February 5, 2026 • 25 mins
Join us on a captivating journey as a runaway bride breaks free from her controlling family and the groom she’s unsure about. Will she discover that she’s made a mistake, or will her heart lead her to true love? - Summary by Elisabeth
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter thirteen of Exit Betty by Grace Livingston Hill. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter thirteen. Betty,
her eyes wide with fear, her face white as a lily,
appeared like a wraith at the parlor door and looked
(00:21):
at him. It gave Rayburn a queer sensation, as if
a picture one had been looking at in a story
book should suddenly become alive and move and stare at one.
As he rose and came forward, he still seemed to
see like a dissolving view between them, the little huddled
bride on the floor of the church. Then he suddenly
(00:44):
realized that she was trembling. Please don't be afraid of me,
miss Stanhope, he said gently. I have only come to
help you, and if after you have talked with me
you feel that you would rather I should have nothing
to do with your affairs, I will go away, and
no one in the world shall be the wiser for it.
(01:05):
I give you my word of honor. Oh, said Betty,
toppling into a chair near by. I guess I'm not
afraid of you. I just didn't know who you might be.
She stopped, caught her breath, and tried to laugh, but
it ended sorely, almost in a sob. Well, I don't wonder,
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said Rayburn, trying to find something reassuring to say. The
truth is, I was rather upset about you. I didn't
quite know who you might turn out to be. You see, Oh,
Betty's hand slipped up to her throat and her lips
quivered as she tried to smile. Please don't feel that way,
(01:48):
he said, or I'll go away at once. He was
summoning all his courage and hoping she wasn't going to
break down and cry. How little she was and sweet
her eyes pleaded, just as they did in that one
look in the church. How could anybody be unkind to her?
(02:08):
I'm quite all right, said Betty, with a forced smile,
sitting up very straight. Perhaps I'd better introduce myself, he said,
trying to speak in a very commonplace tone. I'm just
a lawyer that your friend, Miss Jane Carson, sent out
to see if I could be of any service to you.
(02:29):
It may possibly make things a little easier for you
if I explain that while I never had heard of
you before and have no possible connection with your family
or friends, I happened to be at your wedding, oh,
said Betty, with a little agonized breath. Do you know
missus Bryce Cochrane, he asked. Betty could not have got
(02:52):
any whiter, but her eyes seemed to blanche a trifle
a little, she said in a very small voice. Yes,
well she is my cousin, Oh, said Betty again. Her
husband was unable to accompany her to the wedding, and
so I went to his place to escort Isabel. I
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knew nothing of your affairs, either before or after the wedding,
until this announcement was brought to my notice, and miss
Carson called on me. Betty took the paper in her
trembling fingers and looked into her own pictured eyes. Then
everything seemed to swim before her for a moment. She
pressed her hand against her throat and set her white
(03:36):
lips firmly, looking up at the stranger with a sudden
terror and comprehension. You want to get that five thousand dollars,
she said, speaking the words in a daze of trouble. Oh,
I haven't got five thousand dollars, not now, but perhaps
I could manage to get it if you would be
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good enough to wait just a little till I can
find a way. Oh, if you knew what it means
to me, Warren Rayburn sprang to his feet in horror,
a flame of anger leaping into his eyes. Five thousand
dollars be hanged, he said, fiercely, Do I look like
that kind of a fellow. It may seem awfully queer
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to you for an utter stranger to be butting into
your affairs like this unless I did have some ulterior motive,
but I swear to you that I have none. I
came out here solely because I saw that you were
in great likelihood of being found by the people from
whom you had evidently run away, Miss Stanhope. I stood
where I could watch your face when you came up
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the aisle at your wedding, and something in your eyes
just before you dropped made me wish I could knock
that bridegroom down and take care of you somehow until
you got that hurt look out of your face. I
know it was rather ridiculous for an utter stranger to
presume so far, But when I saw that the sleuths
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were out after you, and when the knowledge of your
whereabouts was put into my hands without the seeking, I
wouldn't have been a man if I hadn't come and
offered my services. I'm not a very great lawyer, nor
even a very rising one, as your missus Carson seems
to think. But I'm a man with a soul to
protect a woman who is in danger. And if that's you,
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I'm at your service. If not, you've only to say so,
and I'll take the next train home and keep my
mouth shut. He took his watch out and looked at
it hastily, although he had not the slightest idea what
it registered nor what time the next train for home left.
