My Pretty Maid; or, Liane Lester

"Sophie, suppose my lot should change? Suppose Mrs. Clarke should do something grand for me in return for saving her life to-day? Suppose I were rich and grand, which it isn't likely I shall ever be! Could I employ you for my maid?"

"Yes, indeed, my dear Miss Lester, and I should be proud, and grateful for the chance to serve such a sweet, kind mistress!" cried Sophie earnestly.

"Thank you, and please consider yourself engaged, if the improbable happens!" laughed Liane, in girlish mockery, as she hurried out, meeting in the hall a dark-browed stranger, from whom she started back in dismay as he passed scowlingly to his room.

It was no wonder Liane recoiled in fear and dislike from Carlos Cisneros, the new boarder.

The sight of his somber, scowling face, with its dark beard, recalled to her that night upon the beach when Devereaux had saved her from a ruffian's insults.

For it was the selfsame face that had scowled upon her in the moonlight that night. It had terrified her too much ever to be forgotten.

He had evidently recognized her, too, from his start of surprise, and the angry bow with which he passed her by.

Trembling with the surprise of the unpleasant rencounter, Liane hastened to seclude herself within her own rooms.

Granny Jenks had just entered, and she was still in the vilest of humors, glaring murderously at Liane, without uttering a word, and giving vent to her temper by banging and slamming everything within her reach.

Liane, gentle, sorrowful, patient, her young heart full of the happenings of the day, and tremulous hopes for the morrow, moved softly about, laying the cloth for tea on the small table, and helping as much as the snapping, snarling old woman would permit.

The sight of her humility and patience ought to have melted the hardest heart, but Granny Jenks was implacable. She only saw in the lovely creature a rival to Roma, and an impediment that must be swept from her path.

Most exciting had been the interview that day between granny and her real granddaughter, and they had mutually agreed that Liane's continued life was a menace not to be borne longer. The beautiful, injured girl must die to insure Roma's continuance in her position.

When Roma left the house a devilish plot had been laid, whose barest details almost had been worked out, and the beautiful schemer's heart throbbed with triumph as she swept out to her carriage.

She had not noticed, on entering the house, a dark, scowling face at the parlor window, neither did she guess that, while she was with granny, the new boarder went out and slipped into the carriage, unobserved by the driver, calmly remaining there and awaiting her return.

When she entered the carriage and seated herself, looking up the next moment to find herself opposite Carlos Cisneros, she opened her lips to shriek aloud, but his hand closed firmly over her lips, and his hoarse voice muttered in her ear:

"Scream, and your wicked life shall end with a bullet in your heart, adventuress, false wife, murderess!"

The driver, unaware of his double fare, whipped up his horses and drove on, while the strange pair glared fiercely at each other, the man hissing savagely:

"I don't know how I keep my hands from your fair white throat, murderess, unless I am lenient because I remember burning kisses you once gave me before your false nature turned from me, and you fled from the school, where you had wedded the poor language teacher secretly while I lay ill of a fever. Cruel heart, to desert me while I was supposed to be dying!"

"A pity you had not died!" she muttered viciously between her red lips, and he snarled:

"It is not your fault that I am living! When I found you, after long, weary search, at Cliffdene, that night, and you toppled me so madly over the cliff, I am sure you meant to kill me!"

"Yes, I cannot see how I failed!" she muttered.

"If you wish to know, the explanation is easy. I was picked up more dead than alive by a passing yacht, and carried to the nearest town, where I spent weary months in a hospital from the blow I had received on my head in falling over the bluff. I have but lately recovered, and came here and found a position to teach in a school."

"You had wisely concluded to give up your pursuit of me?" she sneered.

"Yes, discouraged by the warm reception I got from you at Cliffdene; but, fate having thrown you across my path again, I believe I ought to make capital of it. You are my wife secretly, and you tried to murder me. Both are dangerous secrets. Perhaps you would pay me well to keep them?"

"I suppose that I must do so?" Roma answered, after a moment's hesitancy, with bitter chagrin.

"Very well. I will take what money you have about you now, and I must know what terms you will make for my silence. A liberal allowance monthly would suit me best."

Roma emptied her purse into his hands, saying:

"If we agree upon terms of silence, will you promise never to molest me again? Not even if I marry another man!"

"I promise! And I pity the fellow who gets you, if you treat him as you did me!"

"The less you say on that subject the better! Do not forget that you persuaded an innocent schoolgirl into a secret marriage, that she was bound to repent when she came to her sober senses," she cried bitterly. "But there, it is too late now for recriminations. I hoped you were dead, but, since you are not, I wish only to be rid of you!"

"You can buy my silence!" replied Carlos Cisneros, so calmly that she congratulated herself, thinking:

"He is not going to be dangerous, after all."

Aloud, she said:

"I will arrange to send you a monthly allowance of fifty dollars, the best I can do for you! Will that satisfy your greed?"

"It is very little, but I will accept it," he replied sullenly.

"Very well; now leave me, if you can do so without attracting the driver's attention. I shall be leaving the carriage at the next corner," she said, and he obeyed her, springing lightly to the ground, and disappearing.

"He was not very violent, thank goodness!" sighed Roma, believing that as long as she paid him he would not betray her dangerous secrets; but bitterly chagrined that he was not dead, as she had believed so long.

"Perhaps I can compass that later!" she thought darkly, as she gave the order to the driver for Commonwealth Avenue.

She had determined to call on Lyde Carrington, with whom she had a society acquaintance, in the hope of seeing Jesse Devereaux again.

Mrs. Carrington received her with graceful cordiality, and Roma proceeded to make herself irresistible, in the hope of getting an invitation to remain a few days.

"I shall have to remain in Boston several days to have my teeth treated by a dentist, but mamma is compelled to return to Cliffdene to-night. I think of sending for my maid to cheer my loneliness," she said.

"Come and stay with me," cried Lyde, falling into the trap.

She knew that Jesse had been engaged to the dashing heiress, and amiably thought that their near proximity to each other might effect a reconciliation.

She had a shrewd suspicion of Roma's object in coming; but she did not disapprove of it; she was so anxious to see him married to the proper person, a rich girl in their own set. She knew he was romantic at heart, and secretly feared he might make a mésalliance.

But even while she was thinking these thoughts she remembered Liane, and said to herself:

"If my pretty glove girl were rich and well-born, I should choose her above all others as a bride for my handsome brother!"

CHAPTER XXVII.

WHEN HAPPINESS SEEMED NEAR!

Granny Jenks, after great bustling about and clattering of dishes, sat down at last to copious draughts of strong tea, flavored with whisky.

"Oh, granny, aren't you taking a drop too much?" ventured Liane apprehensively.