FLORIDA; OR, THE IRON WILL.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2033, 10 July 1875, Page 4

FLORIDA; OR, THE IRON WILL.

A STORY OF TO-DAY.

BY MES. MARY A. DENISON.

Chapteb XIV. Florida's visit, a startling disCLOBITEE. " Doctob," called Parker, one evening, some six weeks /rom the date of his arrival, " I am getting stronger, am I not?" " Somewhat stronger, but you are weak yet, Mr Garret." " Mr Parker- Hillman, if you please," said Parker. " You will persist in calling me Garret." " That is the name on the book, and according to the ordinances of the house, you are Mr Garret, while you stay here! " " O ! well, it doesn't matter, particularly —but, doctor, can I write a letter? " "Not yet," was the reply. " I must! " cried the young man. "It will reduce my fever quicker than all your medicines." " Not yet," said the doctor, decidedly. " I cannot allow it." " Well, doctor, you will at least tell me why I am here, and who brought me." "You are here to be takm care of," was the reply. "As to who brought you, I cannot tell. The gentleman has not been near you since, and we only hear from him by letter." '•But what does he'sign himself?" queried the" sick man. "That I do not know," replied the doctor, "as I have seen none of the letters." " Has no one called here, then ?—no lady?" "No one." " Alas ! what do they think ? " murmured the young manj sighing. ,* "The nurse will be in immediately," said the doctor, as he left the room. " What will Virginia think ?" he cried in a low voice, clasping his hands. " And to whom can I be indebted for this elegance, these comforts ? Never was I so housed before. If I only knew ! " The door opened. The nurse, a portly woman, entered with an sir of mystery. " I don't know whether it's quite right," she said, "though I haven'thad any orders. But there's a lady called, and wishes to see Mr Garret.'' " " A lady! " his cheeks flushed in an instant. He half raised himself, then sunk back, exhausted. • "There now—it won't do, I see that,'' said the nurse, in her severest tone. "O! yes—l'm all right new. I promise you I'll be very calm. I wonder who it is ? " : " The dear knows," replied the nurse. " She came in a splendid carriage, but she wouldn't give her name." " O ! if it is but Virginia," whispered Parker. " Tell her to come. I'm sure it wilfmake me better, just to see a face I have known." The nurse went out; in less than a moment she returned, and following her was Florida. He looked eagerly bey«nd; His eye brightened as he saw .her, but dulled, again, as' he saw not Virginia. ' " Parker!" she exclaimed, in a voice that she tried to make even. " Did Virginia send you ?" he asked. "No;" her voice grew calm in an instant. . "■O ! Florida-?-didn't Virginia send one word —one token?" " Virginia knew nothing of my coming." She touched his pale forehead, smoothed back the light hair. "Thank you; how soothing that is," he murmured, dreamily. "Florida, I'm sure yon're very kind to come —I always thought you disliked me.' 1 "I never- disliked you," said Florida, hoarsely, still eagerly strokiug back the soft locks. " But, it is not in my nature, perhaps, to show a great deal of tenderness. Your head feels better now, does it not?" : : ■ "O ! a great deal; there seems a magnetic influence in the motion—it sends a thrill of rest, through me. You \ are very kind. Do you know how I came here ? " "You were brought here, I suppose," said Florida, smiling. " Yes, but by whom ? Who takes so strong an interest in me?—for these things can not be had for nothing. • I am puzzled to know. Are you wholly in the. • dark, too?" ". Wholly in the dark, Parker. We went out to see you, hearing how sick you were, and that you had been taken away by strangers." "' We '—you say ; was, Virginia with you ? " " Yes," replied Florida, shortly, her face clouding, though she still pressed his forehead lightly. • "And she—of course, she was disappointed." "We were both disappointed." He closed his eyes for a moment. .„ "It seems so good to see you," he resumed; my nerves are so quiet now! Your touch is healing." Florida smiled. " Is Virginia—well ? " " Yes," said Florida. '..•' Will you bring her with you if you come again ? " "If it is possible, 1' replied Florida, still pressing the waxen forehead. He closed his eyes again ; an almost infantile smile lingered on his lips. He slept —his repose seemed so complete that Florida sat and gazed upon him, unconscious how swiftly the time was passing.Once she bent down and touched the white brow with her lips. He smiled in his sleep. O ! it" he would smile-on- me that way when he wakes !'' she cried, with a passionate sob—"but he will, he shall." She lifted her hand from his forehead. The motion aroused him. " I am very impolite to go to sleep in the presence of a lady, but weakness must be my apology," he said. " You need not apologise. How do you feel now?" • "O! strong—delightfully strong," he said. " I wish you would come often. I seem to have passed a whole night in sleep and pleasant dream 3. You have done me good. How I shall write, now !"...- "Write!" exclaimed Florida, in amazement. " Yes; don't mention it, but I bribe ) the nurse to bring me my manuscript after a certain hour, and *I am getting along famously. Two hundred pages written already. " You do wrong," said Florida.

