As fate would have it.

Front matter

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FT MEQDE

GenColl i

Chapter I. Love Versus Gold

On a quiet Sabbath evening some three years after the events related in the prologue, Guy Lawrence and Thirza Morton sat alone in the little parlor of her own and her mother’s quiet home in East Fourth street.

The lamp burned. low on the mantel-shelf, and they sat by an open window that looked out upon the open street, now flooded with a glow of moonlight, which cast deep shadows in some places, and transformed others, until they seemed like the weird scenes of dreamland.

Guy Lawrence was, like too many others in the world, cold, heartless, mercenary and ambitious. Ambitious to be known and worshipped as a money king. He was handsome, stylish, held a good position as confidential clerk in a banking-house, and showed externally but little of the man he was at heart. Money was his idol. There were many other things he loved, but money, in his idea, was the foundation of all happiness, and his constant musing was how he should make great and sudden wealth.

He had scarcely any acquaintances, and with thpse his intercourse was the most limited.

He looked upon their pastimes, their seeking pleasures in the channels usually pursued by young people, as most frivolous. And yet he was no miser, indeed. His salary was all used in proportion as he received it, and in this respect he was not unlike those whom he affected to despise. His ideas arid plans were all associated with sudden wealth, and he had no thought of a fortune gained by toil and frugality.

While thus buffeting on the wave of chance, he became acquainted with Thirza Morton, the lovely and only child

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of her mother, a widow, whose husband was formerly French interpreter at the consulate in Washington, and at whose death received a life pension, which placed them in comfortable circumstances. Thirza was indeed beautiful, both in person and mind. She was a tall, graceful blonde, with a calm, thoughtful cast of features, so finely cut, so delicately and harmoniously toned with fresh, ripe color that she seemed the ideal of a lover’s dream. And yet she had no doll-like or ball-room beauty. It seemed rather as if formed and ripened to grace home, to enwrap those within the charmed circle of her influence in a perpetual sunshine.

Her mother, herself a finely educated woman had taken care that Thirza should be so fitted by education, as she was by birth and nature, to grace any position in life. She was, in short, one of those women so rarely met with, who are well fitted for any sphere. She had aroused in the breast of Guy Lawrence the only enthusiasm and emotion akin to love for other than himself, that had ever known a resting place there, and “ were she only rich,’* as he said within himself hundreds of times, he would long ere this night have begged that her love and happiness might be given to his keeping. But, as it was, the thought of marrying a poor girl completely overcame all love engendered, and although delighted and happy in her society, had long ago repented any pretense of love he had ever made, and resolved to break away at the first flood of strength that should come to him.

But what of Thirza ? She had ever found Guy a gentleman; knew that he was esteemed as such by all his acquaintances, which together with his fine presence, brought him up very near to the ideal she created, and before she knew it she was in love for the first time in her life. True, she often saw him sad, misanthropic and cynical; knew that he looked upon the money-god as little inferior to any other, although she firmly believed, as all

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women do, that she had power to gradually brush away the clouds of gloom, and turn his heart in another direction by her personal love and devotion.

On this lovely Sabbath evening of which we write he appeared to be more cast down, more infected by the gold fiend than ever. He conversed but little, and seemed nervous and discontented, while she, with gentle words and loving inquiries, sought to lift him out of the slough of despond, and lead his thoughts to something more in harmony with the beauty of the night.

“ Ah, Guy, but there is something weighing on your mind which it were best should not be there,” she said, after gently bantering him on his melancholy.

“ Yes, Thirza, you are right,” he said, turning toward her from the window out of which he had been gazing, as if fascinated by the grotesque shadows of the moonbeams.

“ There is something on my mind which should not be there, and it must not remain there any longer; indeed, it shall not.”

“ Nobly resolved,” she replied, rising from her seat and placing her hand upon his shoulder as if to strengthen his new resolution, and give it speech. “Only make a decided stand not to allow your thoughts to work upon you in .such a gloomy way, and your battle is half won.”

“ You do not understand me, Miss Morton.”

“ Miss Morton ?”

“ Have I offended you ?”

“There seemed to be something in your look just then, which strangely accorded with the coldness of the tone which you used in speaking my name, that — ”

“ I beg your pardon; if I offended you, but as I resolved, and you approved the resolution, to free my mind, I trust that your feelings may not be wounded by the confession which must be coupled with and accompany the carrying out of that resolution,” he said, with utmost coldness in every word

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“ Guy, pray tell me what you mean ; explain ; it seems some terrible mystery.”

