Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal BirthdayThe Project Gutenberg eBook of Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday Author: Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller Release date: February 12, 2010 [eBook #31257] Most recently updated: January 6, 2021 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31257 Credits: Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS; OR, THE FATAL BIRTHDAY *** Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: Cover of Dainty's Cruel Rivals by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller] DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS OR THE FATAL BIRTHDAY BY MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER HART SERIES NO. 88 COPYRIGHT 1898 BY GEORGE MUNRO'S SONS Published by THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY, Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. INDEX CHAPTER PAGE I "A Sweet Girl Graduate" 3 II "The Prettiest Girl in the Room" 13 III The Happiest Day She Had Ever Known 19 IV The Old Monk 22 V "Only a Dream" 26 VI Love's Rosy Dawn 33 VII "The Trail of the Serpent" 38 VIII The Ellsworth Honor 42 IX "All That's Bright Must Fade" 48 X "The Grim Fates" 56 XI Love's Presentiments 64 XII A Maddened Lover 69 XIII Sad Forebodings 75 XIV Dainty Would Never Forget That Day 81 XV Black Mammy's Story 87 XVI The Ghost Alarm 91 XVII The Night Before the Wedding 97 XVIII The Wedding Morn 101 XIX A Madman's Deed 105 XX The End of the Day 110 XXI Would Heaven Turn Away From Her Wild Appeal 116 XXII Unmasked 120 XXIII Ah! The Pity of It! 126 XXIV The Darkest Hour 130 XXV Among Strangers 137 XXVI The Mother's Woe 142 XXVII It Seemed Like Some Beautiful Dream 146 XXVIII More Bitter Than Death 150 XXIX As We Kiss the Dead 156 XXX A Terrible Deed 163 XXXI Lost! Lost! Lost! 168 XXXII It Was the Overflowing Drop 172 XXXIII A New Home 178 XXXIV Thrown on the World 181 XXXV Grand Company 186 XXXVI "Only to See You, My Darling" 190 XXXVII A Wonderful Discovery 193 XXXVIII Good News 201 XXXIX "For All Eternity" 205 XL Conclusion 210 DAINTY'S CRUEL RIVALS CHAPTER I. "A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE." "Her eyes Would match the southern skies When southern skies are bluest; Her heart Will always, take its part Where southern hearts are truest. "Such youth, With all its charms, forsooth. Alas! too well I know it!-- Will claim A song of love and fame Sung by some southern poet." "It's a perfect godsend, this invitation!" cried Olive Peyton, with unwonted rapture in her cold voice. "Yes, indeed!" assented her chum and cousin, Ela Craye, joyfully. "I have wondered over and over how we were going to buy our summer clothes and spare enough money for a trip, and here comes Aunt Judith's invitation to her country home just in the nick of time." "And how lucky, to think of her step-son, Lovelace Ellsworth, getting home at last from Europe! Either you or I must capture him, Ela!" added Olive, eagerly, her black eyes sparkling with the hope of getting a rich husband. But Ela Craye snapped shortly: "We might--if only she had not invited Dainty Chase." Olive frowned, but answered, courageously: "Pshaw! aunt might just as well have saved her manners. Dainty can not possibly go. She hasn't a decent thing to wear at such a grand place as Ellsworth." "She would look pretty in a rag, and we both know it. Dainty by name, and dainty by nature," Ela returned, gloomily, yielding reluctant homage to a fair young cousin of whose charms both were profoundly jealous. Olive and Ela, who were school-teachers in the southern city, Richmond, Virginia, boarded with a widowed aunt who took this means of supporting herself and her only child Dainty, who had but just graduated at a public school, and hoped to become a teacher herself next year. They were poor, but Dainty, with her fair face and gay good-nature, was like an embodied ray of sunshine. It had been very kind in the rich Mrs. Ellsworth to invite her three nieces to her grand West Virginia home, and to offer to pay the expenses of their journey. But for her generosity Dainty could not have gone; but now, at her mother's wish, she wrote, gratefully accepting the invitation. "How thankful I am!" cried the mother, joyfully. "It's just what Dainty needs, this trip to the mountains! She looks so pale and wan since she graduated." "So you really mean to let her go?" Ela exclaimed, with pretended surprise, while Olive added, spitefully: "We thought Aunt Judith might be ashamed of her shabby clothes. She hasn't anything to wear, has she, but her last summer's gowns and the cheap white muslin she had for her graduation?" "Mrs. Ellsworth knows we are poor, and that Dainty must dress plainly. I dare say she is too kind-hearted to be ashamed of her dead half-brother's only child," Mrs. Chase returned, spiritedly; while the thought would intrude, that if only Olive and Ela would pay their neglected board bills she might afford Dainty a new summer gown and dress. She summoned up courage to hint this fact to them next day, but they met the timid appeal with angry reproaches. "Don't think we are going to cheat you of our board bill because we can not spare the money till school begins next fall!" cried Olive, sharply; while Ela chimed in scornfully: "To think of our own aunt dunning two orphan girls for board!" The poor lady's face fell, thinking of the rent and the grocer's bill, both due, and not enough money in her purse to meet them; but she sighed patiently, and answered: "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, dears, but you know how poor I am, and that I must take boarders for a living! I'm sure I would be glad to board you for nothing if I could afford it, though, after all, I'm not really any kin to you, you know, only your dead half-uncle's widow." It was true, what the sweet, patient woman said; she was not related to them at all, but she had boarded them at the cheapest rates, and been most kind and motherly. They had intended to pay what they owed that very day, but jealousy of her daughter, their lovely cousin, crept in between and made them withhold the pittance, in the malicious hope of preventing Dainty's trip to Ellsworth. Both girls were handsome and stylish in their way--Olive, a tall, dark, haughty brunette of twenty-four, while Ela Craye was twenty-two, pretty and delicate-looking, with a waxen skin, thick brown hair, and limpid, long-lashed gray eyes. Each girl cherished a hope of winning the rich and |