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He looked very tall and strong and commanding as he
stood in his dignity waiting for her answer, and Betty
looked up like a little child and trusted him. Oh,
please forgive me, she cried. I've been so frightened ever
since Bob came after me. I couldn't think you had
come for any good, because I didn't know anyone in
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the world who would want to help me. Certainly, said
Warren Rayburn, with a lump in his throat, sitting down
quickly to hide his emotion. Please consider me a friend
and command me. Thank you, said Betty, taking a deep
breath and trying to crowd back the tears. I'm afraid
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there isn't any way to help me. But I'm glad
to have a friend. And I'm sorry I was so rude.
You weren't rude, and that was a perfectly natural conclusion
from my blundering beginning, He protested, looking at the adorable
waves of hair that framed her soft cheeks. But there
is always a way to help people when they are
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in trouble, and I'm here to find out what it is.
Do you think you could trust me enough to tell
me what it's all about? Miss Carson didn't seem to
know much much, or else she didn't feel free to say.
I didn't tell her much, said Betty, lifting her sea
blue eyes. She was a stranger too. You know. Well,
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she's a mighty good friend of yours, I'll say, and
she's acted in a very wise manner. She took more
precautions than an old detective would have done. She told
me only that someone was trying to make you marry
a man you did not wish to marry. Is that correct?
Betty shivered involuntarily, and a wave of color went over
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her white face. It sounds queer, she said, as if
I hadn't any character or force myself. But you don't understand.
No one would understand unless they knew it all and
had been through it for years. At first, I didn't
quite understand it myself. I'd better tell you the story.
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I thought I never could tell anyone because they were
my father's family, and I know he would shrink so
from having it known. But I'm sure he wouldn't blame
me now. He certainly would not blame you, Miss Stanhope.
I have heard that your father was a wonderful man
with high principles. I feel sure he would justify you
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in appealing to someone who was willing to advise you
in a strait like this. You know, no woman need
ever marry any man against her will, not if it
were her father's dying wish. Certainly not, Miss Stanhope. Did
your father love you? Oh? I'm sure he did. He
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was the most wonderful father. I've often thought that he
would never have asked it of me unless he had realized.
Did he ever during his lifetime seem to wish you
to be unhappy? Never? That was the strange part of it.
But you see, he didn't know how I felt. I
think i'd better tell you all about it. That would
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be the better way, if it won't be too hard
for you. Betty clasped her small hands together tightly and began.
My own mother died when I was quite a little girl,
so father and I were a great deal to each other.
He used to look after my lessons himself, and was
always very careful what kind of teachers I had. He
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was mother and father both to me. When I was
ten years old, my governess died suddenly while father was
away on a business trip, and one of our neighbors
was very kind to me, coming in and looking after
the servants and everything, and keeping me over at her
house for a few days till father got back. She
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had a widowed sister visiting her, a rather young woman
who was very beautiful. At least I thought she was
beautiful then, and she made a great pet of me,
so that I grew fond of her, although I had
not liked her at first. After father came home, she
used to slip over every day to see me while
(10:06):
he was at his business, and he was grateful to
her for making me happy. Then he found out that
she was in trouble, had lost her money or something
and wanted to get a position teaching. He arranged to
have her teach me, and so she came to our
house to stay somehow. After that, I never seemed to
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see so much of my father as I used to do,
for she was always there. But at first I didn't care,
because she was nice to me and always getting up
things to keep me busy and happy. She would make
my father buy expensive toys and books and games for me,
and fine clothes, and so of course I was pleased.
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In about a year, my father married her, and at
first it seemed very beautiful to me to have a
real mother. But little by little I began to see
that she preferred to be alone with my father and
did not want me around so much. It was very
hard to give up the companionship of my father, but
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my stepmother kept me busy with other things so that
I really didn't think much about it while it was
first happening. But one day there came a letter. I
remember it came while we were at breakfast, and my
father got very white and stern when he read it
and handed it over to my mother and asked whether
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it was true, and then she began to cry and
sent me from the table. I found out a few
days after that my stepmother had two sons, both older
than myself, and that she had not told my father.
It was through some trouble they had got into it school,
which required quite a large sum of money to cover damages.
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That my father discovered it, and he was terribly hurt
that she should have concealed it from him. I learned
all this from the servants, who talked when they thought
I was not within hearing. There were days and days
when my father scarcely spoke at the table, and when
he looked at me, it made a pain go through
my heart. He looked so stern and sad. My stepmother
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stayed a great deal in her room and looked as
if she had been crying. But after a few weeks
things settled down a good deal as they had been,
only that my father never lost that sad, troubled look.
