the month sped on. the end of madam truxton's year was rapidly advancing. school-friendships that had grown and matured within the seminary walls, now deepened and intensified as the day for final separation approached. all were studying, with a zeal commendable and necessary, too, for the final ordeal through which madam truxton's pupils must necessarily pass.
since that dark, gloomy day when leah mordecai acquainted lizzie heartwell with some of the facts of her sad life, not a word further had been spoken on the subject. but they had seemed bound to each other by an indissoluble bond of love. no word harsher than a caress, and no look sterner than a smile, had lizzie ever cast upon leah; and as the thirsty, withered flowers drink up the dew of heaven, so this girl of misfortune received that tender, unalloyed love.
the inexorable duties of the school were pressing, forbidding long confidential talks and clandestine interviews. each and all were impressed with the fact that they were approaching an important, and, to some, a dreaded epoch in their lives.
leah had long since acquainted lizzie with the consummation of her fears, informing her of the engagement between mark abrams and her sister sarah. with this information--this avowal of her broken heart and hopes--leah had enshrouded the subject with silence and laid it away, as we lay our treasures in the tomb. lizzie, always compassionate and discreet, made no mention of it; and so the silence was unbroken as the days passed on.
in the citadel square, far above madam truxton's seminary, the drilling, drilling, drilling, was daily going on in these sunny days. drilling, drilling, drilling--for the coming battle of life, or for the crimson strife of war that might desolate a land. which was it? only the veiled years could answer this inquiry. meanwhile, the drilling still went on.
high hopes filled manly bosoms, and ambitious hearts throbbed wildly, as the approaching end of the military year drew nigh.
emile le grande sat dozing in his private chamber late one evening, at the close of a severe day's duty, seated in a capacious arm-chair, with his head dropped upon his breast. the young man was dozing over the journal that he held in his unconscious grasp. had one stolen beside him and looked down, he might have read the following entries, beginning many months previous to this evening.
"january.--i have seen the fair leah but three times since bertha levy's tea-party, yet i have passed her house daily for that purpose ever since. zounds! it's an ill fate, i swear! . . .
"february.--how my heart beat to-day, as i was walking arm-in-arm with george marshall, and we suddenly confronted the beautiful jewess as she was turning into prince street.
"'what a magnificent face, emile! what hebrew maiden is that bowing to you?'
"'miss mordecai,' i proudly replied, 'the jewish banker's daughter, of whom you have heard me speak before.'
"'yes, certainly. well, she is beautiful. you seem a little bewitched, boy,', he said. and i said--nothing.
"march.--i am more and more perplexed. the jewess is at the bottom of it all. to-day i hinted to helen something of my fancy for leah mordecai. she only laughed. i was irritated by her ridicule, and i told her i intended to marry leah if i could. her silly reply was, 'well, suppose you can't?' school-girls are intolerably silly, at helen's age! she thinks now of nothing and nobody but henry packard, and he's the stupidest cadet in the institute--everybody knows that. i wish i had a sister that could sympathize with me. wh-e-e-w! i am altogether out of sorts. maybe i'll be all right to-morrow.
"april.--prof. brown said to-day that i was not studying hard enough, and if i did not spur up i should come out shabbily at the end of the term.
"george marshall, too, good fellow that he is, says i think too much about the girl. maybe i do; but i should like him to tell me how a fellow is to help it. that jewess bewilders me! if old mordecai was not rich, i should love her for her dreamy eyes. i'll swear, ever since she spoke to me so sweetly a week ago, and gave me a clasp of her white, slender hand, i haven't cared whether i was prompt at parade, studies, or anything else--so i could always be prompt at meeting her. she looks doleful sometimes. she cannot be very happy. i wonder what my mother would think if she could read this journal. but, old book, you never tell any tales, do you?
"may.--the days are growing warmer--beautiful days, too. everything is in bloom, and the old queen city looks charming. the girls, too, madam truxton's and all others, swarm about the town like bees in a rose-garden. i meet them at every turn.
"my uniform is getting rather shabby; the buttons and lace are quite tarnished. i must have a new suit before long.
"i am a lucky fellow of late--have seen leah m. many times. she came home with helen twice, and i have walked with her many times. i have told her that i love her, but she does not seem inclined to trust me. only to-day i sent her a magnolia leaf, upon which was written, 'je vous aime, ma belle juive.' helen said she smiled as she took it and said, 'thank him, if you please.' that was favorable, i think. yes i consider myself a lucky fellow.
"june 1.--i am all out of sorts to-night. things have not gone smoothly at the citadel to-day. i was again reprimanded by that old bald-headed brown. he must forget that i am a man, and not a mere boy. i don't care whether 'i pass,' or not, as the boys say.
"'deficient in mathematics,' the professor said, gravely; and i suppose i am. i never could endure figures, and yet i must make my living by them.
"french i understand pretty well. i depend upon that to help me through.
"george marshall will do all he can for me, i know; there's no better cadet in the institute; old brown says that himself. i find that george was right when he told me long ago that i had too many thoughts in my head about the girls. deuce take the thoughts! but they are there. my very proper and punctilious mother, too, has been scoring me lately. somehow she found out my fancy. whew! how she did scold me! said she would like to know if i had forgotten the blood that flowed in the le grande veins! if i were lost to family pride and honor so far as to mingle my blood with that of the old pawnbroker, mordecai! how she looked! how she stamped the floor with her dainty foot when i hinted at the fact that my maternal grandfather was neither duke nor lord! how she hushed my 'impertinence,' as she styled it, with such invectives as 'fool, idiot, plebeian'! heigho! but i felt that it was unmanly in me to provoke mother so, and i begged her pardon.
"i did not promise her, though, to leave off loving leah mordecai. i did not tell her, either, that i had asked leah to be my wife one of these days, when school-days were ended.
"june 5.--the closing exercises of the schools have been hurried up this year, as the weather is exceedingly warm, and the board of health fear a return of the terrible scourge, yellow fever, that so devastated this fair city five years ago. next week, madam truxton's seminary closes, and that is one week before the institute does. invitations to madam's levee are already out. the graduating class of cadets are invited--lucky fellows!
"helen seems really sad at the prospect of parting with her school-days and her friends. but then she is eighteen, and that's quite old enough for a girl to come out. she says, too, that of all the girls at school, lizzie heartwell will be the most regretted when she leaves the queen city for her home in a distant state. she is quite a pretty girl, but too religious, i should judge, from what helen says. her mother is a widow. i guess they are poor.
"mother is quite reconciled to me again, and spoke playfully to me last night about marrying miss belle upton, who is to visit helen next week and attend the closing of madam truxton's school. well, 'we shall see what we shall see,' but i hardly think i will. she can hardly eclipse 'leah mordecai the beautiful,'--that's the way i write it now."
