CHAPTER XX.

THE END OF THE DAY.

Ah, how terrible a _finale_ to a birthday wedding that had dawned so

fairly and been anticipated with such happiness.

The bride mysteriously vanished, the bridegroom weltering in his blood!

Both the victims of wrong and crime heinous enough to make the very

angels turn away from watching such a wicked world.

Yet the sun shone on as brightly, the flowers bloomed as fairly, the

birds sang as sweetly as if two beautiful young lives had not been

blasted in their happiest hour.

Instantly there was the greatest confusion in the long parlors where the

merry guests who had come to witness a bridal now beheld the handsome

bridegroom murdered before their startled eyes.

A few moments before they had been excitedly watching for quite a

different _denouement_.

Whispers of what had happened--of Dainty Chase's note and her cruel

flight--had been circulated among the guests with startling rapidity,

and Mrs. Ellsworth had been heard to exclaim that they should not be

disappointed of a wedding, after all; she had two more nieces, and

Lovelace was not the man she took him for if he could not persuade one

or the other to step into the awkward breach and save him from the

consequences of Dainty's treachery.

Then she hurried away, to further her scheme with the deserted

bridegroom, and the guests waited most impatiently, gossiping among

themselves over the strange turn affairs had taken, wondering how Dainty

could turn her back on such a bridegroom and such a future, wondering

still more if Mrs. Ellsworth would indeed induce her step-son to take

Olive or Ela in place of the false bride, and on which his choice would

chance to fall.

Preferences were quite evenly divided between the two girls, both of

whom tried to look cool and unembarrassed, though their hearts beat

furiously with anticipation, and Olive, at least, since her heart was

enlisted in the contest, felt a burning thrill of jealousy of her cousin

Ela, saying to herself:

"If he should choose her, I know I could not help but envy and hate her,

for her heart is not interested like mine in this affair. I believe that

she still loves Vernon Ashley, and but for his poverty would rather have

him for her husband than any other man. Oh, I pray that his choice may

fall on me! I know Aunt Judith secretly wishes it, because I resemble

her more than any of her other relatives, and naturally she would prefer

for me to succeed her at Ellsworth."

Suddenly she beheld a face that made her start and draw in her breath

with a sort of strangled gasp.

Her eyes had strayed to Ela, who stood near the door, then wandered

aimlessly to the nearest window--aimlessly, then with a flash of

terrified recognition.

Between the rich lace curtains there peered the dark face of Ela's

jilted lover, Vernon Ashley, and in the glittering eyes, fixed immovably

on Ela, shone a baleful, boding light enough to frighten a stranger, and

much more so Olive, who knew of the cruel wrongs that had goaded him to

jealous frenzy.

It was simply blood-curdling, the demoniac look on Ashley's face; and

Olive watched him with a creeping sort of terror; for Ela had confided

to her that it was he who had fired at Lovelace Ellsworth the night of

the festival, and uttered dark threats of vengeance that now recurred to

her mind and filled her with alarm.

"He is bent on mischief. His eyes glare like a madman's or a drunkard's,

I am not certain which; but either way they bode evil. I must warn Ela

of her peril," she thought, nervously taking a step forward, but pausing

instantly in consternation; for at that moment Lovelace Ellsworth rushed

into the room, his handsome face pale as death, his dark, curly hair

pushed back in disorder from his high, white brow, his eyes flashing

with a strange fire, his ashen lips curled back from his white teeth

with a mocking smile.

Consciously or unconsciously, he made his way straight to where Ela

Craye was standing, pausing just at her side, and the act sealed his

doom.

The man at the window had heard of the wedding that was to take place,

and he had returned to Ellsworth, hoping to persuade Ela to take him

back into her favor, now that all hope of a rich match was over.

But in the days while writhing in the throes of rejected love, the man

had cast to the winds all honor and manliness, and drowned memory and

sorrow in the flowing bowl.

A piteous wreck of his former handsome self, he now peered through the

window, hoping to attract Ela's attention; but, unfortunately, no

premonition of the truth caused her to turn her limpid gray eyes toward

the dissipated lover now half crazed with thoughts of either love or

vengeance.