There was some trouble about my stepmother's sons, too, for
there was a great deal of argument between her and
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my father, of which I only heard snatches. And then
one day they came home to stay with us. Something
had happened at the school where they were that they
could not stay any longer. I can remember distinctly the
first night they ate dinner with us. It seemed to
me it was like a terrific thunderstorm that never quite broke.
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Everybody was trying to be nice and polite, but underneath
it all there was a kind of lightening of all
kinds of feelings, hurt feelings and wrong ones and right ones,
all mixed up. Only the two boys didn't seem to
feel it much. They sort of took things for granted,
as if that had always been their home, and they
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didn't act very polite. It seemed to trouble my father,
who looked at them so severely that it almost choked me,
and I couldn't go on eating my dinner. He didn't
seem like my dear father when he looked like that.
I always used to watch my father, and he seemed
to make the day for me. If he was sad,
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then I was sad, and if he was glad, then
I was happy all over until one day my stepmother
noticed me and said, see, dear little Elizabeth, this trembling.
You ought not to speak that way before her. Charles
and then Father looked at me and all Suddenly I
learned to smile when I didn't feel like it. I
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smiled back to him, just to let him know it
didn't matter what he did, I would love him anyhow.
During the recital, Rayburn had sat with courteous, averted gaze,
as though he would not trouble her with more of
his presence than was absolutely necessary. Now he gave her
a swift glance. Betty's eyes were off on distance, and
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she was talking from the depths of her heart. Great
tears welling into her eyes. All at once she remembered
the stranger. I beg your pardon, she said, and brushed
her hand across her eyes. I haven't gone over it
to anyone ever, and I forgot you would not be
interested in details. Please don't mind me. I am interested
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in every detail you are good enough to give me.
It all makes the background of the truth, you know,
and that is what I am after, said Rayburn, deeply touched.
I think you are wonderful to tell me all this.
I shall regard it most sacredly. Betty flashed a look
of gratitude at him, and noticed the sympathy in his face.
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It almost unnerved her, but she went on The oldest
boy was named Bessemer, and he wasn't very good looking.
He was very tall and awkward and always falling over things.
He had little, pale eyes and hardly any chin. His
teeth projected too, and his hair was light and very
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straight and thin. His mother didn't seem to love him
very much, even when he was a little boy. She
bullied him and found fault with him continually, and quite often.
I felt very sorry for him. Although I wasn't naturally
attracted to him, he wasn't really unpleasant to me. We
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got along very nicely, although I never had much to
do with him. There wasn't much to him. The other brother, Herbert,
was handsome like his mother, only dark, with black curly hair,
black wicked eyes, and a big, loose, cruel mouth. His
mother just idolized him, and he knew it. He could
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make her do anything on earth. He used to force
Bessemer into doing wrong things too, things that he was
afraid to do himself, because he knew Father would not
be so hard on Bessemer as on him. For Father
had taken a great dislike to Herbert, and it was
no wonder he seemed to have no idea all that
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he was not owner of the house. He took anything
he pleased for his own use, even Father's most sacred possessions,
and broke them in a fit of anger too, sometimes
without ever saying sorry. He talked very disrespectfully of Father
and to him, and acted so to the servants that
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they gave notice and left. Every few days there would
be a terrible time over something Herbert had done. Once
I remember he went to the safe and got some
money out that belonged to Father, and went off and
spent it in some dreadful way that made Father very angry.
Of course, I was still only a little girl, and
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I did not know all that went on. Father was
very careful that I should not know. He guarded me
more than ever, but he always looked sad when he
came to kiss me good night. Herbert took a special
delight in tormenting me. She went on with a sad,
far away look in her eyes, as if she were
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recalling unpleasant memories. She did not see the set look
on Rayburn's face, nor notice his low exclamation of anger.
She went steadily on. He found out that I did
not like june bugs, and once he caught hundreds of
them and locked me into a room with them with
all the lights turned on. I was almost frightened to death,
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but it cured me of being afraid of june bugs.
A little smile trembled out on Betty's lips, just because
I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of letting him hear
me scream. She finished. Then he caught a snake and
put it in my room, and he put a lot
of burdocks in my hat so they would get in
my hair. Foolish things, those were, of course, but he
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was a constant nightmare to me. Sometimes he would tie
a wire across the passages in the upper hall where
I had to pass to my room, and when I fell,
my hands went down against a lot of slimy toads
in the dark, for he always somehow managed to have
the light go out just as I fell. There were
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hundreds of things like that, but I needn't multiply them.
