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diff --git a/40432-0.txt b/40432-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fd8962 --- /dev/null +++ b/40432-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4892 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40432 *** + + MISS HILDRETH. + + A Novel. + + BY A. DE GRASSE STEVENS, + + AUTHOR OF "OLD BOSTON," "THE LOST DAUPHIN," + "WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE," ETC. + + + In Three Volumes. + VOL. II. + + LONDON: + WARD AND DOWNEY, + 12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. + 1888. + + [_All rights reserved._] + + _Copyright by_ A. de GRASSE STEVENS, 1888. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. A FACE FROM OUT A CRIME 1 + + CHAPTER II. "IT WAS NO DELUSION" 21 + + CHAPTER III. ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL 34 + + CHAPTER IV. SUSPICIONS 52 + + CHAPTER V. MIMI'S BIRTHDAY POSY 79 + + CHAPTER VI. "'TIS A SIREN" 95 + + CHAPTER VII. THE CANKER WORM OF DOUBT 116 + + CHAPTER VIII. A SOCIETY DRAMA 139 + + CHAPTER IX. "IT IS HOPELESS" 154 + + CHAPTER X. THE SONG OF THE CIGALE 169 + + CHAPTER XI. INTROSPECTION 189 + + CHAPTER XII. PLOTTING 203 + + CHAPTER XIII. THÉ ANGLAIS 227 + + CHAPTER XIV. "FIND ME THE WOMAN" 239 + + CHAPTER XV. "THIS LITTLE HAND" 253 + + CHAPTER XVI. ARRESTED! 262 + + + + +MISS HILDRETH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A FACE FROM OUT A CRIME. + + +The same dazzling and brilliant sunshine, that for so many weeks had +held sway in Petersburg, was still beautifying the Tsar's great capital, +and gilding all things with an illusory sheen, which had all the +appearance of true gold, but which fled away at the approach of +darkness, leaving bare the cankerous fever spots, the dry bones and +wasting disease of the most tyrannous, but most doomed phenomenon of +autocratic power. + +During all the early hours of morning the sleeping city lay bathed in +this wonderful alchemy; the Neva resting tranquil beneath the spell, +even its cold grey waters catching reflections from the sun-god's rays. +From above its low bank rose a long grey stone wall, broken here and +there into sharp angles and protected by recurrent cannon, set at +regular intervals; beyond this a tall and slender spire shot up high +into the air, graceful and quivering with a thousand golden lights, that +seemed to break against it, and then fling the fragments broadcast with +careless prodigality; these in falling touched again the fluttering flag +on the white belfry, glanced athwart the Imperial mint, and awoke myriad +reflections in the façade of the Winter Palace. + +This tall spire, shooting upwards like a lance, is the crowning glory of +Russia's great State prison, and Russia's Imperial tomb of kings, the +grim fortress of Petropavlovsk. It is a familiar sight to Petersburg's +populace, as they pass to and fro across the Troitski Bridge, or linger +in the spacious Boulevard-park, which is never empty, and through which +the dwellers on the Petersburg side go in and out to their homes. + +Beneath its solid foundations lie the bones of Russia's greatest +sovereigns; within its granite walls languish many of Russia's truest +patriots; while without its precincts, separated only by a few rods, +lying almost within its shadow, rises the stately palace, within which +lives Russia's Tsar, conscious always of the everlasting surveillance of +Peter's prison, yet unable to cast it from him, or flee before it. + +It was very early in the day, about a month after Olga Naundorff's +interview with Ivor Tolskoi, and as yet but few people were astir in the +city's streets, save those whose avocations called them forth in the +pursuance of itinerant trade. Now and then a mounted orderly would ride +past, leading an uncaparisoned horse by a long rein, the iron hoofs +clattering over the bridge, breaking clear and distinct across the sharp +morning air; presently they would disappear under the arched entrance to +the barracks, and then, perhaps, a dark, sombre figure would come next, +passing swiftly along, with secrecy written on every line of the face +and habiliments, to be swallowed up in the frowning doorway of the +Imperial Chancellerie; while those he passed on his way drew back +instinctively, the women crossing themselves furtively, the men cursing +below their breath. For was not this an emissary of that terrible secret +police, from whom no one was safe, whose inexorable will was as iron and +blood? And who could say who would be the next in turn to feel that +cruel hand upon his throat, and know, with helpless certainty, that +Petropavlovsk was his eternal destination? + +Just as the clocks on tower and steeple struck seven, following the +single notes by the ecclesiastical melody of triumph, "How glorious is +our Lord in Sion," a young man appeared, walking quickly, and with long, +swinging steps, across the Troitski Bridge. He was tall and straight, +and though muffled in a long coat and profuse furs, the yellow tint of +his close-cut curls beneath his sable cap, his fresh complexion and +boyish gaiety of appearance, at once betrayed him to be Ivor Tolskoi. + +He was humming lightly as he walked some half-remembered refrain from +last night's ball or opera, but as he reached the middle of the bridge +he halted, and folding his arms upon the parapet looked out across the +marshy delta of the river, to where the Finnish Gulf made an indistinct +grey line. + +The gloomy fortress frowned heavily upon him, but the sun's shafts were +making merry with the Palace windows, and Ivor's thoughts had more just +then to do with hope and love, than with treachery and despair. The +opera melody died on his lips unfinished and he heeded it not; his fancy +had leapt the bounds of prosaic realism and was wandering as it listed +in the realms of conjecture. + +It was of Olga he thought as he wondered with idle curiosity which might +be her casement among those that glittered and gleamed like jewels in a +crystal setting, across the great marble front of the Winter Palace. If +he waited long enough would he see the blind raised, the silken hangings +withdrawn, and the face of his lady-love look forth to greet the day? +Then would he, standing below her, bare his fair head and veil his bold +blue eyes, and pray the passing wind to carry to her his message of +fealty and true love. + +But the windows remained hermetically sealed, the curtains undrawn, and +presently Ivor with a shrug of his shoulders, a laugh at his +sentimentality, and the fragment of song once more on his lips, passed +on his way, looking neither to the right nor the left, and vanished +within the heavy portals of the Imperial Chancellerie. + +Mounting one flight of stairs with quick step, and passing along a short +corridor, Ivor knocked at a closed door, and hearing the sharp French +"_entrez_," opened it and stepped within that inner chamber where so few +weeks ago Vladimir Mellikoff had weighed his chances, and made his +choice. + +Patouchki sat, as then, at the table writing; and without raising his +eyes from his occupation, bade the young secretary good-morning, signing +him to his place by a gesture of his left hand. + +Ivor obeyed at once, and for some time only the rapid passing to and fro +of the quill pens upon the paper were the only sounds. + +Ivor Tolskoi had removed his heavy outside wraps and thus revealed the +fact that he still wore evening-dress, and that a white rose-bud +lingered in his button-hole, its freshness somewhat tarnished, but its +perfume as sweet as ever. + +After about half an hour's silence, Patouchki pushed back his chair and +laid down his pen, passing his hand rapidly across his forehead once or +twice, and looking keenly at his young companion as he did so. In the +cruelly frank and searching morning light the face seemed to lose +something of its pristine youth; the faint lines about the eyes and +mouth became accentuated, the pallor of the temples more noticeable, the +cruelty of lips and chin more pronounced. He did not look up however, +though aware of the chief's scrutiny, until Patouchki's harsh voice and +bullet-like sentences broke the silence. + +"Burning the candle at both ends are you, Ivor? Pardon me if I remind +you that wilful waste will scarcely benefit yourself, or us. Let me also +remind you that that moderation in all things of which the apostle +speaks, has always produced far more lasting results than reckless +enthusiasm and imprudent zeal." + +The young man flushed slightly as he replied: "If you would imply, +chief, that my present dress is scarcely suited to my present +occupation, I acknowledge the reproof with all promptitude. I was late +at the Court Ball last night, and had not time to return to my +apartments before making my journey across the bridge. I could not fail +in that, since it was undertaken by your orders, consequently I must beg +your pardon for appearing in such attire." + +The words were apologetic enough, but the tone was slightly +antagonistic. Patouchki looked more closely at him; it was not usual for +his subordinates to use any but obsequious words and tones when +addressing him, and his quick ear caught the foreign ring in Ivor's +voice. He passed it by, however, without open comment, though inscribing +it on the tablets of his memory, and replied, calmly: + +"And have you brought me confirmation of the business on which I sent +you?" + +"Yes, chief," answered the young man, shortly. "I saw the man Mattalini, +who is a veritable specimen of Southern Italy intrigue and falsehood. He +would rather lie than tell the truth, I take it; but he will be faithful +enough to the Chancellerie if paid sufficiently. He had arrived only +last night from Paris, and brought news of Count Vladimir Mellikoff's +occupations and associates in gay Lutetia." + +A slight sneer curled Ivor's lips as he spoke the Count's name, which +was no more lost upon the chief than the unusual ring in his voice a +moment before. + +"Tolskoi grows restive," he mused, letting his keen black eyes rest +piercingly on the young man's face for several moments; "nor is he quite +frank with me. He keeps something back concerning Vladimir, whom I have +noticed he never mentions without a covert sneer. There is without doubt +a woman in the case. It is always so; Eve's daughters ruin our most +promising patriots, sapping their energy, their spirit, their wit, and +talent, by slow but sure degrees. And for what? A gleam of white teeth +in a dangerous smile, the pressure of a traitorous hand, the hypocrite +tears in melting eyes! Ah, bah! It's the old old story of the garden, +for ever repeating itself--'the woman tempted me and I did eat;' and +eating of the forbidden fruit, have become dead to all things save the +unsatisfied desire it creates but never satisfies." + +Aloud he said: "Did Mattalini give you no packet or papers for me?" + +"Yes, chief," replied Tolskoi, "here they are," taking from his inner +pocket a small sealed envelope, and holding it out to Patouchki. As the +latter's long fingers closed over it, Ivor continued, in a half-nervous, +half-jocular tone, and touching his fair moustache with his white +fingers: "Might one interested in the cause inquire, chief, what news +you have of Count Mellikoff and his mission? It is something of an open +secret _why_ he has gone in certain circles, and I, for one, should be +glad to know how far he has succeeded." + +"To pass on the information to those of your friends who are so keenly +interested in and solicitous for the welfare of our father, the Tsar?" +answered the chief, sharply. "Why, Ivor, I did not know you were so much +of a gossip." + +The young man bit his lip and frowned. + +"You mistake me, chief," he said, and once again his voice had a ring of +antagonism in its tone, "and you misjudge me. My question was in some +sort a warning, and put forth that you might dictate such an answer as +best suits the interests of the Tsar and Chancellerie. There are those, +chief, who do not hesitate to assert that Stevan Lallovich's murder was +but an act of justice on the part of his repudiated wife; those, too, +who have the ear of our Empress, and who are never weary of instilling +dislike and distrust of the Chancellerie in her mind, and who insinuate +that Count Mellikoff's mission has more to do with secret and +treacherous intrigues against the Tsar, than with the finding of a +fugitive woman. And when the Chancellerie is struck at, you best know +for whom the blow is intended. This was my motive for my friendly +inquiries regarding Count Mellikoff." + +He finished with a slight bow, and stood looking full into Patouchki's +face. For a moment the immobility of that sphinx-like countenance was +broken up, a wave of dull-red blood rose slowly in the sallow cheeks, +the black eyes flashed ominously, a sneer rested on the thin lips and +repeated itself in the frown that gathered on his forehead. When he +spoke his voice vibrated with greater distinctness and staccato emphasis +than ever. + +"There will always be fools, Ivor, as long as time endures; even in +eternity we shall doubtless find similar spirits to vex our hard earned +rest. If I have misjudged you, it is enough, I beg your pardon. That +there are traitors on every side who can know so well as I, who hold my +life not worth the price of a rush-light! To be accused wrongly forms +the greater part of man's experience, but to know one's own rectitude is +sufficient compensation. The Chancellerie is for the moment secure in +the integrity of its members, I believe; though in this Petersburg of +ours, who can say how long even our institution will stand, or who +shall prove the first traitor to its system? Let it be known then, Ivor, +that Count Mellikoff has at present reached America, and that he is +working under our protection and our surveillance. Even he needs to +tread warily, for not even he is free from our suspicion, or our +watchful care. No one, Ivor, no one, in all our great machinery, but has +his double, whose duty it is to report to us every action, word, or +occupation. A traitor would find short mercy, he might think himself +fortunate had he time for a _pater_ or an _ave_, or a cry to our Lady of +Kazan. I need say no more, your warning will be remembered and acted +upon." + +Ivor bowed again in silence and turned back to his desk, but before he +reached it Patouchki stopped him. + +"I shall not require you longer, Tolskoi," he said, in his usual quiet +voice, "you had better get an hour or two of rest now; at twelve I shall +desire your attendance with me upon the Emperor and Empress, who will +make at that time a private visit of inspection to Petropavlovsk. Meet +me at the private entrance of the Palace, and now S'Bogorn: not +understood." + +"I will be there, chief," replied Ivor, promptly, a little smile +creeping into his eyes and about the corners of his mouth. He drew on +his heavy furred coat and stood for a moment, holding his cap under his +arm, as he pulled on his long gloves, glancing now and then at +Patouchki, who had returned to his writing, and was apparently so +engrossed with it as to be oblivious of Ivor's presence, and forgetful +of Ivor's warning. + +"Good morning, chief," said Tolskoi, again ignoring his elder's more +solemn salutation, "and thank you." + +But Patouchki replied only by a gesture of his hand, and the next moment +the heavy door closed noiselessly on Ivor's retreating figure. As he ran +lightly down the short flight of stone stairs, and stepped out into the +brilliant sunshine, the smile deepened in his eyes and about his mouth, +and became a short gay laugh, that rang out clear and joyfully, cutting +the cold keen air like a bell, and causing an old woman creeping slowly +on her weary way, to turn and bless his youth and good looks in Our +Lady's name. + +"_Hé!_ but 'tis good to be young, monsieur, and beautiful. Saint Peter +send you a fair lady-love, and a short shrift!" + +Ivor laughed again, and tossed the old dame a small coin; but the mirth +died on his lips as he passed beneath the shadow of the great fortress, +and recalled the gruesome context of the blessing bestowed upon him. "A +fair lady-love, and a short shrift!" What a ghastly conclusion! What had +he or Olga to do with death and death's ceremonies? He made very sure of +winning his fair lady, but to take account with death, now in the full +vigour and strength of his youth, had not entered into his calculations. +A plague on all old women--evil prophets!--let them look after their own +souls; as for him, a long life and a merry one stretched before him. + +Then he began to hum again the broken strain from the opera; and as he +did so, his thoughts travelled far ahead, and were on the whole +satisfactory. Vladimir Mellikoff well out of the way, suspicion raised +against him, no matter how faint, and the Italian, Mattalini, to dog his +footsteps--for Ivor knew the Italian was the one picked out to serve as +the Count's double--what might not he, Ivor Tolskoi, accomplish? Was not +the way opening clear and straight before him, with Olga--beautiful, +proud Olga--as his prize? What could be more opportune than the chief's +selection of him to act as aide during the Royal inspection of the +fortress; for well Ivor knew that Olga Naundorff would accompany the +Tsarina, and that of necessity she would fall to his escort, as they +passed from casemate to corridor of the giant prison. + +Ivor was a firm believer in propinquity, and here would be a rare +occasion for him in the relaxation of the strict Court etiquette, that +usually hedged Mdlle. Naundorff about with a thousand barriers, for on +such ex-officio occasions it was well known that the Tsar and Tsarina +appeared with only a strong guard, and one lady and gentleman of their +suite. + +The great chimes of the fortress cathedral were ringing out the mournful +cadences of the liturgy--"Have mercy, O Lord"--which in Petersburg mark +each quarter of the hour, as Ivor passed out of the Chancellerie. It was +close on eight o'clock, and already the streets and promenades were +showing signs of renewed life. The great doors of St. Isaac's stood +open, and into the vast misty building the devout of both sexes were +passing rapidly. + +Ivor paused, went up the steps, and looked within. The lights on the +altar at the far end gleamed like so many tiny stars, through the +diaphanous incense clouds, that clung always about the holy of holies. +The dull gold on the massive ornaments and in the frescoes shone out +here and there, thrown into relief by the more sombre purples and blues +of their surroundings. + +Before a statue of the Virgin and Child a woman had thrown herself in +the abandonment of grief and petition; two or three scarlet kaftans of +the Imperial Guard gave a touch of vivid colour, and contrasted +chromatically with the white alb and golden vestments of the officiating +priest. The low monotonous voices of the congregation rose and sank, +like the murmur of the ocean breaking on the sands, as they, wrapt in +private devotions, made known their petitions in low undertones, and +quite irresponsive of the priest's function; while he, standing at the +high altar, offered up the sacrifice of the mass. + +As Ivor gazed half spell-bound, and half disbelieving, the woman who +knelt before the Virgin's statue got up and moved slowly towards the +door. She had thrown back her long veil, and her face against its +blackness stood out in cameo relief. As Tolskoi's glance fell upon it, +he started violently, and put out one hand involuntarily, as though to +bar her way. But the woman dropped her veil instantly, and pushing +rudely by him, walked rapidly down the steps and across the promenade; +disappearing from view even as Ivor, recovering from his amazement, +turned to follow her. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed, standing for a moment uncertain what to do, +the look of horror still stamped upon his features, "as I am a living +man, that was the face of Adèle Lamien, the murderer of Stevan +Lallovich, and his repudiated wife!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"IT WAS NO DELUSION." + + +At twelve o'clock that day, just as the great fortress cathedral chimes +rang out the hour, repeating again the melody taken from the Eastern +liturgy, "How glorious is our Lord in Sion," Ivor Tolskoi reached the +side-entrance of the Palace court-yard, and, passing between the +saluting sentinels, made his way towards a small door in one side of the +building, before which marched constantly two of the Imperial Guard, +whose business it was to watch jealously all in-going or out-coming +traffic, and who, fully armed as they were, presented a sufficiently +terrifying appearance, even to the most peaceful-minded. + +Before this door two open sleighs were standing, their magnificent black +horses handsomely decked out in gold-plated harness, and each wearing a +triangle of gold bells spanning its back, from which the slightest +movement evoked a shower of tinkling notes that fell melodiously, one +after the other, on the frost-bitten air, and were echoed back again by +the high walls of the court-yard. Sumptuous rugs and wraps of the +costliest furs were thrown across the velvet cushions, while the +coachmen and footmen were wrapped in mink-skin capes and tall, +conical-shaped hats. + +A short distance ahead of the equipages a selected division of the +Imperial body-guard sat immovable upon their splendid chargers, the +scarlet of their kaftans contrasting finely with the glossy coats of +their steeds and the dazzling snow that lay as a pall of innocence upon +the great metropolis. + +Ivor stopped only long enough to return the salute of the captain of the +guard, and to exchange a good-morning with one or two of the others, +who were all well known to him, and then, pressing quickly forward, +entered the Palace by the small door, and made his way to an +ante-chamber, where, as he expected, he found Patouchki already arrived. + +The chief's face wore a somewhat troubled expression, which did not +lessen as the young man, shutting the door securely behind him, came up +hurriedly towards him, an answering look of anxiety upon his usually +fresh, insouciant countenance. Patouchki also noticed that his face was +very pale, and his eyes wore a restless, inquiring expression, which was +enhanced by the stern set of his lips. He made no comment until standing +close by Patouchki's side, when he said, abruptly, and almost +commandingly: + +"Did you not say that Vladimir Mellikoff had gone upon this mission to +America to track and to arrest the cast-off wife of Stevan Lallovich, +for whose murder the Chancellerie holds her responsible?" + +Patouchki, for once taken off his guard, started at this unexpected +address, and turning sharply round so that he faced Tolskoi, looked at +him keenly before he answered. But Ivor never flinched nor faltered; his +cold, light-blue eyes met the chief's black ones full as boldly as they +had ever rested on Olga Naundorff's fair proud face, and something in +their hard cruel light warned Patouchki that the question was no idle +one, but that behind it lay some disturbance unknown at their morning +meeting. He replied in his most repellent manner: + +"You have forgotten, Ivor, it seems, that the Chancellerie never makes +decisive affirmations in words. Among us it is unnecessary to name names +or publish identities. Your own rather too vivid imagination has outrun +itself, Ivor, and accredited to Count Mellikoff's absence in the United +States a more sinister motive than could be found in the records of the +Chancellerie. Murder and arrest are two ugly words and have an ugly +sound to ears unaccustomed to them, especially when applied to a +woman." + +"Nevertheless, chief," answered Ivor, impatiently, the frown deepening +on his brow, "though you may choose to call Count Mellikoff's mission by +every name under heaven save the right one, you cannot disguise its true +motive. The Chancellerie may wrap itself about with all possible or +impossible plausibilities of expression, there are those who can read +between the lines, and who follow its machinations. Let me beg of you, +chief, by all the months of faithful service I have given you--and they +are many now--to be frank with me in this. Much--you cannot know how +much--depends upon your answer to my question. Can you not yet believe +in my fidelity and trust to my loyalty? Have I proved myself so poor a +Russian? Answer me this, I beg; is it to track and to find Stevan +Lallovich's forsaken wife that Vladimir Mellikoff has gone to America? I +will not press you further as to her share in the murder, or why you +suppose her to have sought refuge there, if you will give me a frank yes +or no to my question; only be quick, I entreat you, our very moments are +numbered!" + +Patouchki, who, during Tolskoi's impassioned address, had remained +immovable, his eyes downcast, the lights and shadows on his +strongly-marked face alone revealing his interest and irresolution, +looked up as Ivor's voice dropped into silence, and again fixing his +piercing black eyes on the young man's face, he replied slowly, and with +a hesitancy that sat strangely on his usually assured manner: + +"Your words are imperious, Ivor; but it is the imperiousness of youth, +not arrogance, therefore I pass them by unrebuked. As to answering your +question with a short yes or no, that is impossible. There are too many +motives and too many interests mixed up in Count Vladimir's mission for +me to give to you, or any one, so unequivocal a rejoinder. However, +since I do believe in your honesty of purpose, Ivor, and trust your +integrity of action, I will say this much, that one of Count Mellikoff's +objects--the most important if you will have it so--was to seek and to +find the woman who calls herself Count Stevan Lallovich's wife. What +then?" + +"Then he will never find her, chief," broke in Tolskoi, "and you and the +Chancellerie are being tricked by him for your pains. Vladimir Mellikoff +may have his own game to play, and his own ends to serve, but finding +and securing Stevan Lallovich's pseudo wife will not be one of them." + +He laughed slightly as he finished, and his voice grew scornful again at +the mention of Mellikoff's name. + +"What do you mean, Ivor?" exclaimed Patouchki, now thoroughly roused. + +"What I say," returned Tolskoi, doggedly, "Vladimir Mellikoff is +deceiving all of you when he pretends to be on the track of that +wretched woman, and you, chief, are blinded by his specious words." + +"Have a care, Ivor," cried Patouchki, sternly, "the Chancellerie can +hold you accountable for those words. What proof have you of what you +affirm?" + +"The proof of my own eyes," replied Ivor, hotly, "I tell you, chief, +Mellikoff is deceiving you for reasons of his own, for I, this very +morning, since I parted with you, have stood face to face with Adèle +Lamien, who calls herself Adèle Lallovich!" + +"You, Ivor, impossible!" cried Patouchki, "you have seen her, and here +in Petersburg, in broad daylight! And where?" + +"As I stood within the door of St. Isaac's this morning," answered +Tolskoi, "the mass was just begun, and she had been kneeling--prostrated +I should say--before the statue of our Lady of Kazan. Something familiar +in the lines of her figure struck me even then, and presently as the +_miserere_ bells rang the quarter, she arose and came towards me, her +veil thrown back, the whiteness of her face and the distinctness of her +features thrown out vividly against her black apparel. She passed me +rapidly, pulling down her veil impetuously, as she fled out and down the +steps before I could put out my hand to stop her, and when I reached the +pavement she had disappeared. But I tell you, chief, as I hope to be +saved at the hour of my death, it was the face of Adèle Lallovich into +which I looked for that brief interval." + +"Impossible!" again ejaculated Patouchki. "Impossible that she should be +here, in Petersburg, and the Chancellerie remain ignorant of her +arrival. She is a marked woman to all our emissaries, how could she come +and go, without disguise even, and we remain in ignorance? No, no, my +good Ivor, your eyes mislead you this time; with all her arrogant +bravery Adèle Lamien knows better than to put her head in the lion's +jaws, or herself in the power of the Chancellerie." + +"I tell you I saw her," repeated Tolskoi, obstinately, "believe me or +not, chief, I saw her, and no other." + +"But my dear Ivor," began Patouchki, persuasively, when a groom of the +chambers entered hurriedly, and bidding them make haste, as their +Majesties were even then descending the staircase, cut short the chief's +oratory, and caused both him and Tolskoi to hasten their footsteps +towards the side door, which now stood open with footmen and lacqueys on +either side, holding the fur robes, foot-muffs and wraps of the Imperial +party. + +As Ivor and Tolskoi emerged from the side corridor, the Tsarina reached +the entrance and paused a moment for her attendants to clasp the +magnificent cloak of sables about her slight figure. Very sweet and +delicate, and somewhat sad was the face that looked out from the +clinging furs, with a touch of the same melancholy that at times rests +on her English sister's brow, and with more than a similitude of her +gentleness and sympathy. As she crossed the threshold the slightest +possible shrinking or timidity caused her to hesitate for one brief +moment, then she took her place in the Royal equipage, and her face, as +she turned it towards her husband, wore a brave courageous smile. + +Poor Tsarina! though wrapped about on every side with all luxury, yet +never to realise the happiness of confidence; never to feel secure, even +in your strictest seclusion; never to know when the cruel bullet, sent +with a fatally true aim, may end your tenure of greatness, and send you +back to your magnificent palace, a heart-broken, lonely widow! + +Behind the Empress came the Tsar, dressed, as was often his pleasure, in +the scarlet kaftan of his own guard, and by which he signified his +desire to remain incognito. Following him were Olga Naundorff and the +Emperor's equerry, who, with Patouchki and Ivor, formed the Royal +suite. + +The Tsarina in passing had acknowledged Tolskoi's presence by a gracious +recognition, which sent the young man's blood running hotly through his +veins, flushing his face and brightening his eyes. Ivor was every inch +an Imperialist, and he loved his gentle Tsarina Dagmar with a real and +chivalrous devotion; the latent sadness in her eyes and the pathos of +her smile touched the most responsive chords of his cold and selfish +nature, and awoke in him the purest sentiment of his heart. + +Olga had caught the Empress's friendly bow to Ivor, and she too relaxed +somewhat the frigid demeanour she had evinced towards him, since their +conversation regarding Count Mellikoff, and flashed upon him one of her +most lovely smiles, as he put out his arm and almost lifted her to her +place in the second sleigh. The Tsar and Tsarina drove alone in the +foremost equipage, preceded and protected on either side by the guard, +while in the second were seated Olga, the equerry, Patouchki, and Ivor. + +The gates were flung wide apart, and thus, with the horses prancing, the +bells ringing, to which the clanking swords made a monotonous echo, and +the sun shining, the Royal party crossed the gay boulevard now thronged +with people, and drew up at the grim and frowning archway of Peter's +gloomy fortress. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL. + + +Petropavlovsk is in itself a giant fastness, covering, as it does, +three-quarters of a square mile, and divided into so many rambling +corridors, barracks, ravelins, bastions, curtains, and store-houses, as +to be for the most part unknown even to the officials who form its +_ménage_, and who, having certain portions of the immense structure set +apart for their duties, live out their lives without exploring, or being +permitted to explore beyond their individual domains. + +The boulevard and the canal intersect the building, and separate the +citadel proper from what is known as the "crown work," which lies to +the rear. + +Dreary indeed is the outlook for the unfortunate political suspect who +is hurried by night, blindfolded and closely guarded, into this living +tomb. To him, hastened along through unfamiliar passages and by echoing +walls, conveyed hither and thither through succeeding gates and vaulted +corridors, no possible effort of memory, or mathematical calculation, +can ever aid him to determine which one of the many courts, bastions, or +redoubts is that selected for his incarceration. + +Nor, indeed, will he ever know, for when at last the _gendarmes_ halt, +and he is allowed the use of his eyes, he finds himself in a small +court-yard completely enclosed by high walls, above which only a limited +sky line is visible. And where this court-yard is situated, to what +bastion it appertains, whether it faces the river or lies back from it, +what is its relation to the door of egress, or its connection with the +other casemates of the prison, not the wildest conjecture can +establish, or the keenest intuition demonstrate. + +The part of the fortress, however, which the Tsar had selected for his +inspection, was that known as the Trubetskoi bastion, one of the largest +and most impregnable, projecting as it does well on to the river side, +in the direction of the Bourse. The shape of this bastion resembles as +much as possible a bishop's mitre, as worn by the Western Church; it is +built, in two storeys of stone and brick, around a court-yard of its +own, which extends beyond the building proper and terminates in high +thick walls, that completely shut it out and in from all communication +save that afforded by a narrow vaulted passage, always strongly guarded. +The interior consists of two tiers of casemates, opening on to narrow +corridors, two dark punishment cells, overseers' rooms, kitchen and +soldiers' quarters. In the court-yard are a bath house and one or two +stunted shrubs. + +Nothing more gloomy and horrible can be imagined than imprisonment +within one of these casemates, of which the Trubetskoi bastion boasts +seventy-two, thirty-six on each tier. As they were originally designed +for cannon they are considerably larger than an ordinary prison cell, +but size is no mitigation of their horrors. Each casemate has a window, +but it opens upon the baffling stone walls of the narrow outer +court-yard, and is moreover set nine feet above the floor, in a deep +arched recess, and guarded by heavy iron bars. The massive wooden door +is equally disappointing, giving as it does on to the stone corridor +that lies between the cells and inner court-yard; in the centre of each +is a square aperture, which can be opened or closed at the will of the +jailer, by a swinging panel, acting like a miniature portcullis, and +which, when horizontal, serves as a shelf for the prisoner's food. + +Directly above this panel is that horrible contrivance--more loathed and +detested by the incarcerated wretch than any other of the diabolical +arrangements--the "Judas" hagioscope or Squint, and which resembles a +slit for letters more than anything else, with a nicely adjusted strip +of wood that can be noiselessly raised or lowered from the outside, and +through which the eyes of the guard can spy at any moment upon the +occupant of the cell. + +Only those who have tasted of this unending inevitable surveillance can +appreciate its horrors. To be never free, never for one moment, whether +in grief, or pain, or despair, from the espionage of unsympathetic eyes. +To throw oneself upon one's knees before the image of Our Lady, with +which each cell is supplied, to pour out all the woe and misery of one's +breaking heart in the abandonment of desolation, and then, to hear the +faint click of the revolving slide, and starting back, find the argus +eyes of one's jailer peering through the detestable "Judas;" and to know +the very words of supplication and invocation will be used against one +to condemnation. + +What wonder then that many who have entered Petropavlovsk bravely and +with a good courage, believing their imprisonment to be but an affair of +days, are never seen again, never emerge alive from its terrible +dungeons; or lose mind and reason waiting for the day of deliverance +that never comes? + +No words can paint the growing horror and despair of a prisoner thus +incarcerated. Day by day his terror expands and magnifies as hope dies +in his heart, and the inexorable hand of Russia crushes out his very +life. + +Within the casemates there are, for furniture, an iron bedstead and +table bolted into the wall, an iron oven of the commonest description, a +stationary iron wash-hand basin and a statue of the Virgin, beneath +which hangs a tin cup for catching the dripping moisture that exudes +constantly from the stone walls. + +On entering his cell for the first time, the poor victim is stripped of +his clothes and given in exchange a loose blue linen dressing-gown, grey +linen trousers and shirt, and a pair of soft noiseless list slippers. +The guard, after making a minute personal examination, in search of some +possible criminal matter, withdraws; the heavy door swings to with a +dull echo, the bolts slip into the padlock, and the prisoner is left +alone, in the midst of a stillness and silence like that of death. + +Gloomy, forbidding, sombre, the walls and vaulted ceiling rise about and +above him, the air is heavy and lifeless, the silence is profound; not +even an echoing footstep in the corridor makes a welcome noise, for the +guards creep about in felt slippers as noiseless and as muffled as his +own. And thus the purgatory of his sentence begins; and who, save +Almighty God, can say when it shall end! While hour by hour the chimes +of the fortress-cathedral ring out their triumphant notes--a mockery of +the poor soul in torment--or toll the _miserere_, that sounds a knell to +all his hopes. + +It was at the entrance to the Trubetskoi bastion that the Imperial party +alighted. Extraordinary reports as to the violence and cruelty practised +within the walls of Petropavlovsk had lately become so widely +disseminated throughout Petersburg, mingled with such threats of summary +justice to be shortly meted out to the officials by the hands of the +enraged populace, and such sinister warnings of personal vengeance, that +the press of all parties called upon the Tsar to prove himself Emperor +in his own domains, by investigating and abolishing the scandals. + +It was a time of grave anxiety; but he, listening to the counsels of +those who had in past difficulties proved their loyalty and +disinterestedness, yielded at last to their persuasions, and resolved to +adopt the extreme measure of a personal inspection of the maligned +fortress. The Empress, on hearing this decision, and who, despite her +gentle looks and quiet manner, owned the courage and high spirit of her +Danish ancestors, at once determined to accompany her husband. + +The populace should see that their Tsar and Tsarina neither feared to +trust themselves to the people, nor shrank from redressing wrong when +brought before their notice, though indeed none knew better than she how +purely perfunctory and ceremonious would be the inspection and its +results. + +The governor of Petropavlovsk and the lieutenant of the Trubetskoi +bastion received the distinguished guests, and welcomed them with +apparent relief and pleasure, throwing open the doors of the casemates +one by one, and standing back deferentially, with more of sorrow than of +anger on their official countenances; for was not theirs a sad example +of unrequited and misjudged zeal, since even they could be regarded +with suspicion and doubted in their humanity? + +Most of the casemates were found to be unoccupied, and Patouchki, who +walked beside the Emperor, never failed on each such occasion to draw +his Imperial Highness's attention to the fact. + +"I believe, sir," he said, as they entered the last of the lower range +of cells, and found it like its predecessors, empty, swept, and +garnished, "that one of the most formidable counts in the public +indictment against Petropavlovsk, is the over-crowding of its cells, and +their uncleanly condition. Your Majesty has now visited thirty-five of +these casemates, the greater number of which have been found unoccupied, +and all of them in perfect sanitary order. I think, sir, this answers +that complaint." + +The Tsar sighed, but made no reply. Perhaps he, like Patouchki, wished +to make the best of everything and see only the brightest side; but +even he could not still the premonitions of evil that arose thick and +fast in his mind, as he comprehended the immensity and power of this +Imperial prison house of Russia. + +Of the few victims found in the cells none recognised the Royal party. +They were for the most part political offenders from the interior +provinces, who had never before been in Petersburg, and to whom the face +of their new Tsar was not as yet sufficiently familiar to make +recognition possible, especially as his dress differed in no respect +from that of the officers accompanying him. Little did the poor victims +imagine, as they were hurriedly changed, early that morning, from one +part of the fortress to another, that it was to avoid any accidental +recognition on the part of those, who, being the last to enter the +prison, still retained memories of the outer world, and sentiments of +Imperial justice--believing that their Tsar, once convinced of their +innocent incarceration, would order their instant release--that this +transfer was made. Any possible outbreak was to be avoided at all +hazards, since any such _émeute_ could not but end awkwardly for the +Imperial inspectors, and disastrously for the officials. + +Had these poor wretches but suspected that the tall, soldierly man, +wearing a scarlet kaftan, without ribbon or order, and who looked gloomy +and thoughtful beneath the military helmet, was their Tsar--their little +father, the great Emperor of all the Russias--how they would have fallen +at his feet, praying his interference; protesting their loyalty, and +maintaining their innocence! Or had the faintest doubt crossed their +minds, that the slight upright woman, clad in those closely-clinging, +sombre robes, whose eyes looked so pitifully forth, and whose face was +so wan and pale, might perchance be their Tsarina, what tears and sobs, +what pleadings and supplications would have rent the air, as they kissed +her hands, or grasped wildly at her garments! + +But fate was against them; their opportunity came to them unsought, and +they passed it by unknowing. How should they know, poor souls, to whom +even a word of ordinary greeting from their jailers was denied, and to +whom no echo of news ever penetrated, how should they know, that at the +very moment, as they were praying passionately for some means of +communication with their Emperor, he himself stood before them, and that +had they but put out their hands they could have touched him? + +It was the cruel irony of fate; the bitter obligation of destiny. + +As the guards threw open the massive casemate doors in silence, most of +the inmates did not so much as raise their heads or change their +attitudes. Why should they? It was only another of those many +interruptions in their day's vacuity, in which the jailer played the +part of inspector with maddening sameness. What call had they to look +more often on his hated face than was needful? + +Scarce a word passed between the Tsar and Tsarina, or their suite; the +pall of absolute silence which enfolds great Petropavlovsk in the dark +mantle of submission, had descended also upon them, and so held them +captive as to kill any outward expression of inward emotion. Sometimes +it was the "Judas" only that was lifted, and then the Tsarina would turn +away her eyes and refuse to look, standing apart with anxiety and +sadness written on her pale face; and when this happened, Olga would +separate herself from Ivor, and waiting silently by her Royal mistress, +watch her every motion with the sympathy of comprehension. + +And so the weary task dragged on its heavy chain; there remained but one +more cell, and then this horrible nightmare of duty, this travesty of +inspection, would be over, and they might hurry away from out this gloom +and depression, and seek once more the brilliant sunshine, the +gaily-thronged streets, where at least the grim spectres of despair and +desperation, if they stalked among the careless mummers, were +out-balanced by the laughter and jesting of the merry-makers. + +At length they reached the last casemate of all, and as the door was +unbolted and thrown open, the Emperor and Patouchki stepped across the +threshold. Seated on the iron pallet, his arms thrown out across the +table, was an old man, whose head was white with the snows of many +winters. He neither moved nor spoke as those without came towards him; +his hands were waxen in colour, nerveless, and attenuated; the blue +dressing-gown hung loosely upon his emaciated form; his face was hidden +on his arm. Something in the intense stillness and rigidity of the +attitude, in the absolute rest that had fallen upon him, startled the +beholders with a vague sense of fear. + +At a word from the Tsar, Patouchki crossed the cell and laid his hand +upon the bowed shoulders. A shudder passed over the form, followed by a +long and weary sigh, and then the head was lifted, and two feverish, +bright eyes gazed out of the hollow sockets. For a moment he looked at +them bewildered, and then, with a sudden, thrilling cry, he flung +himself forward and fell at the feet of the Tsar, exclaiming in broken, +feeble tones: + +"Blessed be God in Sion; He has heard my prayer! Blessed be our Lady of +Kazan! It is the face of my Tsarawich I see once more; it is the face of +my little father--my Tsar! Oh, my Emperor, I am Alexis--Alexis of +Battenkoff. I am an old man of over four-score, who, for fifty long +years, served your father--my Tsar Alexander--and who, after all that +time of faithful love and devotion, have been left to rot in this +terrible pest-house for two long weary years. Pardon me, little father, +pardon me! I have done no wrong, believe me. I have never plotted +against my sovereigns; I have loved them always, and served them to the +extent of my poor abilities. I had no hand in that bloody murder; I was +innocent of all participation in it. I would have given my life's blood +to save my Emperor. Why should I seek his death! Pardon me, my little +father, as your sire, whose soul sees me now, would have pardoned me!" + +As the last words passed from his lips the old man sank back, his hands +twitched convulsively, and he fell on the floor in a swoon. So sudden +had been his movement forward and so rapid his utterance, neither the +officials nor Patouchki had time to interpose, but the latter now +stepped quickly forward, as the Tsar, with a gesture, motioned to him to +approach, and after giving him some directions, speaking earnestly and +decisively, turned abruptly and left the cell. Neither the Tsarina nor +Olga Naundorff had entered this casemate, the Empress's tender heart had +therefore been spared the harrowing scene. + +As the Imperial party drove away from the terrible fortress, and the +brilliant sunshine caught at the glittering harness and bright +trappings of the guard, a cry arose on the boulevard: "It is the Tsar, +and our Tsarina! Long live the little father! Long live the Tsar!" But +neither God's sunshine, nor the loyal shouts of his people could bring +back the colour to the Emperor's face, or banish the look of care and +anxiety that rested so heavily upon it. + +The next morning an Imperial pardon was sent to Petropavlovsk for Alexis +Battenkoff, but it came too late. The weary spirit and sorely wounded +heart were at rest in eternity; the old man's soul had passed beyond all +earthly pardon, into the Almighty hands of justice and recompense. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SUSPICIONS. + + +For many days the Petersburg Imperial press rang the changes unceasingly +on this last benignant and forgiving act of the Tsar's. + +It called upon all malcontents and revolutionists to say, if in this +pardon were not displayed the utmost leniency and mercy. For was it not +well known that Alexis Battenkoff was taken almost red-handed at the +assassination of the late Tsar? And, indeed, who but one familiar, +through long habit and confidence, with the movements of the Emperor, +could have supplied the knowledge which assured the grim success of the +dastardly attack? Was not Alexis always to be found, under suspicious +circumstances, consorting with the most pronounced of the Nihilist +faction; and could he be there save for one purpose only? Could one +touch pitch and not be defiled? + +Where then, in modern history, could another such act of condonation be +pointed out, as this by which the Tsar had pardoned a participator in +his father's murder? Was not that answer sufficient to all the +treacherous suggestions, the menacing innuendoes, that had been ripe and +bursting for so long in Petersburg? Perhaps now the organs of the +opposition would cease their importunate blating, since the Tsar's +inspection of Petropavlovsk had resulted in such a redress of imaginary +wrongs, as not even their wildest dreams could have supposed possible. +And was not the hand of Almighty justice made plainly visible, in that +Alexis of Battenkoff was not permitted to taste again of liberty, but +was stricken by death before the news of the Tsar's generosity could +reach him? Let those who would, read well the lesson thus openly +delivered to them. + +Paul Patouchki read the enthusiastic laudations and pious thanksgivings +in the silence of his apartments in the Chancellerie, and, as he did so, +a slow, inscrutable smile crept over his face and lingered there. + +It was not often that the chief recognised any direct interposition of +Divine Providence in the political turmoils of Russia; indeed, in his +own heart, he scoffed at all such superstitions, and acknowledged +frankly that the Imperial Government neither desired, nor would +appreciate, any such interference with its autocratic despotism. + +But certainly, for once, he saw in the Battenkoff incident and death a +most opportune intervention, whether Divine or otherwise, since by it +the hands of the Imperial party could be strengthened, and for a time, +at least, their policy be freed from too suspicious and too true +aspersions. To his mind, like the last of the Stuart Pretenders, +nothing in life so well became poor Alexis of Battenkoff as his leaving +it, how and when he did. It was the one touch needful to stamp the +Imperial inspection of Petropavlovsk with triumphant success, and to +prove a satisfying sop even to so hydra-mouthed a Cerberus as the +disaffected party; and therefore he was thankful, though none knew +better than he that no actual improvement had been effected, no evils +redressed, no reforms instituted in the governmental department of +Petropavlovsk. The giant fortress closed its jaws just as tyrannically +upon its victims, and abated not one jot or tittle of its iron-handed +authority. + +Patouchki, however, had too many anxieties pressing upon him to spend +over much time in complaisant reading of political trumpet notes; he +laid aside the _Petersburg Messenger_ and turned toward his desk, on +which lay a heavy correspondence not yet disposed of. As he sat down in +his familiar place, the grim smile faded from his lips, to be replaced +by a dark frown that knit together the black eyebrows, and accentuated +the strong lines about the eyes and mouth. In truth, the chief was more +concerned than he liked to admit, even to himself, at Ivor Tolskoi's +news; and though at the time he endeavoured to treat it with cavalier +disbelief, he nevertheless had an inner consciousness, of its truth, and +a presentiment of complications to follow in consequence. + +That Adèle Lamien should be in Petersburg, and the Chancellerie have +neither warning of her intentions, nor knowledge of her presence, +seemed, as he had said to Tolskoi, impossible; and yet, even as the word +fell from his lips, he knew himself to be wrong, and Ivor to be right. +The great spy system had failed for once, imperceptibly almost, and so +far without damaging results, but it had, nevertheless, proved itself +vulnerable, and had found its match in the quick wits and ready +ingenuity of a woman. Even all the elaborate machinery of the +Chancellerie had not been sufficient, when pitted against the devices of +one weak, fugitive woman. + +Yes, that was where the shoe pinched; to be duped by the very criminal +they were pursuing, and to hear her laugh in their ears, as she slipped +out of their fingers! And then, what a bad precedent was even this +slight dereliction on the part of the Chancellerie; and how could the +discipline of fear be kept up in the minds of the younger members of the +great body, if such a defection became known? And the woman, Adèle +Lamien, was brazen enough and clever enough, smarting as she was under +her own wrongs, to circulate their blindness and failure, just where it +would most redound to their discredit. + +"It is impossible!" again muttered Patouchki, as his fingers rested idly +on his desk, and his eyes wandered over the familiar trifles of his +daily avocations. "It is impossible; and yet I know it is true. Some +one of our emissaries has been asleep at his post, some one has connived +at this woman's plotting, or been blind to her schemes, and deaf to her +plans; some one, as at Balaklava, has blundered, and it remains for me +to find the culprit, and to administer chastisement. A winter in +Siberia, or in the Nartchinsk mines, will teach that some one the price +of treachery, and the weight of the Chancellerie's wrath. Meantime the +woman must be found and watched; the time is not ripe yet for her +arrest, I must wait Vladimir Mellikoff's next report first; and by +heaven, should he prove false, as Tolskoi would insinuate, he shall work +out his retribution, side by side with the wretched victim of Count +Stevan's licentiousness. But first of all, the woman must be found." + +He drew a deep sigh, and with almost an expression of weariness took up +one of the many despatches before him, and broke the seal. + +Meantime, Ivor Tolskoi had prospered but slowly in his suit. Despite all +his anticipations of numerous opportunities occurring during the +inspection of the fortress, in which he should be able to command Olga's +attention, and by deftly-turned compliment, or ingenious flattery, urge +his pretensions, even as with subtle innuendo and covert sneer he +touched upon Count Mellikoff's absence, and the character of his +mission. + +But Olga was more than indifferent, she was impatient with him; the +influence of the time and place oppressed her peculiarly impressionable +nature, as the sight of the pale sorrow on her Tsarina's face set +vibrating the chords of her quick and passionate sympathy. She accorded +Ivor but a half-hearted attention, scarcely hearing his soft pleadings, +and while retaining unconsciously a memory of his insinuations against +Vladimir, it was not until the Royal _cortège_ turned down the gay +boulevard that a full realisation of his meaning came to her. She +turned then sharply to him, as he sat beside her, and, with her +favourite imperious upward movement of her head, said abruptly, though +in a low voice, inaudible to the other occupants of the sleigh: + +"What is it, Ivor, you have been hinting to me all this morning, +concerning my cousin Mellikoff? If you have news of him, why not give it +me without so much useless circumambulation? I do not like mysteries." + +"Mdlle. Naundorff has surely mistaken my meaning," answered Tolskoi, +coolly, looking straight at her, and smiling a little. "I had no +intention of insinuating anything detrimental of Count Vladimir; my +remarks were but general, though to be sure any one is welcome to wear +the cap, if it fits him." + +"_Les absents ont toujours tort_," replied Olga, still impatient; "my +cousin Mellikoff but shares the fate of all who have achieved even a +limited greatness; jealousy and envy go hand in hand with those who, not +so fortunate, only stand and look on." + +Her words were sharp, and her manner pointed. Ivor knew both were +intended to sting, and though he could not control the sudden wave of +hot blood that dyed his face crimson, he could control his temper and +his voice; he answered her, therefore, with another cold little laugh, +as he said: + +"Surely it is grace enough to be so defended by Mdlle. Naundorff? Even +Count Vladimir could scarcely ask a greater favour, accustomed as he is +to all devotion--where women are concerned." + +"What do you mean?" exclaimed Olga, imperiously. "I insist, Ivor, on +your explaining your very equivocal suggestions." + +Tolskoi shrugged his shoulders, and replied under apparent protest: + +"It is, I think, well known how successful Count Mellikoff has always +been in any _affaire du coeur_, though such details are better suited +for men's ears than for yours, mademoiselle. It can, however, be no +detriment to him, even in your estimation, to acknowledge that his past +is not written upon an absolutely white page, since you are the only one +who has definitely subdued him, and bid fair to turn the brave Lothario +into a Benedict. I have yet to meet the woman to whom the reputation of +a certain kind of success in a man proves anything but a +recommendation." + +As Ivor finished, a silence of several moments fell between them. Olga +turned her fair face from him and looked out, with unseeing eyes, upon +the gay, moving pageant about her. Tolskoi watched her intently but +furtively, and saw with inward satisfaction that his barb had gone home +and was rankling, and would rankle for days to come, in her heart. + +Well he knew Olga Naundorff's character, with its complex mingling of +cruelty and softness; its nicely balanced elements of revenge and +generosity; its preponderance of pride, its insatiable demand of +absolute submission to her will, and its imperious arrogation of +supremacy, not only over the present and future of her suitors, but over +their past as well. Like her great ancestress, the Empress Catherine, +her favours were tyrannies; and woe unto the luckless recipient of them +should she find him faithless in the smallest degree! Even his past must +be forgotten and forsworn; his existence could only begin with the +bestowal of her first smile. + +Without knowing it, a true and absolute belief in her cousin Vladimir +Mellikoff's integrity had gradually grown up within her; she had come to +regard him as the one faithfully sincere lover out of all her admirers, +whose very sternness and power of repression spoke more eloquently to +her than all the more emotional pleadings of her other suitors. She had +believed herself to be the first and only woman on whom he had expended +even the smallest measure of love; and to be the object of so unique and +chivalrous a devotion, had not been the least among her reasons for +yielding to his solicitations. + +Ivor's insinuations, therefore, coming as they did, disturbed her more +than she cared to realise, and awoke at once that latent suspicion and +distrust that forms so pronounced a factor in the Russian character, and +caused her to accept his words as positive and final evidence of +Vladimir's perfidy and deceit. She never stopped to weigh his actions +against Ivor's words; hers was not a nature of sufficiently generous +tendencies to turn instinctively from ignominious slander; rather it +leapt to conclusions, and from its own attributes pronounced its +condemnatory sentence. + +In her eyes Vladimir Mellikoff had been tried and sentenced, with Ivor +Tolskoi as judge and jury. She could never trust him again, and she +would endeavour by every means in her power to unravel his past; holding +the threads of it in her slender hand until the hour should come when +she could wound deepest, and play with most sinister effect the part of +Atropos. What though she stabbed her own heart as well with the sharp +scissors of fate? She must bear that, and hers would be the satisfaction +of beholding her victim's misery first. + +Meantime the Imperial procession flew swiftly along the boulevard, +saluted on every side by the shouts of the populace, and the cries of +the people: "Long live the Tsar! Long live our little father! Long live +the Tsarina!" And the bells rang, and the sun shone, and all was gaiety, +and mirth, and mocking optimism. + +The crimson blush that had dyed Olga's cheeks so deeply, as the meaning +of Ivor's last words became clear to her, had faded and left them +colourless when she again turned to him, and her voice had an additional +ring of hardness when she next spoke. + +"My dear Ivor, we have, I think, always been sufficiently good friends +for us not to doubt each other's sincerity of motive, even when we feel +forced to speak upon subjects whose very nature precludes any +possibility of agreeableness. I do not forget my very singular position +in the world; alone as I am, though apparently protected by Imperial +power, I owe obedience to no one in matters that concern myself alone. +And it is because of this peculiar position that I am about to appeal to +your friendship, or whatever sentiment does duty for that obsolete +emotion, and beg you to be quite frank with me, and tell me all you can +of Count Vladimir Mellikoff's past. Since, as rumour asserts, I am to +become his wife, it certainly befits me to inform myself of his +antecedents, in order that I may be a true and sustaining helpmate to +him. Tell me, then, my dear Ivor, all you know, or all you will reveal +concerning my cousin." + +There was something so finely bitter and yet so commanding in her voice, +and she had subdued her countenance to such an expression of simple +friendliness, Tolskoi looked at her with genuine admiration during the +half-moment that elapsed before he answered her. When he did reply, it +was scarcely in the way she anticipated. + +"Mdlle. Naundorff," he said, his cold, hard blue eyes studying her face +intently, "you may remember that some weeks ago, when we spoke on this +subject one evening at the Palace, you asked me a question, to which I +gave you no answer. You asked me then what was my opinion as to the +share of a certain woman--known as Count Stevan Lallovich's cast-off +wife--in the murder of that same Count Stevan? I told you then I had no +opinion upon the matter, and from that the conversation wandered to more +personal matters. Mademoiselle, what I said then was not true. I had, +and have, a very strong opinion as to the culprit, or culprits; but we +will let that rest for the time being. Shall I continue? Are you +interested sufficiently in this wretched woman's story to wish to hear +more?" + +She replied by a quick and decisive gesture of her hand, and an almost +inaudible, "Yes." + +Ivor smiled again, and drew the fur robe more closely about her, +glancing keenly across towards Patouchki, who, however, was absorbed in +conversation with the equerry and paid no attention to his companions; +seeing which, Tolskoi continued: + +"Mademoiselle, that woman is now in Petersburg, and I have seen her. +This is probably not such a matter of surprise to you as it is to--some +other people; but when I tell you that Count Mellikoff's hurried journey +to America was undertaken ostensibly to track, to find, and to arrest +that woman, and that his continuing there is for the same reason, you +will understand why my meeting with her here is pregnant with such grave +complications." + +Olga was gazing at him earnestly, following his every word and gesture +with her eyes; the violet iris had grown black and enlarged from +suppressed excitement. + +"I will not go into the details, mademoiselle," Ivor went on, "of that +unfortunate woman's wrongs, or the succession of cruel circumstances +that led up to the murder of Count Stevan. Doubtless, she had a share +and part in that murder; but hers was not the only brain that conceived +the crime, or the only hand that struck the blow. There was a stronger +and more important power behind; one who knew the terrible risk that was +run in slaying a member of the Imperial blood, no matter how slight the +consanguinity, and who had private ends to serve in seeing Count Stevan +removed for ever from Imperial favour; one who, though hesitating to +become a murderer in deed, did not hesitate to use this half frenzied +woman as his accomplice and tool. Hers, indeed, should be the hand to +hold the knife and strike the blow, but guided by a far more powerful +coadjutor." + +Ivor stopped again, and again Olga motioned to him to continue, by the +same quick movement of her hand. + +"There was but one man in Petersburg, mademoiselle, who could boast of +any apparent intimacy with Count Stevan Lallovich, and who, if any one +at any time, might have been his confidant. That man was Vladimir +Mellikoff." + +Again he stopped, and Olga, without taking her eyes from his face, felt, +as she gazed on its youthful freshness, a great and terrible wave of +doubt and uncertainty rush up and over her, wrapping her round and +round, and sweeping away all lesser sensations in this awful one of +impending calamity; but such calamity as should break not only upon her, +but on one whom she dared not name, and out of which she could see no +lift of light or hope. Tolskoi's words had been too well chosen not to +carry with them the significance he intended, and she felt their full +force even as she realised their full meaning. She drew her tongue +across her lips, and tried to smile in answer to the cold light in +Ivor's blue eyes, but the effort was feeble and abortive. + +"Have you any more to tell me?" she asked at last, in a voice that was +almost a whisper; "if so, continue, I beg. I find the story very +interesting, and--instructive." + +Ivor replied by one of his coldest little laughs, and then resumed his +narrative. + +"You, mademoiselle, were not in Petersburg when the murder was +committed, the Court being then at Gatschina, consequently you could not +know how great was the excitement here, or how freely Count Mellikoff +mingled his regrets and desires for summary justice to be meted out to +the criminal, with the public expressions heard on every side. No one +had known Count Stevan better than he; and no one had a better right to +mourn his untimely fate. Unfortunately, Count Vladimir had not been in +Petersburg during the night of the murder, nor indeed for a day or two +before; consequently, he could throw no light upon Stevan Lallovich's +movements at that time, and his regrets could only take the more passive +form of words. You will see therefore, mademoiselle, why, when the +Government discovered that Count Stevan's repudiated wife had fled the +country--aided and abetted by some powerful political friends--and was +heard of in America, it took prompt and decisive measures for her +capture. And who could have been better chosen for this work than Count +Mellikoff, since he had been Stevan Lallovich's best friend? I must +remind you here, mademoiselle, that my confidences must be held secret +between you and me; I am, as it is, overstepping my boundaries in +speaking thus frankly of the Government's share in this business; but I +do so deliberately, and am willing to bear the consequences." + +"I shall be silent," replied Olga, simply, and Tolskoi continued: + +"You know, mademoiselle, how and when Count Mellikoff started on this +mission, though at the time of his departure you little suspected it +was in the interests of a woman that he undertook so long a journey. You +knew only that there was work to be done on behalf of the Government, +and that he had been selected for that work. It is now two months since +he left Russia; granting him all necessary time for easy travelling and +stoppages, he must have reached the United States close on to a month +ago, which would leave him this last month to lay his train, if not to +find the woman. I have said, mademoiselle, that this woman calling +herself Adèle Lallovich, was assisted through Russia, and over the +frontier, by the influence of some strong political agent, one whose +word and whose name carried the weight of coercion. Very well, this +happened early in December; in January Count Vladimir leaves Petersburg, +and reaches America early in February. A month goes by, and within the +first week of March I meet Adèle Lallovich face to face here. Ah, I see +you have followed my reasoning. The same powerful influence that got her +out of Russia, when danger menaced her here, has now sent her back to +Petersburg, where she is for the time being more secure from arrest than +in the States. And the brain and the hand that have twice protected and +saved her--a fugitive from justice--are the same brain and hand that +planned and executed Count Stevan's murder, and that used _her_ as their +instrument. I think, mademoiselle, that Count Mellikoff will somewhat +disappoint the expectations and shake the confidence of his Government, +when he returns without any definite intelligence or any important +information regarding the movements and condition of Adèle Lallovich." + +Olga heard him throughout without word or sign, though not one detail of +the terrible suspicion he so boldly advanced was lost upon her. Slowly +but surely she followed his every gesture, his every sentence, never +taking her eyes that had grown so strangely dark from his face. Every +vestige of colour ebbed from her cheeks and lips, leaving her face white +as alabaster beneath the dark furs of her close cap; a waving ripple of +golden-lighted hair seemed the only sentient thing about her. She spoke +at last, and her voice had a faint far-away echo in its whisper. + +"What you would suggest, Ivor, is horrible, unnatural. What could be the +motive for such a crime, and such a shielding of the criminal? If, as +you say, it were possible for one brain to plot and plan it all, and +another to fulfil it, still where would be the object, what would be the +motive? I know whom it is you suspect, but his motive, Ivor, his +motive?" + +She bent forward eagerly, clasping her hands and looking into the very +depths of his eyes. Ivor Tolskoi saw his advantage, and pressed it home. +His opportunity had come, he was not one to lose it for lack of courage +to deal one more swift sure blow. Meeting Olga's strained violet eyes +with his, in which the steel-blue light flamed out, he said slowly and +with distinct emphasis: + +"Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich, is a rarely beautiful woman, Olga, and +beauty such as hers is a dangerous attribute. Count Mellikoff is a +worshipper of woman's loveliness, and the story goes that when Adèle +Lamien became the wife of Stevan Lallovich, she cast off a former lover +whose chains had begun to gall. Who that lover was, Olga, I leave to +your imagination. But when Stevan Lallovich repudiated and threw aside +the woman, and an Imperial ukase released him from his obligations, is +it unlikely that she sought her former friend and protector, or that he, +maddened by her beauty and her wrongs, determined to avenge them? + +"That is the story, mademoiselle, and you now know why I swore to you +that sooner than see you Vladimir Mellikoff's wife I would kill him with +my own hand." + +But Olga made no reply. Silent, impassive, stricken through and through, +she sat with blanched face and tightly clasped hands; and the sun shone, +and the bells rang, and the populace shouted: "Long live the Tsar! Long +live our little father!" but she neither saw nor heard any of it. All +her heart and soul were in revolt and turmoil; all she had trusted to +had gone down before her eyes, she was shipwrecked upon an ocean of +deception and despair. + +Presently the shouts and cries grew fainter, and the horses slackened +speed as they turned into the Palace gates and were drawn up sharply at +the side entrance, out of which she had passed so long ago--was it +months or years, or alas! only hours? Should she ever again know what it +was to feel light-hearted and joyous? Would this terrible burden of +knowledge ever be lifted from her heart? + +Ivor Tolskoi sprang down even as the threshold was reached and put out +his arm to help her; she barely touched it with her gloved hand, and +passed by him with but one burning look from her haunted eyes. For days +after, the light pressure of her fingers rested there like iron, and the +misery of her glance accompanied him as that of a lost spirit. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MIMI'S BIRTHDAY POSY. + + +George Newbold's birthday fell within the first week of May, and +certainly no more ideal spring morning could have dawned than that which +Esther had set apart to be especially celebrated in honour of her +spouse. + +Mr. Newbold should, indeed, for the fitness of things, have been a young +and blooming maiden--rather than a man verging towards middle age, and +more or less disillusionised--to correspond with the rare loveliness and +freshness of creation, that sprang afresh to life as Aurora, with +blushing finger-tips, drew back the curtains of the night, and ushered +in the roseate dawn. Even as the surroundings belonged more to that +"garden of fair delights," consecrated by the Egyptians to Daphne, into +which naught but harmony and sensuous peace and pleasure was allowed to +enter, rather than to + + "This live, throbbing age, + That brawls, cheats, maddens, calculates, aspires, + And spends more passion, more heroic heat, + Between the mirrors of its drawing-rooms + Than Roland with his knights at Roncevalles." + +But Nature is ever prodigal and unreasoning; she stops not to consider +on whom to spend her largesse, she has no calculation in her giving, and +she seeks no return, since, with her keen perceptiveness, she knows we +mortals possess nothing of our own, no gift of jewel or of price, of +intellect or of beauty, that can compare with the least of those +benefits she pours with such lavish hand upon us. + +Does not all creation join with the angelic choirs to hymn her praises? +What song of mortal measure, sung by mortal tongue, can equal in +strength and melody that heavenly canticle? Nay, let us stand rather +with bowed head and reverent mien, lifting our hearts in silent ecstasy, +thankful if we may so much as catch a distant echo of those "divine +praises," borne to us maybe on the wings of the far west wind; or a +reflection of the golden glory of that paradise, ensnared in the +luminous fragility of a sunset cloud. + +It is all we can hope for on this lower earth, and who of us dare count +on ever realising the terrible sublimity, the awful purity, of "the +beatific vision"? + +It was very early in the morning when little Marianne came running down +the broad terrace steps, and stood alone amidst the varied riches of +Esther's flower garden. Her sunny hair was all unbound, and lay upon her +shoulders and about her forehead, still damp from the morning's bath, +glistening like threads of gold washed in a wavelet of sunshine. Her +white frock glanced in and out against the tender background of early +green foliage, as she ran from flower to flower, plucking here a +blossom, and there a bud, studying each attentively before adding them +to the bouquet in her hand, with the gravity of childhood, which invests +every action with a separate importance. + +And as she flew about rejoicing, as only children and animals can +rejoice, in the mere pleasure of being, she sang from time to time the +rhyming measure of a nursery song, which fell unheeded from her lips, +and that had no sense or meaning, but sprang as spontaneously from her +heart as did the song of the little brown thrush, who was pouring out +his weight of thanksgiving, with such overwhelming rapture as to shake +his very soul, and cause the quivering cat-kin on which he perched to +bend and sway beneath its vibrations. + +The windows of the Folly were still closed and curtained. Its inmates +were as yet scarce turning on their couches of down, or realising that +another day had begun for them, another day opened out full of sublime +opportunities for good or evil. With the passing of another hour they +would perforce be roused from their dreams by the inevitable early cup +of tea, without which species of dram-drinking no woman of fashion can +support the fatigues of her toilette, or the embarrassments of the +morning post. But that is sixty minutes off yet--sixty long +minutes--three thousand, six hundred seconds--and in the meantime, +before the inevitable overtakes us, let us follow the preacher's advice +and make the most of it. "Yet a little more sleep, and a little more +slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep." + +Time enough to take up the burden of living when that burden is +ruthlessly thrust upon us, and we bow our shoulders with accustomed +habit to receive its weight. + +But little Marianne entertained no such pessimistic views; to her the +joy of life was simply in the act of living, and its triumph in escaping +from the tyranny of Sarah, and being absolutely free to tear her frock +or rumple her golden hair without the visible personality of that +Nemesis. Presently Trim, her beloved Skye terrier, came leaping out to +her as fast as his very short legs and corpulent body would allow him to +travel; and then began a series of romps in which it was difficult to +say which took the most satisfaction--the dog or the child. Trim, +however, was the first to give up and retire on his laurels, selecting a +particularly green spot of turf beneath a lilac-tree in full bloom, and +after solemnly turning round and round in an unsuccessful race with his +own tail, settled himself comfortably thereon, and with the tip of his +red tongue showing between his teeth, watched the child with a benign +and patronising expression. Marianne, thus deserted, returned to her +flower-gathering, apostrophising Trim as she did so. + +"You are a lazy dog, Trim. I'm 'shamed of you! It's perfectly redic'lous +your pretending to be tired; you can't be; it's only putting on shapes, +just as Miss Dick says, and shapes isn't very nice manners in such a wee +little doggie as you!" + +Trim snapped at an intruding fly, and yawned for answer, then settled +his nose on his paws and went to sleep, and Marianne, thus left +companionless, grew a little weary of solitude. + +"I guess I've got enough flowers now for Popsey's buffday," she said, +regarding critically the glowing mass of blossoms held very tightly in +her hot little hand. "I guess I'll go in and put 'em on his +dressing-table, and cry 'boo' very loud in his ear. Then he'll have to +get up!" + +And fired with this most laudable device, Mimi trotted away very fast, +without so much as a backward look at the recreant Trim. Little recked +George Newbold of the awful fate in store for him at the hands, or +rather in the shrill voice of his small daughter! But surely, could he +have foreseen her advent in the character of a red Indian, he would +have devoutly thanked chance for his timely delivery. + +As Marianne tripped along, a dark shadow fell suddenly across her path +and stopped her further advance. Pushing back the fringe of golden hair, +that fell almost into her sapphire blue eyes, the child halted and +looked up a little bewildered. + +It was Vladimir Mellikoff who stood before her, looking very tall and +dark against the brilliant green of the sun-swept lawn behind him. The +child gazed up at him gravely and without speaking. This was not a +familiar figure in her little world; she would have greeted Jack Howard, +or Freddy Wylde, or even old Sir Piers Tracey with her accustomed quaint +mingling of condescension and intimacy; but this tall, dark stranger, +with his sombre face and deep black eyes, was unknown to her, and +because unknown was not to be put on the same footing with her old +companions. + +However, Esther Newbold's small daughter was sufficiently a little +worldling in training to recognise in this stranger one of "papa's men," +as she called them, classifying all unknown masculine visitors under one +head; she did not, therefore, run away, but stood quietly silent, her +eyes raised frankly to his, and the sunlight turning to living gold each +tendril of her fair hair. + +Vladimir Mellikoff could be very gentle and winning to children; they +touched that inner chord of tenderness that vibrated so passionately to +Olga Naundorff's lightest word, and something in the fair child's face, +with its deep blue eyes, recalled to him that other proud Russian face, +with the violet eyes and scornful, curved lips. He bent down and spoke +to Mimi in his softest voice. + +"You are little Marianne, are you not?" he said. + +"I am Marianne Newbold," replied the child, with grave directness. + +"I wonder if you could say my name," continued Mellikoff, persuasively. +"It is not so pretty as yours, but then I am a man, you see." + +"Men's is never so pitty," remarked the child, didactically. "What is +your name?" + +"Vladimir," replied Count Mellikoff, gravely, and repeating each +syllable distinctly: "Vla--di--mir. Do you think you can say it? Try." + +But Marianne shook her golden mane in positive negation. + +"I couldn't," she said, "not possibly. But I'll call you Mr. Val, if you +like; it's pittier than your real name." + +"Very well, then, Mr. Val it shall be," answered the Count, smiling +broadly at the very English sobriquet bestowed upon him. "Who have you +been gathering all those flowers for?" + +"They's for my Popsey; it's his buffday. Do you know how old he is, Mr. +Val? I guess he must be most a hundred." + +To which Mr. Val replied with a laugh; but Marianne was no whit +abashed. + +"I think so," she went on, seating herself on a low garden bench that +stood under a spreading ash-tree, and beginning to sort out the flowers +as they lay upon her lap. "I think so, 'cause he's got so many grey +hairs, more than I can count. When I was a _little_ girl"--with great +disdain--"I used to pull 'em out, till Sarah said ten new ones came to +each old one's funeral. Then I asked Lammy the other day if she thought +Popsey was nearly a hundred; but she only laughed. Does you know Lammy, +Mr. Val?" she queried, abruptly. + +"Oh, but that isn't a real name, you know," protested Vladimir, +diplomatically; "that might be any creature's name--a dog's, or a +cat's." + +"Oh, no, it couldn't," cried the child, eagerly, "'cause it's a +person's--a grown up's, you see. It isn't her very own, own name; but +that's too long, so I just calls her Lammy." + +"And what is her very own own name?" asked Mellikoff, idly, taking up a +large white marguerite from Mimi's store, and carelessly stripping off +its petals, his mind unconsciously repeating the old formula, "she loves +me--she loves me not." The child's voice fell with startling +distinctness across the morning stillness, and shattered Vladimir's +sentiment with a straight, keen blow. + +"Her very own name," said Marianne, slowly, and taking great pains with +her syllables, "is Mademoiselle Lamien--Mademoiselle Adèle Lamien." + +The stripped daisy-head fell from Count Mellikoff's fingers, and lay at +his feet amidst its snow-flake petals unheeded. He started violently at +this positive answer to his negligent question, and the blood rushed for +one moment to his face. He, who was never known to show emotion even +when confronting death, trembled now before the unconscious words of a +little child. His dark eyes seemed to grow larger in their hollow +settings, the fine veins about his temples throbbed visibly. + +Mimi, however, was ignorant of the agitation she had awakened; her +golden head was bent over her flowers, while with one little foot she +kept off the repentant Trim, who, having awakened from his slumbers, was +endeavouring with slavish abjection to reinstate himself in his little +mistress's favour. + +When Count Mellikoff next spoke, any one save a child would have noticed +the forced lightness of his voice; as it was, even Mimi looked up +surprised by the change in it. + +"And is it, then, Mademoiselle Lamien--Adèle Lamien--that you call by +the _petit-nom_ of Lammy?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied the child, a little startled and impressed by his manner. +"Mumsey calls her Mam'zelle Lamien; but I don't--not always--I call her +Lammy. Is you sorry? Why does your eyes look so black?" + +"Do they look black, Marianne?" Mellikoff asked, stupidly; then +recovering himself with a laugh, and returning to his old manner: "No, +I am not sorry. Why should I be? I've never seen your Mademoiselle +Lamien." + +"She's gone away," answered the child, quickly. "She had to; she said +she must, 'cause she and Miss Hildreth couldn't possibly be here +together.' But when I asked Mumsey about it, she only said: 'Nonsense, +and don't bother.'" + +"And has she been a long time with you?" asked Vladimir, putting the +question indifferently. + +Mimi shook all her golden curls. "Not _very_ long; she came on Sarah's +buffday, and that isn't very long ago." + +"But _how_ long?" queried Mellikoff. "A month, a year, a week? Try and +think, Mimi; was it one Sunday ago, or two, or three? You know when +Sunday comes, don't you?" + +"Yes," replied the child, "it's the day after Saturday, and I always +have my best pudding for dinner. What's your best pudding, Mr. Val?" + +But Mr. Val was spared answering this embarrassing question by the +advent of Sarah, who bore down upon them, her cap-strings flying, and +whisked Marianne off, in a whirlwind of yellow hair and white +petticoats, before he could even protest. She waved one little hand to +him as she tripped away, holding on to her flowers with the other, and +Trim barking at her heels; then the terrace door closed upon them, and +Vladimir was left alone. + +Mechanically he stooped and picked up one of the stray blossoms that had +fallen from Mimi's lap; he turned it idly in his fingers, looking at it +with unseeing eyes, while his busy brain went on thinking, planning, +scheming. + +Was he wrong after all? Had she escaped him; nay, had she ever been here +at all? Why had she gone away? When would she come back? How could he +piece out his welcome a little longer at the Folly? Was he altogether +wrong in his suspicions? Had the woman tricked him again; fighting him +with his own weapons, had she out-matched him and escaped? + +And thus, as he stood lost in his self-questionings--a sombre, dark +figure in the glowing beauty and sunlight of the fair May morning, +twisting the drooping flower round and round in his fingers, and the +song of the birds echoing ceaselessly in his ears--a sudden light broke +over the gloom of his countenance, a half-formed exclamation rose to his +lips; he dropped the flower suddenly, and took a step forward. + +"No, I am not wrong," he said, in answer to himself. "Let Adèle Lamien +beware, or I may turn her own arms against her." Then he turned abruptly +and walked towards the house; and only the sunshine, and the birds, and +Mimi's faded blossoms remained. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"'TIS A SIREN." + + +And so the long golden morning hours rolled on, and the garden remained +untenanted. The sweet spring flowers--than which none are more beautiful +and fragrant, because so redolent of promise--wasted their perfume on +the gentle breezes that swayed their yielding blossoms; the birds' song +grew hushed and lapsed into silence as the repose of noontide settled +down upon them. + +The sun fell in straight, level rays that were warm with a foretaste of +tropical heat; far away in the distance a faint silver line marked the +sea's limits, across which now and then a white sail flashed and was +gone. All nature lay hushed and stilled in that strange peace that +comes at the day's meridian, when the only sounds are those of the +under-world, the drowsy humming of an early humble-bee, the impatient +buzzing of a giant-fly, the bu-bu of multitudinous insects, the +chip-chip of the grasshopper, broken sharply across by the monotonous +hammer of the woodpecker. + +Within the Folly all the lower rooms were alike deserted, not a ripple +of laughter or an echo of voices was to be heard; even the billiard hall +was void, the men, in the absence of the feminine element, having taken +themselves off to the stables, or down to the club-house, where lay the +yachts moored in harbour, curtsying gracefully to each succeeding +wavelet as it broke against the sharp outline of stem or stern. + +But up in Mrs. Newbold's boudoir however, there were life and action +enough and to spare, for here were gathered Esther and her women guests, +while each pair of feminine lips were eager to contribute their share +to the general conversation. + +Patricia Hildreth lay full length upon a couch pulled close to the +hearth, on which a fire of fragrant hemlock burned, in mockery of the +open window and in defiance of the dancing sunbeams. Miss Hildreth was +in all things luxurious, and revelled with almost barbaric delight in +warmth of atmosphere and colour. + +Her slight but perfect figure was wrapped in a long loose cashmere robe +of softest azure, about which the dark bands of Russian sables swept in +classic lines, nestling closely about the firm white throat with +caressing touch, and falling back from the white arms and rounded +wrists. In her hand she held a dainty vellum-bound book, a collection of +sonnets much in vogue, and from which she read aloud at intervals some +special _jeu d'esprit_. + +At her feet, on a low, luxurious pile of cushions, sat Dick Darling, +doing nothing, her hands clasped around her knees, her eyes feasting, +in true hero-worship, on the face of her divinity. + +Before a large Psyche-glass stood Baby Leonard, absorbed in a row of +suggestive little porcelain pots, and breathlessly engaged in the +exciting process of "making up" in daylight, _à propos_ of the evening's +requirements. + +Esther was resting in a lounging-chair with Mimi on her lap, the golden +curls falling about the pretty face bent down over a new picture-book; +and at the open window, on a low ottoman, sat Miss James, her hands +clasped idly upon her lap, her thin face pale and tired, her dark, +restless eyes fixed intently upon Miss Hildreth. Something in the +attitude bespoke mental depression and dread, that even the alert +watching of eyes and mouth could not disguise. + +Dick's glib tongue had been running on aimlessly from topic to topic, +taking in a wide range of subjects, from the races at Jerome Park, to +the coming international yacht contest for the America Cup; and though +the remarks of her auditors were few and far between, Dick was perfectly +contented and asked nothing better than to listen to the sound of her +own voice. + +She was interrupted before long, however, by Miss James's sharp and +rather high voice addressing no one in particular: + +"Dick is certainly a living personation of Tennyson's 'Brook,' isn't +she? 'for men may come, and men may go, but she goes on for ever!'" + +To which Dick, arrested in mid-career, retorted sharply: "I can't say +that I see any men about anywhere, either coming or going. The wish must +be first cousin to Rosalie's thought. Good gracious, Baby! how much more +rouge do you mean to annex? You're blushing like a peony now, and one +eyebrow is half a mile longer than the other. You make me think of Jack +Howard's story of Miss Grantham, the American beauty of London, you +know." + +"No, we _don't_ know," broke in Esther, languidly; "perhaps you'll be so +good as to enlighten us." + +"_Town Optics_ cribbed it from him," continued Dick, once more in her +element, "and positively quoted it as true. It appears some magnificent +masher asked Cecilia Grantham if she didn't find her abnormally long +eye-lashes rather inconvenient at times? To which Cis replied, smiling +sweetly, 'Why, certainly; I am always obliged to have them borne in +front of me when I go upstairs, for fear I shall trip upon them!' And +will you believe me," went on Miss Darling, when the laugh evoked had +died out, "that brainless masher has gone about ever since getting it +off as a double extra specimen of American repartee, and all the time it +never took place at all except in Jack Howard's budding intellect. I +think _Town Optics_ owes him one for that." + +"I can cap your story by a better, Dick," retorted Esther, rousing +herself and sitting up very straight, "and mine is absolutely true, for +it happened to George's sister, when she was in London, oh, ever so long +ago, before the war." + +"Ancient history!" groaned Miss Darling, resignedly. "Drive ahead, +Esther, only you are awfully behind the age." + +"A story's a story, no matter when it happened," replied Mrs. Newbold, a +little confused in her grammar, "and you are not obliged to listen, +Dick." + +"Oh, yes, but I shall," remarked that young person--"listen and +remember, and get it off with effect as first-hand, at my next big +spread. Go on, Esther, do, like a daisy." + +"Well, you must know, my dears, that George's sister was a very pretty +girl----" + +"Oh!" interpolated Miss Darling, making tragic efforts to control her +astonishment. + +"Yes, very pretty," went on Esther, severely, "and when she was in +London she was presented at Court, and went out a great deal, and that's +when old Sir Piers first saw her and wanted to make her Lady Tracey." + +"For her sins! I am sure there could be no other reason for such a +punishment," again interjected Miss Darling, piously. + +"Ah, but Sir Piers was a gay young baronet in those days," said Esther, +with decision. "_Any_ girl might have hesitated before she gave him his +_congé_. However, that's neither here nor there. Margaret Newbold was a +very great favourite; and one evening, at a big dinner party at a +tremendously swell house, she was given a proportionately great grandee +as a cavalier. This very high-bred personage began by staring at her, up +and down and round and about, through his eye-glasses and over them; and +when he found this was not in the least discomposing to the young woman, +but that she talked on glibly to her left-hand neighbour, he gave a +loud 'ahem!' and said, so that all the company might hear: +'Ah--miss--ah--I perceive, though you are an American, you speak English +quite fluently--ah----' Margaret eyed him for a moment over the rim of +her wine-glass, and then replied, with calm distinctness and an air of +inward satisfaction: 'Well--yes--ah--Mr.--I do. You see, the missionary +who converted our tribe was an Englishman, and he taught us the +language.' Then she went on eating her fish, quite undisturbed by the +shouts of laughter that went up at the expense of her unfortunate +questioner." + +"Served him right, too," cried Miss Darling, indignantly. "I never heard +of anything so caddish. We might just as well ask, in an off-hand, +jovial kind of a way, if it's because they have so many H's lying round +loose, that they forget to pick 'em up and use 'em in the right places! +And one might suppose so, you know, with reason, judging from some of +the specimens we get over here." + +"It's very trying," broke in Baby Leonard, plaintively; "I _can't_ get +both sides of my face to look alike, and this _crème impératrice_ is so +sticky! What shall I do?" + +"Leave it all alone," cried Miss Darling, brusquely. "You can't improve +on nature, Baby--it's no use! 