Molly's treachery

“Dear sister and Aunt Lucy, oh, please do let me come home! Ferndale is horrid, the lonesomest old hole I ever saw in my life, and Aunt Thalia is a real old dragoness! And I’m t...

If she was a little fraud, as she declared herself to be, she had the frankest, honestest, prettiest face in the world, and many curious and admiring eyes turned on her as she a...

She had slept but a little while when she was awakened by a sound that made her spring to her feet with a shriek of alarm--the hurrying and scurrying of immense rats across the...

She paused and looked behind her to see if the black snake still pursued her, but she had left it far behind in her headlong race, and to her dismay she perceived by the brillia...

“How easy it is to ride horseback! This is perfectly delicious!” cried Molly, exultantly, as she gripped the reins in her little white hands, and gave herself up to the enjoymen...

“Not the rider,” she finished his hesitating sentence. “Well, my name is Molly Trueheart, and I borrowed the horse from old Betsy Bell over there at the Laurens place. I will se...

Molly did not have any “larks” the next day, for she was so stiff and sore she had to remain in bed all day, and submit to the fussy attendance of Ginny Ann, and the kindness of...

“I have been on a horse’s back only once, but I can easily learn if you will let me have a horse,” Molly answered, confidently, and a sudden light broke over Mrs. Barry’s face.

“Yes, I know; but I’m afraid. If I read the letter, and sis--I mean, Aunt Lucy--did not say _yes_, I should fly into a tantrum and alarm you,” with a sparkle of malice in the bl...

And he did not alter his opinion even when Molly came down presently with red-rimmed eyes and a doleful expression that proved how deeply she had taken her disappointment to heart.

Days came and went, and Cecil Laurens was a daily visitor at Ferndale, filled with the laudable desire to please his old friend, Mrs. Barry, by making time pass pleasantly for h...

Mrs. Barry and her niece had been at the White two weeks, when Cecil Laurens made his appearance quite unexpectedly one evening, and explained to Mrs. Barry that as he was going...

Molly Trueheart walked under the trees with that mysterious “Johnny” for a long half hour. While Cecil Laurens in the hammock raved and fretted against the little fraud, as he b...

The black eyes and the blue ones met for an instant, Cecil’s full of passion, Molly’s full of incredulous amazement, but her lover did not wait for her to utter a protest, he ca...

“That is the truth, but there is another reason still for my preference. I must not put him to the expense of a new ring, for this will do for the few days that I shall be able...

Cecil was waiting at the foot of the stairs, so eager, so happy, so grand looking in his wedding garments, that all her regrets vanished in passionate love and admiration. She c...

Molly crossed with her noble, handsome husband the beautiful ocean of which she had dreamed, and the skies seemed to smile on the fair young bride, for the weather was beautiful...

Molly was saved from replying, for Miss Trueheart’s maid knocked softly to say that Mr. Laurens had called for his wife, and was waiting. Hurriedly kissing her friend, the young...

He had not expected to find any one in the room except his father and mother, but the first person his eyes encountered was a stranger--a tall, handsome woman with abundant hair...

Cecil was standing close to his wife with his arms folded across his breast, his grave, troubled blue eyes fixed anxiously on her face. She met that expressive glance, cowered,...

Doctor Laurens had a profound admiration and regard for his brother’s wife, and declared that Cecil, who had always been a lucky fellow, had capped the climax of his good fortun...

Molly slept quietly the long night through, under the influence of the doctor’s soothing medicine, and it was far into the morning when she awakened and found her faithful Phebe...

“Nonsense, woman,” she replied curtly. “I came here to have a private conversation with my step-sister, and I intend to do so. Therefore, the longer you remain and hinder my des...

Suddenly Miss Barry arose from her seat, stepped quickly to the bed, and caught Molly’s hot, writhing hands in both her strong, cool, white ones. It was a fierce, vindictive gra...

Molly knew that her enemy’s words were true. Already a subtle weakness was stealing over her, and she saw Louise’s handsome, mocking, cruel face dimly, as through a blood-red mi...

“If any of you men ever let that woman into this house again it will cost you both your situations!” she said, sharply, and flew upstairs again to her mistress.

Her prospects did indeed look dark, for if Molly should tell what she knew and get any one to believe her, Louise’s fortune for which she had schemed and plotted would be ruined.

Mrs. Laurens was not a hard woman, but she could not help being very angry with the girl who had deceived her son, and she felt, although she would not have openly admitted it,...

It seemed to Molly as if she should never see Cecil again, as if in spite of all Doctor Charley’s hopes he would never return to her who had deceived him. A bitter pride began t...

“I did. I thought she _knew_,” he replied, in surprise; and he continued, tenderly; “Yes, I have brought him back to you, little girl, after a hard chase, and may the Lord deliv...

He looked wan, wasted, wretched. She had never seen her handsome Cecil look so ill, and it made her wrath all the more bitter against her who had caused it, but she dared say no...

It was a strange bridal there in that quiet room where Molly had lain so many weary days and nights ill and suffering--a strange bridal, compared with the one in which the same...

Blinded by passion, indignant that Molly should have the hardihood to attempt any defense of her treachery, Cecil Laurens had turned a deaf ear to her pleadings and hurried from...

“Very well, I will,” he replied, carelessly, thinking that it mattered little where he went since the door of love and happiness was shut upon him forever by his wife’s treachery.

“I have been thinking of what I promised you, but I’m afraid it will be useless to try, for how can I win him back if I never see him?”

“Oh, Mrs. Laurens, what do you take me for? Wild horses should not drag a word from me without your consent. You hurt me almost as bad as your husband did this morning,” she said.

“La, madame, how should I know? It was but a slip of the tongue. I only judged by appearances,” Florine said, tossing her smart head with its cap and ribbons.

He began to repent of that cruel letter he had written to Molly, and to think that it would not be impossible to forgive her for her treachery. He formed a wistful habit of watc...

Florine Dabol had promised heartless Louise Barry that she would poison the hapless creature before her; but, as she gazed at the lovely sleeping face, so like that of a grieved...

“They can not turn me away, they are too fond of me already,” she said, hopefully to herself. “If they will only hide me from my enemies I shall love them and be grateful to the...

“Monsieur neglected his wife and she was wretched. She cried out often that there was one in her own land who loved her, and that she repented now that she had left him for Mons...

“Do not speak of her!” impatiently. “No doubt she is dead, but you ought to have got a divorce from her long ago. Do you not see that Louise Barry is dying for you?”

She went with uncertain footsteps along the hall to the library, and left him alone. The little child, seeing him fall into a dejected attitude, slipped away and entered the bac...

She paused in the center of the room and contemplated the striking scene like one thunderstruck, for a moment, then she crossed gracefully to her aunt’s side and grasped her arm.

“He carries out to the letter his promise to love and cherish her for better or worse,” he thought. “Alas, that I did not do so with my poor little girl-bride, whose youth might...

A few days after, Cecil was _en route_ for England. Doctor Laurens and his wife bore him company, for the young doctor was anxious to aid in the search for his sister-in-law, in...