NAMELESS DELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8842, 2 April 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

NAMELESS DELL.

BY MRS. GEORGIE SHELDON, Author of "Mona," "Sister Angela," "Brownio" Triumph," " Trixy," " Stella Rosevelt," " The Forsaken Bride," etc.

CHAPTER XLIV. CONCLUSION.

Neither Harold nor Lester were willing to wait long for the consummation of their happiness, and in June, about two months after the reunion of the lovers, there was a double wedding at the Hoffman House.

It was rather a quiet affair, only the nearest relatives and most intimate friends of the happy couples being invited to witness the ceremony.

The aristocratic sisters of Harold, whose censure Dell had so feared when so much of mystery surrounded her history, were present and greeted the beautiful bride with marked cordiality.

They, with some other near friends, had been informed of the recent developments regarding the relation of Dell and Edith ; but after gravely considering the matter, the two girls had decided that it would not be advisable to make the story public. So many points would have to be explained in detail, and the excitement which it would cause would make them disagreeably conspicuous, and they preferred to let the world remain in ignorance of the true state of affairs.

" We know the truth, and I am satisfied to let things be as they are, so far as society is concerned," Dell remarked to Edith, while talking the matter over. " But I would so like everybody to know that you are my sister, and papa's own daughter," Edith returned, with wistful affection. " Still I know it would of course make a great deal of talk ; then narratives such as ours are not always repeated correctly, and matters might get uncomfortably mixed ; perhaps it will bo as well for us to keep the story quiet." The Lowells and some other relatives from Albany were also present at the double wedding, and the fair brides were the recipients of many beautiful and costly gifts. They were arrayed exactly alike, and very lovely thoy were in their trailing robes of heavy white silk, made very simply—for they had not until now wholly discarded their mourning—their only embellishment being their long, full veils, tastefully draped with sprigs of heath—a white variety, while each bride wore the chain unci locket which Mr. Lancaster had given to them on the last night of his life. " We must have something from papa among our many other gifts. Oh, if he could only have been here !" Edith cried, just ready to weep with longing for the presence of tho dear one. "Hush, darling, we must have no tears on this day," Dell gently chided, but her own eyes were brimming even as she spoke ; but she clasped the locket about her neck at Edith's suggestion, with a thrill of tenderest affection as she recalled Mr. Lancaster's last words to her.

" Now one from my other daughter," he had said, as after kissing Edith ho had slipped his arm around her shoulders, and touched her lips with a fond caress. The two young couples, instead of taking tho customary wedding trip, for the two girls were weary of travel, repaired directly to a lovely cottage at a quiet wateringplace, where they spent a happy and delightful summer. But when cold weather came again Dell insisted that they should all go South and spend a little time at Duleth Hall, while she should decide what she would do with the legacy bequeathed to her by Mr. Estcourt.

" I can never live there," she told her husband, with tears in the eyes, "and I want some advice regarding the disposition of the property. 1 know," she said, " that it was the happy home of ray mother during her early life, but ib was also the home of the man who plotted to ruin the lives of both my parents, and I should be continually haunted by unpleasant associations, and could not be happy there." Harold appreciated these feelings, but he did not feel prepared to advise her what to do with the estate, until he could visit it. The first 1 >ecetnbsr found them all at Duleth Hall, which they agreed, but for the associations, would bo a most delightful home, and yet the thought of selling it to strangers was very disagreeable to Dell, while it would bo a great care to try to run the estate and keep it up to its pristine glory through agents. Harold and Dell both felt that aside from their other objections to a residence at Duleth Hall, they did not care to live in the •South ; they preferred to make their home in some Northern city during the winter, and at some pleasant resort in summer ; so that what to do with this magnificent heir loom of the Estcourts' became quite a perplexing question. It-was not until toward the last of their stay that it was decided ; then one warm beautiful afternoon, while they were sitting upon the spacious porch, Dell turned to her husband and exclaimed with animation :

" I know what I will do with Duleth Hall —that i«, with your consent and approval, dear."

