Jack Harkaway in New York; or, The Adventures of the Travelers' ClubHemyng, Bracebridge
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Jack Harkaway in New York; or, The Adventures of the Travelers' Club
Hemyng, Bracebridge
Adventure stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction
Adéle Bellefontaine--Madame Vesta Levine, the clairvoyant--that was
enough.
Surely there could be no difficulty in finding either or both of them.
CHAPTER XVII.
JACK MAKES A LAST APPEAL.
It was the morning appointed for the marriage.
Harkaway was miserable and disconsolate.
He had not seen Mr. Mole since the day before, and had only heard that
he was hurt and had been taken to the hospital.
So he said to Harvey: "Morris Hart tells me that old Mole got his leg
broken playing base-ball. I suppose it is not very serious or we should
have heard from him. Won't you go and see him, Dick?"
"Certainly," replied Harvey.
Scarcely had he gone, when Alfred Van Hoosen came in. Jack eagerly
grasped his hand.
"Will she see me?" he asked.
"Yes. I have sufficient influence over her to induce her to do that,"
was the reply. "I have induced her to consent to breakfast with us at
the Brunswick."
They quitted the house together and Jack went on to the Brunswick,
while Alfred Van Hoosen engaged a carriage to go to the house and bring
his sister.
It was in a private room that Jack awaited their coming. Slowly passed
the minutes.
At length there was a rustle of silk, that indescribable _frou-frou_
which the skirts of a woman always make, and Lena Van Hoosen, looking
pale and with traces of tears on her cheeks entered.
"Lena!" exclaimed Jack.
She extended her hand which Jack grasped warmly.
"I have come at the solicitation of my brother," she replied, "to bid
you farewell."
"Forever?" he asked.
"Yes. I thought I owed this much to you, but I wish it understood that
we can only meet in future as strangers.
"I am to be married to Lord Maltravers. It is against my will, I admit
that--"
"Oh! Lena," interrupted her brother, passionately. "You always
professed some liking for me. Why will you persist in this ill-advised
match?"
"Simply because it is my duty. My mother insists upon it. I sacrifice
my inclination and my love."
It was evident from her manner and appearance that the poor girl was
suffering terribly.
"Is there no hope for me?" asked Jack, as he choked back a sob.
"None," she answered in a stony voice. "Learn to forget me."
"I cannot do it. I have every reason to believe that I have been
something to you. Can you so easily forget me?"
She dared not look him in the face.
"Do not ask me," she said. "I have come at your wish and my brother's
to wish you farewell."
At this moment an organ in the street began to play a funereal dirge,
and it sounded like the knell of all his hopes.
Alfred offered his arm to his sister and they passed out together.
For some time Jack remained in an attitude of passive despair, then he
walked down-stairs.
In his preoccupied state, he did not see where he was going, and in the
corridor he pushed against a man.
The man was Lord Maltravers who had come there to breakfast.
"Harkaway," said his lordship.
"Yes, and your enemy," was the reply.
"I know it, my good fellow, and I'm proud of it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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