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Read Ebook: The Ranch Girls at Boarding School by Vandercook Margaret Bodine Hugh A Illustrator
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Ebook has 376 lines and 14140 words, and 8 pages
"My daughter Dainty, Mr. Ellsworth," said the widow; and as he took the soft little hand, he did not wonder that her cousins had feared to risk her rivalry for his heart.
With his charmed eyes lingering on her perfect face, he explained:
"I have been in New York for a few days, and mother wrote me to stop in Richmond and join a party of her nieces who would start to-day on a visit to Ellsworth."
Dainty's bright eyes laughed through their tears as she replied:
"Oh, how sorry they will be to have missed you! But they went last night!"
"But were not you, Miss Chase, to accompany them?" he demanded; and she handed him the girls' note, saying, demurely:
"That explains everything."
Lovelace Ellsworth read it with a somewhat malicious smile, exclaiming:
"How fortunate that I came in time to protect you on your journey!"
Mrs. Chase hastened to say:
"We shall indeed be grateful for your escort, as Dainty was about to give up her trip through her timidity at venturing alone. Now, as soon as we have breakfast, she will be ready."
Oh, how angry Olive and Ela would have been to see that pleasant little party at breakfast, and afterward setting forth for the station in Ellsworth's carriage, Mrs. Chase accompanying to see her daughter off, and both of them perfectly delighted with their genial new acquaintance, of whom the mother could not help thinking:
"How admiringly he looks at my bonny girl, as if indeed Olive and Ela were right in fearing her rivalry for his heart! And how good and true he looks, as if he might make any girl a kind, loving husband! What a grand thing it would be for Dainty--"
She broke off the thought abruptly, for the parting was at hand, and her daughter clung tearfully about her neck.
In a minute it was all over, and Dainty was seated in the parlor-car with Ellsworth by her side, saying in his musical voice:
Dainty emerged from her wet handkerchief, like the sun from behind a cloud, blushing and dimpling with girlish mischief, as she exclaimed:
"But they will be so sorry! They will never get over it!"
She was only a girl, not an angel, so she could not help being pleased with the thought of the discomfiture of her scheming cousins who had so cleverly overreached themselves.
The train sped on through the beautiful sunshine of early June, leaving the heated city far behind, and Dainty's heart felt as buoyant as the morning, her journey was so pleasant and her companion so attractive, placing her so completely at her ease, except when he would fix his brilliant dark eyes so ardently on her face that she would blush in spite of herself and look down in sweet confusion while her innocent heart throbbed wildly with a new, sweet sensation almost akin to pain.
After one of these confusing episodes, Dainty tried to shake off her embarrassment by saying:
"Tell me all about Ellsworth! Is it indeed so grand that my aunt will be ashamed of me, as my cousins declared?"
"Thank you; but, of course, you are not a judge of clothes. Olive and Ela said I had nothing fit to wear at Ellsworth."
"I have never seen a prettier or more becoming gown than the one you have on now," he replied, with an approving glance at her crisp, freshly laundered blue linen, while he added: "We have some very nice young men in the neighborhood of Ellsworth, and I am sure they will all fall in love with you at sight."
"Flatterer!" she cried with shy archness; but his words and looks thrilled her heart, and made her think, with sudden passion:
"If only he would fall in love with me, I could excuse all the rest!"
What a change had come to the tired and weary schoolgirl of only yesterday! She was parted from her mother for the first time in her young life, among new scenes and strangers, and Cupid was knocking at the door of her heart. Hitherto she had known only tranquil happiness and little sorrow. How would it be now?
"Love and pain Are kinsfolk twain."
Love changes all the world to the heart that admits him as a guest; but Dainty was not wise enough to bar the charming little stranger out.
"THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN THE ROOM!"
Meanwhile, Olive and Ela, having reached Ellsworth in a high state of glee at outwitting Dainty so cleverly, received a great shock on learning from their aunt that Lovelace Ellsworth had expected to accompany them from Richmond to his home.
Bitterness filled their hearts when they realized what would be the outcome of their malice--that instead of Dainty having to give up her trip through timidity at traveling alone, she would have the escort of the man from whom they had tried so sedulously to keep her apart.
They had told their aunt that they decided to come earlier because it would be cooler traveling at night, and accounted for Dainty's absence by declaring that she was not quite decided on coming yet, being reluctant to leave her mother alone. If she made up her mind to come anyhow, she would do so later, they said; but they were very careful not to add that Dainty was so timid she would very likely stay at home after their base desertion.
When they were alone, they commiserated each other on the failure of their deep-laid schemes.
"Only to think, that Dainty and Love Ellsworth are together at this moment, and will be all day long! I can see her now in my mind's eye! She is sitting beside him in the car, and the sunshine glints on her curly, golden hair, and brings out the deep pansy-blue, of her big, childish eyes, and the rose-leaf bloom of her flawless skin. She is laughing at everything he says, just to show how deep her dimples are, and how pearly her teeth, and how rosy her lips! It is enough to drive one mad!" cried Ela, not underrating the least of her rival's charms in her jealousy of them.
"We can never undo to-day's work, I fear," added Olive, most bitterly, in her keen disappointment; for the thought of seeing Dainty the mistress of Ellsworth was almost unbearable.
Since she had arrived at Ellsworth and seen how beautiful the estate was, nestling among the green hills of West Virginia, close by the famed Greenbrier River, she had been more anxious than ever to win the master of this grand domain, and a bitter hatred for gentle Dainty crept into her heart.
She knew that she was beautiful in a dark, queenly fashion, and she could only hope that Love Ellsworth would prefer her dark style to Dainty's fair and radiant one. On this chance hinged all her hopes, while Ela, on her part, wondered if he might not find a wealth of brown hair, waxen-skin, and limpid gray eyes as attractive as the more pronounced brunette and blonde types.
She was a woman of sixty years, with abundant snow-white hair, contrasted with piercing dark eyes. In her youth she must have looked like Olive Peyton, and she was still well-preserved and fine-looking for her time of life. Her relatives considered her eccentric and hard-hearted, and she was certainly a woman of strong prejudices and unbending will--fond of having her own way.
She now looked approvingly at her handsome, stylish nieces, and remarked, abruptly:
"I suppose neither of you girls have any idea why I invited you here, so I may as well inform you and get it over. In the first place, have either of you any entanglements?"
"Entanglements?" murmured Olive, questioningly.
"Entanglements?" echoed Ela, doubtfully, with a slight flush breaking through her usual pallor.
"I mean, are either of you engaged to be married?"--sharply.
"Oh, dear no!" cried Olive.
"No, indeed!" muttered Ela, still faintly crimson.
"Or--in love with anybody?" added their aunt, anxiously.
"Only with each other. We are chums and sweethearts," laughed Olive, as they looked at each other affectionately.
"Very good!" said curt Mrs. Ellsworth, smiling, as she continued: "And you are both as poor as church mice; I know that without asking. Now, don't color up and get angry. Poverty is inconvenient, but it's no disgrace. Besides, I intend to change all that."
While they stared at her in wonder, she nodded her white head sagely, adding:
"You two girls are the nearest kin I have in the world, and it's time I made some provision for your future. Well, I'm going to do it. That's why I sent for you to come to Ellsworth."
They began to murmur ecstatic thanks; but she cut them short, saying:
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