Chapter LXIX

Aline’s momentous bridal day waned slowly to its close.

The physicians remained with Mr. Delaney all day, then left him to Mrs. Griffin’s care and went away. He was better, they said, but he must have careful nursing.

The wintery day was fading into darkness. Mrs. Griffin had slipped out for the tea and toast again, and Mr. Delaney lay among his snowy pillows, gazing thoughtfully into the bright fire. His lips moved, and he murmured, sadly:

“She will hate me, perhaps.”

The door opened softly. His bride of a day came gliding in, clad in her simple dark-blue dress, the loose curls falling on her shoulders.

“You are better?” she said, coming up to him. “Ah, I thought you were dead this morning!”

She sat down in a low chair by the side of the bed, very close to him. His heart beat with sudden rapture.

“Yes, I thought that I was dying, too,” he said. “You remember that moment when I kissed your cheek? Well, just then I had a sensation as of falling from a great height. I thought it was the last of earth, that I had looked my last on your beloved face, that I was surely dying!”

“We all thought so,” she replied, calmly and gravely.

He reached out and took her hand in both his own.

“Aline, will you look at me?” he asked.

She lifted the shyly drooping lashes from her violet eyes and gazed into his face, frankly and steadily.

“Aline, do you realize that you are really my wife?--that you belong wholly to me?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she answered quietly.

“Is there any sorrow, any regret, any repulsion in the thought?” he inquired, and she answered in a low voice:

“No.”

“I have something to tell you,” he said, “but oh, Aline, I am afraid.”

She grew very pale at those words from his lips. She looked at him anxiously.

“You need not be afraid to tell me. Go on. I will try to bear it,” she said, with a falter in her voice.

“But, Aline, my own, my darling, you must not hate me for this,” he said, passionately. “Indeed I did not know! I believed I was surely doomed! And, now, now if only you could forgive me for my unconscious deception, I should be the happiest man in the world.”

She bent her blue eyes on him full of reproach and pain.

“Happy--at dying? Happy--at leaving _me_?” she said, in a low, strange, bewildered voice.

And for a moment they gazed wonderingly at each other. Then he spoke--almost incredulously:

“Aline, have you misunderstood me? I have been trying to tell you that the doubt is over. I have rallied from my illness! Love and joy have wrought a miracle! _I shall live!_”

“You--will--live?” she gasped, and stared at him, speechless.

“Oh, my dear, are you so sorry? Do you regret that you gave yourself to me? Oh, I would far sooner have died than this!” cried out Oran Delaney, in a passion of despair.

But she caught the hand he threw out in his frenzy of despair and pressed her lips upon it.

“Ah, Heaven, how glad I am!” she cried; and he answered, wonderingly:

“And you are not sorry--you do not hate me, Aline?”

“No, no, I love you,” she answered, hiding her face against his hands. “I think I must have loved you long, but I did not know it until I believed you dying. Oh, I thank Heaven that it has so kindly granted my prayer!”

“Your prayer, darling?” he said, gathering her in both arms tightly, as if he never meant to let her go again.

She whispered, with her lips against his cheek:

“I have been locked into my room all day, Oran, praying, praying, on my knees, that your life might be spared to me. And Heaven has granted my prayer. You will live for me, my husband!”

THE END.

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Charlotte M. Braeme.

