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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40433 ***
+
+                            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. III.
+
+    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 VIGIL                                 1
+
+       CHAPTER II. LUDLOW STREET JAIL                     22
+
+      CHAPTER III. "FATHOM HER MOTIVES, PHILIP"           33
+
+       CHAPTER IV. MIXED MOTIVES                          54
+
+        CHAPTER V. A WOMAN'S LOGIC                        74
+
+       CHAPTER VI. A QUESTION OF COMITY                   86
+
+      CHAPTER VII. NON-COMMITTAL                         104
+
+     CHAPTER VIII. A DAMAGING PROMISE                    117
+
+       CHAPTER IX. CONFLICTING IDENTITIES                134
+
+        CHAPTER X. A GLEAM OF LIGHT                      153
+
+       CHAPTER XI. CHECKMATE                             169
+
+      CHAPTER XII. OUR LADY OF KAZAN                     183
+
+     CHAPTER XIII. NO EXPLANATION                        205
+
+      CHAPTER XIV. "FORGIVE HER"                         218
+
+       CHAPTER XV. VLADIMIR'S WELCOME                    233
+
+      CHAPTER XVI. AN ETERNAL FAREWELL                   251
+
+     CHAPTER XVII. AFTER TEN YEARS                       268
+
+
+
+
+MISS HILDRETH.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A VIGIL.
+
+
+The news of Patricia Hildreth's arrest on a criminal warrant had flown
+like wild-fire throughout society. Mr. Tremain found himself almost the
+only one of his world not cognisant of the facts from the beginning; and
+as he listened to one garbled statement after another, coloured
+according to the narrator's fancy, he cursed the evil fortune and his
+own selfishness, that had kept him so effectually out of the way, and
+made him play so blindly into the enemies' hands.
+
+He knew very well that had he been at home, or allowed his letters and
+papers to be forwarded to him, matters would never have reached so
+serious a pass; but shutting himself away as he had done from all
+outside communication, there had been no one at hand to avert the blow
+as it fell, or to force a more definite showing from the attacking
+parties, before the extreme measure of arrest was put into execution.
+
+Esther Newbold's absence, and the uncertain movements of the
+_Deerhound_, had proved an additional disaster for Patricia. It was only
+on the yacht putting in at New London, that Esther heard of her friend's
+trouble. A flaming poster outside the hotel had caught Mrs. Newbold's
+attention as she sauntered along the planked side-walk with Miss
+Darling, and the next moment they were both reading with horrified
+comprehension the bold sensational headings:
+
+"Arrest of Miss Hildreth. Further developments expected shortly. Miss
+Hildreth's appearance in Ludlow Street, etc., etc."
+
+These were the lines, in staring red letters, that first greeted Esther
+on her landing, after a three weeks' cruise; and their effect upon her
+can better be imagined than described. She was, however, essentially a
+person of action, and not an hour had passed before she, her husband,
+and Dick Darling, were on their way to New York, leaving the yacht and
+its guests to dispose of themselves.
+
+That Patricia should be in such dire trouble, and alone, struck Esther
+as something so preposterous as to be almost incredible. Patricia, who
+counted her lovers and admirers by the score; who was always triumphant
+and victorious and worshipped wherever she appeared; whose smile was a
+reward highly coveted; whose favour was a prize eagerly courted--to be
+in prison, arrested on some crime too horrible even to be named. Alone;
+subjected to indignities and privations whose very meaning had been
+hitherto unknown to her easy, luxurious existence.
+
+"Ah, do let us get to her at once," Esther had cried, imploringly, after
+she had poured out all the horrible story in George Newbold's
+astonished ears. "Only to think of her in that dreadful place; how she
+must suffer! And in this weather too, so hot and breathless as it is;
+and we never knowing all the time, but enjoying ourselves like brutes
+and heathens! Oh, Patricia, Patricia, is this what your wilfulness has
+brought you to? Oh, George, do make haste; and to think what a viper we
+entertained in that dreadful Count Mellikoff!"
+
+"Well, he certainly hasn't turned out an angel," answered George, in his
+slow fashion. "For once, my dear Esther, the scripture has gone back on
+itself, for he _was_ a stranger, and we made him very welcome; in return
+for which he took us in most neatly."
+
+"Don't be profane," retorted his wife, "I'm sure this is no time for
+such joking. Isn't poor Patty a lesson to us all, and the evil that has
+overtaken her a judgment on our folly? But will you make haste? We shall
+lose the train if you are so deliberate. There's the gig along-side at
+last; good-bye, my Mimi, be very good and you shall come to Mumsey in a
+day or two."
+
+She put her little daughter out of her arms, drew down her veil, and
+hurried off her husband and Miss Darling, without further leave-takings.
+Little Marianne stood on the deck straining her blue eyes for a last
+glimpse of the dancing boat, her white frock and golden hair fluttering
+in the light breeze.
+
+Mr. Tremain found himself embarked on a fruitless expedition when he
+yielded to Dick Darling's entreaties and started off impetuously to
+visit Miss Hildreth in prison, and, as Dick evidently expected, wrest
+her there and then from its odious confines.
+
+Indeed, had he been less overwhelmed by the calamity that had fallen
+upon Patricia, he would have saved himself the needless journey; for,
+although the evening was still young when they reached the gloomy
+building, no amount of bribery or corruption could effect an entrance at
+that hour. In vain Philip pleaded the exigencies of the case and his
+own legal position; the not too polite official was adamant to all
+entreaties. His instructions were decisive; any one wishing to see the
+prisoner must come at the proper hours, and with a proper permit.
+
+"But I am her counsel," urged Philip, with a reckless disregard of
+truth.
+
+The man looked at him disdainfully. "I guess that won't wash, Judge," he
+said, and turned away determinately.
+
+Mr. Tremain looked down at Dick, who stood crying openly beside him, not
+even taking the trouble to wipe away the tears as they fell.
+
+"It's no use, Miss Dick," he said, "we can do nothing until morning. You
+must let me take you home."
+
+"Oh, it's too horrible," cried Dick, sobbing. "It's brutal, it's wicked!
+Only to think that poor Patricia is _somewhere_ in this awful place and
+we can't get to her. Oh, Mr. Tremain, which one of those dreadful
+windows with the iron bars belongs to her----?" she could not bring
+herself to say "Cell," so choked down the final word in a fresh burst of
+tears.
+
+"Ah, which indeed!" answered Philip, sadly. The same thought had come to
+him, as his eyes traversed quickly the long blank stone front of the
+building, its monotony of outline only broken by the narrow barred
+casements.
+
+Behind which of those apertures lay Patricia, abandoned in her
+extremity? Her beauty tarnished, her fair name tossed from lip to lip,
+her character at the mercy of an unsympathetic human world.
+
+"Oh, Patty, Patty," he cried to his own heart; "has it come to this, my
+love? Have all your pride and loveliness brought you only to this?"
+
+He turned away slowly, and, drawing Dick's hand within his arm, led her
+to the carriage that stood some little distance down the street.
+
+"Will you go back to Esther?" he asked as he helped her in.
+
+"Yes," she answered; "and oh, Mr. Tremain, come with me; oh do, please
+do."
+
+He hesitated for a moment; then giving the address, stepped in and
+seated himself beside her.
+
+Neither Philip nor Miss Darling ever forgot that long night drive, or
+the moving panorama made up of lights and shops and people, that seemed
+for ever passing and repassing before them. It was as if they stood
+still, while all this restless pageant went by them in brilliant
+sequence.
+
+As they turned into Broadway, and drove somewhat slowly up that narrow
+thoroughfare, they met the stream of pleasure-seekers at its height; the
+theatres were just over, and a crowd of brightly-dressed, gay-voiced
+people were passing from the entrances into the streets. Now and then a
+light laugh, or some careless jest, would reach the silent occupants of
+the carriage, and wound them; as a blow wounds falling upon a hurt still
+fresh and bleeding.
+
+"Oh," cried Dick at one such moment, "how cruel the world is, how
+unfeeling! Ah, Mr. Tremain, how can any one laugh and jest when _she_
+lies in that awful place,--while Patricia is in prison?"
+
+But Philip said nothing; the anguish of his own heart was too absorbing
+to leave room for superfluous words of comfort. For no anguish is so
+great and so overwhelming, as the knowledge of one's powerlessness to
+help when one's best beloved is in dire need of aid.
+
+Fifth Avenue was reached at last, heralded a long way off by the huge
+electric transparency, which flaunts its advertisement high above the
+heads of the pedestrians, and causes the very stars of heaven to pale
+before its garish light.
+
+Turning down a side street, well up among the "thirties," and then into
+Madison Avenue, the coachman drew up before a large brown stone house,
+across whose many-windowed front not a light was to be seen, save the
+faint gas-jet of the ornamental brass sconce in the vestibule.
+
+Miss Darling sprang out unassisted, and running quickly up the steps,
+pulled out a latch-key and swung open the door as Philip came up behind
+her.
+
+"You will find Esther in her morning-room," she said briefly, and
+leaving him to find his own way, turned towards the stairs. Philip
+watched her as she mounted them wearily, step by step. There was
+dejection and despondency in her movements, and in the tired droop of
+the young shoulders beneath the long dark cloak.
+
+A deeper feeling than he had ever believed it possible for him to
+entertain for gay, volatile Miss Dick, had been born within his heart
+that evening; and, as he stood now and watched the girlish figure fade
+into the shadows of the upper corridor, it was with a sense of sudden
+loneliness that he turned and walked slowly across the wide entrance
+hall.
+
+Mrs. Newbold's town house wore that look of desolation and inhospitality
+that is born of holland covers over the furniture, carpets rolled up
+into corners, statues, ornaments, and chandeliers wrapped in protecting
+winding-sheets. The advent of the mistress of the house had been sudden
+and unexpected, and the mansion had not as yet thrown off the depressing
+atmosphere of care-takers and board-wages.
+
+In Esther's boudoir, however, matters were a little more homelike; the
+cases had been taken off the chairs and couches, and various feminine
+belongings, flowers and books, redeemed somewhat the forlornness of
+shrouded pictures, and a fireless hearth.
+
+Mr. Tremain knocked in a perfunctory way on the door, and immediately
+Mrs. Newbold's voice bade him enter. He found her lying on a couch drawn
+up to an open window, over which the Venetian blind had been lowered.