That's the kind of boy he was. And because he
discovered that my father loved me very much, and because
he knew my father disliked him, he spent much time
in trying to torment me in secret. I couldn't tell
my father because he always looked so sad whenever there
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was trouble, and there was sure to be trouble between
him and my stepmother if my father found out that
Herbert had done anything wrong. One day, my father came
upon us just as Herbert had caught me and was
trying to cut my curls off. I didn't care about
the curls, but I knew my father did. I began
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to scream. Herbert gripped me so I thought I would
die with the pain, putting his big, strong fingers around
my throat and choking me so I could not make
any noise. Rayburn clenched his hands until the knuckles went
white and uttered an exclamation, but Betty did not notice.
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There was a terrible time then, and I was sent
away to a school a good many miles from home,
where I stayed for several years. Father always came up
to see me every weekend for a few hours at least,
and we had wonderful times together. Sometimes in vacation, he
would bring my stepmother along, and she would bring me
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beautiful presents and smile and pet me and say she
missed me so much, and she wished I would ask
my father to let me come back and go to
school in the city, but I never did because I
was afraid of Herbert. As I grew older, I used
to have an awful horror of him. But finally, one vacation,
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father and mother both came up and said they wanted
me at home. My stepmother went to my room with
me and told me I needn't be afraid of Herbert anymore,
that he was quite grown up and changed and would
be good to me, and that it would please my
father to have all his family together happily. Again. I
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believed her, and I told Father I would like to go.
He looked very happy, and so I went home. Herbert
had been away at school himself most of the time,
and so had Bessemer, although they had been in trouble
a good many times. So the servants told me and
had to change to new schools. They were both away
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when I got home. I had a very happy time
for three weeks, only that I never saw Father alone once.
My stepmother was always there, but she was kind and
I tried not to mind. Then, all of a sudden,
one night I woke up and heard voices, and I
knew that the boys were back from the camp to
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which they had been sent. I didn't sleep much the
rest of the night, but in the morning I made
up my mind that it was only a little while
before I could go back to school, and I would
be nice to the boys, and maybe they would trouble me.
I found that it was quite true that Herbert had
grown up and changed. He didn't want to torment me anymore.
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He wanted to make love to me, and I was
only a child yet I wasn't quite fifteen. It filled
me with horror, and after he had caught me in
the dark, he always loved to get people in the dark,
and tried to kiss me. I asked father to let
me go back to school at once. I can remember
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how sad he looked at me, as if I had
cut him to the heart when I asked him. During
this part of the tale, Rayburn sat with stern countenance,
his fingers clenched around the arms of the chair in
which she sat, but he held himself quiet and listened
with compressed lips, watching every expression that flitted across the sweet,
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pale face. That was the last time I was at
home with my father, she said, trying to control her
quivering lips. He took me back to school, and he
came three times to see me, though not so often
as before. The last time, he said beautiful things to
me about trying to live a right life and being
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kind to those about me, and he asked me to
forgive him if he had ever done anything to hurt
me in any way. Of course, I said he hadn't,
and then he said he hoped I wouldn't feel too
hard at him for marrying again and bringing those boys
into my life. I told him it was all right,
that someday they would grow up and go away and
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he and I would live together again. And he said
some awful words about them under his breath, but he
asked me to forgive him again, and kissed me and
went away. He was taken very sick when he got home,
and they never let me know until he was dead.
Of course, I went home to the funeral, but I
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didn't stay. I couldn't. I went back to school alone.
My stepmother had been very kind, but she said she
knew it was my father's wish that I should finish
my school year. When vacation came, she was traveling for
her health. She wrote me a beautiful letter telling me
how she missed me, and how much she needed me
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now in her bereavement, and how she hoped another summer
would see us together. But she stayed abroad two years,
and the third year she went to California. I was
sent to another school, and because I was not asked
about it, and there didn't seem anything else to do,
I went. Every time I would suggest doing something else,
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my stepmother would write and say how sorry she was
she could not give her consent. But my father had
left very explicit directions about me, and she was only
trying to carry out his wishes. She knew me well
enough to be sure I would want to do anything
he wished for me me and I did, of course.
(25:04):
Rayburn gave her a look of sympathy, and getting up
began to pace the little room. End of chapter thirteen.
Chapter thirteen of Exit Betty by Grace Livingston Hill. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter thirteen. Betty,
her eyes wide with fear, her face white as a lily,
appeared like a wraith at the parlor door and looked
(00:21):
at him. It gave Rayburn a queer sensation, as if
a picture one had been looking at in a story
book should suddenly become alive and move and stare at one.
