“I can not be happy without him. I have loved him more than a year, and all my hopes centered on him. That proud beauty can never love him as dearly as I love him!” sobbed Mae, casting pride to the winds in the shock of her grief, and refusing all pacification as she cast herself, weeping, back among her pillows, so that the perturbed aunt had perforce to excuse herself presently and go away to look after the comfort of her unwelcome guest.
CHAPTER XXIII.
PLAYING HER PART.
“Alas! if love do not reveal
His warmth to stamp the marriage seal,
Then grief and bitter woe betide
The wedded lord and hapless bride!”
Mrs. Maxwell and Rolfe soon had the tiny spare room bright and cozy for Viola, and while the young girl still slept on wearily in the parlor, he made a bungling explanation of his marriage.
“I did not mean to shock you, mother, but this was a rather sudden move on my part. The truth is, that I carried Viola off from another man that she expected to wed tomorrow, and her father will be very angry, of course; but the sensation will soon blow over. Very unfortunately, I am obliged to go to New York on business tonight, and must leave my bride in your care.”
She thought it would look very strange leaving his young bride on his wedding-night, and she said so frankly.