" Don't say that," he responded, with a pleading look. " I cannot bo depenpent. Will you tell Virginia that ray book is half written ? " " If you wish it." said Florida. " Please do so, then; it will give her pleasure, I am sure." " I must go now, Parker; it is later than I thought. Good morning." He held her hand, murmuring histhanks for her kindness. Then he carried it to his lips. Florida's heart beat with a strange mingling of love and pain. Her yoice choaked as she said good-by again. " What a mean fellow I have been to call her an ogress!" whispered Parker. "I wish she were my .sister, I would ask her to sit by me from morning to night. To a true sister it would be no sacrifice." Florida drove rapidly home. On her next visit to Parker, she found him quite pale and dejected. He was sitting up, however, and ker presence seemed to give him instant strength. "Do you know what worries me and takes away the vitality I need ?" he asked. She shook her head. " The constant desire to get well and find out who are these friends so careful to me; and the disappointment that is more than I can tell, of not receiving letters from Virginia." " Was Virginia, then, so dear a friend ? and cannot I take her place? " He started, violently, and crimsoned; his breath grew short, even to gasping, but after a few moments he controlled himself. ; " You do not know," he said, calmly, though his previous emotion just tinged his voice, " you do not know what Virginia was to me." "And could it be possible that she professed —" she had touched delicate ground, and, like a woman, shrunk back from the subject. " Florida— Virginia, I had hoped, loved me very much," he said, mournfully. " Then she is changed, Parker —she permits the visits of a lover." " A lover! " he exclaimed, his white face growing almost stony. " Did I hear you aright, Florida?—a lover? Virginia !" "It is even so, Parker; think no more, of her—she is no longer true." "No longer true—good God! She, my wife! no longer true. It is a lie, woman —false as hell! " Florida shrunk from the glittering eyes, the panting bosom, the wild demeanor. But all these affected her as nothing to the words—" my wife !" They sent her heart-blood- surging back in waves of fire. She had never dreamed of this —no, not for a moment. Now, she saw as in a flash the key to Virginia's strange words. " Your wife, Parker ? " . " Yes, Florida —oh ! unsay those cruel words; my very heart is bleeding. See, you have broken my heart, and it is bleeding upon my lips.". '■■'■■■.'[ Florida shrunk again, both conscience and terror stricken, as .he : wiped the crimson life-tide away. Once in possession of that knowledge, she had nothing more to do witn him —nothing more to do with herself, save to trample upon the wild love that had burned in her bosom for years for him. Honorable, inasmuch 'as, the husband of another was sacred to that other in her eyes, she would say nothing "more tender, nothing more loving in the least degree,; but strangely mingled feelings chased each other through her breast— it was hest for Mm to die away from Virginia. She could not yet bear the thought that her sister should rejoice in what was denied her. She had intended to use her power upon the weak frame—to subdue that will to hers—to wrest his love, as it were, from her gentle sister—but not now. Though the former j was sin, as surely as the latter, the difference in degree appalled her. No—she would leave him—at once and forever. ;What she might do, she knew not; for the present she should do nothing. - All this flashed through her mind with lightning-like rapidity, and almost before he had displayed the alarming tokens of ' his disease. " Parker, I did not dream of this," she said, slowly, like one coming out of a vision. . ; . ■■■■.'■ ■ •.:•.-.". . -..-■■ "0! if you have any love for me, unsay what you said. Virginia false? My wife, false ?" < ' "I wiUtake it back,. Parker," Florida, said, hollowly. " I will throw the matter upon./her sole responsibility; If she comes to see you within the week, I absolve her from any desire to love or feel interested in another." , ' "It is terrible to have this suggestion to feed upon," said: Parker, lying back, exhausted; "I hoped every thing from Virginia—l should die, deprived of hope. It is all soul and body have had to live upon-for many a day. Don't kill me outright. Tell her to write—oh! send me a line from her. No human being was ever loved as I love her." . Florida's rebel spirit rose. Anger was I slowly but surely taking the place of pity. How had Virginia dared to act thus in direct defiance of her wishes, her knowledge ? The old hard-hate came up and clouded the right that was faintly battling in her heart for supremacy. He was poor, stigmatized, under the ban of illegitimacy. If she, possessing his love,-could have overlooked all this, feeling him heart and soul another's altered the entire aspect of the matter. Her husband he might be— she shrunk from calling him brother. Even, at that moment, Horace Dudley was telling his love to Virginia. Her cheek was blanched to snow-whiteness when he spoke. She held out whiter hands, aghast. "O! Mr Dudley, have mercy, have pity," she cried. " I cannot love you— you must not love me. . I—am already a wife." .'....: ' He flung at her a strange look, almost of despair—then arose and walked hastily across the room. She, nearly fainting, frightened at her own words, dreading she knew not what for her long concealment, drooped forward, till her face leaned on her hands, and the tears through her fingers. " Virginia." ' The voice soothed while it roused her. She lifted.her frightened face. "Tell me all, Virginia, and why this has not been known. Let me benowas a brother to you, my poor, timid, trembling dove." And, resting with a sweet confidence, as new as it was strange, upon his friendship, she told him all. " And I see you are afraid of this sister Florida. She has held you in iron bonds." " You will forgive me," said Virginia, deprecatingly, holding out her hand. A spasm crossed his face. " I have nothing to forgive, my dear ; on the contrary, as an honorable man, I feel bound to aid you by every means in my power. We must find this husband'