As he rose and came forward, he still seemed to
see like a dissolving view between them, the little huddled
bride on the floor of the church. Then he suddenly
(00:44):
realized that she was trembling. Please don't be afraid of me,
miss Stanhope, he said gently. I have only come to
help you, and if after you have talked with me
you feel that you would rather I should have nothing
to do with your affairs, I will go away, and
no one in the world shall be the wiser for it.
(01:05):
I give you my word of honor. Oh, said Betty,
toppling into a chair near by. I guess I'm not
afraid of you. I just didn't know who you might be.
She stopped, caught her breath, and tried to laugh, but
it ended sorely, almost in a sob. Well, I don't wonder,
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said Rayburn, trying to find something reassuring to say. The
truth is, I was rather upset about you. I didn't
quite know who you might turn out to be. You see, Oh,
Betty's hand slipped up to her throat and her lips
quivered as she tried to smile. Please don't feel that way,
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he said, or I'll go away at once. He was
summoning all his courage and hoping she wasn't going to
break down and cry. How little she was and sweet
her eyes pleaded, just as they did in that one
look in the church. How could anybody be unkind to her?
(02:08):
I'm quite all right, said Betty, with a forced smile,
sitting up very straight. Perhaps I'd better introduce myself, he said,
trying to speak in a very commonplace tone. I'm just
a lawyer that your friend, Miss Jane Carson, sent out
to see if I could be of any service to you.
(02:29):
It may possibly make things a little easier for you
if I explain that while I never had heard of
you before and have no possible connection with your family
or friends, I happened to be at your wedding, oh,
said Betty, with a little agonized breath. Do you know
missus Bryce Cochrane, he asked. Betty could not have got
(02:52):
any whiter, but her eyes seemed to blanche a trifle
a little, she said in a very small voice. Yes,
well she is my cousin, Oh, said Betty again. Her
husband was unable to accompany her to the wedding, and
so I went to his place to escort Isabel. I
(03:13):
knew nothing of your affairs, either before or after the wedding,
until this announcement was brought to my notice, and miss
Carson called on me. Betty took the paper in her
trembling fingers and looked into her own pictured eyes. Then
everything seemed to swim before her for a moment. She
pressed her hand against her throat and set her white
(03:36):
lips firmly, looking up at the stranger with a sudden
terror and comprehension. You want to get that five thousand dollars,
she said, speaking the words in a daze of trouble. Oh,
I haven't got five thousand dollars, not now, but perhaps
I could manage to get it if you would be
(03:56):
good enough to wait just a little till I can
find a way. Oh, if you knew what it means
to me, Warren Rayburn sprang to his feet in horror,
a flame of anger leaping into his eyes. Five thousand
dollars be hanged, he said, fiercely, Do I look like
that kind of a fellow. It may seem awfully queer
(04:19):
to you for an utter stranger to be butting into
your affairs like this unless I did have some ulterior motive,
but I swear to you that I have none. I
came out here solely because I saw that you were
in great likelihood of being found by the people from
whom you had evidently run away, Miss Stanhope. I stood
where I could watch your face when you came up
(04:41):
the aisle at your wedding, and something in your eyes
just before you dropped made me wish I could knock
that bridegroom down and take care of you somehow until
you got that hurt look out of your face. I
know it was rather ridiculous for an utter stranger to
presume so far, But when I saw that the sleuths
(05:01):
were out after you, and when the knowledge of your
whereabouts was put into my hands without the seeking, I
wouldn't have been a man if I hadn't come and
offered my services. I'm not a very great lawyer, nor
even a very rising one, as your missus Carson seems
to think. But I'm a man with a soul to
protect a woman who is in danger. And if that's you,
(05:25):
I'm at your service. If not, you've only to say so,
and I'll take the next train home and keep my
mouth shut. He took his watch out and looked at
it hastily, although he had not the slightest idea what
it registered nor what time the next train for home left.
(05:45):
He looked very tall and strong and commanding as he
stood in his dignity waiting for her answer, and Betty
looked up like a little child and trusted him. Oh,
please forgive me, she cried. I've been so frightened ever
since Bob came after me. I couldn't think you had
come for any good, because I didn't know anyone in
(06:07):
the world who would want to help me. Certainly, said
Warren Rayburn, with a lump in his throat, sitting down
quickly to hide his emotion. Please consider me a friend
and command me. Thank you, said Betty, taking a deep
breath and trying to crowd back the tears. I'm afraid
(06:28):
there isn't any way to help me. But I'm glad
to have a friend. And I'm sorry I was so rude.