“ I will do so without loss of time or words. Be seated, Thirza, and listen. I am a very foolish man; I have been doing you a bitter wrong, and one for which 'i shall ever be sorry — I trust you believe that I love you truly and honorably ?’”

“ I cannot understand why you should question my belief in that particular, since I entertain you as my chosen friend above all others,” she replied, still unable to comprehend his meaning.

” That has been the mistake.”

“ How would you like me to understand you ?”

” Why, in entertaining me as a particular friend.”

” Was it not at your request, Mr. Lawrence?”

“ I acknowledge that it was, and assume that I have acted unwisely toward you. You are not a stranger to my ideas and aims relative to money, although you perhaps do not know that I consider it criminal for people who are poor, and ambitious to be rich, to marry. Without money, society is nothing to you or you to it, and without society, life is nothing as I view it.”

” I cannot agree with you, Guy.”

” But proofs are not wanting to sustain my assertion.”

” And yet my own heart is proof to the contrary. So far as I know society it is oftentimes a cloak under which its devotees can hide characters and reputations which need to be covered up in order to escape public condemnation.”

” And yet, what would the world be without society?”

” If it is all that I have learned of it, and you do not deny it to be, the world would be much happier and better off without it,” she answered, with some spirit.

“ And yet, you do not believe in democratic equality — that all are as good as yourself, or that they should have access to the same circles wherein you move.”

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“ I believe that education and natural refinement are the only grounds for founding personal superiority upon, and that those who possess these qualities should use them for the good of those below them; that they should strive to make the difference between them less marked, rather than set themselves up as exclusives or superiors. If this is democracy then I am truly democratic.”

“ Then you would never do for a rich man’s wife — at least, as society now holds itself,” he replied, turning away.

“ I never aspired to such a position; I consider an honorable, noble minded poor man more than an equal for what society is pleased to call an aristocrat.”

“But I aspire to riches and a position in society, such as we see people occupy around us, and it is this very subject that has been weighing upon my mind, and the one I wished to speak to you upon this evening. As I said before, I have been very foolish in making the proposals which you have so kindly favored, I was drawn toward you by a power I call nothing but love. But I have considered the injustice that a marriage between us would bring about. We should both be worse off, and I should never be happy in its consummation.”

He glanced at her, but she sat there in the pale moonlight as motionless as a statue and as cold as marble.

“ You can find those more worthy of you than I am, and who will make you far happier than I have the power of doing.”

Again he looked at her, but she had not moved, and did not seem to breathe.

“ For these good and sufficient reasons, I must beg to withdraw all that has passed between us, and suggest that we take our own individual paths in life. Will you agree to it?”

He repeated the question twice, but she made no reply. He moved toward her and took her hand. Holding it in

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IB his own for an instant, he again repeated the question, when she started, with a shudder, and slowly withdrew her hand.

“And so you do not love me ?’’ she asked faintly.

“ The evidence should rather show you that I do love you, since what I propose to do will undoubtedly make you happier.”

There was a momentary silence.

“ And you love another ?” she said at length.

“ No, but I am resolved to marry only for money. Love is entirely incidental. If it chances to exist after marriage, why, well and good; if not, money will soothe the wound. I trust, Thirza, you look upon this matter from the same standpoint as I, and will release me from all allegiance to you.”

He waited again for her to speak.

“ Will you do so ?”

“ Yes, ” she replied, without raising her bowed head.

“ Many thanks. I am not sorry that we have met, but rather that we should have thought one moment upon marriage, or even contemplated a condition which would have made us both unhappy for life. Farewell; I trust you will not think upon me unkindly, but rather commend me for my honesty.”

He had taken his hat and stood before her as though expecting t6 hear a reply, but she made none, and again saying “ Farewell,” he opened the front door, closed it, and was gone.

The slamming of the front door broke the spell which held her, and uttering a cry of agony, she sprang towards the door of the room, and fell swooning in her mother’s arms, she having been attracted toward her child by some sensitive cord which told her she was in trouble.

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Chapter II. The Seeress

At rooms on Twenty-fifth street, just out of Lexington Avenue, lived Madame Marsh, called by some “ the for tune teller," others “ the clairvoyant," and others “ the old witch." Whatever she was, she was well known, and consulted by all and any who had the money to pay her well for her knowledge. Indeed, she was what might have been called the general mixer of social mischief. She was a little, shrewd, spry old woman, of about fifty years of age, wrinkled and grey, but erect in her carriage as a girl of sixteen, possessing great vigor and decision of character, but in the presence of her patrons, she assumed the calm, genial, sympathetic, pleasant, and agreeable motherly woman. In short, she appeared to succeed in being everybody’s friend.

