“And I loved him so!” she murmured, with an ineffable pathos, throwing her arms to the empty air, as if throwing from her the broken love dream that had fooled her heart.
The door opened, and the servant, Cullen, stood before her—a stocky, red-headed man, with a merry, good-looking face—sullen and red with anger now.
He said, almost rudely:
“If you want me, miss, say your say quick, for I’m in a devil of a hurry to catch the next train for New York, and if I get on their track I’ll kill ’em both, certain!”
Daisie shuddered with dread, for the deserted lover looked both ferocious and bloodthirsty, and was glowering upon her now as if he held her personally responsible for the miscarriage of his love affair.
“So, then—Letty Green has really gone?” she faltered.
“Yes, miss, and with that darn rascal—begging your pardon; the words slipped out—yes, she went with that fine gentleman, Mr. Bain, who wasn’t too fine to be courting Mrs. Fleming’s maid on the sly while he courted her mistress in the parlor. Oh, he was a flirt, was that fellow, and could fool any woman with his deceitful black eyes! Letty was fairly crazed with them till he up and went off without a good-by to her; then her pride was up in arms, and she made believe she didn’t care. I was fool enough to believe her, and made her promise to marry me. A good enough match I was for her, too, if her silly head hadn’t been turned by soft sawder before. D—n him!”
“Cullen, you forget yourself,” reminded Doctor Burns sternly.
“Lord, sir, I know it, and I humbly ask the lady’s pardon for cussing. But I ain’t myself at all, that I ain’t, and all along of that humbug Letty that I was saving my wages to marry. And I give her my money to keep, too, and she’s off with it along of that scamp, and sent me back from the station a sassy, impertinent note, the baggage, that—I’d like to cram down her throat!”
So saying, he thrust the note rudely into Daisie’s hand.