Loved you better than you knew

“Grief! It began with a word, Grew with the winds that raved, A prayer for pardon unheard, Pardon in turn uncraved. The bridge so easy to sever, The stream so swift to be free,...

She trembled and paled as the warm blood spurted over her own white and dainty hands as she essayed the task, and her heart throbbed wildly with new and sweet emotion. She could...

Mrs. Flint grew very uneasy over her absent niece as the short afternoon waned and the fury of the storm increased to positive danger for any luckless pedestrian. After fidgetin...

“Oh, aunt, you are not angry, are you? He’s very, very nice, I’m sure--and rich, too! He said my every fancy should be gratified--that he would worship me. You will give your co...

I remember I was young once, Ah! how long ago it seems Since the happy days and months Passed away like pleasant dreams! For I loved then. I can smile now At myself. ’Twas long...

“Never mind about that; only come down as soon as you can, or the biscuit will be soggy,” returned the old lady, hurrying out in trepidation. The sight of the beautiful, happy f...

Arthur Varian gave a slight start of surprise as he was presented to Mr. Dawn, but the latter, more prepared for the encounter, bowed with gracious courtesy, frankly shook hands...

“Go in with him now, my own sweet love, for we can not defy him openly, we can only defeat him by strategy. Be brave, darling, for--I will come for you and take you away to-night.”

Cinthia had never spent such an unhappy day in the whole of her young life. She could not realize that only yesterday she had been railing at the monotony of existence.

In the small compass of thy clasping arms, In reach and sight of thy dear lips and eyes, There, there, for me the joy of Heaven lies. Outside, lo! chaos, terrors, wild alarms, A...

Meanwhile Cinthia’s fall and shriek had been heard by other alert ears--no less than Arthur Varian’s, who had been waiting impatiently in the shadow of the trees for ten minutes...

His only hope had been to catch them at the station before the arrival of the train; but, owing to Arthur’s careful driving in the storm, and the stoppage to take in the woman f...

All unconscious of the deception that had been practiced on him, Everard Dawn drove briskly back to his home, making no effort to restore Cinthia, and, in fact, rather hoping th...

Doctor Sprague, the minister, had noticed on entering that a tall, stately lady in a long traveling-wrap stood at one of the windows, looking down absently on the busy avenue.

But, somehow, she did not shrink from the task for a change had come over her feelings toward Cinthia, and she experienced a sort of fierce pleasure in the task now before her....

The upshot was that she simply did nothing at all but to sit still and stare, and wonder where the woman came from, how Everard came to bring her home, and what had become of Ci...

When Cinthia recovered her senses she found herself lying on her bed and the air was heavy with the scent of eau-de-Cologne, with which Mrs. Varian was gently bathing her face a...

The lady might have been thirty-five or more, but she possessed that charm of beauty that always suggests youth--perfect features, a complexion fresh as the morning; large, tend...

The actress did not urge her any further. Taking her hand as fondly as if she had been her own daughter, she led her from the room, down to her waiting carriage. At dusk that ev...

Meanwhile, Everard Dawn flung himself into a cab and hurried to the theater, his mind divided between thoughts of his daughter and the magnificent woman he had left behind him.

Mrs. Flint would have been very lonely after her brother’s departure, but for the fact that she had her hands and her mind both full with helping the nurse to care for the poor...

“I thought of thee--I thought of thee, On ocean many a weary night, When heaved the long and sullen sea, With only waves and stars in sight. We stole along the isles of balm, We...

Frederick Foster was the son of Mrs. Varian’s eldest sister, long since dead, and therefore peculiarly dear to her, so that wherever he went, he always kept up a correspondence...

Madame Ray despised Arthur Varian so much that she was bitterly chagrined on learning that he was related to her favorite, Frederick Foster, whom she hoped to see Cinthia marry.

With each day the girl grew dearer to her heart, and it had become her secret fixed intention to make her home near to Cinthia’s, wherever it should be, and never lose sight of...

“Oh, madame, what a perfect morning! There is not the slightest cloud in the clear blue sky, and the sheen of sunlight on the lake is dazzling. The air is odorous with the scent...

Uncle Rube had rambled on heedlessly as though he loved his subject while his hearers listened in painful wonder; but now Madame Ray brought him up suddenly by saying, nervously:

His pride was cruelly wounded, too, for he felt that if Cinthia had cared for him, she must surely have sent him an answer to the interrupted proposal he had made while they wer...

“I dreamed that time, I dreamed that pride, Had quenched at length my early flame, Nor knew till seated by thy side, My heart in all save hope the same.”

For once Cinthia’s pride had enabled her to keep her own confidence. She told her friend nothing of what had passed between her and Arthur Varian, choosing to let her believe th...

“I should be proud to be thus honored with your confidence,” he answered, gratefully and truthfully, for he found her most interesting, and guessed that some sad story lay maske...

Arthur Varian and his mother were the closest and dearest friends, and since his elopement, that had ended so unhappily, he had never kept a secret from her, believing that she...

No ordinary circumstance would have availed to keep Mrs. Varian at Idlewild after she had discovered Everard Dawn’s return to the neighborhood, but on the same day of her sudden...

“Some people from your own town, madame; a Mrs. Flint, her brother, and her servant. The lady has been sick, and I heard the conductor telling some one back there that they were...

“Yes, only yesterday, and I intended to tell you to-morrow. Can you wish me joy, old fellow?” inquired Fred Foster, anxiously, for his cousin had made him acquainted with all hi...

Janetta, the indiscreet maid, would never forget the night when she blurted out the news of the railway wreck to her ailing mistress and sent her into that long, deathly swoon.

Janetta, close against the door outside, caught low, passionate murmurs from within in her mistress’s voice, and guessed that she was pouring out her heart’s wild grief in the i...

“I should like Mr. Foster to be present, too--and Mrs. Varian’s maid. She may need her ministrations in a trying scene. You, too, doctor, I would like to have stay if you can be...

Every one in the room was listening with suppressed excitement to Mrs. Varian’s story, every eye was fixed on her mortally pale face, so deathlike in its pallor save for the gre...

Doctor Deane feared that all that excitement must hurt his patient very much, so he cleared the room as soon as possible, letting no one stay but Mrs. Flint and himself.

Janetta soothingly made excuses for Mrs. Flint, saying that her niece had arrived that morning, and they had been together in the room of Mr. Dawn, who was not expected to live...

“He laughed a laugh of merry scorn; He turned and kissed her where she stood; ‘If you are not the heiress born, And I,’ said he, ‘the next in blood--