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Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday

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Title: Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday

Author: Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

Release date: February 12, 2010 [eBook #31257]
Most recently updated: January 6, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31257

Credits: Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS; OR, THE FATAL BIRTHDAY ***

Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: Cover of Dainty's Cruel Rivals by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh
Miller]

DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS
OR
THE FATAL BIRTHDAY

BY
MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER

HART SERIES NO. 88

Published by
THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY,
Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A.

INDEX

CHAPTER PAGE
I "A Sweet Girl Graduate" 3
II "The Prettiest Girl in the Room" 13
III The Happiest Day She Had Ever Known 19
IV The Old Monk 22
V "Only a Dream" 26
VI Love's Rosy Dawn 33
VII "The Trail of the Serpent" 38
VIII The Ellsworth Honor 42
IX "All That's Bright Must Fade" 48
X "The Grim Fates" 56
XI Love's Presentiments 64
XII A Maddened Lover 69
XIII Sad Forebodings 75
XIV Dainty Would Never Forget That Day 81
XV Black Mammy's Story 87
XVI The Ghost Alarm 91
XVII The Night Before the Wedding 97
XVIII The Wedding Morn 101
XIX A Madman's Deed 105
XX The End of the Day 110
XXI Would Heaven Turn Away From Her Wild Appeal 116
XXII Unmasked 120
XXIII Ah! The Pity of It! 126
XXIV The Darkest Hour 130
XXV Among Strangers 137
XXVI The Mother's Woe 142
XXVII It Seemed Like Some Beautiful Dream 146
XXVIII More Bitter Than Death 150
XXIX As We Kiss the Dead 156
XXX A Terrible Deed 163
XXXI Lost! Lost! Lost! 168
XXXII It Was the Overflowing Drop 172
XXXIII A New Home 178
XXXIV Thrown on the World 181
XXXV Grand Company 186
XXXVI "Only to See You, My Darling" 190
XXXVII A Wonderful Discovery 193
XXXVIII Good News 201
XXXIX "For All Eternity" 205
XL Conclusion 210

DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS

CHAPTER I.

"A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE."

"Her eyes
Would match the southern skies
When southern skies are bluest;
Her heart
Will always, take its part
Where southern hearts are truest.

"Such youth,
With all its charms, forsooth.
Alas! too well I know it!--
Will claim
A song of love and fame
Sung by some southern poet."

"It's a perfect godsend, this invitation!" cried Olive Peyton, with
unwonted rapture in her cold voice.

"Yes, indeed!" assented her chum and cousin, Ela Craye, joyfully. "I
have wondered over and over how we were going to buy our summer clothes
and spare enough money for a trip, and here comes Aunt Judith's
invitation to her country home just in the nick of time."

"And how lucky, to think of her step-son, Lovelace Ellsworth, getting
home at last from Europe! Either you or I must capture him, Ela!" added
Olive, eagerly, her black eyes sparkling with the hope of getting a rich
husband.

But Ela Craye snapped shortly:

"We might--if only she had not invited Dainty Chase."

Olive frowned, but answered, courageously:

"Pshaw! aunt might just as well have saved her manners. Dainty can not
possibly go. She hasn't a decent thing to wear at such a grand place as
Ellsworth."

"She would look pretty in a rag, and we both know it. Dainty by name,
and dainty by nature," Ela returned, gloomily, yielding reluctant homage
to a fair young cousin of whose charms both were profoundly jealous.

Olive and Ela, who were school-teachers in the southern city, Richmond,
Virginia, boarded with a widowed aunt who took this means of supporting
herself and her only child Dainty, who had but just graduated at a
public school, and hoped to become a teacher herself next year. They
were poor, but Dainty, with her fair face and gay good-nature, was like
an embodied ray of sunshine.

It had been very kind in the rich Mrs. Ellsworth to invite her three
nieces to her grand West Virginia home, and to offer to pay the expenses
of their journey. But for her generosity Dainty could not have gone; but
now, at her mother's wish, she wrote, gratefully accepting the
invitation.

"How thankful I am!" cried the mother, joyfully. "It's just what Dainty
needs, this trip to the mountains! She looks so pale and wan since she
graduated."

"So you really mean to let her go?" Ela exclaimed, with pretended
surprise, while Olive added, spitefully:

"We thought Aunt Judith might be ashamed of her shabby clothes. She
hasn't anything to wear, has she, but her last summer's gowns and the
cheap white muslin she had for her graduation?"

"Mrs. Ellsworth knows we are poor, and that Dainty must dress plainly. I
dare say she is too kind-hearted to be ashamed of her dead
half-brother's only child," Mrs. Chase returned, spiritedly; while the
thought would intrude, that if only Olive and Ela would pay their
neglected board bills she might afford Dainty a new summer gown and
dress.

She summoned up courage to hint this fact to them next day, but they met
the timid appeal with angry reproaches.

"Don't think we are going to cheat you of our board bill because we can
not spare the money till school begins next fall!" cried Olive, sharply;
while Ela chimed in scornfully:

"To think of our own aunt dunning two orphan girls for board!"

The poor lady's face fell, thinking of the rent and the grocer's bill,
both due, and not enough money in her purse to meet them; but she sighed
patiently, and answered:

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, dears, but you know how poor I am,
and that I must take boarders for a living! I'm sure I would be glad to
board you for nothing if I could afford it, though, after all, I'm not
really any kin to you, you know, only your dead half-uncle's widow."

It was true, what the sweet, patient woman said; she was not related to
them at all, but she had boarded them at the cheapest rates, and been
most kind and motherly. They had intended to pay what they owed that
very day, but jealousy of her daughter, their lovely cousin, crept in
between and made them withhold the pittance, in the malicious hope of
preventing Dainty's trip to Ellsworth.

Both girls were handsome and stylish in their way--Olive, a tall, dark,
haughty brunette of twenty-four, while Ela Craye was twenty-two, pretty
and delicate-looking, with a waxen skin, thick brown hair, and limpid,
long-lashed gray eyes. Each girl cherished a hope of winning the rich
and

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