'Bad's the best,' as my old mammy-nurse +used to say. You won't make your eyes any the larger or prettier by +painting them a distinct violet, and your mouth's a far better shape +left to its own lines; you can't make a Cupid's bow out of it, try as +you may." + +"Only listen to Dick the virtuous!" laughed Esther. "She positively +waxes eloquent on the shams of the hour, and is developing a soul above +frivolities! We shall have her quoting Carlyle next; or, stay, I know +what it will be. What's that sentimental couplet, Dick, tucked carefully +away beneath your pot of 'cherry-lip,' in your new silver-mounted +_toilette des ongles_? Is this the way it runs: + + 'Why send me to this little girl? + Sure such a gift were silly! + Can I add lustre to the pearl, + Or paint the gilded lily?'" + +"Oh, Esther, you're a brute!" cried poor Dick, the tears actually in her +eyes, her cheeks very red. "How could you? It's only--only some stupid +little lines about a still more stupid joke. They don't mean _me_ at +all." + +"And then, fancy Dick being compared to a pearl, and a lily--a painted +lily!" exclaimed Miss James, in her most disagreeable voice, and with a +slow smile creeping over her face. + +"Oh, Esther, how could you!" cried poor Dick again; but Mrs. Newbold +only laughed. + +"Don't be cynical and fault-finding, then, my dear Dick," she said, +quietly, drawing one of Mimi's golden curls through her fingers; "it +doesn't suit you, my dear, nor your little round, brown, winsome face." + +"Since poetry seems to be the order of the day, listen to this," broke +in Miss Hildreth, in her clear musical voice, and lifting her eyes from +the tiny vellum book she held: + + "'Near my bed, there, hangs the picture jewels would not buy from me. + 'Tis a siren, a brown siren, + Playing on a lute of amber by the margin of a sea. + + "In the hushes of the midnight, when the heliotropes grow strong + With the dampness, I hear music--hear a quiet, plaintive song-- + A most sad, melodious utterance, as of some immortal wrong. + + "Like the pleading, oft repeated, of a soul that pleads in vain, + Of a damnèd soul repentant, that would fain be pure again! + And I lie awake and listen to the music of her pain. + + "And whence comes this mournful music? Whence, unless it chance to be + From the siren, the brown siren, + Playing on her lute of amber by the margin of a sea?'" + +Silence fell upon the little group as Patricia's voice died away. For a +moment all were held by the spell of the poet's words, with their deep +undernote of passionate protest. The present faded out of the line of +mental vision, replaced by the past, within whose mystery of silence, +somewhere a great wrong lay hidden, and unappeased. + +Had the poet known of it, in all its details, and kept inviolate this +secret of another's existence, or had he only guessed at its outlines, +fearing to fill in the lights and shadows, lest imagination should fall +short of reality? + +So vivid, indeed, was the impression produced, it seemed only a +continuation of the tragedy when Miss Hildreth spoke again, slowly and +without any apparent reason, save inward impulse. + +"I have known one such woman once, to whom all life and all time was but +the cry of 'a damnèd soul,' crying out ceaselessly against 'an immortal +wrong.' Did our poet know her story, I wonder, when he wrote of his +'brown siren'? But no; this poor soul has had no one to sing out her +wrongs, or open up the story of the treachery that blasted her life. +Alone she has had to bear her burden, and alone she must bear it to the +very end." + +As Miss Hildreth spoke, Dick Darling crept close to her side, and knelt +there, listening eagerly, with quick-coming breath, to the disjointed +sentences. In the deep interest of the moment no one looked towards the +window where sat Rosalie James, or noticed the intense nervous restraint +she was exercising. Her face was absolutely colourless; her hands +pressed so hard one upon the other that they left blue marks upon the +soft flesh; her eyes were strained and feverish; she bent forward in an +alert, expectant attitude, as of one awaiting, yet not certain of, some +preconceived revelation. At the Psyche-mirror sat Baby Leonard, still +placidly trying one artistic preparation after another, and totally +oblivious to the tense atmosphere of suppressed excitement about her. + +"And who was she? Is she alive?" asked Dick, her whisper catching up +Miss Hildreth's falling inflection, and sustaining the interest of the +moment. "Who was she? Is she alive? Where did you know her?" + +"Yes, she is alive; oh, yes, indeed, she is alive," answered Patricia, +still in a retrospective tone; "and I knew her in Petersburg when I was +last there--such a little time ago, as it seems now." + +"Was she beautiful?" Again it was Dick's voice that asked, and +Patricia's that replied. + +"She was very beautiful--so beautiful that no one could withstand her +loveliness. And her beauty became her curse; ah, what a curse, since it +attracted the attention of one so high above her that his lightest +regard was an insult! What but bitter wrong and crime could be the +outcome of a love proffered by a scion of the Imperial house to a woman +of the people? Beauty is a grand leveller, it is true, but it cannot +level the iron hand and cruel laws of Russia. It was the old story--the +old, old, pitiful story--that comes to every woman once in her +lifetime, and that each woman translates as best suits her desires--the +story that makes a heaven upon earth, a paradise within our hearts." + +Again the musical tones died away in a sigh of regret, and again Dick +cried out in her quick, absorbed whisper: + +"Is there any more to tell? What happened? What was the end?" + +"What any woman might have looked for, save a woman blinded by love, and +a man absorbed by passion. They lived in a fool's paradise for an all +too brief space, and then, before the golden sheen had fallen from their +vision, while the woman still played with fate and the man toyed with +destiny, the blow fell--sudden, sharp, omnipotent, as is the nature of +Russia's potency. Taken away from his very arms, her marriage annulled +by Imperial ukase, her life ruined, her soul lost in a whirlwind of +injustice and despair, what wonder that her woman's nature revolted, and +that throwing aside the narrower swathing bands of law and +conventionality, she stood forth, bold and free and savage, and struck +down her craven lover in the very zenith of his manhood, with a hand +that never faltered, as it drove home the steel to his very heart?" + +Miss Hildreth had grown strangely excited as she told the tragic story; +she rose up now and stood at her full height, the clinging cashmeres +marking every line and curve of her beautiful form; her face was pale as +death, and beneath her dark brows her eyes gleamed with their old +dangerous fire; she lifted her hands and brought them together before +her, throwing them out palm upwards in passionate protest; her voice was +low and concentrated, vibrating with intolerance. + +"And I who tell you this," she continued, "I speak as only one can who +has looked upon such suffering as hers; who has beheld the soul drink to +the very dregs of the cup of renunciation, despair, desertion; seen it +touch the very heights and depths of mental anguish, and wandered with +it so far in the paths of darkness that even crime seemed but justice, +if it would in any way balance the debt of honour." + +She faltered suddenly, and turning with quick impetuosity, sank back +upon the couch, her light mocking laugh ringing out discordantly as she +concluded. + +"Was I not right, Dick? The poet must have known this story to write so +tellingly of an 'immortal wrong, and of a soul repentant longing to be +pure again.'" + +Miss Darling had started back when Patricia had arisen, and though she +remained kneeling, her eyes never left the other's face. Across the +room, in the full warm glow of the noontide sun, Miss James sat +shivering, but watching ever and always with the same look of +expectancy, and yet of certainty, on her face. + +As Miss Hildreth's little laugh struck so harshly across the compressed +emotion of the moment, and made, as it were, a half-bar of discord in +the tragic score, Dick Darling shuddered, and put out her hand, as +though to ward off some impending danger. + +"Don't," she cried, her brown face paling and flushing alternatively, +"don't laugh in that dreadful way; oh, Miss Hildreth, it hurts me!" She +crept a little nearer to her and laid one hand on the pale blue +draperies. "That is not all, not all of the story, it cannot be all. +Tell me the rest of it. Tell me her name!" + +Dick's whisper was imperative, imperious, and Miss Hildreth, fingering +nervously the vellum-covered volume, felt the force of the girl's candid +eyes, and honest, earnest gaze. + +"Her name"--she said, slowly and hesitatingly--"her name----" + +But before she could complete her sentence Esther started up, putting +Marianne hastily down, and came towards her. + +"You have said quite enough," she exclaimed, excitedly. "Patty, Patty, +let me beg you to be careful." + +As she spoke, the door behind the swinging _portières_ opened slightly, +unperceived by any one except Miss James, over whose face the same +sneering smile crept out again. Miss Hildreth looked up at Mrs. Newbold +with defiance in her eyes and on her lips. + +"My dear Esther, surely you are a little too dramatic. Why should not I +gratify Miss Dick's romantic inquisitiveness? Her name--the name of this +woman--was--is--well, let us call it Adèle Lallovich." + +As she uttered the words clearly and distinctly, the _portières_ were +pushed hastily aside, and George Newbold's voice preceded himself in +person, exclaiming: + +"May we come in, my dear? We are bored to the verge of insanity." + +And crossing the threshold he held back the curtains, and Vladimir +Mellikoff stepped into their midst. As he did so a sudden quick sigh +broke from Miss James, she got up hastily and passing down the room met +his cool impenetrable glance with the slightest possible recognition, +and upward gesture of her hand. He stepped forward to open the door for +her, and when it closed upon her and he returned to the little group, a +keen observer might have noticed a slight increase in the brilliancy of +his eyes, a touch of triumph in the smile with which he bent over Miss +Hildreth's hand, held out in greeting to him. + +Patricia's face, however, looked cold and hard; and the line of dark fur +lay about her white throat like the shadow of a coming calamity. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CANKER WORM OF DOUBT. + + +Mr. Tremain did not again see Miss Hildreth after she left him standing +by the fountain in the little wood, until they met in the green-room an +hour before the play. + +She had gone from him then with scorn and anger in her words, and with +scorn and defiance in her heart; she met him now with cold and +indifferent hauteur, amounting almost to insolence. + +Philip had stood for a long time alone beside the marble boy Narcissus, +revolving moodily the sharp home truths she had thrust upon him. He did +not forget one curl of her lip, one flash of her eyes, one inflection +of her clear voice, as she flung back the love he offered; flung it back +with bitter disdain and contempt. And yet, curiously enough, he was not +angry with her; there was no such positive element in his feelings as +that; he seemed to himself to hold, as it were, an outsider's position, +and to look on and judge her from an outsider's point of view. + +Was it her own complete indifferentism, her absolute disbelief in the +ordinary delusions of life, her cynical acceptance of the contradictions +of destiny, together with her sudden outburst of passionate derision, +that had produced in him this state of cool analysis and judicial +judgment? + +He had pleaded his love fervently enough under the glamour of the +moonlight and her loveliness, and he had meant what he said then; he +would gladly have taken her in his arms, and given his answer to her +letter in a fond and foolish lover's way; but--and here lay the +difficulty--she must return to him as she had gone from him, the same +yielding, loving, believing, if wilful Patty; he could accept no other; +no new Patricia, no woman whose eyes spoke of the fires of conflict, +whose face had that written upon it which tells of the lower depths of +mental pain and struggle. + +For Philip, as we know, was above all things, masterful, and his idea of +dual happiness was autocratic rather than constitutional; he would share +no divided throne and sceptre, even with the woman of his heart; he must +reign, and he alone, and she must be the empire over which he ruled +unquestioningly. + +All this had been in his heart, though unspoken, when he pleaded with +her to return to their old relations, and, unconsciously, perhaps, there +was an echo of his despotism even in his tenderest words. However that +may have been, Patricia would have none of it. She was not to be won by +pity when passion had failed. + +And so it was that as she stood tall and beautiful before him, with her +rich white draperies clinging about her in sensuous lines and curves, +her face pale with suppressed emotion, her eyes dark with endurance, she +tossed back his proffered gift, his reawakened love--a love that would +share no rights and no prerogatives--and, with the fine irony of a woman +who sees her advantage and presses it, thrust back and away from her all +appeal from out the past, touched though it was with the pure gold of +that time when love and youth, belief and trust, went hand in hand +together. + +Even yet, then, after ten long years of experience and knowledge, Philip +could not read her heart aright. And she, should she forgive him? Give +up the unequal game, lay down her arms, acknowledge herself vanquished, +and creep timidly back into his embrace, repentant and abject, meek and +thankful? + +Then she looked at Philip's face, calm and quiet and victorious, with +just a touch of wearied assurance in its smile, and her heart leapt up +again in sudden protest and passion. No, she would not yield, she would +never yield until she saw him suffering, through a woman, some portion +of the pain and humiliation he had inflicted upon her. Then, when +expiation brought forth the fruit of atonement, why then--ah, then Miss +Hildreth would reconsider. + +It was Miss Rosalie James who first introduced the canker of doubt in +Philip's mind concerning Patricia, of suspicion regarding her past. + +It had never occurred to him to speculate upon the possible experiences +and circumstances which must have made up the ten years of their +separation. + +Miss Hildreth had passed the greater part of that time abroad, and his +news of her had not only been meagre but nil, for after the first few +weeks of her absence, during which her name had been on every one's +lips, coupled with her broken engagement, and her inherited fortune, it +was rarely mentioned, and never in Philip's presence. + +The most perfectly controlled human heart cannot so entirely root up +envy and malice as not to cavil somewhat at the perversity of +Providence, in showering benefits with both hands upon a fellow mortal, +who certainly cannot so thoroughly deserve them as oneself. However, if +destiny will be so blindly prejudiced, why let us become as indifferent +to it as possible, and in perfecting ourselves in this fine-art forget +both the name and existence of our once bosom friend. + +This was society's philosophy regarding Patricia Hildreth, and thus for +ten long years her place had been vacant in the circles of the great +world, and she herself forgotten as completely as the snows of last +year. "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" may be asked of more things +than Musset dreamed of, when he wrote his sad and bitter reproach. + +Miss James had met Philip late in the afternoon of George Newbold's +_festa_, as he was strolling idly about the garden-paths, the inevitable +cigarette between his lips, and his hands, as was his fashion, clasped +loosely behind him. He caught sight of the small dark figure coming +towards him down the terrace steps, and though at first impatient of the +interruption, something in the thin outline of face and form, the +lassitude of step and bearing, touched a chord of compassion in his kind +heart. + +He had not indeed been altogether insensible to the nature of Miss +James's feeling towards him; no man is quite so dull and hard as not to +be touched by the unasked devotion of a woman; it is wonderful when that +devotion is directed to one's self how unselfish and pure, though +hopeless, it appears! Philip's heart might be in the position of being +captured in the rebound, but Miss James was not the one to do it; +nevertheless her attraction to him, to call it by no warmer name, was +harmless, if ineffectual, and not unpleasant. + +Thus argued Mr. Tremain, though in justice to him let it be said the +argument was not carried on in words, scarcely in sensations; it was +negative rather than positive. He met her therefore with that deference +and attention which made his slightest service a distinction, lifting +his hat and throwing aside his half-smoked cigarette as he did so. Miss +James looked at him steadily for a moment, watching him as he tossed +away the end of burning paper. + +"Oh, I am sorry you should do that," she said, in her rather hard voice. +"I don't in the least object to cigarettes; in fact, I like them." + +But Philip only smiled and shook his head. + +"Oh, I've had quite enough of it, Miss James, I assure you. I was only +smoking as a distraction and to make the time go." + +"Has it been such a long day?" she asked, a trifle sharply. She knew Mr. +Tremain and Patricia had not met that day, and shrewdly suspected the +reason of his restlessness, and though she acknowledged to herself the +hopelessness of her own hopes, she could not endure to have it brought +home to her by him. + +"Very long," replied Philip, candidly; "it's a way time has of never +weighing his goods. The hours that _be_ go by on lagging steps, the +hours to come rush and tumble one on top of the other, and are never in +the future but always in the past." + +"I should think that rather depended upon one's occupation," responded +Miss James, tritely. "If one's copybook was to be trusted, time never +halted or stood still. 'Time Flies,' with a very large T and F is among +my earliest recollections." + +Mr. Tremain laughed a little as he replied: + +"You shame me, Miss James, into an open confession of laziness. To be +lazy is to find time out of joint, and in consequence out of touch with +one. One can only be legitimately lazy on board a yacht, or fishing; +under such circumstances action becomes criminal. By the way, let me +congratulate you on your distinct success as Mrs. Bouncer, last +evening. I asked for you after rehearsal, but did not see you." + +"No," replied Miss James, slowly, "I did not come back to the theatre." + +As she spoke a dull flush rose to her cheeks, for she remembered how and +where she passed those two hours, when all the world were absorbed in +the miniature playhouse. With one of those strange sudden waves of +perception she saw again a broken feather-fan and golden-hued rose lying +together on the velvet carpet, and Vladimir Mellikoff, tall and dark and +smiling, holding back the heavy _portières_, through which she escaped +trembling and doomed. + +She caught her breath and went on a little nervously: + +"I am very flattered to be praised by you, Mr. Tremain. I can't bear +Mrs. Bouncer myself; she is quite antipathetic to me." + +"Then surely you deserve all the more praise," said Mr. Tremain, +courteously. "If to be out of accord with one's rôle results so +favourably I shall devoutly pray that Henri de Flavigneul and I may be +at daggers drawn this evening." + +"But what would Miss Hildreth say to that?" asked the girl, sharply, and +looking up so quickly as to catch the sudden frown of annoyance that +spread over Mr. Tremain's face at the mention of Patricia's name. + +"Ah, Miss Hildreth," he replied, with assumed carelessness. "I had not +taken her into consideration." + +"And yet Miss Hildreth is not one to be left unconsidered?" said Miss +James, questioningly. "She is not one to be easily passed over." Then, +with a sudden change of manner, she added: "You have known Miss Hildreth +a long time, have you not, Mr. Tremain?" + +Philip looked down at her a little startled and surprised. Was she +laughing at him--this pale, quiet, almost insignificant girl--or mocking +him? Surely the subject of his and Patricia's broken engagement had +been public property too long to have escaped her knowledge. Was it +impertinence or ignorance that dictated the question? But Miss James's +face was placid and mildly interested as she looked up at him with a +little smile, and waited for him to speak. + +"Oh, yes, I have known Miss Hildreth for some years," he replied, +shortly; and then with an abrupt laugh: "but I have not seen her for +almost as long as I have known her." + +"Ah," said Miss James, meditatively, "she has been abroad for ten years, +and ten years makes such a difference in one's knowledge of another. +Only think what might not happen in ten years!" + +"Apparently Miss Hildreth's experiences have been more or less narrow," +answered Philip, annoyed that the conversation should have turned upon +Patricia, and yet unable to keep from discussing her. + +"Oh, do you think so?" asked Miss James, with quite a look of surprised +inquiry in her eyes. "To be sure you ought to know; but do you think +she--any woman--could come back quite unchanged after ten years abroad?" + +There was so much of veiled controversy in her tones that Philip at once +found himself looking at the matter from her point of view, and debating +his own question with a decided negative bias. + +"What do you mean?" he said at last, after a moment's delay. "What do +you think are some of the experiences that may have come in Miss +Hildreth's way--or any woman's--during ten years' absence abroad?" + +"That would depend so much as to where one went, what countries, or +towns, or cities; whom one associated with; and how one lived. Each +country has its own peculiar influences, dangers, casualties, but some +countries have the two former more developed. Russia, for example; in +Russia one instinctively looks for dangers, intrigues, conspiracies. Has +Miss Hildreth ever been to Russia, Mr. Tremain?" + +Miss James was treating the subject with so much gravity and +impressiveness that Philip felt himself carried along with her, and +inclined to look at Patricia's past career and its attendant +trivialities in a serious and grave light. + +"I really cannot answer you in detail, Miss James," he said, "but +collectively I should say that nothing was more probable than Miss +Hildreth's being perfectly familiar with Russia, and Russian society, in +all its phases." + +"Yes, I should say so too," answered Miss James, nodding her head in +confirmation of her words. "In fact I am sure of it. Mr. Tremain, do you +think Miss Hildreth has ever before met and known Count Mellikoff?" + +They had been walking up and down a garden-path, but she stopped when +she put this question and faced him. Philip of course, also stopped, and +for a moment there was silence between them. + +"That is an extraordinary question," he said at last; "have you any +reason for asking it, Miss James?" + +"But you have not answered me yet," she protested; "when you do so I +will reply to you. Do you think Miss Hildreth has ever before seen and +known Count Mellikoff; say in Paris, or St. Petersburg?" + +"To the best of my belief Count Mellikoff is a stranger to America, Miss +James." + +"But is Count Mellikoff a stranger to Miss Hildreth, Mr. Tremain?" + +"That is beyond me to answer," replied Philip, with an unconscious +inflection of curiosity in his tone. + +"Then I will answer for you," said Rosalie, her thin sharp voice growing +rounder and fuller, "but you must bear in mind I have no reality to go +upon, only surmise and observation. Very well, then, I say Miss Hildreth +has not only met and known Count Mellikoff before, but she has known him +well, and she is afraid of him. That surprises you, Mr. Tremain, and yet +I don't know why it should. You must remember you have seen nothing of +Miss Hildreth for ten years, and you know nothing--positively +nothing--of her life during that time. Why shouldn't she have known +Count Mellikoff, and why shouldn't she have reason to fear him? Ten +years is a very long time; long enough to drink deep of experience; long +enough to plant, and sow, and reap. Long enough to lose more than one +friend, make more than one enemy; long enough to sink oneself to the +neck in intrigue, and to bury oneself in crime. May not Miss Hildreth +have eaten of the tree of knowledge, and found the evil overweigh the +good? May not Count Mellikoff have been her friend, and become her +enemy? Is it not possible that each is striving to outwit the other, and +each is afraid of the other? I see you think me rather mad, Mr. Tremain, +and credit me with a morbid love of melodrama, or a desire to make +mountains out of mole-hills. Ah, very well, let us say no more about it: +only when next you see Miss Hildreth and Count Mellikoff together, +watch his manner towards her, and see for yourself if he carries himself +as a stranger to her. Ten years is a long time for a woman to wander +about the world alone." + +She finished abruptly, and turned away from him, leaving him without +another word. + +Philip's meditations, if unpleasant before, were now distinctly +disagreeable. He disliked mystery, and above all things and most of all +he disliked it in connection with a woman. In his eyes all women should +be, like Cæsar's wife, above suspicion, and it hurt and galled him that +even a shadow of aspersion should rest on Patricia's fair fame. + +And yet, as Miss James had said, ten years was a long time, and Miss +Hildreth gave no explanation, beyond a vague and general one, as to how +she had spent that time. Might there not be some secret bound up in +those years; some secret between herself and Vladimir Mellikoff, which +it was wisest to leave so buried? Was it possible of belief that in all +that time Patricia had never consoled herself for the lost love of her +youth? + +Hers was an impetuous nature, open to sudden convictions, quick to act, +ardent, impressionable; with such a temperament in the hands of Vladimir +Mellikoff, what imprudence might not have taken place? Even a secret +marriage, and a subsequent purgatory of disenchantment, were not +impossible consequences. Indeed, the range of possibilities was so +varied and so unsatisfactory, Mr. Tremain felt himself unable either to +seize or exorcise them. + +At the tea hour that same day, Miss James asked suddenly, in a lull of +conversation, bending forward and addressing Patricia in her highest +voice: + +"Oh, Miss Hildreth, by the way, Mr. Tremain and I have been discussing +your long absence from your native land, and your possible and probable +experiences. Will you tell me, for it was rather a question of +difference between us, have you ever been to Russia; do you know St. +Petersburg?" + +Something in Rosalie's sharp, hard tones commanded attention, and when +she finished all eyes were turned upon Patricia, as she sat in a +high-backed chair; her tea-gown of marvellous old lace and fluttering +ribbons seeming but a fitting setting to her delicate beauty. Vladimir +Mellikoff put down his cup of untasted tea, and drew near the central +group. + +Miss Hildreth looked up a little surprised at Rosalie's earnestness. She +raised the tiny apostle spoon in her fingers, and studied it attentively +as she answered: + +"Oh, yes, indeed, Miss James, I have done the whole grand tour. I know +my London, my Paris, and my Petersburg thoroughly, and like a loyal +American place the Peerage and the Almanach de Gotha next to my Bible." +Her voice was clear and mocking, and a trifle artificial. + +"And may I also be permitted to ask a question, mademoiselle?" said +Count Mellikoff, advancing towards her and bowing slightly. + +Patricia raised her delicate eyebrows in cool superciliousness. "Oh, +certainly, Count Mellikoff; in what way can I add to your knowledge?" + +She put out her hand with the empty tea-cup, and Dick Darling flew to +take it from her; the outstretched hand trembled ever so little, and the +spoon fell to the floor. + +"Since you know my home, mademoiselle, Petersburg, I do not make a +blunder when I suppose you to have known it socially as well as----" + +"According to Baedeker," broke in Miss Hildreth, with a little laugh. +"Make your mind easy, Count Mellikoff; your Court and your _grand monde_ +showed me nothing but civilities." + +"That goes without the saying, mademoiselle," replied Vladimir, still +more gravely. "And, pardon me, it is pleasant to speak on home subjects +to one who understands them so well; did you, then, when at Court, or in +society, did you ever meet the most brilliant man of his time, the most +fascinating, handsome, rich young noble of all Russia? You will recall +him at once when I name him. Mademoiselle, did you ever know Count +Stevan Lallovich?" + +There was silence for a moment as Vladimir Mellikoff asked his question, +and for a moment after, during which all eyes were again turned towards +Patricia. She had started forward a little, and half rose up from her +chair; her face had grown suddenly pale, and her eyes, beneath their +dark pencilled brows, flashed strangely. + +It was but a moment, a second of time, a heart-throb, then she +controlled herself, and, with one of her lightest, most mocking laughs, +sank back upon her chair, sweeping her laces about her royally. + +"Count Stevan Lallovich," she said, very distinctly; "you ask me if I +knew Stevan Lallovich? My dear Count Mellikoff, your very question is +superfluous. Could any woman who knew Petersburg, fail to know Stevan +Lallovich? The handsomest man of his day, as you have said, and the most +unscrupulous." Then she turned to Miss Darling: "My dear Dick, will you +beg Esther for another cup of tea, and boiling, my dear, positively +boiling. You see, Count, among other Russian peculiarities, I cling to +my Russian tea." + +"I see, mademoiselle," replied Mellikoff, gravely. "May you always prove +as loyal to all things Russian." + +Mr. Tremain had not been present during this little passage at arms, but +Miss James, as she sat before her mirror that evening "making-up" her +small sallow face into a hard-visaged, calculating Mrs. Bouncer, +congratulated herself upon her strategy. + +"My shot told," she was thinking, as she painted in another wrinkle, +"it almost took Miss Hildreth off her guard. She is not likely to forget +herself again; but I have seen her once without her mask, and that is +enough. Oh yes, 'it moves, it moves.'" + +Then, with Galileo's immortal words on her lips, she added a final touch +to her eyebrows, and glided quickly away, appearing a few moments later +in the flies, and calling forth Mr. Robinson's encomiums upon her as a +model of punctuality. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A SOCIETY DRAMA. + + +In another half-hour the little playhouse was full to overflowing. Not a +seat was vacant, and scarcely an inch of space was left for the men of +the party to plant their feet upon. Gay and musical were the tones of +women's voices and laughter that rose and fell upon the scented air, +sustained and strengthened by the more manly bassos. + +The theatre itself glowed in the soft effulgence of electric light, each +filament incased in a hanging crystal vase, subdued to a warm +palpitating softness by silk shades of roseate hue. Flowers bloomed +everywhere, piled in glowing masses along the walls and across the +miniature orchestra screen. The rose-houses had been stripped of their +loveliest exotics, and these rifled blossoms hung their gorgeous heads +amidst a quivering background of clinging green smilax. + +On each rose-silk _fauteuil_ lay a bouquet of the golden-hued Maréchal +Niels, tied with long ribbons of palest amber, and a tiny satin +programme on which, amidst quaint device of scroll work, were inscribed +the characters and scenes of the coming drama. + +The _lever de rideau_ was a masterpiece from the hand of an English +Academician, whose foreign name was better known in the two great +English-speaking countries than others boasting a more national ring. +The heavy folds of richest white silk bore testimony to the versatility +of his brain and brush, since here swept garlands of trailing roses +across a wonderful marble terrace, upon which were grouped in classic +attitudes the sisters of histrionic art, Melpomene, Thalia, and +Terpsichore. + +The scene was one of luxury that had become a fine art, every detail +being in itself so faultless, it required but the completing touch of +contiguity to render it a rounded whole of perfection. The onlooker +might well pause and ask himself if the developments of wealth, +refinement, and culture, could reach a higher degree than was displayed +that evening within the walls of this miniature La Scala. + +The curtain rose on the perennially new and refreshing _Box and Cox_, in +which Miss James again distinguished herself and scored her final points +to rounds of ringing laughter and spontaneous applause, which savoured +more of the "Surrey side," than of a languid _nil admirari_ audience of +this critical century. Between the farce and the serious work of the +evening music held sway, and La Diva's glorious voice captivated all +hearts and brains in Owen Meredith's "Aux Italiens," its final appealing +line rounding each verse with the pathetic cry, + + "Non ti scorda di me, non ti scorda di me!" + +It was during this interval that Mr. Tremain, making his appearance in +the Greenroom, found Miss Hildreth already there awaiting her first +call. She was alone for the moment, and was standing with bent head and +clasped hands, leaning against the tall carved chimney-screen that +shielded the low burning logs on the hearth. + +The long folds of her first costume, a _négligée_ of Wörth's conception, +fell about her in a clinging amber sheen, across which the flots and +draperies of _duchesse_ lace fell in filmy cascades. Philip stopped +involuntarily for a moment, and looked at her. Her marvellous loveliness +struck him afresh, as, indeed, it had a habit of doing whenever he came +upon her unawares. This attribute was indeed one of Miss Hildreth's +chief charms; you forgot her actual loveliness when away from her, and +were apt to criticise not only it, but her. It was a criticism, however, +that fell to pieces at the first contact with her, and which left you +only conscious of her beauty and her fascination. You could not analyse +her when she smiled, or when her deep, tender, dark blue eyes looked +full into your own. + +Miss Hildreth had not heard Philip's entrance; and he thus had an +opportunity of watching her undisturbed and unconscious. Despite the +make-up of rouge and bismuth, put on so delicately as to be almost +imperceptible, the face was at that moment a sad one. All the fire, and +life, and spirit, had gone out of it, and in their places an expression +of weariness and despondency had crept about the mouth and eyes, which +was strangely pathetic because so at variance with Miss Hildreth's usual +bearing. Even the attitude, half-listless, half-weary, bespoke a state +of mental depression and dejection. + +Philip, as he watched her, recalled Miss James's unequivocal +suggestions, and almost against his will found himself speculating as to +which episode out of those ten unknown years of her life she was +lamenting at that moment. He had not been present at the tea hour, and +therefore had missed Rosalie's well-turned opportunity; but even without +that, Miss James had contrived to sow the seeds of distrust and +suspicion in his mind. + +He could not look upon Patricia now without the record of those long ten +years arising between him and her; across whose closed pages what +experiences might not be written! Even her beauty became a source of +like animadversion; could any woman possessing such a face and form +count thirty years off life's score and not have drunk deep, even to +satiety, of the wine of passion, that turns even as one's lips touch the +cup's brim into the waters of Lethe? Miss James was right; those ten +years wherein Patricia had grown from girlhood to womanhood must hold +some hidden memories, into which for his peace of mind it were best he +did not look, and from whose influence, as from her personality, it were +wisest for him to detach himself at once. + +He would end his visit at the Folly in a day or so, and when he left it +so would he leave behind all recollection and all knowledge of Patricia. +He desired to know nothing of her immediate past, he would refuse to be +interested in her present or her future. Only, before he bid a long +good-bye to the Folly and its inmates, he must once more see Adèle +Lamien; there was something to be said to her, and he must say it. + +He moved slightly forward, and as he did so Patricia turned and looked +up. In an instant the softer and sadder shadows passed from her face, +her eyes regained their fire and light, the smile came back to her lips +and chased away the dimples in cheek and chin, the soft evanescent bloom +stole upward and renewed her youth and freshness as colour and contrast +can alone do. + +Mr. Tremain came towards her grave and unsmiling, and with something of +the old dark anger on his face, that ten years ago had frightened her +and deterred her from uttering the few words of reconciliation hovering +on her lips; this anger was all the more pronounced because of his +character costume of light livery. One does not naturally associate +buckskin tops and a striped waistcoat with a countenance of gloomy +disapproval. + +Miss Hildreth took in the situation at a glance, and laughed out at him, +one of her cold light mocking laughs, that angered Philip with its ring +of insincerity. + +"Well, my Knight of the Rueful Countenance," she exclaimed, "you look +not only bored, but in a rage! Ah, my dear Philip, when will you learn +how foolish and _banale_ a thing it is to expend your reserve emotions +on trifles? We Americans are accused of being a race incapable of +experiencing any grand passion, either in conception or realisation. +Perhaps it is because after cultivating our sensibilities to the highest +pitch we are content to expend them on trivialities. I remember a clever +Englishman once telling me that we as a nation have no measurable idea +of passion save in the abstract; we appreciate wit and humour, subtle +argument, keen incisive reasoning, but as to the heights and depths of +one terrible all-mastering, all-absorbing emotion, it is as a dead +letter to us. Our highest expression of nervous force results in an +exaggerated friendship, or a marriage of convenience; we are simply +incapable of what the French call _une grande passion_." + +She stopped with another little laugh, but Mr. Tremain made no reply, so +with the slightest possible shrug of her shoulders she continued: + +"For example--and pardon my using you as a peg upon which to hang my +argument--to look at you at this moment one would declare that nothing +less than a complete collapse of the entire social system could account +for such an expression of abject wretchedness. How can one be supposed +to know that it is the result of nothing more tragic than an +ill-starched necktie, or a poor-fitting coat?" + +Again she laughed, and Philip felt the blood surge up to his face at her +taunting raillery. + +"I should feel honoured at being considered worthy your mockery," he +said, quickly, "only that this time I cannot plead guilty to the +impeachment; my costume, even to its insignificant details, is, I beg to +state, beyond reproach. I cannot complain even of a rumpled tie, or an +uncomfortable coat." + +She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "You are fortunate and to be +congratulated. Does not Madame de Rémusat tell us of the annoyance +caused the great Napoleon by too tight arm-holes, and of Josephine's +tears over the loss of one Cashmere, out of her two or three score? You +see, my dear Philip, even the heroes of our immediate past were not +above acknowledging their little weaknesses. Such items are the crumpled +rose-leaves and parched peas of greatness. Dare we of a lesser mould +scoff at them?" + +She turned away from him as she spoke, leaving him with a decided +feeling of having been taken at a disadvantage. His call followed almost +immediately, so he had no time to reply; but the remembrance of her +mockery remained with him, and added a touch of bitterness and reality +to the situations of the play, in which he and she bore reversed +relations to those of real life. + +The drama selected by Esther Newbold, _The Ladies' Battle_, is too +well-known and too great a favourite to require description. Perhaps of +all drawing-room comedies it is the most pleasing and the most +comprehensive. Those who have seen the foremost actresses of our day +personate the young and beautiful Countess d'Autreval--who is not +ashamed, though fully conscious, of her love for Henri de Flavigneul, +and who bravely relinquishes it in favour of her girlish niece, Léonie +de Villegontier--will remember what scope can be shown in the +development of that character, whose fundamental attributes seem at +first sight to be those of impulse and self-gratification. + +The scenes moved on with magic smoothness and completeness, and +gradually, as the interest grew and deepened, the audience began to +realise that it was upon Miss Hildreth as the Countess, and Mr. Tremain +as Henri, that the chief influence and importance of the play +culminated. The undercurrent of suppressed antagonism that existed +between them communicated itself to the onlookers with a subtle, yet +potent power; while to those who could read the writing between the +lines, the situations assumed a potential gravity and significance. + +From the moment of the Countess's soliloquy, "Now to be more than +woman," when, recognising her growing love for the young soldier, she +consults her looking-glass as the oracle which is to encourage or +dissuade her from entering the lists against Léonie, and then lays it +down with the significant line, "Ah, it has deceived so many!" to her +final act of renunciation, Patricia carried the house with her, and +left no loophole for any anti-interest or climax. + +Baby Leonard made a charming Léonie. Her innocent face and +unsophisticated manner were a capital study and a clever following of +nature; but it was on Patricia Hildreth that the sympathy and sentiment +centred, and there arose almost a cry of disappointment when the curtain +dropped finally upon Léonie's happiness, at the price of the nobler +nature's self-sacrifice. Even her fellow actors felt her potency, and +Philip most of all. + +He caught her hand in his as she left the flies, and detained her one +moment. + +"Patty," he cried, "Patty, once more let me plead with you. Is it true, +dear--are your words something more than allegory: + + 'Beneath the wreath and robe, the heart unseen + Oft throbs with anguish.' + +Are they true of _your_ heart, Patty, Patty?" + +But she checked him with her old impatient gesture, drawing away her +hand from his close clasp, and laughing lightly, ironically. + +"My dear Philip, too much simulating of passion has overturned your +habitual self-control. Fancy quoting a couplet out of a modern drama by +way of asking a question! But let me follow your lead and answer you +from the epilogue: + + 'Men conquer all, but women conquer men.'" + +Then she passed by him still laughing, and the echo of her laughter came +back to him long after the last gleam of her silks and laces had +disappeared from sight. + +A grand ball completed the celebration of George Newbold's birthday, and +those who were perforce the wall-flowers of the occasion noticed, not +without comment, that Mr. Tremain kept sedulously away from Miss +Hildreth, and that Patricia danced more often with the dark Russian +stranger than with any other of Mrs. Newbold's black-coated contingent. +Or, as the men put it afterwards in the smoking-room, that conceited, +distinguished, red-ribboned foreigner devoted himself exclusively to the +most beautiful woman of the evening, with occasional relapses to the +plainest girl. + +It was thus that Miss Hildreth and Rosalie James divided the honours, if +such they could be called, of Count Vladimir Mellikoff's attentions. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"IT IS HOPELESS." + + +True to his resolution, made more absolute than ever by Miss Hildreth's +last openly displayed indifference, Mr. Tremain determined to leave the +Folly on the first possible excuse. His visit had already prolonged +itself far beyond its original limits, and in the departure of his +friend Mainwaring, he saw a happy opportunity of effacing himself +naturally and without too violent a wrench. + +John Mainwaring had come down only for the theatricals, and nothing +could be more _à propos_ than for Philip to make his _adieux_ with him. +As for Patricia, he entertained no softer sentiment towards her than +that of distinct disapprobation. He felt it would be a relief to get +himself away from her influence and from the spell of her beauty. Twice +now she had repudiated him and the love he pleaded; what better proof of +her thorough deterioration could any man ask for than this? Could any +words have been more sharp than hers, or speak more openly of defiance +and glad rejection? Apparently she retained not one tender recollection +of the past, or the smallest desire to recur to it. She met him always +with cool raillery, mocking aphorisms, or taunting satire; she was hard, +brilliant, unresponsive as the diamonds she wore so regally, and to +throw oneself upon her sympathies was to wilfully grasp at the +glittering sheen of unreality, and be wounded because the substance +slipped from one's hold. + +Away from her and once more absorbed in the work of his profession, Mr. +Tremain felt he could forget her and the past few days of unrest and +disquietude. The calm monotony of his personal self-centred routine +became a haven of rest in his eyes, to which he looked forward with +impatience; forgetting that it is one's inner state of being that makes +or mars the tranquillity of one's existence. + +Accordingly Mr. Tremain ordered the packing of his portmanteaux, and +made known his coming departure the next morning at the very late +breakfast hour, at which feast Esther and a few of her guests appeared +languid and fatigued, and instant in their demands for the strongest +black coffee. + +Philip observed with relief that Miss Hildreth was not among the number. +Little Marianne was there, sitting by her mother's side, her fair +child-face looking all the sweeter and fresher by contrast with the +jaded _borné_ appearance of her elders. Vladimir Mellikoff was also +among the missing; but Miss James was at her place, seemingly none the +worse for her exertions of the evening before, her sallow countenance +and dark eyes being untouched either by fatigue or inertia. + +Mrs. Newbold received Philip's announcement with voluble expressions of +protest. + +"Oh, but indeed you must not go," she said, "we really cannot spare you; +do reconsider." And she looked at him with an almost exaggerated +expression of entreaty in her blue eyes. + +"You are very flattering and very kind," replied Philip, avoiding her +glance, and answering in conventional tones and words, "but really I +must go, it is impossible I should stay longer. Mainwaring has brought +me news of an important case, which has been advanced on the calendar, +in which I am involved, and even if this were not the case, I could not, +my dear Esther, desire to wear out so warm a welcome as yours." + +But Mrs. Newbold did not rally to the implied compliment. She shook her +head dubiously as she said: + +"That is only a _façon de parler_. I did not suppose, Philip, that you +would ever descend to subterfuge." + +At which Mr. Tremain laughed, and Miss James lifted her eyebrows in +scarcely concealed superciliousness. + +"One could almost be discourteous to Mr. Mainwaring, in thought, at +least," continued Esther, regarding that dark-visaged young man with an +expression that belied her smile. + +To which he replied, with a half-shrug of his shoulders, that he +considered himself fortunate in attracting any portion of Mrs. Newbold's +attention. It was a satisfaction to be regarded actively by her, even +though that activity took the form of animosity. + +Esther bit her lip and was silenced; but George Newbold laughed, and +remarked aside to Dick Darling that _that_ was a hit straight out from +the shoulder. + +Presently Marianne, who had been feeding the long-suffering Trim on +deviled kidney scraps, and enjoying, with all the cruelty of childhood, +his tears and squerms, lifted her golden head and innocent eyes, and +startled the entire company by exclaiming, in her clear shrill treble: + +"Mumsey, why does Mr. Val ask so many questions about my Lammy, and when +is my Lammy coming back again?" + +Esther, decidedly taken by surprise, turned quickly, and spoke with +unaccustomed sharpness. + +"Who are you talking about, Mimi? Who is Mr. Val? It really is +extraordinary the amount of gossip you manage to imbibe from unknown +sources." + +"Mr. Val," replied little Mimi, with unabashed frankness, "Mr. Val is +Mr. Val. I can't say all his name 'cause it's too long, so he said I was +to call him Mr. Val. He came out in the garden when I was getting +Popsey's buffday flowers, and he talked to me all about Lammy; and when +I told him Lammy's very own name, his eyes got so black, and he said, +'When is she coming back?' and, of course, I didn't know. Miss James, +she knows Mr. Val; she's always talkin' to him." + +At which lucid and candid explanation Miss James felt the blood rush +hotly to her cheeks, and Mr. Tremain, with kindly thought, turned +attention from her by saying, quickly: + +"It must be the Count, Mimi designates by that innocent abbreviation. +With the frank socialism of childhood, she is no respecter of persons. +'Mr. Val' sounds just as important in her ears as Count Vladimir does in +ours." + +"She's a ridiculous little monkey," replied Esther, impatiently; and +then the subject dropped, much to Philip's chagrin, as he desired to +glean some further particulars concerning Mdlle. Lamien's probable +return. Conversation languished after this, however, and one by one the +women stole away to their bedrooms, there to sleep off the excitement +and fatigue of the previous night. + +It was arranged that Mr. Tremain and his friend should take the six +o'clock evening boat, which would, as Freddy Slade remarked, land them +in New York in ample time for a "refresher" prior to dinner at the club, +at that magic hour when each small round table is daintily set out in +fine linen and glittering silver, and surrounded by the best-known +convives of clubdom. + +"The pleasantest hour, by Jove, of the whole twenty-four," said Freddy, +enthusiastically. "Upon my word, I quite envy you fellows the sensation +you'll produce when you walk into the 'Union.' You will actually smell +of the country, 'pastures green,' you know, and all that sort of thing." + +For the better part of the day the house remained silent and deserted as +far as the lower rooms were concerned, and luncheon, which was at all +times a movable feast, became on this occasion a translated one, to be +partaken of by the fairer sex within the privacy of their own +apartments, and in the luxury of _déshabilles_. + +Late in the afternoon Mr. Tremain made his way to Esther Newbold's +boudoir, and knocking with assured familiarity, opened the door almost +before the customary words of invitation. He found Mrs. Newbold alone, +lounging far back in a "sleepy hollow" of a chair, with a tiny +tea-service on a low, Japanese stool beside her. She welcomed him +cordially and with a charming smile. + +"Ah," she exclaimed, "is it you, Philip? I hope you have repented of +your morning decision and have come to tell me so, and beg my +forgiveness." + +"For what?" asked he, wilfully dense. + +"For saying you were going away, of course. Haven't you come to tell me +you will not go after all?" + +"No," said Philip, without any answering smile. "I have come, on the +contrary, to bid you good-bye." + +"You are unkind," exclaimed Mrs. Newbold, impetuously, "and--you are +unwise. What, Philip, are you going to lay down your arms so tamely, +and acknowledge yourself beaten by a woman?" + +"It would seem so, my dear Esther, if flight means that I am vanquished. +Will you give me some of your tea as a stirrup-cup?" + +She answered him by pouring out the fragrant Pekoe and handing it to him +in silence; the tears stood in her eyes and her mouth quivered a little. +She sat still as Philip drank the tea, and then, when he had put down +the empty cup and come back to his place beside her, she turned and +spoke quickly, and with almost nervous impetuosity. + +"Oh, Philip, I am sorry, grieved, inexpressibly grieved that you should +go in this way. I had hoped so much for you--for her--yes, more for +her--from the propinquity of these few days. And it has all come to +nothing, and you are going away, and how can it be possible for you ever +to come together, if you persistently let slip each opportunity of an +understanding?" + +She spoke with so much real earnestness, that Philip was greatly +touched. It needed not the mention of Patricia's name to make plain to +him who was the object of Esther's solicitude, and he could not but +smile sadly as he thought how little worthy was she of Esther's tears +and regrets. He bent towards her and took her hand in his. + +"My dear little friend," he said, "the truest friend ever granted to an +undeserving man, I beg you not to trouble yourself about me or my +unfortunate affairs. Let me assure you that I am truly grateful to you +for the opportunity you provided me with in which once more to seek and +learn my fate. If the result, and my answer, has been but a double +repetition of that of ten years ago, is that your fault? My dear Esther, +I have looked upon my old love without prejudice or bias, and I have +seen her stripped of all the thousand and one artifices that go to make +up the woman of the world; we have stood face to face with nothing +between us save the memory of the past, and I can say to you with all +truth and earnestness, that I am not only glad, but thankful, that her +answer to my appeal was what it was. Believe me, there could never be +any solid happiness for us so long as the ten years of our separation +lies between us like a gulf, dividing our past from our present. It is +better as it is, dear Esther, it is better as it is." + +He unloosed her hand, and, rising, walked hastily up and down the room. +Mrs. Newbold was crying openly, scarcely wiping away the tears as they +fell. + +"Oh, Philip!" she pleaded, her voice pitiful and broken, "indeed, +indeed, you judge her too harshly. Oh, can you not read her heart; are +you so blind, so very blind, as not to see it is for you she cares, and +you only? It is because she loves you that she strives to hide it all; +that she laughs and jests, and is bitter, and mocking, and gay, and +frivolous by turns, and never, never once reveals the real, passionate, +throbbing woman's heart beneath these artifices. Oh, what can I say to +open your eyes?" + +"Say nothing," he replied, sternly, "it is best as it is. I am not one, +Esther, as you know, to come lightly to a decision, especially one of +such grave importance to me; but in this you cannot change me; nothing +can alter my decision. You are blinded by your loyalty, you see her as +you fain would see her, with the glamour of her beauty and her +fascination surrounding her so closely you cannot perceive the real +woman beneath. But I have beheld her as she is, cold, hard, brilliant, +illusive, heartless; she is but the mocking personation of her old self; +the outside tenement, beautiful, bewitching, but soulless and insincere. +I told you when we spoke of this before that I would not willingly again +become the plaything of a woman's vanity, and yet, so frail are man's +resolves, I did again put my fate to the touch, and have again failed +and lost. I am not likely to repeat my folly, Esther, when I can still +hear the words of scorn with which she repudiated me, and flung back my +love as not worthy her consideration." + +"It is hopeless, then," cried Esther, imploringly. + +"Yes," he replied, shortly, "it is hopeless, and I am glad that it is +so." + +When next he spoke, it was upon indifferent topics, and there was that +in his face and voice which warned Esther against reopening the former +subject. Before he left her he stood a moment, holding her hand, and +looking down into her flushed and earnest face. + +"Do not think me ungrateful," he said, with one of his rare, sweet +smiles; "I have had my opportunity, it is my fault that I failed to +utilise it to my advantage. After all, these things are arranged for us +by a higher power than our own wills. To you, Esther, I can never feel +aught but grateful, and you know whenever you need my poor services, +they are yours without the asking." + +"And hers, Philip, hers also," she pleaded, "you would not refuse your +help to her, should she ever require it?" + +"That is such an unlikely contingency, your question needs no reply," he +answered, gravely; and bending his head until his lips touched the hand +he held, he said, with simple gravity: "Good-bye, Esther, and God bless +you." + +And so he went away from her, and Mrs. Newbold, with the unreasoning +instinct of her sex, felt she had never esteemed him so highly as now, +when he refused the request she urged so ardently upon him. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE SONG OF THE CIGALE. + + +Mr. Tremain, on leaving Mrs. Newbold's boudoir, made his way, without +encountering any one, to the lower hall, turning instinctively from the +billiard-room, from whence the sound of the cues against the balls, and +an occasional exclamation proclaimed the occupation of the men. + +In his present state of mind he felt no inclination to join them, or +take part in the employment of the hour. His conversation with Esther +had reawakened all the unrest and bitterness of his heart against +Patricia. Looked at in any light, her conduct could not but appear +heartless and unwomanly, and the remembrance of it--of her scornful +eyes and smiling, mocking lips--rankled in his mind and added the one +touch of vindictiveness that is so closely allied to revenge, as to be a +difference in name only. + +Mr. Tremain would have scouted any such paltry feeling as a desire for +retaliation, and yet deep down in his heart there lay the half-developed +germ. Could any vendetta strike her heart more surely than such an +action on his part, as should prove to her how brittle were the bands +she had woven, how impotent her power to hold captive the man she had +scorned? + +There remained yet an hour before the time of his departure, and Philip, +more by instinct than design, turned towards the library, and, pushing +back the noiseless _portières_, entered. The room was empty, and lay in +the half-shadow of the quick coming evening. A touch of gold from the +setting sun still lingered on the painted windows, touching to a deeper +tone the blues and purples in the classic folds of Clio's drapery. One +casement stood open, and the evening air floated in, fragrant with a +thousand odours from Nature's laboratory; strong and subtle and +all-powerful arose the keen scent of the musk plant, overcoming all +lesser perfumes, and asserting with overwhelming insistence its +supremacy. One long low ray of sunlight fell across the picture on the +easel, lighting up with magic radiance the passionate languor of Io's +face, and marking with stronger emphasis Jupiter's stern acceptation of +her allurements. + +Still following his instincts Mr. Tremain crossed the long room, and +drawing back the curtains that separated the music-parlour from the +library, stood for a moment uncertain as to his further action. The room +was unlighted save for the same level rays of dying sunlight, and the +piano that stood at the far end was thus lost in the quivering +darkness. + +Philip, even as he stood upon the threshold, and before his eyes became +accustomed to the dim light, was conscious of the presence of some one +within the room beside himself, and gradually as the obscurity became +penetrable he made out a dark figure sitting before the silent +instrument, with bowed head, about whose throat and face hung heavy, +clinging folds of black lace. Simultaneously with his discernment of +this presence, he recognised its personality, and as he did so felt +alarmed and electrified by the sudden rush and tumult which took +possession of his being. The blood leapt to his face, he felt it throb +in his temples and pulse in his veins, as he realised without further +assurance, and before the bowed head was lifted and the pale, cold face +gleamed out of the sombre surroundings, that it was Adèle Lamien who sat +there, and that he was unreasonably glad and sorry, repentant and +rejoicing, that he should thus have one more interview with her before +he should vanish out of her life, as Patricia had already passed from +out of his. + +He advanced slowly and stood before her. As he approached, she dropped +her protecting hands and sat silent, immovable, her pale face--pale with +the pallor of mental conflict--looking strange and unearthly amidst its +setting of falling black draperies, the dark bruise upon her cheek +growing livid in the half lights. Suddenly, she threw back her head and +smiled upon him. + +It was but the second time he had ever seen her smile, and as the +radiance and glory broke over her face and flooded it for one brief +moment, with a brightness and transient loveliness, he started, for +something in that smile and face, some strange, subtle, illusive +likeness to some one whom he knew, and yet whom he could not name, grew +into existence with the fleeting radiance, and faded with it before he +could grasp at the reality. It was but a mere shadow of a resemblance, +gone as soon as discovered, without substance, without reason, and yet +perceptible, even when most baffling. + +So sudden had been her transformation, and so rapid the return to the +old habitual quietude and repression of her countenance, Philip found +himself wondering if, after all, he was not under a delusion, or that +his eyes, dulled by the dim obscurity of the room, had not mistaken the +temporary flashing and paling of a sunbeam for that evanescent light on +cheek and brow. + +He had remained standing and silent, during the brief moment that +elapsed between his entrance and her recognition; he bent over her now, +and speaking quietly, said: + +"I am fortunate, Mdlle. Lamien, in finding you--and alone." + +"You are very kind," she answered, in a low, repressed voice, a voice +that had through all its repression a throb of passion. "Surely Mr. +Tremain can find pleasanter and more amusing companions than I." + +"None who can interest me so deeply, believe me," replied Philip, +gravely. "You have returned, mademoiselle, the better, I trust, for your +absence?" + +"My absence?" she queried, a little surprised; then more quickly, "Ah, +yes, my absence; it was but an affair of hours, a necessity, not a +pleasure. All the same, I thank you. I am better for the change." + +Philip had waited for some sign of invitation to remain, but as none +came, he grew bolder, interpreting her silence as best pleased him, and +drawing up a low arm-chair, took his place beside her, at such an angle +as enabled him to watch her face without effort. + +"You have been missed, mademoiselle, by more than one," he said, slowly; +"your name has been often mentioned, even by those unknown to you." + +"Indeed," she replied, more quickly than usual; "who has done