22 His Perfect Trust.
24 The Heiress of Hilldrop.
25 For Another’s Sin.
26 Set in Diamonds.
27 The World Between Them.
28 A Passion Flower.
29 A True Magdalen.
30 A Woman’s Error.
32 At War with Herself.
33 The Belle of Lynn.
34 The Shadow of a Sin.
35 Claribel’s Love Story.
36 A Woman’s War.
38 Hilary’s Folly.
39 From Gloom to Sunlight.
40 A Haunted Life.
41 The Mystery of Colde Fell; or, Not Proven.
42 A Dark Marriage Morn.
43 The Duke’s Secret.
44 His Wife’s Judgment.
45 A Thorn in Her Heart.
46 A Nameless Sin.
47 A Mad Love.
48 Irene’s Vow.
49 Signa’s Sweetheart.
51 A Fiery Ordeal.
52 Between Two Loves.
53 Beyond Pardon.
54 A Bitter Atonement.
55 A Broken Wedding-Ring.
56 Dora Thorne.
57 The Earl’s Atonement.
58 Evelyn’s Folly.
59 A Golden Heart.
60 Her Martyrdom.
61 Her Second Love.
62 Lady Damer’s Secret.
63 Lady Hutton’s Ward.
64 Lord Lisle’s Daughter.
66 Lord Lynne’s Choice.
67 Love Works Wonders.
68 Prince Charlie’s Daughter.
69 Put Asunder; or, Lady Castlemaine’s Divorce.
70 Repented at Leisure.
71 A Struggle for a Ring.
72 Sunshine and Roses.
73 Thorns and Orange-Blossoms.
77 Under a Shadow; or, A Shadowed Life.
78 Weaker Than a Woman.
79 Wedded and Parted.
80 Which Loved Him Best?
81 Wife in Name Only.
82 A Woman’s Temptation.
83 A Queen Amongst Women.
84 Madolin’s Lover.
87 The Sin of a Lifetime.
88 Love’s Warfare.
89 ’Twixt Smile and Tear.
90 Sweet Cymbeline.
93 The Squire’s Darling.
94 The Gambler’s Wife.
95 A Fatal Dower.
96 Her Mother’s Sin.
97 Romance of a Black Veil.
98 A Rose in Thorns.
99 Lord Elesmere’s Wife.
291 Queen of the Lilies. Sequel to Lord Elesmere’s Wife.
103 The Mystery of Woodleigh Grange.
185 A Willful Maid.
186 A Woman’s Love Story.
194 Bonnie Doon.
212 Lady Latimer’s Escape, and A Fatal Temptation.
213 My Poor Wife.
214 Jessie.
215 Phyllis’s Probation.
216 Betwixt My Love and Me.
217 Suzanne.
218 Prince Charming.
222 The Ducie Diamonds.
223 Lady Muriel’s Secret.
224 “For a Dream’s Sake.”
225 Under a Ban.
226 “So Near, and Yet So Far.”
227 A Great Mistake.
228 The Wife’s Secret.
229 For Life and Love.
230 The Fatal Lilies.
231 A Gilded Sin.
232 Ingledew House.
238 In Cupid’s Net.
234 A Dead Heart.
235 A Golden Dawn.
236 Two Kisses.
237 The White Witch.
238 At Any Cost.
239 A Bitter Reckoning.
240 My Sister Kate.
241 His Wedded Wife.
242 Thrown on the World.
243 Between Two Sins.
244 The Hidden Sin.
245 James Gordon’s Wife.
246 A Coquette’s Conquest.
247 A Fair Mystery.
292 The Perils of Beauty. Sequel to “A Fair Mystery.”
248 Wedded Hands.
249 Griselda.
250 Margery Daw.
251 In Shallow Waters.
252 Society’s Verdict.
253 If Love Be Love.
254 The Actor’s Ward.
255 A Willful Young Woman.
256 Marjorie.
257 Lady Diana’s Pride.
258 A Hidden Terror.
259 A Struggle for the Right.
260 Blossom and Fruit.
261 On Her Wedding Morn.
262 The Shattered Idol.
263 The Earl’s Error.
264 An Unnatural Bondage.
265 Golden Gates.
266 A Modern Cinderella.
267 Lured Away.
268 Beauty’s Marriage.
269 Guelda.
270 Dumaresq’s Temptation.
271 Jenny.
272 The Star of Love.
273 A Woman’s Vengeance.
274 Dream Faces.
275 The Story of an Error.
276 The Queen of the County.
277 Her Only Sin.
278 A Fatal Wedding.
279 Under the Holly Berries, and Coralie.
282 Redeemed by Love.
286 Lady Ethel’s Whim, and My Mother’s Rival.
287 Daphne Vernon, and An Alluring Young Woman.
289 Love’s Surrender, and Marion Arleigh’s Penance.
309 A Woman’s Honor.