+
+She had been crying bitterly, and the face she raised from the pillows
+bore but a faint resemblance to its usual _insouciant_ blonde
+prettiness, in the blurred lines, heavy eyes, pallid cheeks, and tumbled
+golden hair.
+
+She sprang up impetuously on seeing Mr. Tremain, and ran towards him
+holding out her hands in welcome.
+
+"Oh, Philip," she cried, "have you come at last? Oh, is it not all too
+dreadful? Have you seen her, Philip? How is she? Is she brave and full
+of courage? Oh, Patricia! poor, poor Patricia!"
+
+Mr. Tremain took her hands in his as he answered:
+
+"No, I have not seen her, Esther. We were too late."
+
+She turned away from him and sank down again on the couch, looking up at
+him with the tears gathering in her tired blue eyes.
+
+"I made sure you would see her," she said, simply. "I never doubted
+your power, I never thought _you_ could fail."
+
+"Alas, I am not omnipotent," he answered, somewhat bitterly. "Even a
+little brief authority, officially bestowed, can render me powerless. It
+will not be for very long, however. I shall go back again at the
+earliest possible hour in the morning."
+
+"And you will help her, Philip, you will not let any foolish feeling of
+pique come between you and her now? You will not remember her cruelties,
+you will only think of her sufferings? Oh, Philip, you must take up this
+matter for her, and you must plead for her, when the time comes, as you
+have never done before. You will, Philip, promise me you will?"
+
+"There is little need for that," he answered, sadly; "all my services
+are at her disposal if she will accept them."
+
+"Yes, I am sure of it," replied Esther. "Ah, Philip, I did not think
+_this_ would be the service she was to require from you, when I begged
+you, that last day at the Folly, to help her if occasion came."
+
+"No, nor did I," answered Philip, quietly; then after a moment's pause
+he continued: "Do you think, Esther, you can bear to tell me a little
+more about this matter? So far I know nothing beyond the bald fact of
+the arrest, and the nature of the charge lodged. Miss Darling was too
+much overcome to enter into particulars. If I put a few plain questions,
+will you answer them?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I will try," replied Mrs. Newbold, clasping her hands closely
+together, and looking earnestly up at him.
+
+Philip drew forward a low chair, and placing it in front of her, sat
+down wearily, and with a half sigh.
+
+"Do you know when--she--she was arrested?" He avoided Patricia's name
+with something of the same dread which makes us hesitate over that of
+one but lately dead.
+
+"I think it was only a few days ago, but I don't know exactly; I cannot
+give you the precise date," answered Esther.
+
+"Ah, that accounts for the delay that has occurred in their pushing on
+the matter," said Philip, more to himself than to her. "August is the
+legal holiday month, and Anstice, the District Judge, before whom the
+examination, if there be one, would be made, is not due here for another
+week. We have therefore seven clear days before us, in any event,
+without counting on the chapter of accidents for further delays. Now
+tell me, who was it brought the application for arrest?"
+
+"Count Vladimir Mellikoff," replied Mrs. Newbold. "Oh, Philip," she
+added, her eyes flashing, "is he not a coward, and does not his seem
+coward's work, when one remembers how he was received and trusted?"
+
+Mr. Tremain answered by a gesture of his hand.
+
+"One would rather not think of that," he said; "let us try and put aside
+personalities, and look at the case only from an outside point of view.
+You may be very sure Count Mellikoff wasted neither time, nor the
+opportunities afforded him by your hospitality, to work out his
+nefarious scheme. But what I wish to ask you, Esther, will, I know,
+grieve you to answer; still I must clear up one or two points in my own
+mind, before I see her. Who was the person murdered; and why is she
+suspected of complicity in the crime?"
+
+He spoke sternly, and the hard lines of his face appeared in greater
+prominence. Esther looked at him half frightened.
+
+"He believes her guilty," she thought, with quick and decisive
+perception. "How terrible! But it is so, I see it in his face." Then she
+said aloud, and with a slowness that was almost hesitancy: "The name of
+the murdered man was Count Stevan Lallovich; but I can't tell you--that
+is--at least I don't know, how it is that they prove Patricia to be
+mixed up in the horrible affair."
+
+Mr. Tremain noted her hesitancy and the sudden reserve that had come
+over her; he put it down to the knowledge of some facts she was wilfully
+withholding from him, and this suspicion added weight in the scale, that
+balanced so evenly between Patricia's innocence and guilt.
+
+When he next spoke, his voice was even colder and harder than before.
+
+"There is something very mysterious in the whole affair," he said,
+looking Esther straight in the eyes; "it seems inconceivable that an
+American citizen should be arrested in her own country, on the charge of
+a foreign agent, for a murder committed in a foreign land, on a foreign
+subject. Of course Count Mellikoff has no power to arrest of himself; he
+must therefore, have laid sufficiently compromising evidence before our
+authorities to obtain a warrant, and an officer to execute it. As it
+appears now the whole affair reads more like a midsummer madness than
+anything else; but a madness pregnant with serious complications and
+results. Who was this Stevan Lallovich, Esther, and did--she--know him?"
+
+"He was a cousin, or a relation, or a near connection of the Russian
+Tsar's," answered Mrs. Newbold, still avoiding Philip's eyes. "I heard
+Patricia--I mean I believe she did once admit knowing him when she was
+in St. Petersburg. He was a great swell there, I am told, and the
+favourite of the Court society. I don't know anything more about it,
+Philip, indeed I don't. And oh, it is all so horrible, and so dreadful,
+how can you go on asking questions in that cold way? It's just as if you
+admitted to yourself that there was a possibility of her--her knowing
+something about the death of this miserable man. Oh, Philip, how can you
+doubt her? How can you, when you think of her in prison, and remember it
+is Patricia, our own Patricia, they accuse of this terrible crime?"
+
+And Esther buried her face in her hands weeping passionately.
+
+But Mr. Tremain was scarcely moved; he remained sitting, resting his
+head on his hand, and apparently lost in close study of the carpet under
+his feet. Esther's words rang in his ears.
+
+"Oh, Philip, how can you doubt her?"
+
+And yet he knew he did doubt her. He knew that when Mrs. Newbold
+admitted Patricia's acquaintance with the murdered Stevan Lallovich, and
+placed that acquaintance within the ten years of Miss Hildreth's
+absence--those ten unexplained years--he felt all the old distrust and
+suspicion leap into life again, and range themselves before him in mute
+confirmation of Miss James's calculated insinuations.
+
+"Ten years is a long time--long enough to plant and sow and reap--long
+enough to sink one's self to the neck in intrigue, to bury one's self in
+crime."
+
+How could he declare her innocent when this terrible, impassable gulf
+lay between them? Since she had known this Stevan Lallovich, might not
+another of Miss James's suppositions prove true? Might she not also have
+known Vladimir Mellikoff in that past, and have reason to fear him now?
+How much could he believe even of what she, Patricia, might tell him?
+
+Several long moments passed by in silence, during which Esther sobbed
+hysterically, before he roused himself, and, getting up, said, very
+quietly: "I will not trouble you further to-night, Esther; you had
+better get to bed, little woman. You do not quite trust me, I know, but
+you may, my dear; never fear, she shall not suffer or be overcome if I
+can prevent it. I will come back to-morrow after--I have seen her--and
+tell you of her."
+
+"Oh, Philip, be gentle to her," pleaded Esther, "be very gentle;
+remember you did love her--once."
+
+"I am not likely to forget it," he replied, and then he turned away
+abruptly and left her.
+
+All night long he walked to and fro, up and down, across an open common
+of waste land that skirted the railway at Manhattanville, and all night
+long, as the hours crept by, and the stars faded, and the dawn drew on,
+he fought the battle over and over against himself--the battle of his
+love for her, against his doubt of her. And when the day broke in a
+sunrise of golden splendour, it found him still uncertain, neither
+victor nor vanquished; still loving her, and still doubting her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+LUDLOW STREET JAIL.
+
+
+Mr. Tremain did not return to his rooms with the dawning of the day; he
+indeed shunned them with an almost superstitious dread of what he should
+find there. It seemed to his overwrought nerves that they must for ever
+be haunted by the horrible spectres evolved by Miss Dick, and by the
+memory of her terror-stricken eyes and tear-stained face.
+
+With the lengthening of the morning hours civilisation awoke again to
+its monotonous round of employment. A grey-coated policeman, making his
+way to the park, yawning as he walked, and but half awake, passed Mr.
+Tremain, and turning round stared at him inquiringly.
+
+And, indeed, Philip, as he stood outlined against the clear blue sky,
+his hands thrust into his pockets, his hat drawn down over his eyes, his
+face stern and pale, his dress disordered from his long night vigil,
+appeared a strangely incongruous figure, out of keeping with the fresh
+dewy daintiness of the summer morning, and might well arouse suspicions
+in the commonplace mind of a respectable Central Park policeman.
+
+The pertinacity of the man's curiosity awoke in Philip at last a sense
+of his position, and brought back to him, with a sudden rush, the reason
+of his presence there--the reason of the dull anguish that grew into
+keener suffering with each heart-beat. In the bright sunshine everything
+appeared more hard and real; the night vigil had soothed him somewhat,
+and the slow on-coming of the dawn had held something of illusive hope
+in its vague tertiary half-tones; but with the breaking forth of the
+sun, in the vast triumphant heaven of illimitable blue, came the
+sternness of reality, the hardness of fact, banishing the gentler mood,
+and renewing the struggle and vacillation of his mind against his heart.
+
+As the bell of the Sacred Heart Convent rang out for early mass, Mr.
+Tremain turned his steps citywards, and, walking with long swinging
+strides, was soon skirting the river Boulevard, and, entering the Park
+on the west side, made his way to the Fifth Avenue gates, and so down
+that deserted promenade until he came to an hotel; here he went in,
+ordered a room, and flinging himself on the bed fell into a deep and
+dreamless sleep which lasted for hours. It was nature's demand to
+recuperate her exhausted faculties, and would not be denied.
+
+When Philip awoke it was close upon noon, and greatly annoyed at the
+flight of time, he swallowed a cup of tea and hurried away. On reaching
+the gloomy building in Ludlow Street, he demanded an interview with the
+superintendent, and after considerable delay, was admitted to that
+functionary's presence.