me that +honour?" + +"I shall answer your question by another," said Philip; "Mdlle. Lamien, +where and when have you known Count Vladimir Mellikoff? Who and what is +he, that he should express his surprise and displeasure at your +movements?" + +She drew a long sigh, and turned her head away from him, as she answered +slowly and in a low voice: + +"Where and when have I known Count Vladimir Mellikoff? Who and what is +he? My reply can be brief enough, Mr. Tremain, to both questions: I have +never known Count Vladimir at any time, I have no idea who or what he +is." + +Her words were concise and to the point, but they failed to convince +Philip of their absolute sincerity. He said nothing for a few moments, +but the silence that fell between them was alive with suggestion; and +Philip, as he watched her, felt the old inconsequent irrational +influence of her personality creep over him, wrapping him about in a +half-magnetic, half-willing subjection; and which, while recognising its +power, he was unable to throw off. + +It was she who broke the silence with an upward gesture of disdain, as +she said: + +"Why should we speak upon so worn out a theme as my existence, Mr. +Tremain? There are none concerned in my past who would care to recognise +me now." Then suddenly, and with a quick movement towards the piano: +"Shall I play for you, Mr. Tremain?" + +She did not wait for his reply, but struck at once a few low notes, a +minor chord or two that swept across the dim half-lights, and seemed but +an outcome of the twilight, and of the last faint golden rays fading +moment by moment in the far western sky. Then a headlong rush and tumult +of melody caught up the passion, and despair, and longing of a soul in +bondage struggling to be free, beating against the bars, crying out in +anguish, then sinking back into despondency, and with a final moan +striking downwards to despair. + +Mr. Tremain, as he listened, felt himself caught up in the rush and +movement, and borne along with it, following her will and pleasure even +as her white fingers flew over the ivory keys, striking them now with +fiery impetuosity, now with caressing softness, and again with lingering +tenderness. Her slight figure in its black dress was alive and sinuous, +responding to each emotion; her pale face grew illumined beneath its +weight of white hair and drooping laces that fell about it. She was the +living incarnation of the music; and Philip, half spell-bound, half +realising the potency of the spell, found himself repeating mentally, +"the charm of woven paces and of waving hands." Was she a Vivien as +well? + +She ceased playing as he came and stood beside her, and in the hush that +fell between them, the echo of light laughter floated to them from the +rooms above. It was a discord, a false note in the intensity of the +theme. + +Philip bent towards her, almost touching the white hair with his lips; +it was a moment of exquisite uncertainty. Then she struck the notes +again, and a plaintive prelude stole out, while in a low voice, +monotonous yet musical, that seemed but the continuation of the melody, +she said rather than sang: + + "I am a woman, + Therefore I may not + Fly to him, cry to him, + Bid him delay not. + What though he part from me, + Tearing my heart from me, + Hurt without cure!" + +Her voice faltered, sank into silence, her hands fell from the keys and +lay motionless upon her lap. Philip, to whom the first line of her song +had come not as a surprise, but as an expected climax, bent forward +eagerly. Once again he heard the mocking voice of his vision, once again +the faint sweet perfume of violets stole upward, robbing him of the +reality of the present, restoring to him the past with all its +unfulfilled promise and its hope. + +It was the passion of surprise, not of arrangement or premeditation, +that held him, and that swaying him against his better self, made him +speak from the emotion of the moment. + +"Adèle," he said, his voice low and restrained. "Adèle, you have +doubtless heard my story; you know that I have been the sport, the +plaything of one woman's vanity for all the better years of my life; and +yet I dare to offer you the heart she has scorned. Adèle, will you +accept it? Will you restore my faith and belief in womanhood; that faith +and trust which another woman has so nearly destroyed? Hush, wait one +moment before you speak. Yes, I know I am almost a stranger to you, I +have seen you but half-a-dozen times; you know but little of me, and +that little is not of the best. And, I too, what do I know of you? +Nothing, save what Esther was pleased to tell us all concerning you. I +realise that your past is seared and crossed by sorrow and grief, but +always, Adèle, always since first I saw you, you have haunted me, you +have possessed me, you have laid me under a spell. Break that spell now +by saying you will listen to me; by telling me that at last, however +late in life, my faith, my belief, my trust shall not be given in vain." + +He stopped, and she looking up quickly saw the flush of earnestness upon +his face, the light of eagerness in his eyes. She let fall her glance, +and a little smile--was it of triumph or of pity?--crept out about the +mouth, that died ere he could catch its curves. She had listened to him +apparently without surprise, and without betraying emotion of any kind; +her voice fell dull and cold when she spoke. + +"You proffer a strange request, Mr. Tremain, and one not easy of reply. +Is it possible you can be in earnest? Have you not heard my story? Has +not the whole of Madame Newbold's world become cognisant of its +details? Do you not know that Adèle Lamien is a woman on whom rests the +blight of suspicion, if not of guilt? A woman whose life has been one of +no common misery. Do you realise what it means to be suspected of crime, +branded as a fugitive, an outcast? Can you gauge the depths of misery +contained in the words ruined and repudiated? Do you not know that one +spot upon a woman's reputation, though incurred through no fault of her +own, stamps her for ever in the eyes of your world. Can you, knowing all +this, realising it, yet ask me to listen to your words of vehemence? +You, Philip Tremain! Ah, do you not know I would give my very heart's +happiness if I might so listen? No, no; that is not what I mean. You are +mad, Mr. Tremain, mad with the desire born of a moment's passion." + +"I am not mad, Adèle," he urged. "I ask you again to listen to me, and I +tell you again that I neither care nor wish to know more of your past +than you desire to tell me. Cannot we forget that, cannot I make for you +a future that shall outlive your past? Nay, wait one moment, there is +something more I must say. You know I have no fresh first devotion to +offer you, I have not even a heart swept and garnished for your +acceptancy. I did not wish to love you, I am not sure I love you even +now; all I know is that you draw me to you with invisible chains; that +you take from me all resistance, all desire to resist." + +"Ah," she exclaimed, with infinite bitterness, "you speak as a man. We +women do not so easily break the bonds that have held us for so long. +Suppose I were to take you at your word, suppose I were to listen to +you, to your own undoing? What would be the outcome of it? I, a woman, +Adèle Lamien, who perchance has looked shame in the face, who may have +swept the by-ways of wickedness with her skirts, I to demand of you this +sacrifice, and for what? That you may hear my name spoken in whispers +and with bated breath; that you may see me pointed at in scorn and +derision; that never may you look at me, never see my face, without the +bitter memory of my buried past rising up between us. No, this may not +be; you have loved before, it is not love you feel now, it is +resentment, disappointment, anger. Put by your fancy of the hour, Mr. +Tremain, and let Adèle Lamien fade out of your life even as she has come +into it, an accident only. Do you not remember the fable and fate of the +poor Cigale? + + 'The grasshopper so blithe and gay, + Sang the summer time away; + Pinched and poor the spendthrift grew, + When the keen north-easter blew.' + +I am that poor Cigale. I have had my summer time, and now it is winter; +and you would fain make me believe that one can conjure up a second +summer from out the ruins of autumn's blasts; nay, that is impossible +alike for you as for me. Believe me, no good has ever come from a +passion so suddenly developed, as this you plead now. You will live to +thank me for my words, even if now, at this very moment, you are not +confessing their justice." + +She rose as she finished, and moved somewhat away from him. The darkness +of the early May evening had crept up and about them unnoticed; she had +become indistinct and unreal, a part of the shadows that surrounded her; +and Mr. Tremain, as he listened to the low, even notes of her voice, +felt the unreality of his position grow more and more defined. + +He had been mad--mad with a moment's passion; and yet--and yet, what was +this impalpable, intangible influence that drew him to her with +invisible cords, even while he realised the wisdom of her words, and +rejoiced in the freedom she forced back upon him? + +The silence and the darkness increased; she became but a dim outline +against the deeper tones of shadow, her pale face alone showing in the +gloom. + +"You scarcely give me a choice, Adèle," he said; "and yet how is it +possible for me to accept your decision?" + +His words were followed by a light laugh; a chord struck sharply, and +then from out the obscurity came her voice again. But what was this +change in it? What was this undertone of mocking raillery that sounded +so familiar and yet so incongruous? + +"Said I not truly, Mr. Tremain, you are mad to ask me to listen to you; +and yet--ah, Philip--perhaps it would be wiser for us both could I but +yield." + +"Then listen, I entreat, Adèle," he cried, impetuously, "do not make +your decision a final one; leave it open as a possibility for future +consideration. Do not let me ask in vain; only say that you will think +twice before you refuse me definitely. Do I ask too much?" + +"Too much!" she echoed, and her voice sank to a whisper. "Is it too much +to put the cup of water to the parched lips of a dying man, and bid him +drink? Will he refuse, think you? Do you know how greatly you tempt me? +Shall not you and I come to repent with bitterness this parleying with +the inevitable? Well, then, since you will have it so, and since my will +is weak--ah, so very weak--and fate is strong, it shall be as you wish. +I will make no final decision. I will wait. Surely this should be +triumph enough, even for me, to know that I have won you from the +remembrance--nay, from the very presence of--Patricia Hildreth!" + +At Patty's name thrust thus sharply and unexpectedly upon him, Philip +started forward, impelled by the same unknown, unreasoning force that +had held and controlled him throughout their interview, but he was too +late. He was conscious of a light silken rustle, a low laugh, a hand +laid for a moment on his, and then he was alone. + +As Mdlle. Lamien drew the _portières_ behind her, two figures crept back +into the obscurity of the room beyond, and as she passed swiftly on and +out into the hall, a whisper in a woman's voice echoed across the +shadows: + +"Are you satisfied--convinced? There is no mistake?" + +"I am absolutely convinced, mademoiselle, there can be no mistake," +answered a second, carefully modulated voice. + +A moment later Miss James stole quietly out of the now dark library, +followed by the sombre, gliding figure of Vladimir Mellikoff. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +INTROSPECTION. + + +The party at the Folly had broken up at last, and, going the way of all +things terrestrial, was already numbered among the pleasures of the have +been. + +Mrs. Newbold had flitted seaward with little Marianne, her husband, her +maid, and a small army of dress-baskets and boxes. The golden glory of +July held the gardens and woods, the terraces and parterres, in the +spell of midsummer colouring; flinging abroad with generous hand its +meed of sunshine, its wealth of fruit, its richness of blossom, its long +hours of fullest beauty, when the intense blue heavens above, the +smiling earth below, and the very atmosphere of soft delicious haze +seemed to palpitate with their own tropical luxuriance. + +Mrs. Newbold's island home never looked more enchanting or enchanted +than in this "royal month," and yet it was just at this perfected time +that stern fashion decreed she should leave it, and seek for pleasure +and relaxation within the narrow limits and confined area of George +Newbold's yacht. And Esther, with a courage worthy of a better cause, +never dreamed of disputing fashion's mandate, but bore with heroic +fortitude the thousand and one restrictions entailed upon her by +existence in the _Deerhound_; for even in that most luxurious schooner +her convenience had to suit itself to space. + +And so, while the _Deerhound_ lay moored at Newport, and Mrs. Esther +entertained and was entertained with almost royal splendour, and the +long summer days were given up to feasting and amusement, and the long +summer nights to dancing and intrigue, the Folly was deserted, its +blinds close drawn, its hospitable doors locked and barred; and the +roses came to perfection, and ran riot in their wantonness, showering +their petals in such lavish prodigality that the garden paths lay strewn +and heaped with the crimson and white of their livery. + +Even as in ancient Rome a certain youthful emperor, satiated with every +guise of amusement, worn out with pleasure and fulfilled desire, buried +the companions of his licentiousness beneath an avalanche of +rose-leaves, which, as they fell, became their grave-clothes and their +pall. + +And have we of to-day no likeness to this pagan Heliogabalus? Do not we +bury the best-beloved of our past beneath a cere-cloth, formed of the +sweet sentiments of forgetfulness; and, turning from their appealing +eyes and sadly accusing faces, enter with fresh zest and renewed +enthusiasm upon the untried excitements of the hour? Are we, after two +thousand years of Christ's humanity, and the awful lessons of Gethsemane +and Golgotha, so much less pagan? + +Mrs. Newbold had taken Dick Darling with her in her flitting; she had +come to have a very true affection for that somewhat crude young lady, +for Esther possessed so much of the alchemist's power as to recognise +pure gold when she found it; and also Miss Darling's outspoken +admiration for Patricia Hildreth acted as a salve to her disappointed +and fruitless projects. + +To Dick herself the prospect of three weeks or a month at Newport on +board the most perfectly appointed yacht of the squadron, with unlimited +license to enjoy the passing hour to the full, was, in her own +phraseology, "just too most awfully nailing!" She danced and she +flirted, the latter in her own half-boyish fashion. She smoked +everybody's cigarettes save her own. She won the ladies' single-handed +lawn tennis tournament, and sported the prize--a jewelled racket and +ball brooch--with frank delight in her own prowess. She drove Freddy +Slade's tandem up and down Bellevue Avenue all one morning, and sailed +Jack Howard's microscopic cutter out to the Narrows and back in the +afternoon. + +She was, indeed, as happy as the day was long; like Browning's +'Duchess,' "she loved whate'er she looked on, and her looks went +everywhere." And then, oh, happy thought, were there not more worlds to +conquer in the immediate future? Did not visions of New London, Shelter +Island, Mount Desert, and the Isle of Shoales stretch out in endless +perspective before her? What girl could dare to be otherwise than +sublimely happy so long as the sea laughed, and the sun shone, and there +were such beneficent factors in the scheme of life and Providence as +horses, and dogs, and boats, to say nothing of men and boys, who were +but the playthings of existence? + +And through all those long, luxurious summer days, Mr. Tremain remained +in town, returning a curt negative to all alluring invitations. + +He had not seen Mrs. Newbold again after his momentous interview with +Mademoiselle Lamien; indeed, he had left the Folly immediately after it, +walking into New Brighton, and proving but a sorry companion to John +Mainwaring, during their journey to New York. + +To tell the truth, he felt himself to be somewhat of a traitor to +Esther, in that he had permitted himself to become a traitor to the +memory of Patricia. He could not quite forget or put from him Esther's +earnest words, Esther's eyes filled with tears, and Esther's undeviating +fidelity to the love of his youth; that love from which he had now +deliberately and by his own act cut himself off for ever. He knew that +to Esther he could only appear as the most weak and vacillating of men; +his own words rang too clearly in his ears to allow him for one moment +to doubt what her judgment upon his action would be. + +There are two things no woman can excuse or palliate in a man: +disaffection from herself where she has once been the first object of +his devotion, or disaffection to an ideal which she has set up as a +fetich, and to which unswerving fidelity is expected as a matter of +right. Esther had set up in this position the old love of ten years ago +that had existed between himself and Patricia; she had, so to speak, dug +its dead body from out its unquiet grave, and breathing into it her own +vitality and desire, had set herself to work to re-create answering +sentiments in his heart. With the impetuosity of woman's nature, which +considers no office so legitimately its own as that of binding up broken +hearts, and reuniting broken troths, she endeavoured now to re-construct +and rehabilitate this passion of his youth, never pausing to reflect +upon his attitude in the case, or the probabilities of failure which +amounted to certainties. + +She had failed, it was true; but that is only half a failure that +leaves matters at the point from which they started. There is always +room for hope so long as certain premises remain unchanged. Philip was +still unbound and unfettered, and Patricia was still Patricia Hildreth. +Were not these sufficient foundations on which to build as fancy +dictated? + +Reflecting on this, and on his own position from Esther's point of view, +Mr. Tremain could not but acknowledge that his proposal to Mdlle. +Lamien, and their partial engagement, could only be regarded by Esther +in the light of direst treachery. Any reasons he might bring to bear in +defence of his present situation and the circumstances that had led up +to it, would, he knew, be scoffed at and scouted by his staunch little +friend. Of what use would it be for him to enter into the physiological +side of the question? He could not hope to explain to her the vague, +impersonal power that drove him on to this finale. Should he plead that +he was not altogether a free agent, and advance in confirmation of this +the subtle illusive resemblance of Mdlle. Lamien to another some one, +equally shadowy and unreal, he would be met with an incredulous smile, +and a suggestion that since he could urge no stronger reason than that +of a chance likeness, why need he hesitate to _exploiter_ his delusion? +Or why choose Adèle Lamien's negative unreality, in place of Patricia +Hildreth's positive personality? + +It would be vain also to remind Esther that not only had Patricia twice +deliberately refused him in words, but by open raillery and covert +mockery had emphasized those refusals, more times than his pride cared +to count. No, Esther would be convinced by none of these things; it was +worse than hopeless to expect it of her, and therefore worse than +useless to appeal to her. In selecting Adèle Lamien for his future wife, +he had cut himself adrift from his own life, and from the close sympathy +and intimacy of those few friends whose affection had made existence +worth living. + +He realised perfectly that in thus choosing a woman upon whose past lay +not only the blight of secrecy but the curse of suspicion, he made that +past his own with all its weight of shame and sin, nay, perhaps, even of +crime, at which she had so vaguely hinted. He knew now that in that +moment of surprise and overmastering passion, when the spell of her +music and her presence held him against his will, he had not reasoned, +he had not considered. He had let the potency of the moment bear him +away; he had, indeed, seen dimly what the outcome must inevitably be, +and yet he had allowed himself to drift on with the current, and made no +resistance. + +His love, his pride, smarting and burning beneath the cool insolence of +Patricia's scorn, hurried him on to such a declaration as should be +final, and break for ever the bonds of those ten years that had held him +so long, and galled him so intolerably. He would be free, and Patricia +should see and recognise his freedom and own its justice, even though +she laughed gaily and jested mockingly upon it. + +It was indeed in this half defined and scarcely acknowledged +retaliation, that he now found his chief solace, for the matter of his +new engagement cannot be said to have contributed to his happiness. +Still, if fate was so untoward as to eliminate all the higher degrees of +perfection from his destiny, it was at least something gained to know +that he retained the power of wounding one woman through another. It was +not the greatest or grandest revenge, nay, it had something pitifully +mean and ignoble about it; but it was revenge, and Philip was still +human enough not to have mastered that divine perfection, which kisses +the hand bearing the rod, and blesses the scourge even while the blows +fall. + +In the meantime he hugged his secret, and kept his unhappiness to +himself; refused to mingle with his own kind, and rarely stirred from +out his chambers, except for the daily walk to and from his office, and +grew silent, morose, unapproachable. + +The July days came and went with lingering, regretful steps; but they +brought him no comfort. He grew to hate the long, bright, cruel hours, +during which the sun shone so fiercely in the intense blue sky whose +wide expanse was unsoftened by cloud or mist; even as he came to loathe +the short midsummer nights, with the flooding moonlight and the radiant +stars set in the vaulted firmament of God's glory. + +No news and no word came to him from Mdlle. Lamien; he had neither seen +nor heard from her since their unsatisfactory parting. He had waited +expecting each day some expression from her, some recognition or +repudiation of the promise that bound him; but each day brought him only +disappointment, until at last, as the days grew into weeks, he ceased +expecting and accepted his position almost with relief. He was ready and +waiting whenever Mdlle. Lamien should signify her need of him; he would +not lift a finger to break the slight chain that bound him, but neither +would he by act or word rivet that chain closer. + +Of Patricia he knew absolutely nothing; not even the echo of her name +reached him. That most energetic of society chronicles, _Town Optics_, +was never counted in his literature, though, had he known it, even that +authority was silent concerning her movements. She had apparently +dropped out of his life as completely as even he could desire; and, as +he acknowledged with a bitter smile, she was not likely to vex or +trouble him more, in the changed conditions of his future. + +Ah, well, let her rest in peace! Patty, his wilful, loving, perverse +little Patty, had been dead to him for ten long years. + +But with the last week of July, Mr. Tremain aroused himself, and, +throwing off his lethargy, hastily packed a light portmanteau and betook +himself to a certain landing-stage down in the city's depths; and as the +sun set in a harmony of gorgeous splendour over Bowling Green and Castle +Garden, making a golden symbol of Trinity's tall spire, and flooding the +city with transient beauty, he stood upon the deck of a small steamer, +bound for the rocky shores of Maine, and, two days later, had vanished +amidst the deep far-stretching pine forests of that eastern state, +pitching his tent beside an outlet of wild Hemlock Lake, and lost +completely to civilisation in the form of post, or telegraph, or daily +paper. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +PLOTTING. + + +Count Mellikoff had also on leaving the Folly betaken himself to New +York, and re-established his locale in that quiet but eminently +aristocratic hotel, which has for years been a sort of Mecca to European +wanderers, who finding life on the plan of the ordinary huge American +caravansary, too public and _en évidence_, have sought with thankfulness +the more retired existence of this favoured resort. + +Most people object to that process of public cleansing usually regarded +as the attribute of vulgarity; but one need not be vulgar to object to +consuming one's roast beef and port wine under the public eye. It is +not a pleasant sensation to come to look upon one's self as only an atom +in the great scheme of a _table d'hôte_; one loses one's identity at +such times, and with the loss of identity goes also one's self-respect. +If you wish to retain your dignity in your own eyes and in the eyes of +your world, keep yourself to yourself; and, above all, do your eating +and drinking in private. Nothing is so much desired as that which is +difficult of attainment; and no man has so many dinner invitations as he +who is known to be fastidious, as to whose table he will honour with his +presence. + +On the evening of the same day as that on which Mr. Tremain started off +on his lonely wanderings, Count Mellikoff sat in a private apartment of +his hotel busy over a variety of despatches and papers, heaped together +on a writing-table. + +The day had been very warm, and even with the approach of night the +atmosphere became but little less intolerable. The windows were open, +but the latticed blinds were let down, and through the crevices the +moonlight fell in broken lines across the walls, the rays of the small +lamp on the writing-table being too faint to outshine the moonbeams; the +room, in consequence, had a half unreal appearance, through the mingled +reflections of oil and moonlight. + +A few blocks up Fifth Avenue, a barrel-organ was groaning out a popular +melody, interrupted at intervals by a Strauss valse from the German band +performing in Washington Square. + +On the centre table stood a tray with a bottle of claret and Apollinaris +water, and a glass bowl filled with cracked ice. + +Despite the intensity of the temperature, Count Mellikoff was +scrupulously dressed in evening costume, the gardenia in his button-hole +showing white against his coat; beneath the flower the tiny red button +of honour, that had so fascinated Miss James, stood out like a drop of +blood. + +With rapid, accustomed fingers, Count Vladimir opened one by one the +letters and papers, scanning their contents with quick comprehension, +and laying each document aside with accurate decision. As he came to the +last, he put it down before him, and bending forward, touched a little +gong that stood near his despatch-box; then he leant back in his chair +and waited. A door leading to an inner room was partially open. + +In the few seconds that intervened before his summons was answered, his +face, seen now in the full light of the lamp, seemed to grow more pallid +and anxious, the mouth beneath the straight moustache and beard grew +hard, the eyes from out their shadowy caverns burned with a restless +light, the cheeks appeared thinner, the forehead more pronounced, the +hand as it rested on the table more nervous and attenuated, while the +ruby in his ring glowed with an evil fire. + +The sharp metallic echo had scarcely died away before the door leading +to the other room was pulled noiselessly open, and a short dark figure +emerged from the interior shadows, and came forward with a cringing, +uncertain gait. + +"Did the Excellenza ring?" the man asked in Italian, standing before the +Count, and speaking in a voice that was both unctuous and false. + +Mellikoff looked at him for an instant before replying, while a smile of +infinite scorn and disgust curled his lips. + +"Yes," he answered shortly, and in the same language, "I did ring; I +require your most valuable services, Mattalini." + +The Italian bowed, and rubbed his hands together. + +"Si, si, Signor," he mumbled, "I am but your servant; you command, I +obey." + +Vladimir paid no attention to this protestation save for another of +those slow, scornful smiles, neither of which escaped the Italian's +notice. + +"You will take this letter, Mattalini," Count Mellikoff continued, +lifting a sealed packet and passing it across the table, "to M. +Stubeloff, who is at present in this city. You will deliver it into his +hands and bring me back a written reply--you understand, Mattalini--a +written reply." + +There was that in the Count's tone that caused the blood to leap hotly +within the Italian's veins; but he only bowed the more obsequiously as +he replied: + +"Si, Signor, I comprehend. The M. Stubeloff is he who represents our +father the Tsar in this _inferno_ of a country; he makes a sojourn here. +_Bene_, he shall receive your packet, Excellenza, from my own hand, and +you shall have his Excellency's written response." + +The man's voice was quiet and respectful enough; but Vladimir caught the +sudden look of hatred that flashed up for one moment in his eyes, and +knew that Mattalini was his secret enemy. As he turned away, Count +Mellikoff spoke again: + +"You will give directions below at the office, that should a lady ask +for me she is to be shown up at once--at once; do you understand?" + +"Si, Signor," replied the man, quietly; and then, with creeping step and +drooping shoulders, he crossed the room, appearing for one moment in the +moonbeams like the shadow of an evil spectre, and then vanishing as +noiselessly as he had entered. + +Once outside the room he stopped and drew a deep breath, lifting his +bowed form, and, raising his right hand, shook the open palm and long +fingers at the closed door. + +"Curse him," he muttered, "curse him root and branch. May the evil eye +never leave him now or hereafter, in life or death!" Then he turned and +walked swiftly down the passage towards the stairs. + +Count Mellikoff, left alone, leant back in his chair with a heavy sigh, +passing his hand wearily across his eyes. The rival musicians had +settled their difficulties by the withdrawal of the barrel-organ, and +only the strains from the German band floated in, mellowed by distance. +It was the "Blue Danube" they were playing, and unconsciously, Vladimir +Mellikoff kept time to the pathos of the under theme with his thoughts. +The look of anxiety deepened on his face, emphasized by the additional +expression of sadness that crept into his eyes. + +And, indeed, he had reason to be both sad and anxious; of late he had +detected in Patouchki's letters and despatches a latent tone of distrust +and suspicion, which he was quick to feel and to resent. + +There were no more veiled allusions to his past ability and faithful +services; no assurances of his proved fidelity to the Tsar; no +commendation of the work already accomplished, such as had come rarely, +to be sure, but yet with sufficient regularity in the earlier stages of +his mission. Rather were there peremptory commands, undisguised +admonitions, and barely concealed innuendoes of dissatisfaction and +distrust on the part of the Chancellerie. + +"Rest assured I shall be the last to misjudge or condemn you, Vladimir," +had run the chief's last letter; "but it becomes me to warn you that +there are others who take a less lenient view of your position than I +do, and who will not scruple to use every indiscretion against you. He +who serves Russia