Lost to the world

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Entered at the Post Office, N. Y., as Second-Class Matter. Muuru’s IJbrary Is issued Trl-Weekly.

M to i Ml

Chapter I. The Separation

“Oh! Harry! I am so glad you have come back at last !” and a small pair of whit(! arms were thrown about the neck of the young man who had just entered the ele gant apartment, and a pair of ruby lips met his with a warm kiss of welcome.

“ Had you grown lonesome, darling?” he asked, returning her caresses.

“Lonesome! Oh, so lonesome, Harry. You cannot imagine how miserably the last three days have dragged by.”

“I am sorry, my dear— very sorry,” he said, while a shadow flitted over his handsome face.

It might be an expression of pain— some mental or physical suffering— but it was gone in a moment, and flxing his handsome young eyes once more on the sweet, girlish face, he lightly added ;

“ I am here now, love. Come, let us have no more repining,”

He led her to a sofa, where they seated themselves, his arm still encircling her slender v/aist. The dark-eyed girl rested her head on the shoulder of the man she had learned to love far more than life.

She was not to exceed eighteen summers, tall and slender, with graceful form and carriage. Her face was not only fair, but all aglow with happy, trustful, girlish love; it almost seemed angelic to the man at her side.

Never did Harry appear more happy than when sitting at her side toying with her dark tresses or gazing into the fathomless depths of those black eyes, which to him were well-springs of love.

What a handsome pair they made 1 He was tall, manly.

LOST TO THE WORLD.

and brave, and she was beautiful, confiding;, and happy. No, not altogether happy, for at times dark shadows fiitted over her face as well as his. This woidd would be a heaven were it not for painful recollections of the past or dark fears for the future.

“I missed you so much — so much,” she said, softly, looking fondly into his face while she clasped his hands between both her own.

“Do not forget, my dear, that I miss you,” he said, fondly kissing the white smooth brow,

“But, Harry, why need Ave ever be separated? Can’t we always be together?” she asked, nestling her head against his shoulder.

“ It is fate, darling,” he answered, the dark shadow once more gathering on his face. There was a struggle in the breast of Harry Clarendon. What kind of a struggle one could not well determine, without being able to commune with his thoughts. There seemed to be nothing bad about him. His face appeared honest; but yet we cannot but conclude that there is something within his breast of which we know not, or at least can only surmise.

“Will this cruel fate continue to surround us with misery and mystery ?” the beautiful girl asked in a pathetic tone.

“No, no, darling ; all will come out right in the end, never fear ; but let us not mar our present happiness with gloomy thoughts.”

“Harry ”

“ Well, dear?”

“ Do not think ill of me if I am such a little goose, but at times there comes to my mind doubts and horrors ”

“Una, my own dear little Una,” interrupted Harry Clarendon, drawing her closer to him, and gazing fondly into her siveet young face, “you must not allow my feelings to possess you.”

“ Do not scold me, Harry. I know it’s wrong, yet I cannot throw them off — they will return even if I do.”

“ Una.” he said, looking earnestly into those large dark eyes, “ do you doubt me?”

“No, dear Harry. I never doubted you. I intrust my happiness, honor, life, and soul to your keeping.”

“ I Avill prove true to my trust, darling,” he said, compressing his lips as if there was more he could not say. “ As soon as I can, you shall be acknowledged to the world as my wife. We Avill return to your home in NeAv York, and your father will forgive us for having clandestinely married.”

“ But why need we ” she began.

LOST TO THE WORLD.

“ There— there, my dear, you know you promised not to question my motives. Can you doubt me still?”

“No, dear Harry; you don’t understand me,” said the beautiful girl, the tears gathering in her soft, dark eyes. “ I am willing to trust to your wisdom. I will say no more about it. Mrs. Flowers, the preceptress of my seminary, has found that I am here, and written a long letter to me to know the cause of my absence.”

“ What does she say about it?”

“ She says it has an air of mystery, and that there are floating rumors concerning nw departure with two strange gentlemen, which do not reflect well on my character. That she feels it her duty to report the matter to my father.”