+
+The office of prison superintendent is one not altogether to be desired;
+the men who fill the post are usually drawn from the rank and file of
+disappointed office seekers on a larger scale, who for political reasons
+consent to be mollified by the less honourable appointment. As a rule
+they are neither refined in mind nor manner, and, with an eye to the
+main chance, look upon the inmates committed to their charge as so many
+victims to be fleeced according to their means.
+
+As we know, there is a golden key that fits all locks, before which even
+bolts and bars have been known to fly apart, and nowhere is its power so
+potent and so comprehensive as in the cases of a certain class of
+prisoners awaiting trial, who if they can control the "coin" can be
+supplied with every luxury, save those of freedom and fresh air.
+
+The man who received Philip, with a short nod, was neither better nor
+worse than others of his tribe. He was apparently very busy--or wished
+to seem so--over a large assortment of letters and bulky documents,
+which, he rustled ostentatiously, and a trifle offensively, as he looked
+at Philip over his large round spectacles, and bade him, "Morning."
+
+"Good morning," replied Mr. Tremain, with considerable hauteur.
+
+"Now then, what can I do for you, sir?" asked the superintendent,
+fussily, and with another documentary rustle.
+
+"I have called," said Philip, quietly, "to obtain full permission to
+visit and to wait upon a lady now confined here, at all times, and on
+all days, that I may deem it necessary to do so. The lady's name
+is--Miss Patricia Hildreth."
+
+He hesitated as the last words passed his lips; how strange it seemed to
+use her name to this coarse unsympathetic official, how incompatible
+with all the traditions of his and her past!
+
+"As for my own name," he continued, "it may be better known to you than
+my personal appearance."
+
+He drew out his note-book and put one of his cards on the table. The
+superintendent took it up and scrutinised it narrowly.
+
+"Oh, so you're Mr. Tremain, are you?" he said at last, rolling the card
+between his fingers as he spoke. "Oh, yes, I've heard of you, sir, often
+enough. I guess we oughtn't to be strangers, Mr. Tremain, since we're
+both in the same profession."
+
+"Oh, indeed," replied Philip, seeing an answer was expected. "You are a
+lawyer, then?"
+
+"You can bet on that, sir; I've served my day at the bar, out in the
+west there," with a comprehensive jerk of his thumb, "and I can tell you
+we get through some pretty tall work out there. Plenty of cases like the
+one you're interested in, you know; plenty of blood-letting, and many a
+pretty young woman mixed up in it all."
+
+Philip winced; this classing of Patricia with the lawless crimes of a
+wild civilisation seemed little short of brutality, and brought home to
+him with terrible exactitude the attitude she had assumed, in the eyes
+of the public, by her association with crime.
+
+The keen eyes of the official noted Philip's susceptibility, and he drew
+his own conclusions.
+
+"Beg pardon if the subject's distressing," he said, not unkindly; "it's
+a pretty bad look-out as it stands, Mr. Tremain, and if I was a friend
+of the lady's, I should own to feeling uncommon squeamish. It takes a
+deal of evidence to get a warrant issued at any time, and specially
+against such a top-sawyer as Miss Hildreth. But there, that foreign
+Count, he's left no stone unturned; he's like one of those old
+blood-hounds down south, that used to track the niggers before the war.
+_He's_ tracked to some purpose."
+
+All this was horrible to Philip. It seemed to him he could not stand
+there and endure this man's crude criticisms and cruel deductions,
+passed so unconcernedly upon Patricia. To him each look was an open
+insult, each word a lash wherewith to strike at her; they brought the
+reality of her position before him with unvarnished accuracy.
+
+She was no longer Miss Hildreth surrounded by her own little court, the
+cynosure of every eye, the honoured guest of every drawing-room, the
+reigning favourite of all society; she was only Patricia Hildreth,
+stripped of all accessories, a woman under arrest, a woman charged with
+murder, a prisoner awaiting the law; just as any other of the poor
+wretches within those hateful precincts awaited it, and with no more
+merciful outlook than had they. It was indeed, as he had said, horrible,
+incredible, maddening.
+
+His silence had at length impressed itself upon his loquacious
+companion, who now sat looking up at him keenly, turning the visiting
+card round in his fingers. It was Philip who was the first to speak,
+coming back to his immediate surroundings with a start, and turning so
+sad a face, and such sorrow-haunted eyes, upon the little official, as
+to rouse to life all the dormant sympathy of his shallow soul.
+
+"And the permit?" asked Philip, quietly. "I should like to use it now,
+if you please."
+
+His very gentleness disarmed his opponent, who without further comment
+drew towards him a large volume, and filling in a blank order, tore it
+out noisily and handed it across the table. Mr. Tremain took it and
+folded it quickly without glancing at it. Each separate item in this
+horrible drama was agony to him; he had never fully recognised the
+gravity of Patricia's position until brought face to face with the
+official details of it.
+
+"I've made it out as you wanted," said the superintendent a little
+protestingly, as Philip took up the scrap of paper, "it's available for
+any day and any hour, up to the official inquiry. You'd like to go to
+her now, perhaps." He touched an electric bell, and in the moment that
+passed before the summons was answered, said somewhat awkwardly: "I'm
+real sorry for the lady, Mr. Tremain, we all are. I've done what I can
+to make her comfortable, and let us hope her stay with us won't be a
+very long one. Woods," he continued, addressing the tall warder, who had
+entered as he was speaking, "take this gentleman to Miss Hildreth, and,
+look here, he's to come and go as he pleases, do you understand? Good
+morning, Mr. Tremain."
+
+Philip bowed and walked out of the official presence as one in a dream.
+He lost even his own identity as he followed the guide down endless
+passages and corridors, and heard the jingle of the keys he carried
+suspended by a ring from his finger.
+
+It seemed to him he was back again at the Folly; he was walking along
+the paths of Esther's flower-garden, with the stillness and hush of the
+night above and around him. And now he had reached the little
+hazel-copse and was pushing back the bough that barred his entrance;
+there was the marble fountain in the distance, he could hear the drip of
+the water as it fell from the upraised vase in the boy Narcissus' hands;
+and there was the rustic bench, and the figure in the flowing, shining,
+white drapery, that rose up hurriedly and came forward a little, holding
+the soft laces closely about the white throat and heaving bosom.
+
+Yes, it was Patricia--Patricia in all her regal loveliness, in all her
+wealth of beauty; with her eyes glowing beneath the dark brows, her
+mouth tremulous and wistful.
+
+He started forward quickly--the vision faded, the night fled away, the
+tinkling water-drops resolved themselves into the surly clink of key
+against key on the warder's ring. All the poetry, and grace, and glory
+fell away from him, as he found himself brought to a standstill before a
+heavy door, into the lock of which Woods fitted a key from those on the
+ring, unlocked it, and with a slight push threw it open.
+
+Philip was conscious of a muttered "I'll be back in an hour, sir," and
+the noise of a closing door behind him; and then he realised that he was
+alone--face to face with Patricia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+"FATHOM HER MOTIVES, PHILIP."
+
+
+"Philip!" she cried, eagerly, and came forward, her hands held out in
+greeting, and then, as if struck by some sudden remembrance, and with a
+return to her old imperious manner, she dropped her hands, and turning,
+walked away from him towards a small table that stood at the further end
+of the room.
+
+Mr. Tremain remained motionless just within the door, his senses taking
+in by degrees the surroundings, and growing accustomed to the half gloom
+that served as an apology for daylight, and that made its way through
+the narrow barred casement set high up in the whitewashed wall.
+
+The room was too large to be called a cell, and if sparsely furnished,
+was not uncomfortable. Philip noted an easy-chair and a rug spread
+beneath the table, while on the table were writing materials and books,
+and a vase of delicate-hued roses; the counterpart of those he had seen
+in Esther's boudoir the night before. It touched him strangely to see
+this proof of Esther's love and Esther's faith; the golden blossoms
+came, he knew, from the rose-houses at the Folly, and spoke eloquently
+of Mrs. Newbold's belief in Patricia's innocence, since their presence
+in that prison-room--fraught as they were with so many memories--must,
+if she were guilty, prove a scourge rather than a comfort.
+
+It took Philip some moments to realise his position and to adjust his
+faculties; when at last he roused himself and looked across the
+dimly-lighted room, it was to meet Patricia's eyes fixed upon him with
+an expression of proud endurance, that was more pathetic than tears.
+
+She had seated herself at the table and was leaning forward, her hands
+folded across the portfolio that lay open before her. She was dressed in
+black, and the severe lines and folds of the yielding cashmere seemed to
+mark with painful accuracy the increased slenderness of her form--a
+slenderness, it struck Philip, that had almost reached attenuation. Her
+face was very pale; only the vivid burning scarlet of her lips, and the
+blue fire of her eyes beneath the straight dark brows, redeemed it from
+absolute pallor.
+
+The confinement, added to the tropical heat without, and the close
+atmosphere within, had told visibly upon her freshness and vigour; there
+was a lassitude about her attitude and a weariness in the lines of her
+face that bespoke mental as well as physical exhaustion, and now that
+the sudden flush, called up at sight of him, had died out of her cheeks,
+Philip perceived how hollow they had grown, and how the circles under
+her eyes had darkened. Her hands as they rested on the open portfolio
+were stripped of all their wonted brave array of rings, and looked as
+white as the paper beneath them, the blue veins painfully apparent.
+
+It was thus that he saw her again; it was thus that they met after that
+parting on the night of the theatricals when she, radiant, beautiful,
+sparkling with jewels, triumphant and successful, had laughed aside his
+love, and swept by him with a light jest and indifferent word, that
+wounded deeper than she might ever know. He had gone from her then,
+smarting under his humiliation, and in the hour of his pain proffered
+the love she had rejected to another woman, who could scarcely be called
+her rival, and yet who influenced him as potentially as she.
+
+And what the result had been of that second wooing he dared not now
+remember, for even as he recalled his bondage to Adèle Lamien, and as he
+looked upon the wrecked beauty, the stained loveliness of the woman
+before him, so, too, he realised that he loved her and her only, loved
+her better in this her hour of disgrace and misery than ever before;
+and that never in reality had his true allegiance swerved from this one
+woman of his heart--Patricia Hildreth.
+
+The silence between them grew oppressive, embarrassing; it was she who
+first broke through it, saying, in a voice that trembled somewhat, and
+with a little laugh that was but a pitiful mockery of its old gaiety,
+and that ended in a half sob:
+
+"So you have come at last to see me, Philip. Well, and is it not absurd
+that you should seek and find me--here?" She emphasized her words by a
+swift glance up at the grated window and around the bare un-homelike
+room.