You weren't rude, and that was a perfectly natural conclusion
from my blundering beginning, He protested, looking at the adorable
waves of hair that framed her soft cheeks. But there
is always a way to help people when they are
(06:49):
in trouble, and I'm here to find out what it is.
Do you think you could trust me enough to tell
me what it's all about? Miss Carson didn't seem to
know much much, or else she didn't feel free to say.
I didn't tell her much, said Betty, lifting her sea
blue eyes. She was a stranger too. You know. Well,
(07:12):
she's a mighty good friend of yours, I'll say, and
she's acted in a very wise manner. She took more
precautions than an old detective would have done. She told
me only that someone was trying to make you marry
a man you did not wish to marry. Is that correct?
Betty shivered involuntarily, and a wave of color went over
(07:34):
her white face. It sounds queer, she said, as if
I hadn't any character or force myself. But you don't understand.
No one would understand unless they knew it all and
had been through it for years. At first, I didn't
quite understand it myself. I'd better tell you the story.
(07:56):
I thought I never could tell anyone because they were
my father's family, and I know he would shrink so
from having it known. But I'm sure he wouldn't blame
me now. He certainly would not blame you, Miss Stanhope.
I have heard that your father was a wonderful man
with high principles. I feel sure he would justify you
(08:17):
in appealing to someone who was willing to advise you
in a strait like this. You know, no woman need
ever marry any man against her will, not if it
were her father's dying wish. Certainly not, Miss Stanhope. Did
your father love you? Oh? I'm sure he did. He
(08:39):
was the most wonderful father. I've often thought that he
would never have asked it of me unless he had realized.
Did he ever during his lifetime seem to wish you
to be unhappy? Never? That was the strange part of it.
But you see, he didn't know how I felt. I
think i'd better tell you all about it. That would
(09:02):
be the better way, if it won't be too hard
for you. Betty clasped her small hands together tightly and began.
My own mother died when I was quite a little girl,
so father and I were a great deal to each other.
He used to look after my lessons himself, and was
always very careful what kind of teachers I had. He
(09:24):
was mother and father both to me. When I was
ten years old, my governess died suddenly while father was
away on a business trip, and one of our neighbors
was very kind to me, coming in and looking after
the servants and everything, and keeping me over at her
house for a few days till father got back. She
(09:45):
had a widowed sister visiting her, a rather young woman
who was very beautiful. At least I thought she was
beautiful then, and she made a great pet of me,
so that I grew fond of her, although I had
not liked her at first. After father came home, she
used to slip over every day to see me while
(10:06):
he was at his business, and he was grateful to
her for making me happy. Then he found out that
she was in trouble, had lost her money or something
and wanted to get a position teaching. He arranged to
have her teach me, and so she came to our
house to stay somehow. After that, I never seemed to
(10:28):
see so much of my father as I used to do,
for she was always there. But at first I didn't care,
because she was nice to me and always getting up
things to keep me busy and happy. She would make
my father buy expensive toys and books and games for me,
and fine clothes, and so of course I was pleased.
(10:51):
In about a year, my father married her, and at
first it seemed very beautiful to me to have a
real mother. But little by little I began to see
that she preferred to be alone with my father and
did not want me around so much. It was very
hard to give up the companionship of my father, but
(11:11):
my stepmother kept me busy with other things so that
I really didn't think much about it while it was
first happening. But one day there came a letter. I
remember it came while we were at breakfast, and my
father got very white and stern when he read it
and handed it over to my mother and asked whether
(11:32):
it was true, and then she began to cry and
sent me from the table. I found out a few
days after that my stepmother had two sons, both older
than myself, and that she had not told my father.
It was through some trouble they had got into it school,
which required quite a large sum of money to cover damages.
(11:54):
That my father discovered it, and he was terribly hurt
that she should have concealed it from him. I learned
all this from the servants, who talked when they thought
I was not within hearing. There were days and days
when my father scarcely spoke at the table, and when
he looked at me, it made a pain go through
my heart. He looked so stern and sad. My stepmother
(12:19):
stayed a great deal in her room and looked as
if she had been crying. But after a few weeks
things settled down a good deal as they had been,
only that my father never lost that sad, troubled look.
There was some trouble about my stepmother's sons, too, for
there was a great deal of argument between her and
(12:40):
my father, of which I only heard snatches. And then
one day they came home to stay with us. Something
had happened at the school where they were that they
could not stay any longer. I can remember distinctly the
first night they ate dinner with us. It seemed to
me it was like a terrific thunderstorm that never quite broke.
