Geraldine did, indeed, have a weary waiting for her lover, and her disappointment was keen and bitter at his failure to come.
But so absolute was her faith in him that she did not become angry, but thought, excusingly:
"Something has happened to detain him, surely. Perhaps he was called out to some dreadful fire. I shall be sure to receive a note from him to-morrow, explaining all, craving my pardon, and appointing another date to call."
She was so anxious, too, for Cissy to see him. She felt sure that her friend would like him better than she had liked Clifford Standish.
When she reached home that day, she rested a while, then went down to the store, and remained until closing time, returning with Cissy, who was cold and indifferent, for Geraldine's non-return the night before had filled her with alarm over the fate of the willful girl.
But Geraldine, eager for her friend's sympathy, put aside her former petulance, and poured into Cissy's ear the story of the day and night—the accident that had deprived her of the actor's company—the new friends she had made, her fall into the water, her rescue, her charming time at Newburgh—except that her girlish heart had gone from her own keeping into that of noble, handsome, tender Harry Hawthorne.
But Cissy did not need to be told the latter. She read it in the blush and smile of the innocent girl.
"How does Love speak?
In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek,
And in the pallor that succeeds it; by
The quivering lid of an averted eye—
The smile that proves the parent to a sigh—
Thus doth Love speak.
"How does Love speak?
In the proud spirit suddenly grown meek
The haughty heart grown humble; in the tender
And unnamed light that floods the world with splendor,
In the shy touch of hands that thrill and tremble.
In looks and lips that can no more dissemble—
Thus doth Love speak!"
"Oh, Cissy, I want you to promise me to come in and see him to-night," pleaded Geraldine, humbly. "I am sure you will be charmed with him, he is so good and so handsome."
"So you said of Mr. Standish," reminded Cissy.
Geraldine blushed, but answered, warmly:
"I know I did; but—Mr. Hawthorne is nicer than the actor—oh, ever so much nicer! And"—slyly—"you will like him, Cissy, because he is as much opposed to my going on the stage as you are."
"Then I shall cultivate his acquaintance," declared Cissy, beamingly.
And she was almost as anxious for his coming that night as Geraldine was herself.
But, as we have seen, both were disappointed.
Harry Hawthorne lay ill and suffering at the hospital, and there was no one to tell Geraldine the story of his accident.
Her young heart was heavy with pain and wonder all the next day, but still no message came to explain or excuse his failure to keep his engagement.
Only some fair young girl as loving and tender as our sweet Geraldine, who has been disappointed as she was, can realize her silent grief that day as she stood behind the counter, patiently waiting on exacting customers and trying to seem cheerful and interested when she was longing to be alone in her own room, to bury her head in the pillow and have a good, comforting cry.
She was wretched with doubt and suspense.
And only yesterday she had been so wildly happy.
Late in the afternoon Clifford Standish came into the store to buy a pair of gloves.
He was bright, smiling, and elegant as ever, and chatted gayly with Geraldine.
"I have some good news for you this evening," he whispered, but the girl scarcely smiled.
She knew that he would not bring her any tidings of Harry Hawthorne, and it seemed to her that she cared for nothing else.
How strange is love when it enters the heart as a guest, shutting out interest in everything else—strange, subtle, sweet, and absorbingly selfish.
Geraldine forgot how well she had liked the actor, and how she had quarreled with Cissy for his sake.
His attentions were repugnant to her now, and she wished ardently to be rid of him.
But her tender, girlish heart reproached her for her fickleness, and she thought it would seem ungrateful to snub him now.
So she only smiled at him plaintively, assuming an interest she did not feel.
Bending across the counter, he whispered, so that Cissy could not hear:
"I beg your pardon, but did your new admirer—did he call last night?"
"No-o," faltered the girl, and she could hardly keep the tears from her eyes.
"Why, that is strange. What prevented him from keeping his engagement?"
"I do not know."
"You have not heard from him?" he exclaimed, in surprise.
"Not a word," she sighed, then added, quickly: "But I don't think he meant to break his engagement. Perhaps there was a fire, and he had to go."
"Very likely—but, then, he should have sent you an apology early this morning."
"Do you think so? Oh, I suppose he will come and explain in person," said Geraldine, with assumed indifference.
Another customer bustled up to claim her attention, and he bowed himself away, secretly exultant over the fact that she was utterly ignorant of Harry Hawthorne's fate.
"There is no one to come and tell her, and even if it gets into the papers, she is not likely to read it. A poor working-girl has little time for reading," he reflected.
Again his evil genius favored him.
When he went for his call on Geraldine that evening, he found a messenger-boy in the street with a letter for her from the Bellevue Hospital.
He took the letter from the boy, and gave him a quarter.
"I am going in to see Miss Harding now. I will deliver the letter," he said, affably, and the boy, who was in a hurry to get home to his supper, thanked him for the service, and turned away, rejoicingly.
The triumphant actor hid the letter in his breast, congratulating himself on having so easily obtained possession of it.
"I am very fortunate, for had the fickle little beauty received it, all would have been explained between them."
Geraldine came to the door to receive him, and he saw at once how much she had changed toward him by the simple fact that she had not adorned herself in her best gown, as usual, but wore her simple shop-gown of black serge.
She did not care whether she looked fair to him or not, and he quickly realized it, for he was an adept in reading the complex nature of woman. But he hid his chagrin, saying, admiringly:
"Perhaps you do not realize how pretty and demure you look in that black gown."
"Thank you," Geraldine said, listlessly, as she sank into a chair