+
+At her voice Philip awoke as it were to life, his eyes followed hers in
+that momentary, but comprehensive glance, and he understood only too
+well the meaning of the quickly-repressed sigh, that half escaped her,
+as she caught the gleam of yellow light upon the roses in the tall
+vase.
+
+He crossed the room quickly, and standing beside her, rested his hand
+near hers, bending over her and speaking rapidly, in a voice whose deep
+emotion was only kept in check by his strong will.
+
+"Patty," he said, "believe me, I came as soon as I could. I knew nothing
+of your trouble until last evening, when Miss Dick came to me about it.
+I lost no time then. I, we, came to--to this place late as it was, but
+we were not permitted to see you, we were obliged to go away and wait
+until the morning."
+
+At the sound of her homely, familiar diminutive her lips trembled,
+though she answered with a little smile:
+
+"Yes, the rules of this--this institution are rigorously observed;" then
+with a sudden transition to the old mocking raillery: "Ah, Philip, in
+all your gloomy prognostications for my future you never once thought of
+me as coming to--this--did you?"
+
+The flippant words and manner jarred on him, he drew back from her
+mentally, and found himself wondering if there could be any situation
+in life, however tragic, that she would take seriously; and as he
+thought this, Patricia was noting the difference between his hand and
+hers, as they rested on the table side by side. Hers so white and
+dainty, luxurious, useless, with rounded nails and rosy finger-tips; his
+strong and nervous, with fine lines in the long firm fingers and
+well-modelled wrist. Were they not fitting types of their two
+characters?
+
+"Patricia," he said again, and even more gently because of his half
+criticism of her, "it is a very terrible grief to me to find you here,
+and to know the--the reason of it all. I have come now because I want
+you to hear one thing from my own lips, and that is, Patty, that all I
+have, or can give you at this time, is yours without the asking, if you
+care to make use of it. I know I may be too late in offering you my
+services--indeed, I may be too late to be of any practical advantage to
+you--but in any case, as a lawyer, or a friend, I beg you will command
+me. You can surely trust my friendship."
+
+At the last word she smiled, and raising her eyes met his, with a sudden
+leaping to life of the old blue fire in her own.
+
+"Yes," she said slowly. "Yes, oh yes, I am quite sure I can rely upon
+the disinterestedness of your--friendship." Then, after a moment's
+silence: "Have you seen Esther? How is she? These are her roses. Are
+they not exquisite, and redolent of the Folly?"
+
+"They are redolent of _my_ folly," he answered sharply, and then
+continued, hurriedly withdrawing his hand from its close proximity to
+hers, "I saw Mrs. Newbold last evening; she has made herself quite ill
+by grieving over you and your present position. She is a most loyal
+friend, Patricia."
+
+"And loyalty is so priceless an ingredient in--friendship," replied Miss
+Hildreth, "one should put a fictitious value upon it when one finds it.
+Will you find a chair, Philip, and sit down? I believe I shall make use
+of your protestations now."
+
+He crossed the room in answer to her invitation, bringing back with him
+the one other chair afforded by official regulations. Her eyes followed
+his movements, and a smile, half tender, half wistful, trembled about
+her lips, fleeting in its gentleness as was her mood; for, when Philip
+returned and seated himself at some little distance from her, the fine
+well-cut lips were closed firmly and with something of sternness in
+their expression.
+
+"Philip," she began, in a low distinct voice, and looking at him with
+resolute decision, "let us have done with this beating round the bush;
+let us be quite frank with one another for this one half-hour at least.
+You know why I am here; you know I have been arrested on a warrant for
+complicity in a murder."
+
+He made a hurried gesture of appeal, and would have spoken, but she
+appeared not to heed him.
+
+"They are ugly words; it is an ugly charge to bring against me, but
+since it has been brought I should like you to tell me, Philip, just
+what will be the course pursued. What will be the next move in the game?
+I have been here now--in prison--three days; ah, it does not do to mince
+one's words, my friend! And so far I am absolutely in the dark regarding
+my possible fate. What will happen to me next, Philip? What is the next
+step usual in such cases?"
+
+For a moment Mr. Tremain looked at her in unfeigned amazement. Her
+coolness, her almost indifference staggered him. He had expected to find
+her overcome with apprehension and dismay, full of fears for the future;
+dependent, humble, imploring. Instead of which she met him with her
+accustomed ease and grace, and with even a touch of that old badinage
+which had always jarred somewhat upon him.
+
+He could not but contrast Dick Darling's passionate pleading, and
+Esther's tears, with the calmness and self-possession of the friend for
+whom they wept and pleaded. Was she worthy of the intense devotion it
+seemed her prerogative to call forth? With this question his old doubt
+of her reawakened, and when he answered her it was with a possession no
+less assured than her own.
+
+"To reply with anything like accuracy I must be professional," he said.
+"That you will understand?"
+
+She made a little gesture of assent.
+
+"It is useless for me to cite any usual course of procedure," he
+continued, "because all the details and circumstances surrounding this
+case are of so peculiar a character as to admit of no ordinary
+precedent. You have been arrested, not under the law strictly speaking,
+but under what is defined as the comity of nations; that is, that
+sufficient evidence of an incriminating character has been lodged
+against you to induce the authorities to accede to the pressing request
+of a foreign Power and to issue a warrant for your arrest. This arrest
+will be followed by an official inquiry, which consists chiefly in an
+examination of the warrant, to determine its regularity, and the
+identity of the person therein named with the person arrested."
+
+"And this examination," she interrupted, "where does it take place?"
+
+"Before the District Judge. Undoubtedly it will come under his
+jurisdiction."
+
+"And this particular inquiry--my inquiry? How soon shall _I_ be inquired
+into?" she asked again, with a scornful inflection of voice, and a
+little smile.
+
+"Judge Anstice is the District Judge for New York," he replied, in his
+coldest and most professional manner; "this particular examination will
+come on next week at the latest, it has only been delayed on account of
+Anstice's unavoidable absence."
+
+"I see," she answered. "And what happens next, Philip? You must forgive
+my utter ignorance, the situation is a novel one for me."
+
+Again there was a sufficiency of mockery in her voice to strike Mr.
+Tremain afresh with the complete incongruity of the entire situation. It
+was evident she either did not, or would not, comprehend the gravity of
+her position; she was still looking at it as an outsider and not as the
+principal actor, the pivot upon which all turned; just as she forgot or
+put aside the terrible nature of the charge, and the fearful
+compensation demanded should that charge be substantiated.
+
+"Good heavens," thought Philip; "she cannot realise it is for complicity
+in a murder that she stands accused! She cannot realise the nature of
+the obstacles that lie between her and acquittal, or how awful will be
+the consequences should our efforts in her behalf fail."
+
+"Well," she said again, "what happens next, Philip? What is the next
+proceeding of the law? You have brought me as far as the Judge and the
+inquiry, what follows after?"
+
+"Should there be any fault in the warrant papers," answered Mr. Tremain,
+speaking against his will, and in short detached sentences, "or should
+the evidence brought forward by those who obtained the arrest fail to be
+of such a character as to justify the person under arrest being put on
+trial, that person would be discharged, and therefore freed from any
+further action. The arrest in fact falls to the ground, unsubstantiated,
+there being no _primâ facie_ case."
+
+"And if otherwise, Philip? If the evidence is of such a nature as to
+prove a _primâ facie_ case, what then?"
+
+She asked this question very slowly, looking at him steadily with
+unflinching eyes.
+
+"Then," he answered as slowly, and with every line of his stern face
+tense and drawn, "then I fear--I believe, that the person under arrest
+would be dealt with in the same manner as though legally proved guilty;
+the accused would doubtless be sent back to the country from which the
+request for arrest emanated, and where the crime was committed, for
+trial according to that country's laws."
+
+"I understand," she said, after a moment's absolute silence; "and in
+this particular case--in my case--that would mean--Petersburg?"
+
+He made no other reply save an assenting gesture of his hand.
+
+For a long interval there was silence between them; a silence in which
+each was lost to the other's presence, and which was so full of dark
+meaning, so pregnant with dread possibilities, as to leave upon each
+like traces to those once impressed indelibly upon the countenance of a
+saint of old, who for one brief second was permitted to gaze into the
+bottomless pit of anguish.
+
+Again it was the woman who first broke the silence, and though it was
+but the lightest whisper it pierced Philip's soul with dismay.
+
+"Petersburg," she murmured, "and that means the mercies of the Imperial
+Chancellerie!"
+
+"Patty," cried Philip with sudden passion, "this terrible alternative
+must never come to pass--it must be averted at all costs; do you hear
+me?--_must_ be. You must be frank with me now, as frank as though your
+last hour had come. Answer me with absolute truth the questions I shall
+ask. I can only save you if you will save yourself."
+
+She was not slow to read his meaning beneath his words, and the smile
+that curved her lips was bitter enough as she exclaimed:
+
+"So you doubt me, Philip--you!" Then, with a quick indrawn breath: "Ask
+any questions you like, I will answer them."
+
+"You know by whom your arrest has been accomplished?" he said quickly,
+avoiding any definite answer to her reproach.
+
+"Yes, by Count Vladimir Mellikoff."
+
+"And the charge?"
+
+"For being an accomplice in the murder of Count Stevan Lallovich," she
+answered quietly.
+
+"Did you ever know this Count Stevan Lallovich?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you know of his murder?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know the circumstances connected with it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you tell them to me?"
+
+"I had rather not do so--now."
+
+"Very well, let that pass. Did you ever know Count Mellikoff previous to
+meeting him at the Folly?"
+
+"No, I think not. One meets so many people in the course of one's life;
+but I am quite sure I had never met Count Mellikoff before."
+
+"Do you know of any reason he might have for enmity against you?"
+
+"No, indeed; none whatever."
+
+"It is very extraordinary," Mr. Tremain continued after this brief
+colloquy. "I cannot but think there is some other person mixed up in
+this affair besides Count Mellikoff, some one who has perhaps personal
+motives to serve in bringing this charge against you. Can you think of
+any one who has sufficient cause against you to make such a course
+possible? Any woman, let us say, to whom the blackening of your
+character would give a vindictive satisfaction?"