(13:05):
Everybody was trying to be nice and polite, but underneath
it all there was a kind of lightening of all
kinds of feelings, hurt feelings and wrong ones and right ones,
all mixed up. Only the two boys didn't seem to
feel it much. They sort of took things for granted,
as if that had always been their home, and they
(13:27):
didn't act very polite. It seemed to trouble my father,
who looked at them so severely that it almost choked me,
and I couldn't go on eating my dinner. He didn't
seem like my dear father when he looked like that.
I always used to watch my father, and he seemed
to make the day for me. If he was sad,
(13:48):
then I was sad, and if he was glad, then
I was happy all over until one day my stepmother
noticed me and said, see, dear little Elizabeth, this trembling.
You ought not to speak that way before her. Charles
and then Father looked at me and all Suddenly I
learned to smile when I didn't feel like it. I
(14:10):
smiled back to him, just to let him know it
didn't matter what he did, I would love him anyhow.
During the recital, Rayburn had sat with courteous, averted gaze,
as though he would not trouble her with more of
his presence than was absolutely necessary. Now he gave her
a swift glance. Betty's eyes were off on distance, and
(14:33):
she was talking from the depths of her heart. Great
tears welling into her eyes. All at once she remembered
the stranger. I beg your pardon, she said, and brushed
her hand across her eyes. I haven't gone over it
to anyone ever, and I forgot you would not be
interested in details. Please don't mind me. I am interested
(14:57):
in every detail you are good enough to give me.
It all makes the background of the truth, you know,
and that is what I am after, said Rayburn, deeply touched.
I think you are wonderful to tell me all this.
I shall regard it most sacredly. Betty flashed a look
of gratitude at him, and noticed the sympathy in his face.
(15:20):
It almost unnerved her, but she went on The oldest
boy was named Bessemer, and he wasn't very good looking.
He was very tall and awkward and always falling over things.
He had little, pale eyes and hardly any chin. His
teeth projected too, and his hair was light and very
(15:41):
straight and thin. His mother didn't seem to love him
very much, even when he was a little boy. She
bullied him and found fault with him continually, and quite often.
I felt very sorry for him. Although I wasn't naturally
attracted to him, he wasn't really unpleasant to me. We
(16:02):
got along very nicely, although I never had much to
do with him. There wasn't much to him. The other brother, Herbert,
was handsome like his mother, only dark, with black curly hair,
black wicked eyes, and a big, loose, cruel mouth. His
mother just idolized him, and he knew it. He could
(16:24):
make her do anything on earth. He used to force
Bessemer into doing wrong things too, things that he was
afraid to do himself, because he knew Father would not
be so hard on Bessemer as on him. For Father
had taken a great dislike to Herbert, and it was
no wonder he seemed to have no idea all that
(16:46):
he was not owner of the house. He took anything
he pleased for his own use, even Father's most sacred possessions,
and broke them in a fit of anger too, sometimes
without ever saying sorry. He talked very disrespectfully of Father
and to him, and acted so to the servants that
(17:08):
they gave notice and left. Every few days there would
be a terrible time over something Herbert had done. Once
I remember he went to the safe and got some
money out that belonged to Father, and went off and
spent it in some dreadful way that made Father very angry.
Of course, I was still only a little girl, and
(17:28):
I did not know all that went on. Father was
very careful that I should not know. He guarded me
more than ever, but he always looked sad when he
came to kiss me good night. Herbert took a special
delight in tormenting me. She went on with a sad,
far away look in her eyes, as if she were
(17:48):
recalling unpleasant memories. She did not see the set look
on Rayburn's face, nor notice his low exclamation of anger.
She went steadily on. He found out that I did
not like june bugs, and once he caught hundreds of
them and locked me into a room with them with
all the lights turned on. I was almost frightened to death,
(18:11):
but it cured me of being afraid of june bugs.
A little smile trembled out on Betty's lips, just because
I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of letting him hear
me scream. She finished. Then he caught a snake and
put it in my room, and he put a lot
of burdocks in my hat so they would get in
my hair. Foolish things, those were, of course, but he
(18:35):
was a constant nightmare to me. Sometimes he would tie
a wire across the passages in the upper hall where
I had to pass to my room, and when I fell,
my hands went down against a lot of slimy toads
in the dark, for he always somehow managed to have
the light go out just as I fell. There were
(18:56):
hundreds of things like that, but I needn't multiply them.
