She watches me all day now. What shall I do?"
"Go back and tell them that you have been saying good-bye to me. It is
not a crime; they cannot kill you for it."
"Indeed they can, or just as bad," replied Jane. Then suddenly she threw
her arms about her lover's neck and burying her beautiful face upon his
breast, she began to sob bitterly, murmuring, "Oh my darling, my
darling, what shall I do without you?"
Over the brief and distressing scene which followed it may be well to
drop a veil. Leonard's bitterness of mind forsook him now, and he
kissed her and comforted her as he might best, even going so far as to
mingle his tears with hers, tears of which he had no cause to be
ashamed. At length she tore herself loose, for the shouts were growing
louder and more insistent.
"I forgot," she sobbed, "here is a farewell present for you; keep it in
memory of me, Leonard," and thrusting her hand into the bosom of her
dress she drew from it a little packet which she gave to him.
Then once more they kissed and clung together, and in another moment
she had vanished