Adrift in the Ice-Fields Part 32

"Dear Pauline resides at No.--Crescent Avenue, and is now, as you are, of course, aware, the wife of Mr. Reginald Ashley, who is, as you know, closely connected with some of our first families."

"Yes, I know he is first cousin to Green, the rich broker, who sometimes invites him to dinners and parties, and makes it twice as hard for poor Ashley to make his small salary at the custom-house pay his way."

"Well, I dare say Pauline has done as well, and even better than she might have done, had not the poor girl had some one to advise her, who knew the world and--"

"Threw away an heiress worth fifty thousand dollars on a clerk with eighteen hundred dollars a year," interrupted La Salle, with a smile. "I beg leave, Mrs. Randall, to introduce to you Regnar Hubel, her half-brother, who comes to return to her her moiety of the fortune left by her father. I did not come here," continued he, more gravely, "to bandy bitter words, for you will ere long hear news from Newfoundland, which, I hope, will teach you that hidden sin is never safe from discovery, and that all injustice meets with its meed of punishment.

Adieu, madam."

Later in the day they called at the hotel, where the young couple were pa.s.sing the honeymoon. Slipping a _douceur_ into the hands of the waiter, he introduced them into the suite without the usual presentation of visiting cards. As the young bride swept into the boudoir in her reception dress, La Salle stepped forward; for he knew that she had already heard of his arrival.

"Charley--Mr. La Salle! Why--that is, how do you do? I was glad to hear--"

La Salle interrupted the fair speaker, for the awkwardness and pain of the interview were but too apparent.

"I did not come, Mrs. Ashley, to give you pain, or annoy you by my presence. I come to fulfill a prophecy."

"To fulfill a prophecy? You speak in riddles, and I have never delighted much in anything of that kind since I was a child."

"I may say, then, that I come to offer my congratulations, and to bring you my bridal gift."

"A gift? and from you? Surely you do not mean to offer, and I cannot accept it."

Regnar arose, and addressing the agitated girl, ended the painful interview.

"You were the daughter of Paul Hubel, of Schleswig--were you not?"

"Yes, sir. I was adopted by the brother of Mr. Randall, who was the friend of my father."

"Then, I a.s.sure you that my friend speaks truth. He has fulfilled a prediction, and gives you a fortune, and the brother who shares it with you."

The next few moments were spent in mutual explanations, and the young girl, deprived of a mother's love in early life, sent away to learn life's duties of strangers, and yearning during all her brief existence for the affection she had never known, received the brother she had never seen with an outburst of welcome which revealed what she might have been, had her life been spent under happier auspices.

At last La Salle interrupted their mutual joy.

"I have finished my task, and the prophecy of Krasippe is accomplished."

"Yes," said Regnar, "last summer I met with an old Esquimaux who served our father well for many years, and who now claims some power of insight into the future. He heard the story of my futile efforts to find you, but uttered this prophecy which we to-day accomplish. He said, 'You will meet in a desert of ice the man who will lead you to your heart's dearest wish. He will lose, and you will gain.'"

"And yet, Regnie, although the coincidence of events may bring me within the purview of the Esquimaux oracle, I have a misgiving that we have, perhaps, overlooked the claims of one whom we met but once in a desert of ice, and who still voyages, in silence unbroken, ADRIFT IN THE ICE-FIELDS."