A thunder-bolt falling from a clear sky could not have startled the proud Mrs. Varrick more than those crushing words that fell from the lips of her handsome son—"Mother, if you turn Jessie Bain from your door, I go with her!"
Mrs. Varrick drew herself up to her full height and advanced into the room like an angry queen.
"Hubert," she cried, in a tone that he had never heard from his mother's lips before, "I can make all due allowance for the follies of a young man, but I say this to you: you should never have permitted this girl to cross your mother's threshold."
"Give me a chance to speak a few words, mother," he interrupted. "Let me set matters straight. The whole fault is mine, because I have not explained this affair to you before. I put it off from day to day."
In a few brief words he explained.
In her own mind, quick as a flash, a sudden thought came to her that there was more behind this than had been told to her.
She had wondered why Gerelda Northrup, the beauty and the heiress, fled from her handsome son at the very altar. Now she began to think that she might have had a reason for it other than that which the world knew.
She was diplomatic; she was too worldly wise to seek to separate them then and there. She said to herself it must be done by strategy.
"This puts the matter in quite a different light, Hubert," she said; "and while I am slightly incensed at your not telling me about this affair, I can readily understand the kindly impulse which prompted you to protect this young girl. But I can not allow you to outdo me; Jessie must consider me quite as much her friend as you. She shall find a home here with us, and it will be pleasant, after all, to see a bright, girlish face in these dull old rooms, and hear the sound of merry laughter."
This remark threw Hubert off his guard.
"That is spoken like my noble-hearted mother!" he cried, enthusiastically. "I knew you could not be angry with me when you understood it."
The girl stepped hesitatingly forward. From the first instant that she beheld her standing on the threshold, she had conceived a great dislike and fear of Hubert's haughty lady-mother. Even the conversation and explanation which she had just listened to did not change her first impression.
Thus it happened that Jessie Bain took up her abode in the magnificent home of the Varricks.
But Hubert's mother made it the one object of her life to see that her son and this attractive girl were never left alone together for a moment.
He had seemed heart-broken over the loss of Gerelda Northrup up to the time that Jessie had entered the house; now there was a perceptible change in him.
He no longer brooded for hours over his cigars, pacing up and down under the trees; now he would enter the library of an evening, or linger in the drawing- room, especially if Jessie was there.
Had it not been for her son, and the terror from day to day in her heart that Hubert was learning to care for the girl, proud Mrs. Varrick would have liked Jessie Bain, she was so bright, so merry, so artless.
She lost no opportunity in impressing upon Jessie's mind, when she was alone with the girl, that Hubert would never marry, eagerly noticing what effect these words would have upon the girl.
"Wouldn't that be a pity, Mrs. Varrick?" she had answered once. "It would be so cruel for him to stay single always."
"Not at all," returned Mrs. Varrick, sharply. "If a man does not get the one that is intended for him, he should never marry any one else."
"And you think that he was intended for Miss Northrup?" questioned Jessie. "Decidedly; and for no one else."
"Then I wonder Heaven did not give her to him," said Jessie. Mrs. Varrick looked at her keenly.
"A man never has but one love in a life-time," she said, impressively.
A fortnight had barely passed since Jessie had been under that roof, and yet every one of the household noticed the difference in handsome Hubert Varrick, and spoke about it. He was growing gayer and more debonair than in the old days, when he was paying court to the beautiful Gerelda Northrup. Of all subjects, the only one which he would not discuss with his mother was the future of Jessie Bain.
She had on one occasion asked him, with seeming carelessness, how long he intended to care for this girl who was an utter stranger to him, and suggested that, since she would not go to school, his responsibility ought to cease.
"I have bound myself to look after her until she is eighteen," he answered.
"I want to have a little talk with you, Hubert, on that subject," she said. "Will you listen to me a few moments?"
"As many as you like, mother," he answered.
"I want to ask you if you have ever thought over what a wrong step you are taking in giving this girl a taste of a life she can never expect to continue after she leaves here?"
"You should be glad that she has a little sunshine, mother."
"It is wrong to place a girl in a brilliant sunshine for a few brief days, and then plunge her into gloom for the rest of her life."
"She has not been plunged into gloom yet, mother."
"If she could marry well while she is with us, it would be a great thing for her," went on Mrs. Varrick.
"Don't you think she is rather young yet? What is your opinion about that, mother?"
"It is best for a poor girl to marry as soon as a good offer presents itself, I believe. I have been thinking deeply upon this subject, for I have noticed that there is a young man who seems to be quite smitten with the charms of Jessie Bain."
Her handsome son flushed to the roots of his dark-brown hair, and he laughed confusedly as he said:
"Why, how very sharp you are, mother! I did not know that you noticed it."
"Of course he is not rich," continued Mrs. Varrick, "but still, even a struggling young architect would be a good match for her. She might do worse."
"Why, what in the world do you mean, mother?" cried Hubert Varrick. "What are you talking about?"
"Why, my dear son, have you been blind to what has been going on for the last fortnight?" she returned, with seeming carelessness. "Haven't you noticed that the young architect who is drawing the plans for the new western wing of our house is in love with your protégée?"
She never forgot the expression of her son's face; it was livid and white as death. This betrayed his secret. He loved Jessie Bain himself!