An angry exclamation escaped the lips of Harry Clarendon, and he started up from the sofa, but when he caught sight of the frightened face of his companion, he returned to her side, and pressing her to his breast, said:

“ Darling, pardon my hasty temper. It was those vile insinuations which roused the demon in me. They shall yet rue the day they uttered them.”

“But, Harry, this will all cease when I am declared to the world your wife.”

“Yes, darling, yes,” he answered, thoughtfully.

“ How long will it be until you can. Harry?” she asked.

“ Not long — oh. Heaven, I hope not longl” he answered, averting his face from hers.

She did not ask him why all this secrecy, for she had asked him before, and he seemed to want to avoid her questions. She did not dare press him for a direct answer ; for vital as the secret was to her happiness, she could not wound the man she loved by seeming to doubt him.

“You won’t leave me again, will you, Harry ?” she asked, hopefully.

She could be happy even amid doubt and mystery if he was only at her side.

“ I must, dear,” was the sad answer.

She started as if a dagger had been plunged into her side, and bitterly exclaimed :

“ Oh, Harry !”

“My darling, do not stay me for a moment,” he said, by way of hasty exclamation. “I must go; for on my departure depends our future happiness and honor.”

“Oh! what shall I do, Harry?” she asked, wringing her small, white hands.

“ Live hei-e quietly in this small town of Lanshire until I return.”

“ Oh, Harry, please do let me go with you?”

LOST TO THE WORLD.

“ I cannot, my dear. Your presence would defeat my object.”

Her presence defeat his object? What could that object be that her presence would defeat it? But she would not question his wisdom or his honesty of purpose. After a few moments, partially regaining her composure, she said:

“ What will my father say?”

“ He will forgive you when he comes to know the truth.”

“ But his anxiety ”

“ His anxiety cannot be as great as mine, darling; and I believe you have no mother?”

“No; my mother died when I was a little child, and papa married again. I don’t think my step-mother cares what becomes of me. Poor papa will be alarmed at my long absence from the academy. I wish Mrs. Flowers had not written to him about it.”

Harry muttered something about wringing the old maid’s infernal neck. Having again recovered his composure, he said:

“ I am compelled to go, my dear ; and, much as I regret to do so, it cannot be helped. My friend, Hugh Gass, will be in the village, and he’ll watch over and befriend you. It is best that you should live a retired life for awhile, and let them fret and worry until such time as we choose to reveal our own secrets.”

After a few moments’ silence, she asked :

“ When do you go away, Harry?”

“ This evening.”

“So soon?” she gasped, with a painful efiort to suppress the sobs which rose in her breast.

“Yes, my dear; the sooner I go the sooner I can return, and the sooner 1 return the sooner you will be made happy. I will get this business fixed up and throw off this veil of mystery.”

“ Where do you go, Harry?”

“South.”

She did not ask how far south, or to what part of the South he was going. The sweet young face, so trustful and happy at his entrance, was now thoughtful and grave —it was even sad— and she heaved a sigh. Harry noticed her dejection of spirits, and, drawing her to him, imprinted a kiss upon her cheek, down which a tear trickled.

As she brushed the tear away there came a rap at the door of their apartment. Harry rose and Una dried her tears. Opening the door, Mr. Clarendon met a young man about two years his senior. The stranger possessed a bi'oad. high forehead, but his dark hair and cold gray eyes gave him a sinister appearance.

LOST TO THE WORLD.

“Good-evening, Harry— good- evening, Miss Una— for such you must permit me to call you for the present,” said the new-comer, with a blandness which an astute observer would at once pronounce artificial. A smile playing on his face, he added: “ Oh, I hope I am not intruding.”

“Not at all, Hugh,” said Harry. “Our circle is small and somewhat select, but you are always admitted to it.”

