He had barely time to see that the play was entitled “A Wayside Flower,” when the orchestra ceased, and the curtain rolled up, showing the first scene.
He caught his breath with a gasp, and rubbed his eyes with a bewildered hand, then looked again to see if his vision had played him false.
CHAPTER X.
A TRAGEDY OF LOVE.
One easily guesses that “A Wayside Flower” was the story of a young girl—beautiful, but poor.
The rich hero’s fancy turned from his betrothed, the proud beauty, his equal in wealth and station, to the simple village maiden.
With all the arts of love he wooed her for his own.
When the maiden, pure as snow, turned in grief and anger from the proffer of the heart without the hand, he deceived her by a mock marriage, swearing her to keep the secret.
In the distant village, where they spent their blissful honeymoon, she somehow discovered through a letter he had dropped that he was betrothed to another, and the wedding day set.
Undreaming of treachery, yet grieved for her hapless rival’s sorrow, Daisy reproached her young husband for his flirtations, and insisted on his writing at once to the young girl to break off as gently as possible the engagement he could never now fulfill.
Carelessly assenting, Chester wrote the letter under Daisy’s eyes, sealed and addressed it, and pretended to have her post it to make sure.