+
+"Ah," she replied, with a scornful gesture, and the superiority of a
+beautiful woman over her plainer sisters, "I cannot follow you there. We
+all have our feminine enemies without doubt; but who of us can put our
+finger on the most venomous of them?"
+
+"All the same we must find this one, Patricia; when we find her we shall
+perhaps unearth the secret of her spleen. I am convinced Count Mellikoff
+has a woman for his ally."
+
+Miss Hildreth shrugged her shoulders, but made no further reply.
+Presently, however, she turned a little more towards him, leaning still
+further across the table, and looking full into his eyes, said, with
+sudden directness:
+
+"Why do you ask nothing concerning your friend, Adèle Lamien, Philip? Do
+you not know that she, too, is implicated in this affair?"
+
+"Adèle Lamien!" he exclaimed, taken off his guard by the unexpectedness
+of the assault. "Good Heavens! what has she to do with all this?"
+
+"Ah, what indeed?" answered Miss Hildreth, slowly. "Fathom her motives,
+Philip, and you will lay bare the secret of my arrest."
+
+"Patricia," he cried again, strangely moved and excited by her words and
+manner, and by the sudden return of that vague, intangible influence,
+evoked by the mere mention of Mdlle. Lamien's name, that had from the
+first played so distinct a part in his intimacy with her, "Patricia,
+what do you mean? Explain yourself. What can Adèle Lamien have to do
+with you?"
+
+"Ah, what indeed?" she answered, in the same measured tones, still
+looking at him earnestly. "What indeed? All--or nothing,--Philip. Simply
+that."
+
+"I must know more," he exclaimed, almost roughly. "You must tell me what
+you mean. I must find her."
+
+"That may prove more difficult than you imagine," answered Miss
+Hildreth, quietly, and as she said the words, Woods the warder entered,
+and Philip understood the end of his interview had come.
+
+He got up mechanically and held out his hand. "It is best I should go
+for a little while," he said. "I will come back again. After all, we
+have settled very little."
+
+"I should say we had settled a great deal," she answered, with another
+of those quick, mocking smiles.
+
+Then she bade him good-bye; and it was not until he had walked up the
+longer half of Broadway, that Mr. Tremain remembered two things.
+Patricia had calmly ignored his outstretched hand, and he had forgotten
+to inquire of the superintendent the nature of Mdlle. Lamien's
+complicity in the charge brought against Miss Hildreth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MIXED MOTIVES.
+
+
+Mr. Tremain had not been far wrong when he told Esther Newbold that the
+arrest of so prominent and well-known a person as Miss Hildreth bid fair
+to develop into an international question.
+
+The charge entered against her was of too grave a nature not to excite
+and sustain public attention. It certainly appeared to the community at
+large a very arbitrary and high-handed proceeding that an American
+citizen could be thus imprisoned at the request of a foreign Government.
+
+Her offence being in no respect a political one, this loophole of escape
+could not be urged in her favour, for in that case the foreign
+Government interested in her committal would never have demanded her
+arrest or expected her surrender into their hands. Doubtless had Miss
+Hildreth been but a poor workwoman, on whom depended the support of her
+family, no such strenuous efforts would have been put forth to
+accomplish her arrest, or a precedence have been created to deal with
+her position.
+
+But being what she was, and controlling almost unlimited wealth and
+influence, the case assumed potential proportions, and therefore it was
+deemed expedient to allow an official inquiry to take place, and to
+permit the greatest latitude in its operations, even to the calling of
+witnesses.
+
+To meet this position of affairs great exertions were made on the part
+of Miss Hildreth's friends, foremost among whom stood Philip Tremain. He
+had quitted Patricia's presence, at the conclusion of that first
+interview, as undecided in his own mind as to her guilt or innocence as
+he had been when he heard of her arrest. Her words, her insinuations,
+her reticence, had all been so many damning factors against her, while
+her manner, so light-hearted, so inconsequent, so trivial, were the only
+elements in her favour.
+
+To Philip, indeed, that very light-heartedness--which he called
+flippancy--appeared the most suspicious feature of her behaviour. It
+seemed to him that any woman, no matter how frivolous or hardened, must
+have given vent to tears and protestations when brought so close to the
+awful consequences of even supposed guilt; whereas, he found Miss
+Hildreth even more composed--if that were possible--and more trivial
+than at their parting in the flies on George Newbold's birthday night.
+
+Good heavens, how long ago that seemed! And what a page of tragedy--or
+was it melodrama? he had construed since then!
+
+As he walked back to his rooms from Ludlow Street Jail that hot August
+evening, his mind was very full of Patricia's farewell words:
+
+"Fathom Adèle Lamien's motives, Philip, and you will lay bare the secret
+of my arrest."
+
+He had, indeed, in the sudden tumult and agitation of Dick Darling's
+appearance and communication, lost sight of Mdlle. Lamien's claims upon
+him; nor was it until Patricia spoke with that enigmatical smile that he
+remembered them, or paused to consider what was likely to be her
+attitude in the present complication of affairs.
+
+He had neither heard from or of Mdlle. Lamien since their parting, and
+while he held himself bound to her by honour, he could not help
+reflecting upon the fact that no actual engagement existed between them,
+and that she might so regard their equivocal position, and desire him to
+understand her silence as an expression of her final refusal of his
+suit. However that might be, he felt matters had reached such a crisis
+as to make his seeing her an imperative duty, since, by so doing, he
+might elucidate the true motive for Patricia's arrest. Recalling Adèle
+Lamien's last words, and the note of victory in her voice--"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"--he
+felt more than ever convinced that Vladimir Mellikoff had not only been
+helped by a woman, but by this very woman.
+
+Had not her own words betrayed her jealousy and dislike of her former
+rival? What more natural than that she should join issue with Count
+Mellikoff, and play into his hands, not realising perhaps the nature of
+the train she set alight, or the gravity of the consequences?
+
+Was she not a Russian, and had not Mellikoff himself enlightened him
+regarding the system of that secret police, whose ranks were reinforced
+by members of one's own household! According to the Count's black
+note-book, the very people who ate your bread, who clasped your hand in
+friendship, who instructed your children, were, one and all--if
+Russian--banded against you, and ready to strike at you in the dark at
+the word of command.
+
+Separated from Mdlle. Lamien, and freed from the dominating influence of
+her personality, Mr. Tremain realised how little his own volition had
+had to do with his offer of marriage to her.
+
+In looking back at their interview, it seemed to him he had been
+possessed by some demon of evil who urged him on to his doom; and under
+whose specious reasoning and cunning insinuations, his own stronger
+sense and will had become but passive agents.
+
+How gladly would he not now welcome any honourable means of escape from
+the light fetters that bound him! He knew this, and acknowledged it
+frankly; even while he also realised that, were he again to stand
+before Adèle Lamien, and listen to her low suggestive voice, and look
+upon her strangely familiar face, he would again yield to her influence
+as he had yielded before, and be subjugated by that same nameless
+_something_, to which he had succumbed before. It was not a pleasant
+position for any man to accept, and yet he was obliged to accept it from
+its very uncontrovertibleness.
+
+He walked all the way from Ludlow Street to his up-town chambers with
+such reflections for his only companions; it was not to be wondered at,
+therefore, that he felt himself out of tune with his surroundings, or
+that the light-hearted gaiety apparent in those he met, whose labours
+over for the day, were evidently on pleasure bent, jarred upon him as
+exuberant examples of positive callousness. Just so would they laugh and
+smile and jest, even though the worst predictions came true; and she,
+counted guilty, had already set sail across the ocean of destiny to meet
+her fate--alone, in a land where neither his skill nor his love could
+avail her anything. He reached his rooms at last, exhausted in body and
+mind; he found them in the most scrupulous order, Harris, the
+invaluable, having reduced everything to the level of every-day
+commonplace. Not a trace of last night's emotional interview remained,
+even Miss Dick's little glove had been neatly folded and lay upon the
+table, with the faded rose-bud from her corsage placed on top of it.
+With a sigh, Mr. Tremain threw himself down upon a couch drawn up
+against an open window, and passed his hand wearily over his forehead.
+The silence and coolness and half darkness were absolute rest and
+refreshment to him after the heat and glaring sunshine, and conflicting
+experiences of the day; it was a physical relief to sink into a state of
+semi-apathy and to pass from the tense excitation of feeling into a
+corresponding insensibility.
+
+Philip could not have told how long he remained in this state of
+suspended activity; he was aroused at length by the slamming to of the
+heavy outer door, and with this ordinary sound he reawakened to the
+exigencies of the immediate situation. He got up wearily and struck a
+match, not with any definite object in view, but because he felt he must
+be doing something, and that something could be better accomplished in
+the light.
+
+The slowly igniting candles on his writing-table threw but a faint
+aureola into the darkness, sufficient, however, to reveal to Philip's
+eyes the pile of unopened letters, across the topmost one of which was
+written that under-scored _immediate_.
+
+He took it up indifferently. "It is Mainwaring's writing," he thought
+listlessly, and had almost a mind to put it by until a more propitious
+moment--until he had written that letter to Adèle Lamien demanding an
+interview, upon the wording of which it had taken him so long to
+decide. John Mainwaring's communication could not possibly be of such
+importance as to demand instant attention; it had waited several days as
+it was, it might wait a few hours longer without disaster.
+
+And so it is with the wisest and most sagacious of us. We pray on bended
+knees, and with streaming eyes, for one, only one chance, one
+opportunity more wherein to work out our salvation; and then when the
+grace is given we reject it because, forsooth, it comes to us in so
+accustomed and natural a guise we cannot believe in its efficacy.
+
+How should Philip, hesitating and uncertain, holding Mainwaring's letter
+in his hand, guess that within the long business envelope lay the
+solution of all that was most enigmatic to him--the key to what was now
+a locked book to his perceptions?
+
+Do any of us ever know the exact moment when we stand upon a mental
+precipice, or realise how far our next step may carry us on to our
+doom?
+
+He broke the seal at last, more from habit than impatience, and glanced
+carelessly down at the page as he unfolded it. It was not a long letter,
+only a few lines written hastily across one side; but had it been a
+printed folio of engrossing depth it could not have riveted Philip's
+attention more closely. The candles, flaming up with a sudden assured
+brilliancy, shone full upon his face, and upon the startled, excited,
+incredulous expression which spread over it as he read.