“ Oh, thank you, thank you. I assure you'it gives me great pleasure to see you enjoying yourselves. Your happiness, like the sun, sheds a glow of warmth about it in which your friends can bask,” said the new-comer, entering the apartment and rubbing his hands together in assumed or real satisfaction.

“Hugh Gass,” said Harry, after his friend had seated himself, and he had resumed his own seat by Una on the settee, “ you are the only person we have trusted in this matter.”

“ So I am, so I am,” interrupted Gass, rubbing his hands with infinite pleasure, “ and I have never given you occasion to regret having trusted me.”

“You never have, Hugh,” said Harry; and then he resumed: “ Things have so shaped themselves that I am compelled to be absent for a short time. When I come back I will be enabled to set this girl right before the world.”

“ Oh, yes— of course, of course,” said Gass, as if he was very desirous of having that done at once. But when his face was averted from Harry Clarendon, there was a gleam of fiendish exultation on it, which, had the young man seen, he certainly would not have left the girl he loved in his care.

“ I must leave Una at this quiet place, where she can live unknown,” Harry continued ; “and I shall leave her in your charge.”

“ Oh, yes — yes — yes; you could not intrust her to safer hands, I assure you,” said Gass, with his blandest smile.

“ If her father or some other person should trace her here, or be about to move her, she must be removed to some obscure place to await my return. You understand ?”

“ Oh, of course— of course, Harry, and your wishes shall be carried out to the letter.”

The hour for dining had approached, and Una went to dress for dinner. In a few moments she returned, looking very sweet, with a rose in her hair and a bunch of garlands on her bosom. She tried to smile and be happy, but there was a heavy weight on her young heart. She took Harry’s arm, and, followed by Hugh Gass, they went to the dining-

LOST TO THE WORLD.

room. Gass being in their rear, and they being wholly preoccupied with each other, they saw not the fiendish gleam in his baleful eyes.

He kept up a side conversation in his smooth, oily way, rubbing his hands occasionally in his excess of pleasure at being able to serve his friends.

At nine o’clock Harry Clarendon’s train would leave. We will pass hurriedly over the separation of himself from the girl whose heart was his own. There was nervous anxiety as the hour for his departure approached. Then, when the hour had come, there were sighs, tears, sobs, fond embraces, and assurances of eternal love and fidelity,

In his nervoiis anxiety Harry seemed unable to pack his valise, -and Gass volunteered his services. In removing some articles from his trunk to his valise Harry let a folded paper fall to the floor. In an instant the eagle-eyed Gass had seized it, and hid it in his breast-pocket, while his eyes gleamed more than ever like a demon’s.

“ I will return as soon as I can, darling,” said Harry, his fine, manly face expressing the deep emotions which stirred his soul at parting. “ When I come back I hope that everything which goes to add mystery to this awful affair may be swept away.”

One last kiss, one last straining of fond heart to heart, and the loved ones were separated. Harry tore himself away, too much agitated to say farewell, and, followed by Gass, who carried his valise, he hurried away to the depot.

“ ‘ Awful affair !’ ” sobbed the girl when alone. “ Wliat did he mean by ‘awful affair?’ Oh, Heaven! is it awful?” and she fell upon the sofa and gave way to a flood of tears.

In the meanwhile Harry Clarendon was hastening away to the depot, from which he was to depart. His friend Gass was at his side, all confidence and friendship.

“Hugh,” said Harry, with deep emotions stirring his soul, “ I am leaving in your care the dearest being in all the world to me. Oh I Hugh, do not forsake Una; prove a true friend to her. I will leave money with you to pay her bills. No one need know where she is. If she is discovered or followed here, take her to some other remote place. Prove a brother to her, my friend.”

“I will— I will.”

“ I know you will, my dear fellow. I could trust my life with you. In lact, I am intrusting more than life to you in leaving my darling in your care. You know what cursed nets entangle me, and must stand my friend in this matter.”

When they reached the depot platform, Harry drew a roll of bills from his pocket, and counting out one thousand

LOST TO THE WORLD.

dollars, placed the whole amount in the hands of Gass, saying:

“Take it. It is for her. Heaven granting me luck, I will be back long before it is used. While I am gone see that no luxury is denied her. I intrust every thing to your care, for she knows nothing of business.”