must be prepared to find her not only suspicious, but +ungrateful; it is your high privilege, Vladimir, to be counted among the +most loyal of her servitors; but even to you may come the bitter lesson, +that trifling with her decrees is followed by swift and sure punishment. +The sworn presence of the woman, Adèle Lamien, in Petersburg, to which +Tolskoi has given his oath, but which, as yet, we have been unable to +verify, greatly complicates your position, since the Chancellerie knows +that it was to find her you undertook your present mission. If, in the +month that elapsed between your arrival in the States and her alleged +appearance here, you have allowed her to slip through your fingers, you +know full well the judgment that will be passed upon you. Your telegrams +of late have been vague and uncertain, your letters no more assuring. In +the meantime, and up to this present moment, we have been unable to put +our hands upon this woman; she has disappeared as mysteriously as she +came. And since there is room for doubt in the matter, we prefer to give +you the benefit of that doubt, at least for the present." + +This had been the substance of Patouchki's communication, and Vladimir +could not mistake its tone, even if its meaning had not been further +enhanced by the arrival of the Italian, Mattalini, who came ostensibly +as a bearer of despatches, and with a request, which was more of a +command, that Count Mellikoff would kindly retain him in his service. + +A bitter smile had come to Vladimir's lips as he read the letter of +recommendation and looked at the candidate for his favour standing +before him. Well might Ivor Tolskoi have said, that lying craft and +duplicity were stamped on his every feature. Vladimir Mellikoff but +confirmed these words when he said, half sadly to himself, as the man +turned away: + +"And has it come to this, my chief? Am I to be dogged and watched by +such a paid miscreant as this Italian? Is he to be my 'double,' and am I +to stand or fall according to his testimony? Oh, Russia, hard indeed are +you as a task-mistress, heavy your yoke of iron, and bitter your +recompense!" + +It did not require any great perspicuity to read through the +Chancellerie's design in sending Mattalini to be servant to Count +Mellikoff; and, from the moment the sullen Italian entered his service, +Vladimir felt his evil star had arisen, and his evil hour arrived. + +That Tolskoi should have been the one to swear to the actual presence of +Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich, in Petersburg, when he--Mellikoff--was +hunting her down in America, troubled him but little. Firm in his own +belief, and secure of his ultimate success, he paid small heed to a +chance likeness that might easily have deceived so gay and volatile a +young man as Ivor. Was it likely that he, Valdimir Mellikoff, an old and +tried servant of the Tsar--old at least in experience if not in +years--should be distanced and out-done by a yellow-haired youth still +almost in his adolescence? Count Mellikoff smiled, and put the thought +aside as valueless. + +Much more disturbing and distressing was the scant news he received of +his betrothed. Olga had written once or twice during the first two +months of his self-imposed exile, and then suddenly her letters had +ceased, and he could obtain no further news of her than what he could +glean between the lines of the official telegrams in the daily +newspapers. These were meagre in the extreme, only a bare mention now +and then of the more important items of Russian politics, or her +attitude on the Bulgarian question; but they at least told him that the +Court was still at Petersburg, and therefore he knew Olga to be there +also. With the beginning of the Russian summer she would accompany her +Imperial mistress to Gatschina, or the baths, and then he felt he should +indeed be separated from her. + +Oh, for this weary time of probation to pass! This winning of one more +honour, one more decoration, to lay at her feet; and then to claim his +recompense, his prize, and with his first rapturous kiss upon her proud +lips seal his fealty, and bid a final good-bye to worldly ambition and +reward! + +Immersed in such meditations, Count Mellikoff started nervously as a +sharp rap on the door awoke him from his reverie; with the immediate +self-command of long habit, he instantly controlled both face and +voice, and calling out a "Come in," rose from his chair and walked to +the middle of the room. + +The door was thrown open with the words, "A lady to see you, sir," and +then quickly closed. A slight figure dressed in black, and with a heavy +veil drawn over the face, advanced towards him, and, as Vladimir came +forward, a voice, high pitched despite its whispered words, said +quickly: + +"I have come, but I must beg you will not keep me long." + +For answer Count Mellikoff bowed respectfully and pulled forward an easy +chair. + +"Let me ask you to be seated," he said in his suavest tones, "and pray +remove your veil. I entreat, I insist; the evening is stifling." + +Without a word his visitor sank down upon the chair, and mechanically +unpinned and removed her thick veil; the face beneath the hard outline +of the black hat looked hollow and aged, the dark eyes burned +feverishly, the thin lips were colourless. + +Even to the most superficial observer great and marked were the changes +that a few weeks had wrought there; it bore but a faint and blurred +resemblance to the face that Mr. Tremain had looked on, not unkindly, +two short months ago at the Folly. + +Count Mellikoff turned to the table, and pouring out a glass of claret, +added the ice and Apollinaris with careful exactness, and brought it to +his guest. + +"You must drink this, mademoiselle," he said. "You are looking very +exhausted. _Ma foi_, I cannot compliment you on the temperature of an +American summer!" + +She took the tumbler from him and drank the contents thirstily; as she +put down the empty glass her ungloved hand came within the radius of the +lamp-light. It looked shrunken and attenuated, the rings upon the thin +fingers hung loosely and jangled one against the other. She sat back +wearily, looking up at him with an eager, anxious expression. + +"I must ask you not to keep me long," she said again, "I may be missed +at any moment. It is important I should return as soon as possible." + +Count Mellikoff drew a chair in front of her, and sitting down leant +slightly forward, joining his hands together by the finger-tips. His +position and gesture recalled another like occasion in which she and he +were the chief actors; she shuddered violently and drew back from him +involuntarily. + +"Miss James," began Count Vladimir, in his cold, even tones, "I beg you +will believe that I am fully alive to your disinterestedness in thus +coming to me, and also to the risks you run in so doing. But, as I told +you during our first conversation, in seeking your co-operation in my +work I was well aware you would have to encounter much that must of +necessity be disagreeable to you, since defying or breaking the canons +of conventionality is always an unpleasant experience. You, however, +elected to become my partner in this work--an honour of which I am +deeply appreciative--and you were content to chance the consequences if +you could but work out your own ends in furthering mine. Am I not +correct in my statements?" + +"Yes, yes, oh yes," she replied, hurriedly. "You are quite right, +perfectly correct." + +"I can assure you, mademoiselle," went on Count Vladimir, with a little +smile, leaning somewhat more forward until the heavy, languorous scent +of the gardenia seemed almost to stifle her, "that I have no desire to +detain you longer than is absolutely necessary, though, were I to +consult my pleasure, I would willingly lengthen the visit of one for +whom I entertain such sentiments of respectful admiration. However, +since we cannot consult inclination, let us proceed to duty. What news +have you to give me of our _dramatis personæ_? Let us commence with +Philip Tremain." + +At the mention of this name the girl's white face paled perceptibly, and +her lips quivered. She loved Philip as well and as generously as it lay +in her nature to love any one; and though he had passed her by, even +when conscious of her love for him, it was none the less bitter to find +herself in the position of a spy and informer against him. + +Vladimir Mellikoff saw her hesitancy and read its meaning. + +"It's not pleasant, I admit, mademoiselle," he said, "to be obliged to +speak uncompromisingly of any one; especially must this be the case now +and with you, when you recall Mr. Tremain's pronounced--friendship." + +His jibe told. It was this very friendliness of Philip's attitude +towards her against which she most revolted and beat her passion to +tatters; she could better have borne his anger or hate, than his calm +indifference of friendly interest. + +"Mr. Tremain is no friend of mine," she said, sharply, and with a +short, hard laugh; "his goings and comings are nothing to me, except in +so far as they influence _her_. I have fully admitted to you, Count +Mellikoff, the reason why I shall be glad to see her humbled and +exposed. I do not know why she should nourish, and flaunt her beauty in +my face, when it lies in my power to tear the mask from her and reveal +her real self to the world that flatters and adores her every whim and +caprice." + +"You have both reason and cause on your side, Miss James," replied +Vladimir, quietly. "A woman scorned makes a dangerous enemy. But pardon +me, if I remind you who it is that has placed the power of enmity within +your reach." + +"I have not forgotten," she answered, with almost sullen bitterness; "it +is to you, Count Mellikoff, I owe my weapon of vengeance. I am not +ungrateful." + +Count Mellikoff made a slight bow, and said: "And now as to this Mr. +Tremain, where is he at present; and have you any further news of her?" + +"Up to this morning, Mr. Tremain was not two miles distant from here," +replied Miss James. "He had not left town since his last interview +with--her, until this evening." + +"And has he gone now?" inquired Vladimir, quickly, sitting upright in +his chair. "This is news, indeed. Where has he gone?" + +"That I cannot tell you, but certainly not to her. I called at his +chambers ostensibly on an errand of charity, and the janitor told me he +had left town suddenly. A little judicious questioning elicited the +further details that he had taken but one small portmanteau, given his +man a holiday, and ordered himself to be driven to a landing stage, too +far down town for any boat to start from but an ocean or Sound steamer. +He left no directions for the forwarding of his letters, and made no +plan for returning. He has vanished from out our circle for the present, +and I can give you no clue to his possible destination." + +"It matters but very little," replied Vladimir. "When his presence is +required, the orbit of his destiny will swing round to us again. We can +dismiss him for the present, and be thankful he has so opportunely +vanished into space. And of her, mademoiselle, of Adèle Lamien, as it is +wisest still to call her, since even walls have ears?" + +"You are over-prudent, Count Mellikoff, surely. Still, perhaps it is as +well to keep up the farce to the end. Of Adèle Lamien's escape there is +no fear. She is absolutely in our power; I know her every movement, her +daily avocations; I can put my hand upon her at any moment. She is as +unsuspicious and ignorant of the net closing so securely about her, as +she is that in me she sees her deadliest foe. No, there can be no +failure there; whatever else fails, I am sure of that revenge; that is," +she added, suddenly, "if _you_ are certain--if you are not deceived." + +"No, I am not deceived," replied Count Mellikoff, slowly. "We shall not +have much longer to remain inactive, mademoiselle; I do but attend a +final telegram, and then the blow will fall." + +"I hope so," answered the girl, bitterly; "and may it crush both him and +her when it comes." + +There was a moment's silence before Count Mellikoff spoke again; when he +did, his voice had regained its lighter tones. + +"And Madame Newbold and the charming Miss Dick," he asked; "what of +them?" + +"Still at Newport, on board the _Deerhound_; but they are to weigh +anchor to-night for a longer cruise than any they have yet taken. After +this evening it will be impossible to say when or where telegrams or +letters could reach them." She stopped for a moment, and then said, +abruptly: "And the warrant--you will have no difficulty about that?" + +"I anticipate none. The first steps can, of course, be but +preliminaries. There is no doubt of our securing an arrest, and that is +our first move. With Mr. Tremain lost, so to speak, the _Deerhound_ and +her passengers started on an uncertain cruise; and, New York an empty +wilderness, there is nothing to interrupt the march of events, +mademoiselle. We may look any day now, any hour, for the consummation of +fate." + +"I am glad," again replied the girl; "yes, I am glad. And now I must go; +it grows late. Have you any further instructions to give me?" + +She took out her veil as she spoke, and tied it closely over her face, +listening earnestly meantime to Count Mellikoff's low and rapid +utterances. He spoke quickly, but with decision, and she acquiesced by +her absolute silence. + +As he finished she rose, and drawing her thin black mantle closely about +her, walked rapidly towards the door. Vladimir Mellikoff held it open +for her, but she passed him without word or salutation. + +Half-way down the narrow passage a man overtook her, and turned to +glance at her as he passed. It was the Italian, Mattalini. + + * * * * * + +Later on that same evening, while Philip Tremain paced the deck of the +out-going steamer with restless footsteps, and did battle with the +conflicting emotions that raged within him, Patricia Hildreth, leaning +on the arm of the most distinguished partner of the hour, floated +languidly around to the strains of "Dreamland" waltzes, the most admired +woman of all the bevy of fair women who filled the spacious +drawing-rooms of the "Eversleigh" at Long Branch. Her draperies of +lustrous silk were not more white than her fair face, nor were the +jewels on her bosom more bright and cold, than was the blue fire of her +eyes. Only her smile retained its old charm and sweetness, and belied +the weariness that rested upon her brow. + +She conferred distinction by her presence, and dispensed her favours +with so royal a grace, the recipients of her bounty never stopped to +weigh their value, or count their cost. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THÉ ANGLAIS. + + +Ivor Tolskoi did not see Mdlle. Naundorff again for several weeks. + +On leaving her at the private entrance of the Palace, he had walked away +with Patouchki, towards the Chancellerie, where he was kept busily at +work until late in the afternoon. He purposely avoided the Court circle +in the evening, his presence not being officially demanded, for he felt +he could not so soon again meet Olga's reproachful eyes, and pale +suffering face; a longer interval must elapse before he could greet her +in his accustomed manner. + +The next day he heard of her sudden indisposition through that same +Countess Vera, whose trivial words had first set alight the fire of +vindictiveness in his heart. Ivor was a great favourite in all the +Petersburg _salons_, and his appearance in Countess Vera's drawing-rooms +at the magic tea-hour was hailed with delight. + +A considerable number of the best known _beau-mondaines_ were already +gathered there, to whom the Countess--who was a pronounced follower of +all customs English--was dispensing tea from out a most +un-English-looking samovar. She welcomed Ivor with effusion, and bade +him take the vacant chair beside her low gipsy-table, which with its +dainty tea-cloth and royal Worcester tea-service, looked distinctly out +of place in the large, formal, mirror-hung apartment. + +"It is delightful to see you, _mon cher_," lisped the Countess in her +high voice, looking at him languishingly; "it is ages, eternities, +centuries, since you last honoured one of my _thés anglais_ with your +presence. Positively I believe you have not before seen my newest +importation from that land of fogs and delights. Behold, this is my very +last!" and she pointed gaily to the little table. "I assure you it is +quite correct, quite _comme il faut_, cloth and all. I have it direct +from my dear friend, the Duchess of Hever; it is an exact copy of the +one used by the Princess at Sandringham. The dear English! one quite +grows to love them." + +And the Countess clasped her hands together dramatically, letting them +fall with effect upon her plush tea-gown; against the ruby folds the +diamonds and rubies of her rings flashed triumphantly. + +Tolskoi laughed, his full-hearted boyish laugh, as he took the English +tea-cup she held out to him. + +"You have the courage of your opinions, Countess," he said; "it is well +you are protected by Imperial favour. I know some houses in Petersburg, +where were such frank expressions of Anglo-mania indulged in, they +would be followed by a swift and emphatic caution from the +Chancellerie." + +The Countess shrugged her shoulders. + +"_Ma foi_, I am no politician, no intriguer. I am but a silly moth of +fashion, I do not even pose as a butterfly; but it appeals to my sense +of _bien-etre_ to be on good terms with England; and certainly it is +more politic, since through our Grand Duchess, and our Tsarina, our +dynasty is doubly allied with that country. But there, I see your eyes +are wandering after your thoughts; I regret your disappointment, _mon +cher_, for you will not see her here to-day." + +Tolskoi acknowledged the raillery with another laugh. "Ah, Countess, you +are the fairy of the story books! And why does not Mdlle. Naundorff +honour your _salon_ to-day?" + +"Because she is indisposed," answered Countess Vera, looking up at him +sharply; "she is obliged to keep her own apartments. I fear you took but +poor care of the future Countess Mellikoff, monsieur, for she returned +from the Petropavlovsk inspection looking like a ghost, and scarcely +able to render her light services to the Tsarina, during the evening. +Were the horrors of the Fortress so very pronounced, _mon cher_? You +will have to answer to Count Vladimir, you know, if on his return he +finds his _fiancée_ changed. Already Petersburg rings with your openly +displayed admiration for her cold beauty." + +She laughed as she concluded, and got up slowly from her low chair. Ivor +rose also. + +"I shall be only too happy to answer any charge of Count Mellikoff's," +he said, deliberately, "when he returns." + +Then the Countess Vera glided away from him, and with a word here, a +whisper there, a smile, a nod, a gesture, set afloat the rumour that +society might look for another highly-spiced scandal, as soon as Count +Mellikoff returned, for Ivor Tolskoi, not content with stealing away his +_fiancée's_ allegiance, intended to challenge him as well. + +Wasn't it quite dreadful? Ah, yes, but very romantic! added the little +Countess, to whom intrigue and scandal were as the breath of her +nostrils. + +The conversation now became general, and of course the favourite topic +under discussion was the Imperial visit of yesterday to Petropavlovsk. +Ivor found himself in constant requisition, and his ingenuity not a +little put to the test in replying vaguely yet satisfactorily to the +eager questions poured upon him. + +All interest in the reunion had, however, flown for him directly he +heard the cause of Olga Naundorff's non-appearance, and he managed as +soon as possible to make his _adieux_ to the Countess. + +"Ah," said that little lady, lifting her eyebrows in mock despair. "So +we are to lose you already! We cannot offer you a sufficient attraction, +_mon cher_, to keep you in the absence of the Court favourite. Let me +warn you again, Count Mellikoff is not a man to be trifled with." + +"Nor am I," answered Ivor, incautiously; whereat the Countess Vera +laughed. + +"_Ma foi_," she said, "if you carry matters with so high a hand we shall +have even a more dramatic _esclandre_ than the Stevan Lallovich affair. +By the way, Ivor, what news is afloat concerning Count Vladimir, and his +search for the missing woman? Oh, yes, you see it is no secret to me, +the reason of his departure _là-bas_." + +With which vague and descriptive term and a gesture equally disdainful, +the Countess indicated the broad continent of America. To her +intelligence and imagination, it was but a land of semi-barbarians and +savages, where existence was not worth the price of her smallest luxury. + +Tolskoi replied with a little bow. + +"Ah, Countess," he said, "who can hope to keep any secret from you, and +indeed who would wish to do so? I believe Count Mellikoff is fully +satisfied with his advance so far; it remains only for the Chancellerie +to express an equal approbation." + +Then he bent over the Countess's hand, and with a passing compliment, +made his devoirs and left her. She stood for a moment looking after him +thoughtfully. + +"I would rather not be in Count Mellikoff's shoes," she said to herself, +"should he not succeed. Ivor Tolskoi is not likely to prove a light +enemy, and Ivor Tolskoi means to steal from him not only his sweetheart, +but his reputation." + +Then she laughed a little as she turned gaily back to her gipsy-table, +and her _thé à l'anglaise_. + +Meantime Tolskoi on leaving the Palace Vera, turned his steps towards +the Boulevard de Cavalerio, in the direction of his own apartments. His +brow was clouded and his lips stern as he walked along the gaily-lighted +streets. Evening had already closed in, the long evening of a day late +in March, and the boulevard was full of life and movement. + +Ivor, however, took but little heed of his surroundings, the news he had +just heard concerning Olga, disquieted him not a little, the more so as +his love for her was very great, and he felt that he alone was +answerable for her mental and physical illness. He would have spared her +had it been possible for him to do so, and had he seen any other way out +of his difficulties. His first great object was to win her away from +Mellikoff, whom he knew to be his only serious rival, and to do this he +was willing to descend to any subterfuge. + +He knew her nature sufficiently well to be aware that nothing short of +falsity to her, on Vladimir's part, would serve to break even the light +bonds that held her to him. Mellikoff's greatest power lay in the +protested claims of this his first and only love; and she, in listening +to his protestations, had been more swayed by the sense of her undivided +sovereignty over him, than by any feeling of affection. + +His years and his honours gave him the right to pose as a man of +fashion, whose experiences of a certain kind were but foregone +conclusions; instead, however, of pleading this as a reason for his wish +to _ranger_ himself, he actually offered her a virgin heart, that had +known no warmer mistress than ambition, until he met her, and fell +captive beneath her smile and proud, cold loveliness. + +The paradox of his life was unique, especially in Petersburg; and Olga +had felt a thrill of pride when she looked upon Vladimir's stern face, +and noted the many distinctions of honour that marked his Court dress, +and realised that she, and she only, had won his love and his devotion. +She was the first woman before whom he had bowed his head in haughty +pleading. It was no mean triumph, even for Olga Naundorff, to win and +rule him as an accepted suitor. + +All this Tolskoi realised to the full, and as his passion grew and +strengthened, he determined to hesitate at nothing--no duplicity, no +falsehood--if by it he could awaken suspicion in her mind, and so gain +time for the perfecting of his own ends. Mellikoff's prolonged absence, +and the unexpected meeting with Adèle Lamien in St. Isaac's, gave him +ample basis upon which to work, and furnished him with a plan of attack, +with so much of possible truth in it as to carry instant conviction to +Olga's mind. + +Her heart had always remained untouched, even by Vladimir's devotion; +she had not therefore, the divine instinct of love, by which to sift out +the false from the true. + +And of Ivor it may be said, he believed enough in his allegations to +make their fulfilment an easy possibility; it was, however, quite +outside his calculations that Olga, by a real or feigned illness, should +effectually shut herself off from his personal influence; the more so, +as in a few days he was obliged to leave Petersburg, for his own estates +in the Ural provinces, and his absence would extend over several weeks. +What security had he against adverse circumstances and influences, while +separated from her? Was it not even possible that Mellikoff might +return triumphant? In which case, of what avail would be his schemes and +intrigues? + +Fate, however, was against him, for he did not see Mdlle. Naundorff +before his departure. He was often at the Palace, frequenting the Court +_salon_ with sedulous regularity; but Olga never appeared, and he +learned from the Countess Vera that she was still indisposed, "though +not in danger of death," that little lady added, sharply, and with a +meaning look at Ivor's downcast face. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +"FIND ME THE WOMAN." + + +It was early April, when Tolskoi reluctantly quitted Petersburg, and it +was June before he returned. + +The Court was still at the Winter Palace, for the winter season had been +a long and cruel one, and even with the first days of June, summer +advanced with but lagging footsteps, seemingly unwilling to awake the +gay capital from its long frost-bitten sleep. + +Political affairs also held the Emperor, whose presence in the +metropolis was considered by his ministers to be a necessity; therefore, +when Ivor shook off the dust of many days, travel and alighted from his +_coupé_ at the railway terminus, it was to see the familiar standard +floating from the Winter Palace, and the tall lance-like spire of +Petropavlovsk rising above the creeping waters of the Neva, and piercing +the vivid blue of the sky beyond. The Troitski bridge and Boulevard-park +were gay with passing traffic, and noisy with the cries of the flower +vendors, whose trays and baskets overflowed with the blue violets of the +Novgorod. + +Tolskoi made his way at once to the Imperial Chancellerie, where he +found Patouchki, as he had left him, seated at his desk and busy over +what seemed to Ivor the identical despatches that had surrounded him two +months ago. The only observable change in the chief's _entourage_ lay in +the open windows, and the softness of the west wind, as it stirred the +papers with a gentle touch, and yet that had a bitter chill even in its +caresses. + +Patouchki, he thought, looked worn and harassed; the sallowness of the +flesh tints, the deeper lines about his forehead and mouth, spoke of +days and nights of ceaseless occupation and anxiety; and to Ivor, fresh +from the almost limitless freedom of his wide frontiers, spoke also of +the despotic rule and iron obedience with which those who serve Russia, +must accept Russia's dictates. + +The chief looked up, and greeted him as though but a day's separation +lay between them. + +"Ah, Ivor," he said, "so you are come back. You are welcome." + +Ivor thanked him and turned towards his own desk, where lay neatly piled +together various documents and papers, anticipatory of his expected +return. Several newly cut quills were in the pen-tray, and a fresh +unstained pad was opened invitingly. An amused smile came to the young +man's face; it was all so absurdly natural and familiar; his absence of +weeks faded away and became visionary and unreal, in this crude +matter-of-fact light of official routine. + +What did it matter to Patouchki that he, Ivor, had but just come from +those distant, far-reaching steppes, where the shy game and wild +animals flew before his footsteps, and the miles of low stunted forest +ended only with the horizon line, to meet which the cold grey sky +appeared to curve in an almost perceptible arch. + +Standing alone, amidst his vast possessions, surrounded by a limitless +silence, Tolskoi had better understood than ever before the meaning of +the word freedom, and the unfathomableness of that undefined yet +distinct craving for something higher and greater, than this world +gives, which is implanted in every human heart. That vain, vague +stretching after the unattainable, the blue flower of the mountains, the +edelweiss of the Alps, which grows only on the heights of sacrifice and +abnegation, and which, like the precious stone set with the jewels of +suffering, is only attainable "to him that overcometh." Great indeed is +his reward, "and his joy no man taketh from him." + +Ivor had carried with him during all his long return journey by road +and rail, a recollection of this wider outlook, and it gave him +therefore somewhat of a moral shock to find the world of Petersburg--his +world--busily engaged just as he had left it, not only not recognising +any spiritual change in him, but not even aware of any better or higher +aims than those attainable by intrigue, and shameless pandering to the +powers of the moment. + +Although he had stood face to face with God and Nature, for one brief +moment, what was that to them? Here, in Petersburg, neither the Almighty +nor Nature, had part or lot in the fierce, unending struggle called +life. + +With a shrug of his shoulders Ivor took his accustomed place, and as he +broke the first seal felt the better influences fall from him, and the +old power reassert itself. + +If, as we are told, each soul has its fatal moment of choice, on which +depends its final development, this was that moment for Ivor Tolskoi, +and in accepting the old life with that careless gesture and cynical +smile, he put from him for ever the higher calling that might have been +his, and set his feet in the downward path of deterioration. + +After a short interval of silence, Patouchki turned towards him with his +old imperiousness of manner, and said, abruptly: + +"About this woman, Tolskoi, this Adèle Lamien, whom you avow you saw. So +far we have been unable to obtain any trace of her here, or learn +anything concerning her movements; while on the other hand Count +Mellikoff sends repeated messages of confidence as to his assured +success, and the infallibility of his approaching _coup de main_. So +after all, my dear Ivor, you must have been the victim of a delusion. It +is impossible for Adèle Lamien to be in Petersburg without the +Chancellerie's knowledge." + +"I was not mistaken, chief," replied Ivor, quietly. "I saw Adèle +Lallovich with my own eyes. Hers is not a face to be easily mistaken, +and I would rather trust to my own instincts, than to Count Mellikoff's +written assertions. Answer me one question, chief: has Vladimir +Mellikoff ever, to your knowledge, seen Adèle Lallovich?" + +"Really, Tolskoi, that is a strange question," answered Patouchki; +"frankly, I have never had occasion to ask him. The woman's face was +common property to all Petersburg, at one time, through the +photographers, and considering how well Count Vladimir knew Stevan +Lallovich, it is but natural to suppose his opportunities for seeing his +mistress were numerous." + +"Pardon me, chief, if I differ from you on one or two points," replied +Ivor, with unwonted gravity. "In the first place, you must admit that +Stevan Lallovich did not for some time regard Adèle Lamien in the light +of a mistress. He married her, remember, according to the ceremonies of +the Church of Rome, and it was not until his passion for her grew cold, +that he sought Imperial interference. He kept her exclusively at his +villa across the Neva, and so long as he upheld her