Margery Daw by Bertha M. Clay — Read

Blustering March had come round, and gossip had worn to a thread the story of Lady Court's romantic birth. It had seized on the history of Sir Douglas Gerant's long-lost daughter with avidity, for it was not often that society's jaded appetite was regaled with so delightful a morsel. Many things had happened since dull November, but foremost among them were two events -- Lord and Lady Court were abroad, to the great annoyance of society, as it was thus debarred from beholding her ladyship in person, and the engagement between Stuart Crosbie, heir to Crosbie Castle, and Miss Vane Charteris, his cousin, came to an abrupt and strange termination just as the congratulations were pouring in. Many reasons were given in strict confidence for this unsatisfactory affair. It was averred that Miss Charteris had quarreled with her aunt, Mrs. Crosbie, and that Stuart, like a dutiful son, had espoused his mother's cause; that cold, beautiful Vane refused to become her cousin's wife when she discovered that Beecham Park had passed away from him; and that Miss Charteris had grown tired of her affianced husband. These and numerous other explanations were whispered; but no one knew the truth -- none but three people -- the cousins themselves and the mistress of Crosbie Castle.

Stuart had not reproached his mother; but his mental suffering caused her much uneasiness and genuine shame. She never knew what took place between Vane Charteris and her son, for Stuart was silent, and her niece left town with her mother for Cannes immediately after the rupture. She felt that Vane must be suffering disappointment, but she could never guess the humiliation, the sullen revenge and anger that were gnawing at her niece's heart. Go where she would, at every turn Vane had Stuart's contemptuous face before her, heard his bitter words, saw herself again as he had shown her, in her true light, dishonorable and despicable. That the marriage should have been broken off was acute disappointment; but the odium she had brought on herself in his eyes was even harder to bear. The malicious spite she had felt toward Margery deepened now into actual hatred; it galled her to desperation to know that the village girl should have become so great a person, her equal in birth, her superior by marriage. Poor Lady Charteris was overwhelmed with sorrow at the abrupt termination of her daughter's engagement, and fretted herself to a shadow because of Vane's irritability and peevishness. She lavished all her heart's tenderness on her daughter, hoping and trusting to see her regain her spirits; but it was weary work. Vane, crushed by her own deceit and wrong-doing, was rapidly changing into an envious, soured, miserable woman.