The train now reached the platform, and the loud bell clanged forth its warning notes of departure.

“ All aboard?” cried the conductor.

“Farewell, Gass,” cried Harry, grasping his friend’s hand. “ In God’s name be true to your trust.”

“I will — I will,” Gass responded, wringing the hand of his friend in pretended sympathy.

Harry sprung upon the car-steps as the train moved off, and waved an adieu to the false friend on the depot platform. It had grown so dark, and the distance the train had already gone was so great, that Harry Clarendon could not see the expression of fiendish delight on the face of Hugh Gass.

“ He’s gone— yes, gone — and she is now in my power,” hissed Gass. “Ha, ha, ha! everything has played to my hand, and I shall yet make things as I wish them to be. Ha, ha, ha!— oh, my proud beauty. I’ll humble you yet. I’ll bend your will or break your proud spirit.”

Chapter II. Unmasked

It was Harry Clarendon’s plan to keep Una’s whereabouts a secret. His manner was a mystery to Una, but she had such absolute faith in the man whom she loved, that she never doubted his conduct was for the best.

She disliked Hugh Gass from the first. His blandishments and assumed friendship seemed glaring hypocrisy, yet he was Harry’s friend, and as such she was bound to have some regard for him.

“ It may only be prejudice against him, after all,” she thought, “ and for Harry’s sake I will try and overcome it. Were he a bad man, Harry would never have intrusted me to his care.”

A few days passed, and there came a letter from the wanderer, written from some little obscure town in the great West. It was brief, but full of love and hope.

Oh, how eagerly she read the missive, and how tenderly she pressed it to her heart ! He loved her yet, for he said so in his brief epistle, and she condemned herself for ever having doubted his love. Two weeks more passed without any further information from Harry. She grew restless and uneasy. Mr. Gass represented that she was not safe

LOST TO THE WORLD.

in the village, as her friends were on the search for her, and had her removed to another town, more obscure, if possible, than the first, where she resided at a small boardmg-hcuse under an assumed name, visited occasionally by Gass, who represented himself as a brother of the young lady.

One day, chancing to glance in a New York paper, she saw a slanderous account of her strange disappearance from Mrs. Flowei-s’ fashionable boarding-school. At the bottom of the column the paper stated that a special reporter had interviewed Colonel George Belmont at his elegant residence on Thirty-fourth Street. The reporter stated that the colonel was very much grieved and indignant at the conduct of his daughter ; but he bore up manfully under the shame she had brought upon the family. The colonel believed his daughter had eloped with and married some worthless fellow, and that she could never be his child again.

Una had the spirit of a Belmont, and indignantly throwing the paper aside, she started to her feet.

“If papa can discard me so easily,” she said, “ I can forget I am his child. Henceforth I live for Harry alone. On his love I will depend for existence. I can live in this seclusion and be happy with him. The proud Belmonts can go, I denj^ that I was ever one.”

Doubtless she would have been happy with Harry, but, alas! he was not at her side to console her in her hours of trial.

Weeks wore on, and she received no more letters from the man she loved. She grew impatient and uneasy.

Mr. Gass came to see her quite frequently, and in an offhand way, spoke of Harry’s absence and singular silence.

“Do you suppose, Mr. Gass, that anything could have happened him?” she asked. “Oh, if harm should befall Harry, what would become of me?”

“I’ll warrant that he’s safe,” said Mr. Gass, while a strange smile played on his features.

“ Why is he so silent?”

“Oh, it’s Harry’s way. Ha, ha, ha !— I know him so well. He is a singular fellow — a very singular fellow.”

Mr. Gass’ visits became frequent, and were longer than Una desired. Each time he seemed to grow more and more repulsive, yet for Harry’s sake she was forced to treat him with some degree of respectability.