+
+It was a long time, many moments, that he stood thus, reading and
+re-reading John Mainwaring's hurried lines, and when at last he raised
+his head and threw back his shoulders, he took a long deep breath as of
+one who, but lately spent and exhausted, sees opening before him a fair
+plain, smiling and verdant, wherein his tired nature may refresh its
+weary faculties.
+
+"If this is true," he said, half aloud, "why then----" and finished his
+soliloquy with a smile.
+
+Half an hour later Mr. Tremain was ringing the bell at Mrs. Newbold's
+door, and somewhat astonished the servant by the vehemence of his demand
+for her mistress.
+
+"Tell her I must see her," he said, "it is of the utmost importance;"
+then he pushed by the maid and made his way to Esther's boudoir.
+
+He found the room empty, though traces of late occupancy were apparent
+in a book tossed carelessly down on the tumbled cushions of the couch,
+and a long strip of artistic needlework, in which the needle was
+standing upright, and a tiny gold thimble, that had fallen down and lay
+beside a "Kate Greenaway" picture book.
+
+He had scarcely time to note these particulars before the door was
+opened, and Esther came towards him quickly, looking a little pale and
+excited, her fair hair tumbled about her face, and the long train of her
+_négligé_ making a slight rustle as she moved. She came close up to him
+and raised her eyes to his; they caught the reflection of the hopeful
+gladness therein, and her cheeks flushed suddenly, as she cried, putting
+out her hand and touching his arm:
+
+"Philip, oh, Philip, you have news--good news?"
+
+Her voice had a ring of expectancy in it that did not escape Philip.
+
+"Esther," he replied, looking down at her steadily, and speaking
+gravely, "I have come to you at this late hour for one reason only--to
+ask you one question. Will you be frank and honest in your answer?"
+
+"Ah," she exclaimed, "there are both reproach and reflection in your
+words. Ask me the question first, Philip, and judge of my veracity by my
+reply."
+
+She turned and walked to the couch, seated herself, and, taking up the
+strip of embroidery, examined it attentively.
+
+Mr. Tremain followed her.
+
+"It is all very well, your trying to parry my thrust, Esther; but it is
+useless. I shall oblige you to give me a direct answer."
+
+He drew up a chair as he spoke, and, as he sat down, took from his
+pocket a note-case.
+
+"Will you oblige me by reading this letter?" he said, handing her
+Mainwaring's communication.
+
+She took it with a deprecatory shrug of her shoulders, and read the few
+lines it contained with an absolutely expressionless face.
+
+"Well?" asked Philip, after several moments had passed.
+
+"Well?" she echoed, folding the letter with exactness and handing it
+back to him, but avoiding his eyes.
+
+"Esther," he said, bending forward and forcing her to look at him,
+"Esther, the news contained in that letter is no news to you."
+
+Still she did not reply; she had again taken up the strip of embroidery,
+and her fingers trembled a little as she drew out the needle. Mr.
+Tremain put out his hand and took it from her.
+
+"My dear Esther," he said once more, in the same measured tones he had
+used from his first greeting of her, "you can at least answer a direct
+question. Did you know of this before?"
+
+"Since you put it in that way--yes," she replied.
+
+"For how long--all the time?"
+
+"Yes, all the time."
+
+"And you have kept it to yourself--why?"
+
+But to this she made no answer.
+
+"Why did you keep it from me?" he asked, more sternly. "Do you think you
+had any right to do so?"
+
+"Yes, I do," she answered, quickly, stung by the reproach in his voice.
+"I think so still. A promise should always be sacred."
+
+"A promise--and to whom?"
+
+"If you consider that a necessary question, I do not," she answered,
+with a touch of asperity in her voice. "You surely have lost somewhat of
+your customary acumen, Philip, to ask it."
+
+"Then let me put it in another form," he replied, not in the least
+disturbed by her show of temper. "Did you promise--_her_?"
+
+She looked at him for a moment, before she spoke, and the rebellious
+blood dyed her cheeks scarlet, her blue eyes flashed.
+
+"I am not compelled to answer you," she said mutinously, "but I will do
+so. Yes, I promised _her_."
+
+"But why, Esther, why? What induced you to make so absurd a promise?
+And, having made it, why, when such extraordinary circumstances arose,
+did you still keep your lips closed? Why did you not tell me that
+evening, when I came to you, and when you were in such grief and
+anxiety? Surely you must have known it would have greatly simplified
+matters."
+
+But Mrs. Newbold was obstinately silent. She shut her lips firmly
+together and looked at Philip beneath a decided frown.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," he continued, a trifle impatiently, "that you
+could believe such a matter was not of vital importance? Do answer me,
+Esther, I beg; what motive can I have save to help----"
+
+"Oh, if you will look at it in that light," interrupted Mrs. Newbold,
+quickly, "why then I must say, I don't see what great difference your
+having known this would have made. It couldn't stop the arrest, you
+know."
+
+"I know nothing of the kind," he replied shortly; "I am not at all sure
+that it might not have done so. It is always far more difficult to
+rectify a blunder than to prevent one. I cannot but feel that you have
+treated me badly in this matter, Esther; at such a time and under such
+circumstances the utmost candour should have been shown."
+
+He did not speak angrily, but with so much of sadness in his voice,
+Esther felt compunction stealing over her and absorbing her late
+vehemence and impatience.
+
+"I should much prefer your being angry with me, Philip," she said,
+wistfully, "or that you shook me; it's much more awful to see you look
+so hurt and pained. But can't you believe me, can't you understand? It
+was her wish--her demand--from the very beginning. She made me solemnly
+swear that no one should know--least of all--you."
+
+"Ah, yes--I least of all," he replied, half sadly. "Very well, my dear
+Esther, I will ask you no more questions. You shall not be tempted
+further to break your promise. Let us only hope that this unfortunate
+secrecy may not in the end prove our greatest stumbling-block. I do not
+see the way any clearer before me because of this unexpected document,
+but I shall do my best to use it to our advantage. After all, what a
+truly womanly bit of _finesse_ it was--and is!"
+
+As Philip spoke the door was again thrown open, and Dick Darling came
+in, followed by little Marianne carrying a basket filled with roses. She
+ran up to her mother, holding out the basket to her, and crying:
+
+"They've only just come, Mumsey. Perkins brought them up himself. Oh,
+they do smell puffeckly 'licious!"
+
+Esther took the flowers from her little daughter's hand.
+
+"You can guess whom they are for," she said to Philip, smiling a little.
+"Dick and I intend taking them early to-morrow morning."
+
+Mr. Tremain took up one of the fragrant blossoms, and, bending down
+towards Esther, said, in a half undertone:
+
+"And is Miss Dick also a sharer in this secret?"
+
+Esther shook her head.
+
+"Not through me," she answered.
+
+"And Mainwaring, how did he become a conspirator?"
+
+"I do not know," she replied, looking down again. "I do not know--how
+should I?"
+
+He made no answer for a moment, during which his eyes never left the
+downcast face before him.
+
+"Good-bye," he said simply, at last, and including Miss Darling in his
+leave-taking by a half bow, passed out of the room, carrying the red
+rose-bud with him.
+
+It was a distinct source of pleasure to him, as he contemplated the
+little flower, to remember for whom its sister roses were destined. The
+tiny blood-red blossom seemed to put him in touch once more with his old
+life--that life which antedated his visit to the Folly--when Adèle
+Lamien was still unknown to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A WOMAN'S LOGIC.
+
+
+The first check experienced by Count Mellikoff in the fulfilment of his
+well-laid plans, was one of which he took but slight account.
+
+In calling into action the machinery of the law, and thereby obtaining
+the warrant for Miss Hildreth's arrest, he overlooked one point. He had
+designedly delayed this summary action until such a moment, when knowing
+the Newbolds and Mr. Tremain to be well out of his way, he could proceed
+without apprehension of interference on their part.
+
+He was quite well aware that to act against their combined forces would
+be a far more serious undertaking than to attack Miss Hildreth alone
+and unbefriended. But could he once accomplish her arrest, he believed
+that here in America, as in Russia, he had only to demand an official
+inquiry, as a matter of form, and it would at once be granted; at which
+inquiry, trusting to the strength of his evidence, he foresaw her
+immediate committal for trial, and expected by the time the _beau monde_
+were returning to New York, and before a cabal could be raised in Miss
+Hildreth's behalf, to be already on his way to Petersburg with his
+prisoner, about whose subsequent fate, when once she was handed over to
+the Imperial Chancellerie, he had no need to concern himself.
+
+Then he would be free to seek Olga, and, laying his love and his life at
+her feet, demand that reward for the sake of which she had persuaded him
+to undertake this mission. Patouchki also would be convinced of his
+loyalty by this last signal service in the Emperor's behalf; and even
+the Tsar himself might bestow a further distinction upon him; one
+ribbon more, perhaps, to swell the number of those upon which his
+beautiful Olga set such store.
+
+And, indeed, so far fortune had favoured him and his plans; up to a
+certain time events marched according as he directed. The warrant was
+obtained; Miss Hildreth was arrested; and, save John Mainwaring, none of
+her special friends were in town to stand by her or act in her defence.
+On Mainwaring, Count Mellikoff bestowed not a thought; he had not even
+seen him in the crowd of transient guests at the Folly, and his name was
+suggestive of nothing.
+
+The matter of an immediate official inquiry, however, was not so easily
+managed. Count Mellikoff found countless obstacles to overcome, raised
+by that very organ, the law, which so far he had played upon to his own
+purpose. Innumerable technicalities and difficulties were for ever
+cropping up, resulting in unheard-of delays. Even Mellikoff's patience
+gave way at last, and he anathematised the entire Western continent, its
+institutions and customs, in language more forcible than polite. Despite
+of his choler, however, Vladimir Mellikoff was obliged to swallow his
+wrath, and bear with what patience he could muster, that most difficult
+of all trials--enforced inaction.
+
+Meantime he heard again from Patouchki, and the tone of his letter was
+such as to create a fever of anxiety and unrest, that threatened to
+prostrate him mentally and physically. From Olga Naundorff he received
+neither word nor sign.
+
+And so the long, hot days came and went, and by none of the waiting
+actors in that life-drama were they ever forgotten in the years that
+followed.
+
+To Patricia, Philip, Esther, Dick Darling, Vladimir Mellikoff, and
+Rosalie James, each sunrise brought but an increasing weight of
+torturing anxiety; each nightfall was fraught with an additional burden
+of suspense.