That's the kind of boy he was. And because he
discovered that my father loved me very much, and because
he knew my father disliked him, he spent much time
in trying to torment me in secret. I couldn't tell
my father because he always looked so sad whenever there
(19:19):
was trouble, and there was sure to be trouble between
him and my stepmother if my father found out that
Herbert had done anything wrong. One day, my father came
upon us just as Herbert had caught me and was
trying to cut my curls off. I didn't care about
the curls, but I knew my father did. I began
(19:40):
to scream. Herbert gripped me so I thought I would
die with the pain, putting his big, strong fingers around
my throat and choking me so I could not make
any noise. Rayburn clenched his hands until the knuckles went
white and uttered an exclamation, but Betty did not notice.
(20:01):
There was a terrible time then, and I was sent
away to a school a good many miles from home,
where I stayed for several years. Father always came up
to see me every weekend for a few hours at least,
and we had wonderful times together. Sometimes in vacation, he
would bring my stepmother along, and she would bring me
(20:23):
beautiful presents and smile and pet me and say she
missed me so much, and she wished I would ask
my father to let me come back and go to
school in the city, but I never did because I
was afraid of Herbert. As I grew older, I used
to have an awful horror of him. But finally, one vacation,
(20:43):
father and mother both came up and said they wanted
me at home. My stepmother went to my room with
me and told me I needn't be afraid of Herbert anymore,
that he was quite grown up and changed and would
be good to me, and that it would please my
father to have all his family together happily. Again. I
(21:04):
believed her, and I told Father I would like to go.
He looked very happy, and so I went home. Herbert
had been away at school himself most of the time,
and so had Bessemer, although they had been in trouble
a good many times. So the servants told me and
had to change to new schools. They were both away
(21:25):
when I got home. I had a very happy time
for three weeks, only that I never saw Father alone once.
My stepmother was always there, but she was kind and
I tried not to mind. Then, all of a sudden,
one night I woke up and heard voices, and I
knew that the boys were back from the camp to
(21:46):
which they had been sent. I didn't sleep much the
rest of the night, but in the morning I made
up my mind that it was only a little while
before I could go back to school, and I would
be nice to the boys, and maybe they would trouble me.
I found that it was quite true that Herbert had
grown up and changed. He didn't want to torment me anymore.
(22:09):
He wanted to make love to me, and I was
only a child yet I wasn't quite fifteen. It filled
me with horror, and after he had caught me in
the dark, he always loved to get people in the dark,
and tried to kiss me. I asked father to let
me go back to school at once. I can remember
(22:30):
how sad he looked at me, as if I had
cut him to the heart when I asked him. During
this part of the tale, Rayburn sat with stern countenance,
his fingers clenched around the arms of the chair in
which she sat, but he held himself quiet and listened
with compressed lips, watching every expression that flitted across the sweet,
(22:52):
pale face. That was the last time I was at
home with my father, she said, trying to control her
quivering lips. He took me back to school, and he
came three times to see me, though not so often
as before. The last time, he said beautiful things to
me about trying to live a right life and being
(23:14):
kind to those about me, and he asked me to
forgive him if he had ever done anything to hurt
me in any way. Of course, I said he hadn't,
and then he said he hoped I wouldn't feel too
hard at him for marrying again and bringing those boys
into my life. I told him it was all right,
that someday they would grow up and go away and
(23:37):
he and I would live together again. And he said
some awful words about them under his breath, but he
asked me to forgive him again, and kissed me and
went away. He was taken very sick when he got home,
and they never let me know until he was dead.
Of course, I went home to the funeral, but I
(23:57):
didn't stay. I couldn't. I went back to school alone.
My stepmother had been very kind, but she said she
knew it was my father's wish that I should finish
my school year. When vacation came, she was traveling for
her health. She wrote me a beautiful letter telling me
how she missed me, and how much she needed me
(24:19):
now in her bereavement, and how she hoped another summer
would see us together. But she stayed abroad two years,
and the third year she went to California. I was
sent to another school, and because I was not asked
about it, and there didn't seem anything else to do,
I went. Every time I would suggest doing something else,
(24:42):
my stepmother would write and say how sorry she was
she could not give her consent. But my father had
left very explicit directions about me, and she was only
trying to carry out his wishes. She knew me well
enough to be sure I would want to do anything
he wished for me me and I did, of course.
(25:04):
Rayburn gave her a look of sympathy, and getting up
began to pace the little room. End of chapter thirteen.
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