One day the cunning villain was reading a newspaper. He glanced over an item concerning an attack by a party of savages on a wagon train. The list of killed was givem Among them was the name of Harry Clarendon. A look of joy overspread the reader’s face, Harry had deceived

LOST TO THE WORLD.

Una in regard to his journey. He said he was going South, but he was killed in the West.

■ She is now completely in my po-wer,” said the villain, “and her proud spirit will either bend or break ; but, Hugh Gass, you must be careful. You have a good hand, are playing for a high stake now, and so beware which card you lay down. Better let her think him alive than dead, for if she thought him dead, she would honor his memory.”

When next he saw Una he said nothing about what he had discovered in the paper, and took care that she should not read the paper herself.

“ I must leave you for a day or two. Miss Una,” he said, one morning. She looked at him a moment; her cheek flushed. How dare he address her as “Miss Una.” She had taken a bold step for the man she loved, and now had begun paying the penalty. But love is blind to reason, and she could not see that she had done wrong. Oh, how she wished Harry would return. She knew he would punish the fellow’s insolence.

“ I am going away on business, which will keep me for several days,” continued Gass, coolly, as he drew on his gloves and pressed his fingers well into them. “But your board is paid two weeks in advance, and I will return before that time.”

“ He speaks as if I were a dependent,” said the indignant Una, when the fellow was gone. “Hai’ry left money with some one to pay my board, I know. Oh, Harry, Harry, why don’t y outcome home and free n>e from these taunting insults.”

Hugh Gass took the train for New York. On his arrival, he went at once to the elegant mansion of Colonel Belmont.

He rang the bell, and a servant in livery came and opened the door.

“ Is Colonel Belmont in?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“ I wish to see him on business.”

“ What is your name, sir?” the servant asked.

“ Gass — Hugh Gass: but I’m a stranger, and can confide my business to no one save the colonel himself.”

The sei-vant left him Avaiting in the hall and went to the library, where Colonel Belmont usually spent his mornings reading the papers.

In a few moments the servant returned to the hall and said he would show the gentleman to the co.onel’s room. Hugh Gass, all smiles and good nature, was ushered into the presence of an old gentleman with dark eyes, irongray hair, and a countenance which was an index to his iron will.

“ Be seated sir,” said the old gentleman, with an air of one accustomed to command.

“ You are Colonel Belmont, I presume?” said Gass, seating himself on a chair.

Everything Gass did was with care, as though he wanted to make sure of every step before he took another.

“I am. What is your business with me?” was the answer.

“ You have a daughter named Una ”

“ Yes, sir; are you the man ” interrupted the indig-

nant father, his cheeks flushed with rage as he started from his seat.

“No— no, sir; I am not,” quickly responded the wily Mr. Gass.

“ Do you know anything of her?”

“ I do; by the merest accident I met your daughter.”

“ She was my daughter, but is not now. She forfeited all right to be called a child of mine. I have discarded her.”

“ I wish to ask a few questions. Colonel Belmont — not to gratify curiosity, but for your own good,” said the shrewd Gass.

The man seepied so disinterested and kind that Colonel Belmont felt constrained to say:

“ Ask what questions you wish; and if not impertinent, I will answer them.”

“Is it true that Miss Tina is your only child, by your first wife?”

There was special stress on the words “ Miss Una.'’’

“Yes, sir,” answered the colonel, somewhat abruptly.

“ Did not your first wife have considerable property iti her own right ”

“ Now, sir,” cried the exasperated Colonel Belmont, starting to his feet in a rage, “ you have gone far enough. What is it your business? If she has married some worthless vagabond, she shall not have a dollar. I would not give her shelter if she were dying in the street.”

“ Hold— hold, Colonel Belmont,” said Gass, coolly, not seeming the least disconcerted by the lU'^nner of the angry man before him. “Remember these questions are not propounded in the interest of the man who ruined your daughter. He is no friend of mine.”

“Do you know the man? Who is he?” asked the colonel, resuming his seat and making a tremendous effort to be calm.