But at heart she was a cold, selfish person; one willing to bend, apparently resigned, to every circumstance which crossed her, while steadily carrying out the secret purposes of her heart. She could even fawn upon and caress those who stood in her way, while quietly operating for their removal. And all this time she had the name of being a charitable, motherly woman, always ready to do good, although she made it a point never to remain long in contact with a person without knowing all about them, as also . all about the people they knew — it was a business point with Madame Marsh to know something about everybody, and she always managed to turn such knowledge ro good account in the long run.

But she had such a cool, gentle, motherly way about her, that she was never suspected of being at all different from her outward seeming, and was a favorite with old and young.

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Among her visitors were business men who put faith in her science, and many who were unsettled and credulous of the weaker sex, placed implicit faith in “ madame.”

True it was, however, that she was looked upon as one having power with the supernatural, and proved an infallible adviser in nearly every phase of life. The young came to her in affairs of love; some to gain, some to regain, and others to be able to repel the wave of love. In all these she seemed perfectly at home, made money for herself, and many changes among her acquaintances.

She was seated in the room which served as an office and reception-room, on the evening following the one connected with the events in our last chapter. She had been looking over her journal of the past month, and still held it in her hand, as she reclined upon the lounge. What its contents were can only be conjectured, since a smile of contentment appeared to wreathe itself upon her face as she mentally contemplated it, and for a moment the lids closed over her strangely black eyes, as if in praise of her success.

A knock at her office door suddenly aroused her. Hastily opening the drawer of her secretaire , she placed the journal within, locked it, and withdrawing the key, approached the door. Sliding back a bolt, she threw it open, and Guy Lawrence strode into the room, with an aspect as cold as the heart which gave it life.

“ Well, I do declare!” said the old woman, as she closed the door, and stood gazing at her visitor, “ of all persons in the world, Mr. Lawrence, you are the last one I should have expected a visit from. Are you, and have you been well ?”

“ Yes, as well as common,” he answered, indifferently, as he placed his hat on the centre table, and threw himself into a chair, like one tired and dejected.

” I am so glad. But what brings you here now ?” she asked, taking a seat in front of him.

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ie

“ It must be something desperate when I conclude to come to you for advice, eh ?”

“ I know you never believed in me; but I imagine there’s nothing new in your case.”

“ What do you mean, madame ?”

“ I mean that you are never tormented with but one idea, never had but one trouble. You are being gradually eaten up by your desire for wealth.”

“ You have no occasion to summon spirits to tell me that; I am fully alive to that truth, and if there is any thing within range of your powers — be it angel or devil — that can show me how to obtain it, summons the oracle.”

‘‘And so your fever has broken out again in full force. Yet, I think you stand more in need of a little common sense than the answer of my oracle.”

‘‘Well, you can present both. You have known me from a boy, and understand me as well as I do myself. What shall I do to obtain riches ?”

‘‘Of course it must be done without labor ?”

“ The easier the better.”

“ Well, then, marry an heiress.”

” With the greatest pleasure in the world; where is she ?”

“ You should know even better than I do, since you are, doubtless, constantly on the look out.”

“ True, but I find them coy of strangers, placing too high a value upon themselvesf or a poor man to surmount.”

“ When a man has your personal qualities?”

" Beauty is only a love commodity.”

“ True, but it sometimes wins fortunes.”

“ Yes, in romances.”

“ And in real life; I’ve known it too often.”

“ Yes, I have heard you mention miracles before.”

“ But this is none; you can turn your looks to good account,”

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“ I have tried and failed. I find followers for every feminine personification of a

“Try Edith Harvey,” said Madame Marsh, as though to emphatically fasten the argument in her favor.

Guy Lawrence looked at her a moment as though in doubt, and then broke into a cold laugh.

“ She is rich, and you can win her,” she persisted.

“ I thought so once.”

“ What do you mean ?”

“ I suppose you know all about it.”

“ I assure you I do not.”

‘‘Well, I proposed to her not long since, and was rejected.”

“ Indeed! what reason did she give ?”

‘ ‘ A very sensible one — that she did not wish to run the risk of being any poorer than she was.”