position as his wife +was over-scrupulous in his care of her. I have reason to believe that +not one of Count Stevan's boon companions, even Vladimir Mellikoff, was +ever admitted to her presence. The marriage was secret and kept so, and +as long as the infatuation lasted Lallovich showed nothing but respect +to her. _We_ know how sudden was the Imperial ukase, and how little +prepared she must have been for it, was shown by the tragic vengeance +that overtook him. You understand then, chief, why I prefer to trust to +my own instincts rather than to Count Mellikoff's assertions. I did once +see Adèle Lallovich in her happier days, and I am not likely to mistake +her face now, even though disfigured by shame and crime." + +Patouchki had listened attentively to Tolskoi's remarks; he replied to +them by a slight gesture and the words: + +"Granted all that you say is true, Ivor, I fail to see how not knowing +personally this unfortunate woman is any real disadvantage to Count +Mellikoff. He has every facility for tracing her, and we know by +experience that the last evidence to build upon in such a quest is +personal appearance. It needs but the adjuncts of paint, powder, and a +wig, to deceive even Lucifer himself. No, no, that troubles me but +little; what is more of an anxiety is my inability to trace in any way +the accomplice who first assisted Adèle Lamien out of Russia, and who +now--placing credence upon your words--has accomplished her return. +Could I but put my hand on that accomplice, I would soon unearth the +criminal." + +Ivor made no reply save by a significant smile, and the slightest +possible shrug. Patouchki noticed both, and felt irritated at the +implied dissension expressed by them. + +"You have doubtless some theory to advance upon this also," he said, +sharply; "perhaps you will have the goodness to impart it to me." + +"I do not know if my deductions may be dignified by so specific a title +as theory, chief," Ivor replied, imperturbably; "I was but working out a +small sum of calculation, which is at your service. In December last, +Stevan Lallovich was murdered, and the woman calling herself his +wife--though a suspect, and closely watched as such--disappeared, +vanished absolutely. In the following January, Count Mellikoff, at the +request of the Chancellerie, undertook a mission of discovery in the +United States, whither the woman, according to trustworthy evidence, was +supposed to have flown. Two months elapse, and nothing is discovered or +revealed; meantime, you receive satisfactory, if vague, reports from +Count Mellikoff, and the Chancellerie is lulled to inaction for the time +being. At the end of March, I meet Adèle Lallovich face to face in the +heart of Petersburg, where she has arrived without the knowledge of the +Chancellerie, or its agents. That is my problem, chief; now to its +solution. The same powerful influence--whose word was law, whose will +was coercion--that got this woman out of Russia at a critical moment, +has again been successful in sending her back to Petersburg, at a time +when suspicion was thrown off its guard, and when Petersburg was a safer +hiding-place than New York. That is my theory, chief, so far as I have +worked it out." + +Patouchki did not speak for several moments. He sat looking straight +before him, the furrows wrought by anxiety and care plainly visible on +his sallow, stern, set face. + +The shadow of Ivor's veiled meaning was not lost to his quick +perceptions; but he put it from him as unworthy of debate, and turning +again to the young man said, even more sternly than before: + +"I would advise you to be careful, Ivor, in your own interests; it is +best to say less than you know, still less than you suspect. To me you +may speak freely, indeed, I desire you to do so; but beyond these walls, +have a care. What further conclusions do you draw from your elaborate +premises?" + +Ivor, with a quick flush at the suggestion of sarcasm in Patouchki's +voice, replied quietly: + +"But one, and to you, chief, my deductions may seem both absurd and +impossible. You will remember the circumstances of the murder, and you +will, I am sure, concur with me, when I assert that to plan and +accomplish such a crime could not have been the sole unaided work of a +woman. There must have been a bolder and surer brain behind, one who had +sufficient reason to make the perpetration of the murder serve as a +double revenge. Very well then, granting such was the case, who would be +better fitted or more competent to assist the accomplice in crime in her +flight, than he who had helped her to her revenge? Self-preservation +would render this shielding power compulsory, where she was concerned; +for, once she fell into the hands of the Chancellerie, not her life +only, but his, would be the forfeit. I have no doubt, chief, that he who +helped Adèle Lallovich across our frontier, has conveyed her back +again, and--for a reason." + +Tolskoi, as he finished, walked slowly across the room and back again, +halting beside Patouchki. The latter looked up at him with a strange +drawn expression upon his face. There was complete silence for a few +moments; when the chief spoke it was in a very different voice to his +usual harsh tones. + +"And you would suspect----" + +"I suspect no one, chief," answered the young man, his blue eyes +flashing coldly. "I would only suggest that it is a strange coincidence +at least, that shortly after Count Mellikoff's arrival in America, Adèle +Lallovich should reappear in Petersburg." + +He said no more, but turning abruptly, walked back to his desk. + +Patouchki sat immovable for a long time. Ivor's suggestion had fallen +upon him with almost crushing certainty, while mingled with the sense of +humiliation and irritation at being outwitted, was also the feeling of +pain and sorrow that he, who had thus outwitted him, should be the one +in whom he had most implicitly trusted. + +Like Olga Naundorff, there appeared to him no room for doubt. Ivor's +very appearance, his boyish _insouciance_ and frank bearing, were but +additional witnesses to that other's treachery. And yet, and yet, could +it be true? Should he not do well to wait just a little longer before +condemning the absent? Could he but find the woman, could he but put his +hand upon her! Were she really in Petersburg now, what greater evidence +of perfidy could he desire, with those damning proofs in the shape of +recent despatches and cables lying now on his desk? He turned at last, +and spoke with apparent effort. + +"Tolskoi, your warning is understood. Find me the woman, here in +Petersburg, and I shall then know how to act." + +"I will find her," replied Ivor, with stern brevity; and, accepting +Patouchki's words as a dismissal, he bowed and left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +"THIS LITTLE HAND." + + +Late that same evening Tolskoi made his appearance at the Palace, in the +outer _salon_, where he found the usual gathering of officials and +_dames d'honneur_ with their invited guests. His reception was a +flattering one, and his return to the _beau-mondaine_ circles hailed +with acclamation. + +The heavy curtains to the inner _salon_ were closely drawn, indicative +of the Tsar and Tsarina's desire to remain unmolested for the present. +The evening was very warm, and most of the long windows stood open, the +wind gently swaying the light draperies. + +Beneath the casements the Neva crept by in slow rippling motion; the +moonlight falling athwart its grey opaqueness, woke here and there +sudden gleams of radiance. It struck also across the blank stone wall of +the Trubetskoi bastion, accentuating its grim outlines, and, shooting +far upwards, tipped the lance-like spire of Peter's Fortress with golden +fire. + +The Countess Vera was the first to welcome Tolskoi, smiling up at him, +as she did so, and waving her great fan of scented lace to and fro +languidly. + +"Oh, are you returned, _mon cher_? What a pleasure! And what a surprise +to _some one_! Oh, yes, she is here, and quite ravishingly beautiful. +For the moment she is with her Imperial Majesty. How hot it is, _mon +cher_, and what a cruelty that the Court regards no one's convenience, +save its own! One so longs to be flying westward." + +"Is it so unsupportable?" replied Ivor in his clear youthful voice, +looking very handsome and young as he bent down towards the miniature +lady. "Upon my word, when I am near the Countess Vera, I lose all +sensation but one of supreme well-being." + +"Ah, flatterer!" cried the little Countess, tapping him lightly on the +arm with her fan. "See, here she comes." + +At that moment the velvet curtains at the far end of the grand _salon_ +parted for a moment, to allow the egress of a tall slight figure, that +moved down the room with an almost regal grace, and whose white +draperies of soft lustreless silk swept after her in rhythmic curves. + +It was Olga, and Ivor, as he beheld her after two months of separation, +felt his heart leap up in glad response to her beauty. + +Indeed, never had she looked more beautiful. The grand curves of her +perfect figure, well defined by the low-cut bodice and falling laces of +her dress, her head, carried with all its imperial haughty grace, +crowned by the masses of her golden hair, her eyes so deep and wonderful +beneath the dark level brows, the "pomegranate flower" of her mouth +showing vividly against the colourless fairness of her complexion. She +wore a sapphire and diamond ornament upon her neck, and the rare stones +flashed and scintillated beneath her quick-coming breath. + +Ivor stepped forward eagerly, his face flushed with the renewed ecstasy +of her presence, and bending low before her, murmured some inaudible +greeting. The Countess Vera watched them, a smile on her brilliant +little face. + +Olga drew back, with an almost imperceptible movement, and with a sudden +dramatic gesture repelled, rather than welcomed, the young man. She had +not seen him since that day when at his thinly veiled allusions, and +suggestive words, all trust and belief in the truth and honesty of human +nature died within her. In that brief hour's drive it seemed to her she +had grown years older, and beyond that day she never looked. + +With the melting of the snows of winter she had put from her whatever +of softness or leniency belonged to her girlhood; with her womanhood she +adopted the creed of her world, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a +tooth." + +"Ah, Ivor," she exclaimed, controlling instantly both voice and manner, +and holding out her hand in greeting, "so you have come back. What an +eternity you have been away! Petersburg has been only half itself +without you." + +She smiled as she spoke, and the charm of her smile counterbalanced the +indifference of her tones. + +"Petersburg cannot have been so desolate without me, as I have been +without Petersburg," answered Tolskoi, gaily. "Is one permitted, +mademoiselle, to express one's admiration and pleasure in beholding you +so radiant and so--happy?" + +"One is permitted always to speak one's mind in this age of +enlightenment," she replied, carelessly, though the meaning of Ivor's +question had not escaped her. + +"And what news do you bring with you?" she continued, a little +hurriedly. "One is bored to extinction here, kept so late in town, and +with such a dearth of novelty that counting flies upon the wall becomes +an exciting pastime." + +She had walked on as she spoke, separating herself from the Countess +Vera by a slight farewell gesture; Ivor kept pace at her side. When they +drew near one of the deep embrasured windows she stopped, and motioned +Ivor to the low cushioned seat beneath. But he refused to avail himself +of her invitation, preferring to stand at her side and look down upon +her. She sank languidly back upon the velvet cushions. + +In the music gallery, at one end of the great _salon_, the Household +band were playing an arrangement of some of the wild, sad, national +airs. The strains floated to them across the rippling current of light +laughter and gay voices, like the under-chord of melancholy that runs +always side by side with the happier melodies of life's theme. + +Ivor was the first to speak, and, as he did so, Olga turned her head +somewhat away from him. + +"You ask me for news, mademoiselle; that is, indeed, somewhat singular. +How can I bring you news from my wild province which should prove of +interest to you? Let me rather ask that question. What do you hear from +Count Mellikoff, mademoiselle, and how prospers his mission?" + +She did not reply at once, and Tolskoi, watching her averted face, saw +the jewels on her bosom rise with a sudden, quick, indrawn breath. + +When she spoke it was with an almost exaggerated assumption of +carelessness. + +"I hear nothing of, or from Count Mellikoff." Then, after a moment's +pause, "Are you more fortunate?" + +"If you like to call it so. My latest intelligence is to the effect, +that having been successful beyond his expectations, he looks forward to +an immediate return, and to the reward he feels he has fairly earned." + +"Ah!" she exclaimed, quickly, "you surprise me. And the woman--is she +found?" + +"According to Count Mellikoff's despatches he does not doubt his soon +having her in his power," answered Ivor, slowly. "But as we know, +mademoiselle, there is considerable truth in the old saying about the +cup and the lip. Even Count Mellikoff may find himself mistaken." + +"And you?" she asked, still with averted head, and in her assumed +careless voice. "May not you be mistaken? It would seem that this--this +woman--whom you say you saw, must after all, have been but a delusion of +your too ready imagination, since Count Mellikoff is so certain of his +success." + +"No, I am not mistaken, mademoiselle," answered Ivor, gravely. "When +Count Mellikoff returns victorious, it will be my turn to win +distinction; and he who wins last wins best, you know. When that time +comes, Olga, _I_ shall claim my reward, and you will give it to me." + +"Your reward?" she questioned, turning her face towards him at last, and +looking up straight into his eyes. + +"Yes, my reward," he replied, "my reward, which will indeed have been +hardly won." + +He stooped and lifted her hand. "This hand, Olga, this little slender +hand; that is what I shall claim, and that is what you will give to me." + +She made him no answer, save to let her fingers lie passively in his. +Presently he bent and kissed them, then quietly putting her hand down, +he turned and walked from her. + +When near the great doors he looked back. She was sitting as he had left +her, passive and unmoved, with the shadows cast by the lightly swaying +curtains half shielding her face, and the grey darkness of the starless +sky for a background. + +Her hand lay as he had put it down, motionless upon her lap. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +ARRESTED! + + +It was September before Philip Tremain turned his face homeward again, +leaving behind him the deep, silent forests, already donning their +wonderful autumn tints, and the silent waveless lake on whose bosom his +boat had so often lain motionless for hours, drifting slowly with the +almost imperceptible movement of the tide; while he, stretched full +length along its narrow planking, his arms folded beneath his head, +watched with speculative eyes the clear blue of the heavens, the passing +of the fleecy clouds, the sweeping up of the rain mists, the birth of +the stars, the rising loveliness of the crescent moon. + +He had sought these solitudes to find some specific against the unrest +and discontent of his heart. He had flown from the haunts of men, +craving the healing power of nature, trusting to find forgetfulness in +her potent charm. He had come to the very fountain head of nature, +hoping to forget Patricia, and behold, nowhere was she more present to +him. Nowhere did the spell of her beauty, her contradictions, work such +havoc to his peace of mind. + +The very motion of the boat, the blue waters of the lake, the "breath of +the pine woods," the low rapid flight of a bird across the sky, all +reminded him of her, and brought her so vividly before him as to cause +him defined physical pain. + +It was not, however, as the Miss Hildreth of the present, that she +appeared to him--the successful beauty, the indifferent woman of the +world, the jesting advocate of to-day's hateful creeds--but rather as +the Patty of ten years ago; the Patty of his first passion, the love of +his adolescence, the clear-eyed, honest-hearted, bewitching, wilful +Patty of his first devotion. + +He had sought for forgetfulness, but he had not found it; and so, after +a month spent in unsatisfying and unsatisfactory inter-communion, he +repacked his portmanteau one glorious autumn morning, bid good-bye to +his little skiff, and to the silent sympathy of the pine woods, cast a +long regretful look over the deep blue lake, and turning his steps +towards the inartistic railway station, five miles distant, by afternoon +of the same day was crossing the tortuous streets of Boston, preparatory +to ensconcing himself comfortably in a "Pullman Express" for New York. + +He reached that city in due time, and was at once immersed in the rush +and go of its restless life. The streets were all alight, the open +windows of hotels and restaurants displaying brightly dressed groups +within, to whom the chief aim of existence for the hour was apparently, +the excellence of a favourite ice, or the proper quality of the +champagne _frappé_. Along the side-walks a varied crowd was constantly +passing; shop-girls mostly, in large hats and pretty frocks, whose tired +faces were flushed and eager, or pale and weary, according as they +walked alone, or kept company with some smart young male assistant. +Philip noticed with a half wonder, that each of these work-girls wore +long gloves half-way up their arms, and that their low shoes were +"dressy" to a degree, with patent tips and abnormally high heels, on +which they limped along with heroic courage. The theatres were not out +as yet; but Delmonico's and the Brunswick, were in the full swing of +early evening traffic, and many were the envious glances cast by the +weary pedestrians upon the more favoured few of fortune within those +hospitable walls. + +As Mr. Tremain let himself into his rooms with a pass key, he could not +but feel how dreary and un-homelike was such a return. He had not +telegraphed word of his arrival, and so found himself the sole occupant +of the dark building; his servant and the care-taker were evidently +enjoying life abroad this fine evening, and apparently the other +_habitués_ of the place were similarly employed. + +He threw open the door of his sitting-room and entered; the room was in +semi-darkness, the only light being a reflected one from the street +lamps, and the moon which shone through the unsheltered windows. The +furniture looked ghostly in the chintz over-coverings, and the faint +gleam of gilded picture-frames and mirrors only added a further touch of +unreality. On the writing-table he could just distinguish a pile of +letters and newspapers--the accumulation of four weeks' absence; they +seemed to him as the hand of civilisation, stretched out across the +month of isolation and solitude, which separated him from the world of +yesterday and to-day. + +Striking a match he lit two of the wax candles in a small girandole; but +they served only to make the darkness more apparent, and he was turning +impatiently towards his bedroom, still holding the lighted taper, when +the sound of quick hurrying feet, coming rapidly up the stone staircase, +arrested his attention. + +Why these particular sounds should at once arouse surprise and +apprehension in his mind, he could not tell; many footsteps passed up +and down the staircase in the course of the twenty-four hours, and as a +rule he neither heard nor heeded them. But something in these quick +agitated steps, with the tap of a light heel on each stair, disturbed +him strangely. + +The wax vesta burned down to his fingers and went out; and as the red +spark vanished the footsteps halted, and Philip could distinctly hear +the hurried respiration and quick-caught breath of some one just without +his door. No sensation of fear or supernatural alarm overcame him, he +stood quite still and waited; and as he thus stood counting these brief +moments of suspense, he felt himself to be saying inwardly, that he was +not at all surprised, it was only what he had expected--this night +visitant--it was what he had come home for, the reason why he dared not +linger longer beside the blue lake, in the depths of the keen-scented +hemlock forest. + +The hurried breathing grew more distinct; an uncertain hand was laid +upon the handle of the scarcely closed outer door; there was the click +of the catch being pushed hastily back; the rustle of a garment, the +quick steps along the short passage, and then a figure detached itself +from the enshrouding shadows and stood irresolute upon the threshold of +the room. + +A figure closely muffled in a long dark cloak, and a shadowy hat, +beneath whose wide brim a white face flashed, and two eager eyes looked +out, peering into the half lighted obscurity beyond. + +It was but half a second the figure stood there, irresolute; then with a +swift impulsive gesture it moved forward towards Philip, and as the +light from the candles fell full upon the face, Mr. Tremain started, and +then advanced quickly. + +"Miss Dick!" he exclaimed. "You, and here!" + +"Oh, yes," cried that young lady, still breathing very fast and speaking +incoherently, her words rushing one on top of the other. "Oh, yes, it is +I, and I am so glad to find you! I've been here twice already, each +evening since we came back, and the door was always locked. To-night I +saw the lights and thought at least I should hear something about you. +Oh, Mr. Tremain, I am so glad you have come back at last!" + +She stopped and looked at him appealingly, clasping and unclasping her +fingers, with nervous impatience. + +Philip was the least vain of men, but for one moment certainly a +terrible thought did half form itself in his mind, as to the motive +which had induced this most compromising visit. Was his little friend +Miss Dick quite off her head, and was he in any way answerable for her +aberration? The idea was not agreeable. + +"My dear Miss Dick," he began, gravely, but she interrupted him. + +"Oh, I thought you were never, never coming back again! That idiot of a +care-taker and your fool of a servant, couldn't, or wouldn't, tell me +anything about you. They only grinned discreetly behind their hands. Oh, +what have you been doing to stay away like this, and never leave a scrap +of an address behind you?" + +"Good heavens!" thought Philip, "decidedly the poor girl is out of her +mind, and if Tomkins, or Mrs. Barker have seen her like this, it will be +all over town in a week, and her reputation nowhere." + +"My dear Miss Dick," he said again, but Miss Darling evidently had no +ears save for her own voice. + +"It's perfectly dreadful--awful," she continued. "It has nearly broken +my heart, and to think you should be away just when you were most +needed, and I _couldn't_ find you. And it is so hot, too, and such a +season to be shut up in New York. Oh, why didn't you come before? What +made you go away at all? I told Esther I would never rest until I found +you, because I knew you could do something. You have always been a good +friend to me, Mr. Tremain, you won't refuse me, will you?" + +The tears were in her bright brown eyes as she spoke, and Philip, roused +out of his self-consciousness by the sight of her earnestness, found +himself saying, impetuously: + +"What is it I can do for you, Miss Dick? You know I won't refuse, +whatever you may ask." + +"Oh, then go, go at once! Why do you stand looking at me so stupidly?" +she cried, impatiently. "Every moment is precious, and here you are +wasting them by the dozen!" She stamped her foot. "Why don't you go?" +she repeated. + +Philip, made more and more bewildered, could only look at her in vacant +surprise, a fact that had the effect of reducing Miss Darling to +silence, out of sheer rage. + +"Go?" he said, slowly, repeating her words mechanically. "Go?--but where +am I to go?" + +"Ah," she gasped, beating her hands together, "how stupid you are, how +cold, how cruel! Where are you to go? Why--but no, stay, it will be +better if you come with me. Will you come--at once, directly? Here is +your hat," and she caught up that article of apparel from off the table, +and held it out to him. "Oh, do make haste," she cried, "do come with me +at once." + +But Mr. Tremain was not to be carried off in so unceremonious a manner. +He took the hat out of her hand and laid it back on the table, before he +said very quietly: + +"My dear Miss Dick, I will go with you to any place you may name; but +first, I do beg of you, compose yourself a little, and tell me what it +is you want me to do; who it is you want me to see?" + +Miss Darling pulled herself together with an evident effort. + +"I want you to go with me to Ludlow Street Jail," she said, speaking +very slowly, "to see Patricia Hildreth." + +Had a cannon ball dropped at his feet, or the foundations of the house +given way beneath him, Mr. Tremain could not have experienced a more +sudden or appalling shock. The words reached him, but it seemed as if +they came from miles away. He saw the dark, alert figure standing before +him, whose bright, dark eyes never left his face, whose nervously +working hands were so suggestive; but it lost all identity to him. It +was not Dick Darling who stood there, entreating him to make haste, not +to delay; it was some phantom, some Nemesis from out the past, whose +words and entreaties were as unreal as the shadows that came creeping +out of the corners, revealing bit by bit the cunningly-concealed +spectres. + +"Come with you to Ludlow Street!" he gasped at last, "to see Patricia +Hildreth. What do you mean?" + +"Oh, I mean what I say," cried Dick, her voice high and strained; "it is +quite true. She is there. She has been arrested." + +"Arrested!" gasped Philip. "Arrested--Patricia!" + +"Oh! yes, yes," sobbed Miss Darling, the tears running down her face. +"She has been arrested, she is in prison--she will die. She is innocent. +I know she is innocent, I know it." + +"Arrested!" cried Philip again, unable to grasp more than this one +direct fact, and quite unmindful of Dick's tears and protestations. +"Arrested! And for what?" + +"Oh, that is the most terrible thing of all," wept Dick. "It's so +horrible I don't know how to tell you; she is arrested on a suspicion +of murder." + +"My God!" cried Philip. "What horrible mockery is this?" + +"Oh, will you come, will you come?" implored Dick, wringing her hands. +"Oh, only think, she is shut up there all alone. She has been in that +hateful place for hours, for days, while we have all been away dancing, +and flirting, and being happy and amused; and she has been alone--all +alone--shut up in prison with no one to go to her, no one to help her. +Oh, I could beat myself for never knowing, never dreaming of her +trouble!" + +"It is horrible," said Philip again, in the same low, inward voice in +which he had spoken since Dick's first outburst. "It is infamous. Who +has done this thing? Who has brought this charge?" + +He spoke sternly, and looked at Dick with eyes that burned her very +soul. + +"The Russian Count," she answered slowly. "Vladimir Mellikoff." + +Mr. Tremain made no reply. He turned abruptly away from her and walked +over to the window, and stood there looking out into the night. + +The street was a quiet one at all times, and now even a solitary passing +footstep echoed far ahead in the absolute silence. But had it been +mid-day, with its roar and rumble of traffic, Philip would have heeded +it as little as he now heeded the stillness and desertion. + +His mind was far away, busy with a thousand wild conjectures, a thousand +improbable suggestions. The whole of the past ten years appeared to roll +themselves out before him, full to overflowing with dark suspicions, +unassailable doubts, maddening possibilities. The poison distilled by +Miss James's smooth tongue had done its work; how could he tell what +those past years might cover, what deed or crime be hidden in their +protecting folds? + +Ten years lay between him and the Patricia of his youth; was his faith +in her so unshaken as to admit of no room for doubt? Ah, there lay the +sting! He did doubt, and in that lay the keenest torture of this +terrible moment. Indeed, as he thought of her mocking raillery, of her +pronounced indifference, her assumed cynicism and misanthropy, he felt +there was room for doubt, there was room for suspicion, there was room +for condemnation. Would to God, that he could proclaim aloud a like +faith in her innocence, a like belief in her unsullied past, a like +valour in her defence, as did Miss Darling! Would to God he had but the +memory of her--pure and untainted--as she was ten years ago in which to +trust, and by which to fight for her! + +For indeed, he knew it would come to that; he should fight for her, yes, +inch by inch, even though the game was a losing one. He would give her +of his best, he would bring to bear all his possessions of legal acumen, +brilliant pleading, forensic argument; she should not fail or be beaten +down, if his strength and his reputation counted for anything. + +He had loved her--yes--and he loved her now; he knew it; better perhaps +in her hour of humiliation than in that of her triumph; and for that +love's sake he would spend and be spent in her behalf. And yet, ah yet, +there must be ever and always resting between him and her that + + "Little rift within the lute, + That ever widening, makes the music mute." + +Meantime Miss Darling, standing where he had left her, watched him +keenly. The eyes beneath the broad brim of her hat were soft and gentle, +the tears still lay upon her cheeks. Instinctively she recognised the +anguish of the man before her, and she respected it, looking on with +reverent but unspoken sympathy. Presently she moved quietly across the +room and approached him; he paid no attention to her; apparently he had +forgotten her very existence. She put one hand timidly on his arm. + +"Will you come?" she said. "Oh, will you come with me--to Patricia? +Only think how long she has waited! Only think of Patricia--our +Patricia--in prison on so vile a suspicion!" + +He looked down upon her, and at the hand resting on his arm; his face +was drawn and aged, his eyes dark with suffering. + +"Yes, I will come," he said; "I will go with you. My God, only to think +of it! Patricia--Patty--in prison, and for murder!" + +He took up his hat mechanically, and followed her as she led the way +down the dimly lighted stairs, their footsteps echoing drearily behind +them. And so together they passed on and out of the dark building, and +were swallowed up in the greater darkness of the night. + +The wax candles in the wall-sconces burnt on all through the long night +hours, and died out only as the early sunlight struck athwart their +feeble rays. On the table lay the accumulated letters and papers, one +marked across the face "immediate," in a strong, bold hand. On the +floor a glove had dropped, and close beside the door lay a withered +rose-bud, as it had fallen from Dick's breast-knot. + +And the morning hours grew into noontide, and gave place to afternoon, +followed in turn by the shadows of evening; but neither the master of +the deserted room, nor the girl with the bright eyes beneath the wide +hat, came back to it. And so another day was born, and died, and slipped +away into eternity within the narrow confines of that solitary chamber. + + +END OF VOL. II. + + * * * * * + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Hildreth, Volume 2 of 3, by +Augusta de Grasse Stevens + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40432 *** |