Robert Buchanan.

220 The Master of the Mine.
221 The Heir of Linne.

Rosa Nouchette Carey.

50 Not Like Other Girls.
85 Only the Governess.

Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.

107 Ivan, the Serf.
108 The Queen’s Revenge.

Mrs. E. Burke Collins.

161 Lillian’s Vow.
162 Sold for Gold.

Marie Corelli.

20 The Song of Miriam.
92 Vendetta!

Jean Corey.

148 The Dance of Death.
163 A Heart of Fire.

Victoria Cross.

144 A Girl of the Klondike.
145 Paula. A Sketch from Life.

Dora Delmar.

152 Cast Up by the Tide.
153 The Scent of the Roses.

A. Conan Doyle.

65 A Study in Scarlet.
143 The Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories.

“The Duchess.”

74 The Honorable Mrs. Vereker.
75 Under-Currents.
76 A Born Coquette.
91 April’s Lady.

Alexander Dumas.

86 Camille.
281 The Bride of Monte-Cristo.

May Agnes Fleming.

135 The Heiress of Glen Gower.
136 Magdalen’s Vow.
137 Who Wins?
138 Lady Evelyn.
139 Estella’s Husband.
140 The Baronet’s Bride.
141 The Unseen Bridegroom.

Charles Garvice.

1 The Marquis.
5 A Wasted Love (On Love’s Altar).
7 Leslie’s Loyalty (His Love So True).
9 Elaine.
11 Claire (The Mistress of Court Regna).
13 Her Heart’s Desire (An Innocent Girl).
15 Her Ransom (Paid For).
17 A Coronet of Shame.
21 Lorrie; or, Hollow Gold.
124 She Loved Him.
207 Only a Girl’s Love.
208 Leola Dale’s Fortune.
209 Only One Love.
210 His Guardian Angel.
288 Farmer Holt’s Daughter, and Woven on Fate’s Loom.
293 The Earl’s Heir (Lady Norah).
294 For an Earldom (Love’s Dilemma).
295 The Lady of Darracourt (Lucille).
296 The Heir of Vering.
297 The Gipsy Peer (The Usurper).
298 Jeanne (Barriers Between).
299 So Nearly Lost (The Springtime of Love).
300 So Fair, So False (The Beauty of the Season).
301 My Lady Pride (Floris).
302 Staunch as a Woman (A Maiden’s Sacrifice).
303 The Spider and the Fly (Violet).
304 For Her Only (Diana).
305 Under the Shadow (Iris).
306 A Woman’s Soul (Behind the Footlights).
307 It Was For Her Sake (Olivia).
308 Staunch of Heart (Adrian Leroy).
310 My Lady of Snow, and other stories.
311 Leave Love to Itself, and other stories.
312 The Woman Decides, and other stories.

Wenona Gilman.

154 Hearts and Lives.
155 Blind Dan’s Daughter.
156 Val, the Tomboy.
157 My Little Princess.

Mrs. Sumner Hayden.

8 The Midnight Marriage.
118 Little Goldie.

Mary J. Holmes.

111 Tempest and Sunshine.
112 The Homestead on the Hillside.
118 The English Orphans.
122 ’Lena Rivers.
126 Meadow Brook.
201 Dora Deane.
202 Old Hagar’s Secret.

Rudyard Kipling.

115 Ballads and Other Verses.
116 Drums of the Fore and Aft.

Laura Jean Libbey.

2 Beautiful Ione’s Lover.
4 All For Love of a Fair Face.
6 Daisy Brooks.
8 Little Rosebud’s Lovers.
10 A Struggle for a Heart.
12 Junie’s Love-Test.
14 Leonie Locke.
16 Madolin Rivers.
18 The Heiress of Cameron Hall.
285 Beautiful Victorine’s Folly.

Henry Seton Merriman.

130 The Phantom Future.
131 Prisoners and Captives.
142 Young Mistley.

Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.

