An Ambitious Man

The Baroness and Mabel had never been in Beryngford since the death

of Judge Lawrence many years before; and it was with sad and bitter

hearts that both women recalled the past and realised anew the

disasters which had wrecked their dearest hopes and ambitions.

The Baroness, broken in spirit and crushed by the insanity of her

beloved Alice, now saw the form of the man whom she had hopelessly

loved for so many years, laid away to crumble back to dust; and yet,

the sorrows which should have softened her soul, and made her heart

tender toward all suffering humanity, rendered her pitiless as the

grave toward one lonely and desolate being before the shadows of

night had fallen upon the grave of Preston Cheney.

When the funeral march pealed out from the grand new organ during the

ceremonies in the church, both the Baroness and the rector, absorbed

as they were in mournful sorrow, started with surprise. Both gazed

at the organ loft; and there, before the great instrument, sat the

graceful figure of Joy Irving. The rector's face grew pale as the

corpse in the casket; the withered cheek of the Baroness turned a

sickly yellow, and a spark of anger dried the moisture in her eyes.

Before the night had settled over the thriving city of Beryngford,

the Baroness dropped a point of virus from the lancet of her tongue

to poison the social atmosphere where Joy Irving had by the merest

accident of fate made her new home, and where in the office of

organist she had, without dreaming of her dramatic situation, played

the requiem at the funeral of her own father.