For the same reason Violet’s first intention of seeking her father’s relatives was tabooed, since it was natural that suspicion should be directed toward them.
“Your best plan is to come home with me to my poor widowed mother, and remain a while in hiding,” advised Lena Lavarre.
“But I have no money, dear Lena.”
“That makes no difference, my friend, for we have a cozy little home of our own. Ah, would that I had never left it at the temptings of that black-hearted scoundrel who won my heart and betrayed my trust!” sighed Lena, with unavailing remorse.
“Tell me how it happened, please,” cried Violet, with girlish curiosity over a love affair.
The poor girl dashed the bitter tears from her brown eyes and answered:
“It is a very simple story, dear Violet, though it ended so tragically. To begin at the beginning, I made his acquaintance in a way that I am ashamed of now—by a street flirtation! Pretty young girls are often very vain and thoughtless; I’m afraid I was both, for I delighted in the admiring glances I met from gay young men upon the street. I forgot to tell you that my home is in Washington. My poor father was a druggist, and we had a neat little home of our own. I was the only child. Father and mother had married late in life, and they fairly doted on me, and gave me all the advantages they could afford. Ah, how good they were to me, and how poorly I repaid their love!” sighed the unhappy and repentant girl.
“Poor Lena!” murmured Violet, tenderly, and, choking back a sob, the girl continued:
“I was called very pretty, and I kept company with some very gay young girls in my own class of life. We delighted in dressing in our best and promenading on Pennsylvania avenue, where we were guilty of flirting in a way that makes me bitterly ashamed now, for I realize too late that no pure young girl who respects herself should stoop to court attention and admiration from strangers. But I was giddy and thoughtless, my companions the same, and thus I made the acquaintance of the man who wrecked my life. He was handsome, as you know, and a few chance meetings and stolen glances completed the conquest of my silly heart. I permitted him to call on me at my home, and he told me that he lived in Chicago, and if I made a visit to the great World’s Fair he would be pleased to escort me through its wonders. He would return home in a week and ardently wished I were going then, so that he might have the pleasure of my company.
“To hasten over this unpleasant story, I begged my parents to take me to the great fair, but they refused to do so, and desired me to put the notion out of my head. They also disapproved of my fine new lover, and bade me drop his acquaintance.