And while he watched and waited, he heard the talk of Dainty's flight

and Mrs. Ellsworth's promise--they should not be disappointed in the

wedding--Ellsworth would persuade one of her other nieces to marry him.

His brow grew dark, his heart beat heavily, his breath came thick and

fast with fear. In his passion for Ela he felt sure that Lovelace could

choose no one but her, his heart's fickle queen.

"It shall never be!" the maddened lover groaned to himself in jealous

fury, for he had said to himself, day after day, that ere Ela should

become the bride of another, he would stretch her dead at his feet, and

give her sweet white beauty to the worms and the grave rather than to

the arms of a rival.

The man was temporarily insane. Love and despair and reckless indulgence

in the bottle had made him so. He was as dangerous at this moment as a

wild beast from the jungle.

Lovelace Ellsworth rushed into the room, and, without seeing Ela Craye

at all, paused directly at the young girl's side, and began to speak.

To the jealous hearts of Olive and Vernon Ashley, the act had but one

interpretation.

His choice had fallen on Ela, and he was about to announce it publicly

to his friends.

A pang of the bitterest pain and jealousy tore like a red-hot needle

through the heart of Olive, and involuntarily, she looked again at the

window for the lowering face of Ela's rejected lover, wondering how he

would bear the strain of the moment.

The sight of his face made her shudder with alarm, for it had grown dark

and demoniac in its fury; and while she gazed, she saw his hand lifted,

and the shining point of a pistol directed full at the head of Lovelace

Ellsworth.

Simultaneously with the first words of Lovelace, a loud, warning shriek

burst from Olive's lips; but both were silenced together by the loud

report of the pistol whose contents had entered the victim's head.

With a moan of pain, Ellsworth sank to the floor, and a scene of instant

confusion ensued, some rushing to the young man's aid, others pursuing

the murderer; for Olive was not the only one who had witnessed the fatal

shot.

Several persons had observed the dark face of the stranger peering in at

the window, and two persons besides Olive had seen him fire the fatal

shot. He was instantly pursued and overtaken, and from his furious

ravings he was at first supposed to be an escaped lunatic.

But a guest from the station quickly recognized him as Vernon Ashley, a

young man who had visited in the neighborhood some weeks before, and had

caused some sensation by declaring he was engaged to Miss Craye, and

betraying a furious jealousy of Lovelace Ellsworth.

Ashley was taken away to prison, despite his entreaties to see Miss

Craye, who had gone into hysterics, it was said, on hearing who it was

that had shot Ellsworth.

When she learned that Ashley was begging to see her, she refused his

request with a shudder of fear, and he sent back an angry message:

"Tell her I have carried out my threat!"

They bore him away to prison, shuddering at his insane rejoicings that

he had killed his rival, and the house of joy and feasting was turned

into one of gloom and sorrow.

But Lovelace Ellsworth was not dead yet, though the end was expected at

any moment.

Indeed, it was a wonder that he had not died instantly, declared all

three doctors who examined him. The bullet had crashed through the side

of his head near the top, and was certainly imbedded in his brain, for

all endeavors to locate it failed of success, and they decided not to

worry the poor fellow with these useless attempts, but to let him pass

away in peace.

Love lay with closed eyes in a comatose condition, breathing heavily,

his pulse sinking fast, and it was believed that each moment must be his

last.

But as the minutes ebbed and the frail breath of life still fluttered

feebly in his frame, they became mystified by his tenacity of life, and

decided to risk removing him to his bed, which was accordingly done

without any appreciable harm to his condition.

Meanwhile, the house was full of hysterical women sobbing in earnest

fright and demanding as much attention as the victim himself, not the

least of whom was Mrs. Ellsworth.

She had followed Lovelace to the parlors after his startling

communication to her in wild excitement, and had swooned on beholding

his fall, recovering from one long spell only to go into another, and

actual fears for her life began to be entertained.

It was touching, said all, to see how devoted she had been to her

step-son, seeing that the events of to-day would make her the mistress

of his splendid fortune.