“ If you will be patient, and listen to what I have to say,

LOST TO THE WORLD.

I will tell yon all. and that will explain the necessity of my asking these questions.”

“ Go on. I will try to listen.”

“ Youi' daughter was never married.”

“ What!” cried the father, starting to his feet.

“ Be quiet, be quiet, colonel; take it easy. What I tell you is true,” said Gass, with a coolness and power which seemed to enchain tlie agonized father to his seat.

“Not married!” lie groaned, as he realized the awful disgi-ace which had befallen his family.

“No, sir; she was duped— deceived by a villain; and even if she inherits wealth from her mother, he could not control it.”

“Who is he? Where is he?” demanded the colonel, starting up as if he would rend the villain limb from limb.

“Be quiet. Colonel Belmont; seat yourself again,” said Gass, with a coolness which made him master of the situation. Putting out his hand, he gracefully waved the colonel to his seat. “ He is beyond your reach. His name is Harry Clarendon, a fast young man of good family in Boston. This will tell you where he is.”

He drew from his vest pocket a newspaper clipping, which gave an account of the attack on the train, and death of Harry Clarendon.

“The villain!” hissed the father. “He has gone to his just account; but she — where is she?”

There was more deep anxiety expressed in the question than suited Gass. His object was, without seeming to do so. to imbitter the father against his own child ; hence the insinuations in regard to property from her mother. vVithout revealing his covert object, the villain answered :

“ Since she was deserted by Clarendon, I have supported her mainly at my own expense.”

- “ It may be,” said the father, clutching at a hope ns a drowning man will at a straw— “oh, it may be that she and Clarendon were married.”

“ No— Clarendon had a living wife in Colorado at the time,” said Gass, drawing from his side-pocket the same document Harry had dropped on the day of his departure. “Here is the marriage certificate of Harry Clarendon to Catharine Montour.”

“ The villain!” hissed Colonel Belmont, sinking back in his easy-chair, too much overcome to say more.

“ What will you do with the girl?” asked Gass, coolly, not the least disturbed by the father’s rage or suffering. All the iron determination of the old gentleman came to his aid as he answered :

“Nothing— she has disgraced myself and family, and ruined herself. My wife, sir, is a lady of one of the most

LOST TO THE WORLD.

respectable and aristocratic families in New York, and do you thick she would for a moment permit such a polluted being to stand beneath our roof? No — nor would I, though she were starving in the street.”

Those evil eyes scintillated with inward pleasure as the villain calmly looked upon the enraged though suffering man before him. 3ut no other outward sign indicated the emotions, hopes, or delight in the breast of Hugh Gass.

“ Remember she is your child,” he said, after a moment’s exultation.

“No, I won’t. I will forget that T ever knew her. The place my wife and children occupy in society is jeopardized by her conduct, and to receive her even as a servant would ruin us. My door is closed against her henceforth and forever.”

“Think, colonel, before you act,” said the cunning villain, pretending to reconcile the fat’ner to his erring child, yet at the same time widening the breach between them. “ You discard her, and she is lost to the world.”

“ She is lost to me forever, sir. If you do not wish to maintain the creature, drive her from your house. I will not talk of her.”

The old gentleman again sprung to his feet as if about to leave the room.

“ One moment, sir. Humanity, if not paternal affection, demands that this young lady be cared for. She is soon to become a mother ”

“ 1 will hear no more. Let her and the bi-at die — starve, freeze, or drown, for all I care. Enough of ”

“ Listen to mercy.”

“ Enough. I am dead to mercy.”

“ One word more — only one.”

“Not another! Begone, sir! Come to me to plead for a thief, a dog, but not for one who has ruined the peace and happiness of my whole family !”

Hugh Gass had fully accomplished his purpose, and rising, bowed himself out, as if he had come for the most benevolent purpose and been made a martyr for charity.

He had worked up the father to such a pitch of frenzy that he left him tearing his hair and swearing eterlial vengeance on the head of that wayward child, who had brought disgrace to his honorable name.