“Because,” she answered, her voice rising, with a scornful, bitter ring, “I am a dependent upon the bounty of the rich; because I am a burden and expense in a house of luxury, and only tolerated on account of a promise made to my dying father and to cancel a debt due to my mother. You have not seen me, because I am not allowed to breathe the same air, eat and drink, and sit at the same table with those who think they are of finer mold than I. But it is just as well, my lord——”
“My lord!” he repeated, in a startled tone, interrupting her. “Star, that from you!”
She laughed bitterly, lifting her head with a haughty gesture, though her face gleamed like a piece of marble in the waning light.
“Yes, that from me!” she said. “Fortunately, I was at a window above the entrance when you arrived last evening, and witnessed the honors that were heaped upon my Lord Carrol, of Carrolton, and the revelation of your true character, although a sudden and bitter one to me, was, perhaps, after all, a providential one; for, if it showed me how I had been duped and betrayed, how I had been made the plaything of an idle hour, it also gave me time to collect my scattered senses a trifle before meeting you and telling you how I scorn you for——”
“Duped! betrayed! plaything! Star, listen to me,” pleaded the young man, his breath almost taken away by these startling accusations and by her wild words, so full of derision and pain.
“I will not listen to you!” she cried, passionately; “I have listened to you too much already. Oh! why did you do this wicked thing? Why could you not have left me alone? Had you not enough already, with your riches, your title, and your life of pleasure, without coming in cruel sport to spoil a poor young girl’s life? Was it not enough that you could woo and win the heiress, the belle and beauty of Long Branch, without the amusement of trying to win and break my poor heart?”
“Star! Star!” he cried, drawing nearer the excited girl. “What wild, wild words! Every one is like a dagger plunged into my heart. You do not know what you are saying, dear. I try to win and break your heart! My poor darling, you have been misled by having learned of my title. I should have told you before, but——”
“Then you are Lord Carrol? You own it—you acknowledge it?” Star interrupted, with a ring of wild despair in her tones.
When she had looked up into his face, into his kind and loving eyes; when she had heard his voice, so low and eager, yet tender; when he had called her “his poor darling,” and said her words were like a dagger plunged into his heart, her own had begun to thrill anew, and she almost hoped against hope that there was after all some mistake, in spite of what she had seen and heard.
But now he owned it. He was not Archibald Sherbrooke at all; he was the titled peer, and he had sought to win her love under false colors; and all the pain, and bitterness, and scorn returned, even while she waited breathlessly for his answer.