of yours. There is some secret reason why he has been spirited away. Who knows," and he tried to laugh, " but we may find him heir to wealth and honors. Such things have happened" " You deserve to be loved," cried Virginia, in impassioned tones, "O ! from my very heart of hearts, I thank you— my dear friend, my dear brother ! " " There is a carriage stopping," he said •turning away to conceal a manly sorrow. " It is Florida," cried Virginia. " Then we will go and and tell her the story." "I cannot —I cannot," cried Virginia, wildly. " Her very; look would kill me." "Not while I am by," 'said Horace Dudley, in the same tender voice; " come." At that moment Florida entered. She seemed terribly discomposed,- and started for the door as she saw the two advancing, throwing an almost^ eril look upon Virginia, " Wait a moment, please," said Dud- • ley, quietly. "This little girl has something to confess." •„ " "I know," began Florida, hurriedly, then paused. "No you don't know how wrongly I have acted. O! Florida, forgive me ; I j__» ■ ■ . " ff She is Mrs —what's the name?" asked Dudley, playfully, though his voice faltered. • " You mean that you are Parker's wife. I have found that out," said Florida, coldly, and hurried from the room.. Horace Dudley hastened to his friend, Le Koy. Virginia flew to her chamber. Florida sought her own apartment. "I will not tell her !" she cried, her whole being convulsed with secret agony —" she shall not know. Let him dielet him die." But all that night she saw Parker in her dream accusing her as his murderer, and with pitiful voice pleading tp see Virginia only once-r-only oncebeforehe died. She could not bear this burden, and, early in the morning, she repaired to Virginia's chamber, waked her from her troubled sleep, and told her to prepare for an early visit to Parker. On the same day she replied, to an offer of marriage, and crowned the hopes of Le Roy by naming an early day for the wedding, only stipulating that it should be entirely private. Virginia came home an hour after she had sent the note. She walked vpale and tearless into Florida's dressing-room, and to her inquiring glance 1 said wildly, "He was not there ;" then', with a hysterical cry, she went into her own-room. "Not there? " cried Florida, following her. "What do you mean, Virginia? Not that he—" f'He is gone—went last night. Wag taken away in a carriage. But Mr Dudley will help me," she cried, passionately; " he says there is a deadly wrong somewhere, and there must be. Florida, have pity—tell me if you know/ " I do not know, Virginia." "If I could have, gone yesterday!" she cried—and Florida stole quietly out of the apartment. (To he concluded in our. next.)