“Come, Bessie,” and Ross took her gently by the hand and led her away.
Eliza Graves called to see Blanche Elsworth the following day, and then it was she told her the story of Bessie’s misfortune.
“I would not want you to think hard of poor Bessie, but I feel that you must know the truth, and I am sure you will have charity for her. It must be that she has told you something of her history.”
“She has told me enough to arouse my suspicion and excite an interest, but I cannot determine the cause of her insanity, through anything that she has said.”
“The facts are these,” said Eliza. “It was about four years ago that we sent Bessie away to school. Bessie was our baby, you know, and was at that time but sixteen 232 years of age. We almost worshipped the child, she was so beautiful, and possessed such a keen intellect, and though we always let her have her way, she was never spoiled. She had a sweet voice, and we were anxious that she should have it cultivated, so we sent her where we thought she would receive the best instruction. She progressed rapidly in her studies, and, oh how proud we were of her when she came home on her vacation, and we listened to her sweet voice, and watched the little fingers dance over the keys of the piano. We thought there never was in all the world another like her, and Bessie never had a wish that was not granted. Everybody loved her; even the horses ran to meet her, and would eat from her hand, and they knew her voice when she called their names.”
Eliza wiped away the tears that shone on her lashes, as she continued:
“Bessie went back to school, and when she came again at the end of the term she told us she was going to be married. We laughed at her, and called her a silly little thing, but she stoutly affirmed that it was true, and that the man she loved would be here in a few weeks. She talked of nothing but his coming, and she would fairly go into ecstacies over his beauty, and his fine ways. He was to be here in one month, she said, to ask her father if he could not have her, and she knew he would come, for he had promised her. A month went by and he did not come, and Bessie watched, saying that something must have happened, for she knew he would come yet.”
Miss Elsworth sighed.
“Yes, you may well sigh for the story that is to come. 233 Another month went by, and then Bessie began to grow uneasy. Oh, how it made our hearts ache to see her watching at the gate, looking away down the road, and then turn with such a sad look in her blue eyes, and a face growing thinner and paler each day, and at last the truth burst upon us. Bessie had brought disgrace upon us. If we had loved her less we could have borne it better, but she was our idol, the pet of the house, and how could we bear it. It was the saddest house I ever saw when we came to know the truth. Mother was so broken down with grief that for days and nights she neither slept nor ate, and then it was that Bessie, overcome with remorse, gave herself up to the bitterest grief, and one day I found her up on the hill out there weeping so wildly that it frightened me. I tried to pacify her, but she only called the louder for mother to come and forgive her, and help her to find her darling who she knew would come some time. It was with a great deal of persuasion that I succeeded in getting her home, and then we found that a still greater grief had darkened our lives—our Bessie was mad. Oh, I cannot tell you how we all mourned, or how my brother grew white with rage and despair, and vowed that if ever he could find the fiend who had ruined our Bessie that he would slay him on the spot. Ross has tried to persuade Bessie to tell him the name of the man who wronged her, but she will not.”
“And have you never seen him?”