+
+Within the week after his return, Mr. Tremain had another interview with
+Miss Hildreth. He found her in the same half flippant, half rebellious
+mood that had so angered him at their last meeting. He stayed with her
+for more than an hour, during which she remained as adamant to all his
+arguments, entreaties, prayers. He left her at last in anger, and with
+hot words of passion as his farewell.
+
+"You force me to draw my own conclusions," he said. "It would be more
+reasonable if you would give me ever so foolish a motive as your reason
+for denying the truth of the assertion contained in this letter." He
+struck John Mainwaring's offending epistle as he spoke. "Once more,
+Patricia, will you, or will you not, acknowledge this affirmation as
+true?"
+
+She had grown very pale under the lash of his ill-concealed anger; but
+she gave no other sign either of embarrassment or yielding, and when she
+answered she looked him straight in the eyes, and spoke without a
+falter in her clear musical voice:
+
+"I have nothing to say, Philip. Mr. Mainwaring is the best person for
+you to apply to for confirmation, since he has made the statement."
+
+"And that is all you have to tell me--all you will tell me?" he asked,
+his voice reflecting the doubt and pain of his mind. "At least,
+Patricia, since I know on what grounds Count Mellikoff will seek to
+justify your arrest, you might confide the truth to me. Are you, or are
+you not----"
+
+"My dear Philip," she broke in hastily, the colour rushing to her face
+in a sudden overwhelming torrent, "cannot you see what I am?--is not
+that enough? Why should you try to solve Vladimir Mellikoff's motives?
+It is he who has brought this charge against me, let him prove its
+validity."
+
+"And Mainwaring?" he asked, slowly, looking at her keenly.
+
+"Mr. Mainwaring shall answer to me for his officiousness," she replied,
+quietly.
+
+"And this is all you have to say, Patricia? This is all you will tell
+me?"
+
+"Yes, that is all I have to say," she answered.
+
+And at her reply he turned from her abruptly and left her; nor did he
+again seek an interview with her during the few days that remained
+before her quasi-trial.
+
+Philip could not but contrast the emotions with which he had sought this
+meeting, with those which overwhelmed him at its close. John
+Mainwaring's letter had apparently opened the way to a satisfactory
+unravelling of the tangled skein, and it was with a full belief in the
+solution thus presented, that he had gone to Patricia, and begged for a
+more explicit explanation than that suggested in Mainwaring's statement.
+He believed also, that at last he had fathomed Mdlle. Lamien's part in
+the transaction, and the secret of her power over him; he had already
+accused her of being Count Mellikoff's accomplice, and now he thought he
+saw how it was that all unconsciously she played advantageously into
+his hands.
+
+It needed but a word from Patricia to reduce his theory to reality; but
+this word Miss Hildreth declined to pronounce, nor could he force from
+her any admission upon which he could establish his hypothesis. The only
+outcome of his interview with her was a return to the old uncertainty
+and doubt that had made his life a torture for so many days.
+
+To the great surprise of every one, Mr. Tremain did not appear as Miss
+Hildreth's solicitor, nor, indeed, take any active part in her behalf.
+It was John Mainwaring who was selected by Patricia as her adviser, and
+to John Mainwaring she opened her whole heart; holding nothing back, and
+in no way excusing or exonerating herself for the part she had played in
+the plot, that bid fair to develop all the characteristics of tragedy
+before its termination. She bound the young lawyer by the most solemn of
+promises not to reveal certain portions of her confession, although the
+consequences of his secrecy might be the worst possible for her. And
+Mainwaring, being a man of quick sympathies and ardent chivalry, had,
+under the spell of her beauty and her emotion, passed his word of honour
+to use only such particulars of her statement, in her support, as she
+should designate.
+
+"I think you are mistaken," he had said, after urging a greater latitude
+upon her, "I cannot say how far your reticence may not tell against you.
+I wish you would be quite frank with me, Miss Hildreth, or rather let me
+be on your behalf. I don't believe you half realise the gravity of your
+position, or how terrible the result may be for you should I fail to
+overthrow the validity of the warrant. You see a certain amount of
+complicity we must acknowledge, since we cannot set up an _alibi_, and
+that will go just so much against you if I may not show the context.
+Won't you reconsider, Miss Hildreth, or let me take another opinion upon
+the matter?"
+
+"No," she answered with decision, "I cannot reconsider. It is
+impossible. Only think in what a position it would place him were I to
+allow you to proclaim my miserable attitude. No, be the consequences
+what they may, I have brought sorrow and shame enough upon Philip
+Tremain through my influence, I will not disgrace him publicly by having
+my weakness dragged out to the light of day. You have given me your
+word, Mr. Mainwaring. I have no fear of your breaking it, and I do not
+care for any second opinion. I must stand or fall by the line of
+argument we have marked out between us."
+
+And from this decision he could not move her.
+
+After he left her, Miss Hildreth sat for a long time quite still and
+motionless. The slow heavy tears gathered in her eyes and fell down her
+cheeks unnoticed and unchecked; the sobs, deep weary sobs, burst now and
+then from her brave heart; and at last, as the evening shadows
+lengthened into night, and all about her became wrapt in soft
+impalpable darkness, she fell upon her knees, bowing her proud head to
+the ground, and praying as she had never prayed before; entreating
+forgiveness for her wilful pride, her cruel selfishness, her obdurate
+egotism, through which, not she only had been brought to so terrible an
+alternative, but he whom she loved bid fair to be dragged down with her
+in her fall.
+
+"No, no, no," she cried aloud, clasping her hands together and throwing
+them outward in a passionate gesture of entreaty, "I will never give in.
+I will never confess the shameful part I have taken in this deception. I
+will never, my poor Philip, by word or sign permit one slight or sneer
+to fall on you through me. If I have failed in everything else, I will
+not fail in this. At least, I have courage and endurance left, I am not
+afraid but that they will stand me in good stead; and should the very
+worst consequences fall upon me, I deserve them all. Yes, every
+individual item, in that horrible possibility of which he spoke, is not
+too much for me to bear in punishment. Oh, Philip, Philip, to think I
+should be the one to bring the disgrace upon you of biting scorn, and
+evil laughter, and venomous tongues! I, who love you, and yet whose love
+can point to no higher achievement than this!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A QUESTION OF COMITY.
+
+
+The morning of the fateful 15th of September dawned at last; and long
+before the hour fixed for the official inquiry, the court-room was
+filled to overflowing by a crowd gathered from every grade of Society,
+to each member of which the arrest and possible fate of so prominent a
+person as Patricia Hildreth assumed a special and individual importance.
+
+The very secrecy and mystery that had surrounded the case from the
+outset, and the reticence of the Press regarding it--usually so
+garrulous and self-opinionated--served only to whet the sensation-loving
+appetite of the community. The examination being held in open court,
+any one was free to enter, and to exercise that naïve candour of
+criticism and good-natured interference in other people's affairs
+peculiarly American. Not a member of the assemblage but was cognisant of
+the case in all its details, or who could not, at a moment's notice,
+reel off a synopsis of its peculiar features, embracing the names,
+social standing, personal incomes, and general habits of the persons
+most implicated in it.
+
+The Folly, the _Deerhound_, and Esther Newbold, as the mistress of both,
+were fully canvassed, together with Miss Darling's openly expressed
+anger at being detained by the accusing party to give special evidence,
+and Mr. Tremain's extraordinary conduct in refusing to act as Miss
+Hildreth's solicitor; while Patricia's private life, her jewels, wealth,
+and beauty, were scarcely more absorbing topics than were the treachery,
+blackheartedness and ingratitude of Vladimir Mellikoff; who, having been
+received with such cordial hospitality, returned it in so evil and
+back-handed a fashion.
+
+A strong party of Patricia's friends occupied prominent places, among
+whom were George Newbold, Sir Piers Tracey, Freddy Slade, and Jack
+Howard, further enforced by a feminine contingent of the _super-chics_,
+to whom a morning spent in a court of inquiry, of which they formed, as
+it were, an independent jury, to decide upon the guilt or innocence of
+one of their own sex and order, offered too new a sensation to be
+despised in this age of satiated experience. They came, therefore,
+arrayed in the most exquisite of costumes, and bringing with them their
+individual fads and fancies in the way of salts, eau-de-cologne, and
+fans. They rustled into their places with the same arrogance and
+assurance with which they distinguished a "first night" at Wallack's or
+the opera, and, raising their long tortoise-shell handled _pince-nezs_
+with elaborate superciliousness, gazed at the gathering crowd with the
+same indifference as they inspected the unfamiliar face of an aspirant
+to histrionic fame whose success was still in embryo.
+
+Patricia Hildreth had indeed no severer tribunal to stand before than
+these butterflies of the hour, who were equally ready to bestow upon her
+smiles, congratulations, and assurances of their undeviating fidelity,
+or scoffs and jeers of objurgation--none the less defamatory because
+spoken in soft tones and with downcast eyes--according as the decision
+was given for or against her.
+
+As the great clock in the tower of the City Hall struck ten, echoed by
+all the lesser clocks of the neighbourhood, the little crowd of
+black-coated lawyers and attorneys, that filled the space between the
+bench and a certain railed off space, within which a chair had been
+placed, separated, the different members taking their places to right
+and left of the official bench set apart for the District Judge, before
+whom Patricia Hildreth was to stand arraigned, by virtue of arrest, on a
+charge of murder. It was understood, of course, that the proceedings
+were in a manner informal; the inquiry purported to deal solely with the
+validity of the warrant issued against Miss Hildreth, and did not in any
+sense partake of the nature of a trial; that, should Count Mellikoff
+substantiate the arrest, would take place in St. Petersburg, before a
+Russian tribunal. Nevertheless, to all those concerned in the case, and
+to the onlookers, this official inquiry was regarded in the light of a
+trial, especially since, owing to the gravity of the circumstances,
+witnesses were to be allowed on both sides.
+
+John Mainwaring's dark, clean-shaven face wore a somewhat anxious
+expression as he bent down towards George Newbold and spoke earnestly to
+him. Mr. Tremain, Esther, and Miss Darling were not present in the
+court-room; later they were to be called to give evidence. Count
+Mellikoff was there, however, looking very pale but perfectly
+self-possessed, his deep-set burning eyes flashing looks of disdain upon
+the unfriendly crowd, whose hostile expressions did not fail to reach
+his ears.