“ But yet you can succeed,” she replied, naively.

“ And how ?”

“ She loves you.”

“ Did she tell you so?”

“ No, I never saw her, but she told a friend of mine that you were her beau ideal, and when a man has such a hold as that upon a woman, he can win if he wishes to do so. But I am told that she, too, worships money.”

“ Which shows her good sense. But I cannot hope to get a share of her wealth. No — no, I have abandoned that idea.”

“ You asked my advice, did you not ?”

“ Yes, why ?”

“ Nothing; only I advise you to marry a woman who has money; and also that you try Miss Harvey again, as I consider your chances the best with her.”

“ I am afraid not.”

“ But will you try again?” she repeated earnestly.

“I’ll do anything for riches,” he replied, quickly, and with intense earnestness.

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“ Then go to Edith Harvey; go with a determination to win her, and you will succeed; I tell you this from clairvoyant’s evidence. There is no mistake about it. Your destiny lies in that direction, you must follow it.”

The old woman spoke the last few words with a vehemence which showed her to be positively in earnest from some external knowledge, or that she was really putting her clairvoyant powers to the test, and through them saw what the future had in store for him. At all events, her tone of voice and expression of face had a strange effect upon young Lawrence, who started from his seat and stood gazing intently into her face.

” Will you follow your destiny?” she asked, at length.

“ I will — come weal, come woe,” he replied, firmly.

” Then lose no time in seeing her.”

” It shall be as you suggest”

” Good!” she said, following him to the door.

“ Let me see you often hereafter; I can help you,” she whispered, as he placed a ten dollar bill in her hand.

“ I will,” was all he said, as he closed the door after him.

“ And he will meet his fate in that direction,” said the seeress, as she stood with her eyes closed, after she had been left alone.

CHAPTER IIL

AN ICICLE.

There are breathing icicles — icicles of flesh and blood, as well as those crystal pendants that form in a night on telegraph wires and car roofs, and from the eaves of the low roof of the country cottage. Cold, clear and beautiful, the delight of the children, and the enemy of the poor for with them ever comes bitter cold and piercing winds.

’Tis the same with the living icicles, cold, pellucid,

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beautiful, they charm the casual observer, fascinate silvery moths who flutter in their train until frosted by their frowns.

Edith Harvey was an icicle. Many called her handsome.

She was not, but she was what is better in a society woman, stylish, fashionable, prudent, and calculating. She was the only child of fond, but foolish parents, who set her up as their idol, and oracle,* at an age when she ought to have been playing with doll babies, and getting up imaginary teas. At the age of ten, the parents of Edith, and the servants of the Harvey mansion, had /earned that her word was law; to slight a command of Miss Edith was, the first occasion, a severe reprimand, the second, instant dismissal.

Edith was a young lady of medium height, a decided brunette, with long, black hair, “ so black it’s purple” was her maid’s view of it. Eyes which equaled the hair in jetty hue, and the midnight star of winter in their cold brilliancy. Her features were too sharp for beauty, and well indicated her character — shrewd, never happy, but grasping the phantom in vain.

The Harveys were called rich. Owning and living in their own mansion, on Murray Hill, which had descended to them from a former generation, and which Edith held by right to possess, at the death of her parents, there was no need to question their wealth or social standing.

The house was handsomely furnished, they kept up a show of wealth, with a fine equipage, and, like thousands of others in our great metropolis, hovered on year after year, on the brink of poverty, tottering and recovering by some lucky speculation, some stroke of good luck.

Edith knew all this, and had formed her future; she must marry wealth. She knew no laws but those binding her to society, and as for a heart — bah — who talks of hearts where their future well-being is concerned!

Offers, of course, were plenty, for Miss Harvey, the

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heiress, was a society woman; and there are ever plenty of fortune hunters in that same society, the boast of New York’s elite.

Money was her god, to queen it in society, to be quoted as the authority in fashionable life, was her aim; money alone could buy it, and her only source of money was a husband, and he must be elegant and fashionable, and have money unlimited.

In this respect she and Guy Lawrence were well mated but alas! the coffers of both were equally depleted.

L Guy had already sought her hand in marriage, supposing her an heiress, and, had she acknowledged it, he was her favorite — handsome, commanding in person, in fact, her beau-ideal in all, save wealth, and that speedily set at rest and demolished any lingering weakness she might have entertained toward the handsome Guy.