165 Lady Gay’s Pride.
166 Lancaster’s Choice.
167 Tiger-Lily.
168 The Pearl and the Ruby.
169 Eric Braddon’s Love.
170 Little Sweetheart.
171 Flower and Jewel.
172 Little Nobody.

Oliver Optic.

114 The Boat Club.
120 All Aboard!
121 Now or Never.

Effie Adelaide Rowlands.

149 A Charity Girl.
150 Husband and Foe.
151 Little Lady Charles.
178 The Man She Loved.
184 One Man’s Evil.
205 Carla.
283 Beneath a Spell.
284 Her Punishment; or, With Heart So True.

Charlotte M. Stanley.

174 Her Second Choice.
175 His Country Cousin.
176 Frou-Frou.
197 Sybil’s Secret.

Count Lyof Tolstoi.

101 The Kreutzer Sonata.
102 Anna Karénine.

E. Werner.

105 His Word of Honor: or, What the Spring Brought.
106 She Fell in Love with Her Husband; or, “Good Luck;” or, Success, and How He Won It.
109 The Price He Paid.
110 The Master of Ettersberg.

Miscellaneous.

19 Woman Against Woman.
Mrs. M. A. Holmes.

23 Addie’s Husband.
By the Author of “Jessie.”

31 Leonie, the Sweet Street Singer. By the Author of “For Mother’s Sake.”

37 Lady Audley’s Secret.
Miss M. E. Braddon.

100 The Dolly Dialogues.
Anthony Hope.

104 Martha; or, The Story of a Clergyman’s Daughter.
W. Heimburg.

117 The Royal Chase.
Amédée Achard.

119 Inez: A Tale of the Alamo.
Augusta J. Evans.

123 Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

125 In His Steps. “What Would Jesus Do?”
Rev. Charles M. Sheldon.

127 The Iron Pirate.
Max Pemberton.

128 The Hypocrite.

129 Dead Man’s Rock.
“Q” (Arthur T. Quiller-Couch).

132 A Parisian Romance.
Octave Feuillet.

133 Carmen: The Power of Love.
Prosper Merimée.

134 Prue and I.
George William Curtis.

146 Sappho. Alphonse Daudet.

147 Manon Lescaut.
L’Abbé Prévost.

158 The Banker’s Daughter.
Magdalen Barrett.

159 The Depth of Love.
Hannah Blomgren.

160 His Legal Wife.
Mary E. Bryan.

164 Shadow and Sunshine.
Adna H. Lightner.

173 Under Five Lakes.
“M. Quad.”

177 The Little Light-House Lass.
Elizabeth Stiles.

179 An Impossible Thing.
Katharine Wynne.

180 Woman, the Mystery.
Henry Herman.

181 Christie Johnstone.
Charles Reade.

182 The Blithedale Romance.
Nathaniel Hawthorne.

183 Through Green Glasses.
F. M. Allen.

187 Black Rock. Ralph Connor.

188 The Type-Writer Girl.
Olive Pratt Rayner.

189 The Story of L’Aiglon.
“Carolus.”

190 An Englishwoman’s Love-Letters.

191 Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

192 The Queen’s Book.
Queen Victoria.

193 The Best Policy.
Katharine Wynne.

195 The Danvers Jewels.
Mary Cholmondeley.

196 Madame Sans-Gene.
Edmond Lepelletier.

198 Love’s Martyr.
Laurence A. Tadema.

199 A Crimson Stain.
Annie Bradshaw.

200 Miss Kate. “Rita.”

203 “By the Waters of Babylon.” John B. Hopkins.

204 A Fortnight at the Dead Lake. Paul Heyse.

205 Mrs. Austen.
Margaret Veley.

211 Peg Woffington.
Charles Reade.

219 The Woman of Fire.
Adolphe Belot.

280 May Blossom.
Margaret Lee.

290 Wee Macgreegor. J. J. B.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

This novel first appeared as a serial in the _Fireside Companion_ story paper from October 1, 1883 to February 4, 1884.

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.

Some inconsistent hyphenation (childlike vs. child-like) was retained from the original. Table of contents has been added and placed into the public domain by the transcriber.