Madam Surrey, amid her many household cares, could not always attend them upon their excursions, and whenever she did accompany them she never dreamed that beneath the quiet and polite attentions of Mr. Sumner to Marion there lurked any deeper feeling than that of mere friendship.
Marion, too, with wonderful tact, disguised her feelings, for Mr. Sumner, and, for various unexplained reasons, had insisted that their love for each other must for the present be kept a profound secret; but, with the fire and impulse which made up her nature, she gave her whole heart up into his keeping, and learned only when it was too late the heartlessness and treachery of which her lover was capable and she the victim.
George Sumner, on his own part, had no other motive in winning the affections of this beautiful and trusting girl than his own selfish enjoyment of an idle summer’s day.
His vacation must be spent somewhere, and he had drifted in an aimless way to the neighborhood, having heard of its beauties in the way of scenery and its advantages as a summer resort.
Marion was beautiful in looks, gay and attractive in manner, and just such a girl as he liked to flirt with, but as for ever marrying and acknowledging her as his wife, he had not such a thought.
He supposed her a simple country girl, defective in education and knowledge of social customs—as, indeed, the poor child was, having been left so long to the tender mercies of a careless governess.
He never dreamed that she was other than she pretended to be—simply Marion Vance, with neither dowry nor position in life. But his wife, when he married, must possess something more substantial than a pretty face and winning manners—she must have wealth and position in order to satisfy the ambitious desires of the aspiring Mr. Sumner.
But Marion, fondly believing that he loved her for herself alone, drifted carelessly and happily along with the tide, and, being of a somewhat romantic turn of mind, resolved to enjoy till the very last this simple love-making, and, when she had fully tested the strength and devotion of her valiant knight, come out grandly and declare who she was, thus surprising and rewarding him abundantly for his fidelity. Silly child! Fatal trust!
Like the cunning spider, he wove his net firmly about her, and then left her to die by inches in its cruel toils.
Before six weeks of her visit had passed he had enticed her into a secret marriage, sighing sweetly of “love in a cottage” and the “devotion of a life-time;” and Marion too blissfully happy to stop to look into the future, and enjoying the novelty and romance of her position in being so tenderly loved for her own bright self, never dreamed of the abyss into which she was plunging with such headlong speed.