" Ah, then this weighty and perplexing mutter is about to be settled," Harold replied, smiling. "It certainly will be a burden off our hearts if your plan proves a feasible one. Lot us hear it by all means." " I am going to offer ib to the State of Tennessee as a home for destitute orphans, provided the Legislature will grant a certain amount as a fund to perpetuate it. How does that proposition strike you ?" " It certainly is a very generous scheme and very praiseworthy on the part of its present proprietor, and I approve of it most heartily," Harold gravely returned. The plan was discussed more ab length and finally acted upon. The matter was presented to the Legislature, and after mature deliberation, the magnificent gift was accepted with appropriate thanks, and a fund appropriated to maintain the institution, which Dell had so thoughtfully wished to provide for homeless little ones, who, like herself, should be bereft, during their tender years, of the loving care of father and mother.

When this matter was settled, Dell seemed to have gotten rid of the only care that weighed heavily upon her, and was so light-hearted and happy that she was the source of continual joy to those around her. During her sojourn at Duleth Hall she went to pay a visit to Mr. Colton, the clergyman who had told her so much about the Estcourts ; but he was " asleep by the river," he had died only a few weeks after Dell's first call upon'him ; but, his daughter told her, he often spoke of the " sweet singer" who had given him so much pleasure at that time.

A year after her marriage Dell received a letter from Marie Fontaine, with whom sha had corresponded occasionally, telling her that Madam Papineau was dead. She had gradually become more helpless, as time went by, until her whole body was paralysed ; but she had grown patient and gentle under this affliction until, as Marie rote, "you would hardly have recognised auntie as the same person whom you used to know. She has given me the beautiful home here in New Orleans and a thousand dollars each to three charitable institutions in the city ; and, dear Mrs. Westlake, five thousand to the home for orphans which you caused to be established in Tennessee. I was as much surprised by this bequest as you will doubtless bo, for she never lisped a word of her intentions to anyone, save to the lawyer who made the will, and ib was all chance that we knew anything of your noble gift. A friend from Memphis was visiting us and, during her stay, a paper was sent to her which gave an account of your munificent offer and the conditions accompanying it. Our friend read it aloud in auntie's hearing, and for two days after that she appeared to be labouring under some great mental struggle. I think this legacy is the result of it; can you accept it as a peace offering and forgive her the wrongs of tho past ?" " Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," Dell murmured with flushed cheek, as she read this passage in her letter, and she believed that the woman had really " repented of her past before she died," as she had told her she hoped she would during their last interview. Perhaps she had even treasured in her memory those final words, and they had had their influence upon her. A couple of months later Dell was surprised to receive a call from Marie Fontaine, who was now Mrs. Wilton Reynolds, and very happily married to a young clergyman,> who was settled over a prosperous church in tho South.

— -St The match that Madam Griesbach had tried to make at. Lake George had never amounted to anything, because Marie could never bo prevailed upon to accept the brainless fop whose only recommendation had been his wealth, and the fact that hg belonged to a family that occupied a high social position ; but Dell felt sure that the gentle, tender-hearted girl would make a lovely minister's wife, and believed that! she had found hor true sphere in life Harold Westlake, M.D., and ' ester Livingstone, attorney, put up their signs an the city, which for so many years had been their home, and became successful in their professions and highly respected citizens of Albany. They purchased a couple of estate which joined each other, in the suburbs of the city, and thus the sisters, who had so dreaded a separation, had their permanent home side by side, and, with tli' xi fond and noble husbands and other dear ones growing up about them, felt that life for them was almost an ideal existence,

Dell great heart went out toward everyone whose lot was less happy than her own, ana she never saw a homeless orphan without interesting herself to provide a comfortable home for it; while that noble institution at the South is a perpetual memorial to her goodness and generosity. Thus, richly blessed, and ever striving to bless others, our once Nameless Dell goes on her way rejoicing.

[the end.]