The Girls at Mount Morris by Amanda Minnie Douglas (rooftoppers .txt) 📖

/> "Have you no curiosity to know whom you belong to?" studying Lilian intently.

"Oh, I dare not ask, I hardly dare believe! It is so mysterious. She, yes, I will call her mother, though there might be a father somewhere. And was that beautiful woman they believed dying----"

Lilian clasped her hands over her eyes. Like a flash it seemed to pass before her. Zay Crawford's double, some of the girls had called her.

"Oh," she cried, "can I endure it? What if they do not want me?"

"If they had doubted the story it would have been kept from you. Can you guess--"

Lilian flung herself in Mrs. Barrington's arms, with a long, dry sob.

"Oh, do not give me up," she cried imploringly. "Let me stay with you. I will serve you faithfully for I love you, and these people are strangers----"

"Think, what it must be after her years of sorrow to clasp her child in her arms; to know that it had been well cared for, tenderly loved. Oh, she is your own mother and you will come to love her dearly. This morning Dr. Kendricks was to tell Major Crawford the story. Fifteen minutes ago word came that they would be here. Lilian, your father feels hard toward Mrs. Boyd. You know Dr. Kendricks would have recognized you if she had not taken you away, and it is only natural that he should feel indignant."

"Must I see him before she--she cannot last long. Oh, she must not hear this, and I will not leave her until the very last."

Then the child suggested her father.

"There they come," exclaimed Mrs. Barrington.

The two men entered the drawing room. Lilian clung to Mrs. Barrington, but that lady impelled her forward.

"This is your daughter, Major Crawford," she said, "and this, my dear, is your own father."

Lilian stood like a statue. It was as if she was turning to stone. Oh, he could not deny her. The clear cut features, the golden bronze hair, the proud figure that seemed to add dignity to the whole. So, her mother had stood, in girlhood.

"Oh, my child! my child! have you no word of gladness for me after these long years! The baby I never saw--my Marguerite."

Was her tongue frozen and her lips stiff? Oh, what should she say? How could she welcome this stranger?

"And that cruel woman has stolen your love from us, as she stole your beautiful body. Oh, where is she? Let me see her!"

"You were to keep calm, Major," exclaimed the doctor. "We have gone over all this, and the poor woman is dying. To upbraid her now would be nothing short of murder."

The Major glanced wildly around. "Why think of _our_ loss and sorrow. She _knew_ the child was not hers. And she ran off like a thief in the night. Oh, I can't forgive her."

"Oh, you must," cried the girl with the first gleam of emotion she had shown. "For she mistook the nurse for the mother. Everything must have been in confusion. She thought of me as a motherless baby, perhaps to be cast on charity----"

"But all these years! And poverty, when a lovely home awaited you; brothers and a sweet sister and such a mother! Oh, she ought to know and suffer for the crime."

"She was almost crazy with her own grief. And she was good and tender and devoted to me. She shall not suffer for it in her dying moments."

She stood there proudly, her face a-light with a sort of heroic devotion. So her mother would have taken up any wrong. Was he unduly bitter?

"Oh, my darling, have you no love for me? No want for your own sweet mother--"

Something in his pleading tone touched her and his face betrayed strong agitation. His arms seemed to hang listlessly by his side. She took a few steps toward him and then they suddenly clasped her in a vehement embrace.

The doctor glanced at Mrs. Barrington and they both left the room.

"It has been a hard fight," he said. "He was so enraged at first that I was afraid he would come and have it out with the dying woman. The fact that she knew the child was not hers and yet took it away seemed to stir all the blood in his body. Poor thing--one has to feel sorry for her; but he raged over the privations he thought his child had endured, and her being here in an equivocal position. The Crawfords were always very proud. And one could not expect a girl just in the dawn of womanhood to fly to a stranger's arms."

"Yet it took her so by surprise, and she has a proud, reticent nature."

"Let us go and see Mrs. Boyd."

Major Crawford felt the girl's heart beating against his own. He raised the face and kissed it, amid tears, deeply touched.

"You must forgive me. You do not know what it is to have some one stand between you and your child all these years. I used to dream how it would have been with twin girls running about, climbing one's knees, doing a hundred sweet and tender things. Zay has been so lovely, so loving; but all these years we never forgot you. We gave the most fervent thanks for your mother's recovery, and when you are safe in her arms--oh, it seems almost as if it was too much joy."