And the only source her musings regarding him ever followed, was, if by any means he could get wealth, of all men, Guy Lawrence should be her husband.

And Guy Lawrence knew her views, for she had frankly told him, and with this knowledge again attacked the fortress of his choice, again repeated his tale of love.

Edith received him with cold politeness, the society woman’s air, although the blood came quickly through her veins at sight of his handsome form, and had she been less the icicle, it would have revealed itself in the tell-tale blush and emotional voice. She heard him through, quietly, respectfully, and answered:

“ Mr. Lawrence, Guy, you come again with your tale of love; you and I should understand each other. We are both old enough, and conversant enough with the world to know that money is the lever that moves it — the only source of happiness. You and I are both pursuing happiness, i. e ., wealth. I own this house, at my parent’s death — aside from the house, nothing! What would it avail me to marry one without the equivalent to maintain

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the style necessary for my property ? Had you money, Guy, my answer would not be nay — now excuse me, again I decline to be Mrs. Guy Lawrence.”

All this conversation was carried on in the cool, methodical manner of two people trying to exchange property, or any merchandise where each was determined to secure to himself a good bargain.

“ So, Edith, if I had money, and plenty, you would marry me ?”

I would. But have I hot heard something about a Miss Morton, the lovely daughter of the widow ?”

“ Don't mention that. Fascination and marriage are widely separated. Miss Morton is a lovely girl, and will make a man with her ‘ love in a cottage ’ ideas a true wife; but I — my ambition soars beyond such old-fashioned ideas.”

“You have soaring ideas, why not carry them out, get money, I will become your partner at once you secure it.”

” Ah! 'tis easy said, but to make money one must have money.”

” Why, Guy, I am better at business than you. Look at the fortunes that have been made in this city without a dollar capital. If I was a man, I’d not want for money a day. Look around you at our millionaires, and think where many of them were a few years ago. Follow their example.”

“ How ? Join some ring ? I suppose they are the millionaires to whom you allude ?”

“ Not they alone, there are other ways of accomplishing the same ends.”

“ I know, but I can never delve and toil for wealth — it must come, as it were, in the night.”

“ That means you would take bold chances that would frighten a more timid man ?”

“ Propose a chance that X would shrink at,” said he, resolutely.

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“ Well there have been fortunes stolen. But I believe business men gloss the word, making it ‘ speculation,’ ‘dealing in paper,’ ‘watching the market.’ I often hear them talk of ‘ puts,’ ‘calls,’ ‘ straddles,’ and all those curious technical terms. Have the men who deal thus, money? No, neither do people ask if they have it. But apart from this, which is really speculation, let us look at your surroundings. You have access to millions. A man possessing cunning and courage under such circumstances should not be poor.”

“ Edith, what do you mean!” exclaimed he, starting back and looking at her.

“ Do you not understand ?”

“ Not clearly.”

“ Well, then, we will suppose that there is a young society lady who is supposed to be rich. She is loved by a man who is her ideal in all save wealth. He fortunately finds wealth and transfers it to her keeping. Under those circumstances, nothing would be thought of it, for he could keep right along in his employment, she being all the while above suspicion as he would be, if there was no money found upon him, and no bad management showed itself regarding the find, and if after the excitement had blown over, this man and woman should get married, and enjoy rationally this fortunate find, who could say more than that he was the lucky fellow that married an heiress?”

“ Edith, you are a Napoleon — a more than queen!” he said, grasping her hands.

“ I could be the queen of so courageous and fortunate a man,” she replied, with a rippling laugh.

“And you will pledge yourself to that ?” he asked, with a strange earnestness.

“ I will. There is my hand.”

“ I accept it. Farewell!” -

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Chapter IV. A Bold Project

The house of Elias Cammon & Son had occupied for two generations a foremost place, in Wall street, as bankers of integrity and honorable dealing. Elias Cammon, the first, had started in Wall street in its pigmy days, and had built up a business second to none in a time when business was done on a firm basis, when fortunes were not made and lost in a few hours. His son, Elias, was brought up on the street, and early gave signs of training that would make him a worthy successor; and as he in turn succeeded to the business, his son followed in his footsteps, and the Cammons were looked upon as towers of strength.

They were oracles, and always seemed to come out on the upper side of all speculations, and held the stock market by the horns.

That, however, was before the days of so much jugglery in financiering, and one may well doubt if the house would have always written “ eureka,” had they combated with the keen operators in their peculiar workings who rule Wall Street to-day.