"It is so strange," and her voice was tremulous. "For I never could have dreamed of anything like this. I did not dream, for it seemed as if a man who had lost wife and child would want to begin over again, and in a good many ways I tried to believe I had been too visionary--longing for things quite beyond my reach. So I have been praying that God would send what was best for me and trying to make myself content. Oh, are you quite sure there is no mistake?" and there was a pitifully beseeching sound in her voice.

"If we can believe that thief of a woman. Oh, to think she should carry away our baby and leave us her little dead child," and the only half conquered passion flamed up in his face again.

"But, you see, if I had been the nurse's child as she thought, the poor nurse who was dead, it would be a brave and tender act----"

"I have no pity for her. You must come away. Oh, Marguerite, there is your own sweet mother, who when she hears will want to clasp you to her heart at once. And Zaidee, your twin sister----"

She shrank and stiffened a little. Zaidee Crawford would not be so glad to welcome her. She felt it in her inmost heart. For she had been the pet and darling of the household all these years. All the girls had paid her a curious sort of homage. She had been invested with a halo of romance, and generous as she seemed with her equals, she had established a rigorous distance between them. Lilian fancied she was annoyed by the suggestion of a resemblance between them.

Her father was momentarily piqued by the unyielding lines of her figure and the hesitancy.

"Oh, my child you must take in the strength, the absolute reality of our claim, unless you cannot believe this woman--"

"I would stake my very life on her truth, and I can recall so many things that seemed strange to me then, especially these last two years. She so dreaded leaving me alone in the world, and I am not willing to embitter her last moments. You see she never thought of my parents being in a much higher walk in life, and the knowledge that she had kept me out of so much would be a cruel stab. No, let me wait until it is all over, and you have accepted the strange story truly. There are others beside yourself----"

Her eyes were full of tears as she raised them. It _was_ noble to take this view, though he really grudged it.

"You mean then to stay here until--"

"I have promised sacredly, solemnly. There may be some things to certify. Mrs. Barrington spoke of one, that the confession, ought to be signed before witnesses."

"Yes, though we should never doubt. And if there was any question there might be a legal adoption;" then he paused. His wife had not heard the story yet. Yes, his anger had hurried him along with scarcely a thought of all that needed to be done. He had dreamed of the joy of bringing the mother and daughter together. Yes, she must be prepared.

"Perhaps you are right," he admitted, reluctantly. "Yet--oh, how can I leave you. It seems as if the joy would vanish."

"I do not think I shall vanish," and she half smiled through her tears.

The doctor came downstairs with a grave face.

"There has been a sudden change. The paralysis has crept upward. She is moaning for you. Go to her."

Lilian flashed out of the room.

"Are you convinced?" asked the doctor.

"Oh, positively. And what a noble girl! I hate to have her love that woman so, and yet it shows a true and generous nature. Why, I think some girls would have gone wild over the prospect."

"Mrs. Barrington is enthusiastic about her and she has had a wide experience with girls. But my dear Major, there is a good deal to be done. Your wife must hear the story, and we must consider _her_ health, her nervous system must not have too severe a shock. And this Mrs. Boyd must attest her confession in some way. She can hardly speak intelligibly. With your permission, I'll hunt up Ledwith. It's best to have everything secure."

"Yes, yes. And, doctor, I want to apologize for my anger and unreason this morning. Why, we are half brutes after all. I believe I could have almost murdered that woman for stealing my darling baby and sneaking off without a word of inquiry. I do not yet see how Marguerite can forgive her for keeping her out off her birthright all these years; for dragging her through poverty and all kinds of menial labor; and here she was the caretaker's daughter! Think of it--my child, Zay's sister! Even now when the child pleads for her so earnestly I cannot really forgive her. Will you pardon me for my outbreak? My child is tenderer and more generous than I."

"The poor woman has come to the last stages. It is a matter of only a few days. It would be cruel to part them now."

"You are all against me," with a sad smile.

"You must go home and explain this matter to Mrs. Crawford, and to your sister. Then send the confession to Ledwith. I will see him. And, oh, I promised to drop in and see Zay. She has some nervous crochet in her head."

"Is she really ill?" the father asked in alarm.

"She has some cold and a little fever. Don't excite her."

They walked away together. The doctor found Zay's fever much higher and she was in a state of great excitement.

"Oh, what has happened," she cried. "What was papa so angry about? And you took him away----"

"A matter of business that he could not look at reasonably at first. And it may be a delightful surprise for you, so you must do your utmost to get