+
+As his solicitor Vladimir had engaged Peter Munger, one of the most
+famous members of the Bar, whose name alone was supposed to ensure
+success. He was a large man, with a forbidding forehead and an offensive
+smile; and his very aggressiveness was popularly supposed to weigh
+heavily with the Bench.
+
+He spoke very little to any one, but scowled darkly upon Mainwaring, and
+muttered a rather unprofessional expletive beneath his breath, against
+his opponent's youth and inexperience.
+
+"I had rather it had been Tremain," he had growled out to Count
+Mellikoff, when first apprised of the name of Patricia's solicitor,
+"it's worth my while to beat _him_; but that youngster--bah!" And out
+flew a shower of little chewed-up quids of paper, which it was the great
+man's habit to indulge in as a break-water to the more pernicious
+tobacco.
+
+Count Mellikoff had shrugged his shoulders and held out his hands in
+deprecation, but made no other reply, upon which the giant snorted out
+something not over polite regarding foreigners, which Vladimir felt it
+was wiser not to notice.
+
+As the last stroke of the hour died upon the air a moment's silence fell
+upon the assembly, and in that silence the peal of old Trinity's bells
+rang out, calling the worshippers to morning service. Vladimir, as he
+listened to the deep peal, thought of Petersburg, and found himself
+waiting involuntarily for the victorious pæan, "How glorious is our God
+in Zion," which in his country followed the striking of the hour,
+drowning the sadder notes of the _Miserere_.
+
+But the bells ceased, and with their final chord of aërial music the
+small door behind the official bench was thrown open, and the legal
+_cortège_ entered and took their seats in a silence that was absolute,
+save for the throbbing of the air stirred by the expectant breathing of
+the waiting crowd.
+
+Judge Anstice, the District Judge for New York, was eminently imposing
+both in person and manner. He was unusually tall, with an intellectual
+head, a face of much power and kindliness, and a reputation for leniency
+whenever compatible with a strict observance of justice. It was to him
+that both John Mainwaring and Mr. Tremain looked instinctively for
+sympathy, though knowing him to be before all things a strict
+disciplinarian in all points pertaining to his profession. He was,
+moreover, a popular favourite with the public, who hailed his appearance
+with subdued satisfaction.
+
+The half murmur of applause which greeted Judge Anstice developed into
+decided expressions of excitement as a tall, slight figure advanced,
+piloted up the narrow aisle by a policeman, and shown into the railed
+off space before the Bench. The new-comer was Patricia Hildreth, and the
+hush of expectation, that followed close upon the audible comments
+called forth by her appearance, became breathless, as, with a firm step
+and upright bearing, she took the place indicated and stood for a moment
+confronting her accusers.
+
+Her beautiful face was colourless, her blue eyes looked black and
+luminous beneath the dark brows, her lips were resolutely closed, with
+just a touch of defiance in the firm set curves. She was dressed plainly
+in black, and she wore no veil.
+
+It had never been Miss Hildreth's custom to hide her beauty when most
+triumphant; why should she do so now in the hour of her extremity?
+
+It was intimated to her that she was at liberty to sit down, and with a
+slight bend of her proud head she availed herself of the permission.
+
+Mr. Munger opened the proceedings with a short and technical explanation
+as to the nature and purport of the warrant of arrest, the issuing of
+which had been formally requested by the Russian Government, and
+acceded to by that of the United States, not as a matter of absolute
+right, but through that comity of nations by which the relationships
+existing between two great powers were kept intact and justly balanced.
+The warrant thus issued had been executed upon the person of Patricia
+Hildreth, _alias_ Adèle Lamien, _alias_ Adèle Lallovich, on the charge
+of her having been an accomplice in the murder of Stevan Lallovich,
+which occurred at St. Petersburg in the month of December last. The
+investigation of this warrant was what they had before them now, and in
+so doing he would first call attention to the point of nationality,
+since upon this point very much depended. Should Miss Hildreth, or
+rather should Adèle Lamien, prove to be a Muscovite subject, the
+American authorities could have but one course open to them, namely, to
+surrender her to the Russian officials, and let her be put upon trial in
+the country, and according to the laws, where the crime was committed.
+
+A like course had been adopted by another foreign Power, when the
+United States was the petitioner, and the offender a political criminal.
+Spain had at once delivered up this fugitive from justice,[1] though not
+legally compelled to do so, and the offender was brought to trial solely
+through the courtesy of a foreign Government. Having then this case as a
+precedent, it would, according to national honour, be impossible to
+refuse a like amenity in the present instance. As the Bench was aware,
+the circumstances in the case now before them were of so extraordinary a
+nature, it had been deemed wise to allow of evidence being given, a
+course entirely at variance with the usual procedure in such cases.
+Special emergencies, however, required special treatment. But before he
+availed himself of the privilege thus accorded, he would call the
+attention of the Bench to a few of the peculiarities of this case, by
+which it would be seen how weighty and grave were the reasons which led
+to the demand and the issuing of the warrant.
+
+[Footnote 1: The late Mr. W. M. Tweed].
+
+In his opinion there had never been a more deliberately planned and
+executed murder than that of Count Stevan Lallovich, nor one in which
+greater skill and _finesse_ had been displayed, both before and after
+the perpetration of it. It was needless for him to tell the Bench who
+the lady purported to be that stood accused before them; her name and
+her position were far too well known and defined to require any
+blazoning forth by him. His task was the more unpleasant one of proving
+that this Patricia Hildreth had no right to her recognised patronymic,
+since she, under the name of Adèle Lamien, had contracted a marriage
+with Count Stevan Lallovich, and had subsequently consented to, and
+participated in, the murder of the same Stevan Lallovich. It was owing
+to these exceptional features that the warrant had been issued against
+her, and he submitted to his honour that the papers of arrest would be
+found regular on all these points.
+
+Having gone thus far, Mr. Munger paused and threw an imperative glance
+at the Judge and auditors collectively; it was plainly evident that his
+statement had made a decided impression.
+
+The public interest in the case had been pronounced enough even when but
+little of its real nature had been revealed, and now, when the true
+aspect of the charge was exposed, and Patricia Hildreth stood stripped
+of all protection, even that afforded her by her name and position, and
+was openly branded not only as a murderer, but as a wilful impostor and
+adventuress, the excitement reached fever heat, and not one pair of all
+those hundreds of watching eyes but were turned upon the proud beautiful
+face of the accused woman; that face never faltered nor winced beneath
+their gaze, eager though they were to note the first sign or expression
+of fear upon it.
+
+After this scarcely perceptible pause, Mr. Munger took up his theme
+again, and in incisive phrases, with rough eloquence, told the story of
+the brilliant, dissolute, captivating Russian noble, Stevan Lallovich;
+painting his character in forcible lights and deep shadows; dwelling
+strongly on his blood connection with the Muscovite Emperor, his life at
+Court, the unstinted adulation poured upon him, the continuous round of
+success that attended his every caprice; until it became an article of
+belief in his circle that he had but to express a wish, or whisper a
+desire, and the fulfilment of it was accomplished without the asking.
+Like Jove of old, did he but nod his head his whole world trembled, or
+smile and they rejoiced. With great skill the able pleader brought down
+his narrative to ten years ago, when, as he said, with a disagreeable
+smile, Miss Hildreth, then in the full glory of her exceptional beauty,
+had left her native country--he would not suggest under what
+circumstances--and for the greater part of those succeeding ten years
+had been an independent wanderer over the European continent, answerable
+to no one; concerning her experiences during those ten years Miss
+Hildreth was known to be obstinately reticent. They had her admission,
+however, as he would show later, of her having been in St. Petersburg a
+part of that time, and also of her having known Count Stevan Lallovich.
+The date of her acknowledged visit to Petersburg comprised the month
+before and the very day of Count Stevan's murder. She returned to
+America early in February, the crime having been committed in the
+December previous.
+
+It was a well-known fact among Count Lallovich's friends, that about a
+year before his ill-fated death he had become so infatuated by the
+extreme beauty of a foreign lady--foreign in the sense of her not being
+a Muscovite subject--as to marry her according to the ceremonies of the
+Roman Catholic Church, which Church, not holding communion with the
+Greek religion, is looked upon in Russia as schismatic. After a few
+months of retired felicity the affair became known to the Tsar, who
+revoked the marriage by Imperial ukase, and recalled Count Stevan to
+Petersburg; the unfortunate lady was thus turned adrift, with her
+character ruined, and her personality numbered among the many suspects,
+over whom the Chancellerie keeps so close a watch.
+
+On the morning of the 28th of December, Count Stevan Lallovich was found
+murdered in his own palace, stabbed through the heart. The assassin had
+left behind no more tangible proof of identity than was contained in a
+small handkerchief, evidently dropped in the haste of flight, marked
+across one corner in embroidered letters _A. de L._; above these letters
+the initials _P. H._ had been carelessly written in ink. The
+handkerchief was that of a woman, and was traced as belonging to Adèle
+Lamien, or de Lallovich, Count Stevan's repudiated wife. Suspicion fell
+naturally upon this woman, a suspicion which soon became assurance; but
+she, with consummate cunning, eluded every effort put forth for her
+apprehension, and finally escaped to America, landing in New York some
+time within the month of February last.
+
+It would be understood that in so grave and terrible a crime, where the
+victim was a member of the Imperial Russian family, no efforts would be
+spared to track and find the perpetrator of the deed. From positive and
+unimpeachable evidence the Chancellerie had reason to believe the
+assassin to be in the United States, and they accordingly authorised
+Count Vladimir Mellikoff, a member of the Tsar's household, to act as
+their agent in the matter; and he it was who in the furtherance of this
+work had traced the criminal link by link, and bit by bit, until he was
+able to lodge such information before the proper authorities in this
+country as resulted in the arrest of Patricia Hildreth; who now, as
+Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich, stands accused of her husband's murder.
+
+"That, your honour," summed up Mr. Munger, "is my statement. To prove
+the regularity of the warrant, and the validity of the evidence upon
+which it was issued, I propose first to show that the lady calling
+herself Patricia Hildreth is, _in propriâ personâ_, Adèle Lallovich, and
+that by her marriage with Stevan Lallovich, she became _de facto_ a
+Russian subject, and is therefore answerable to Russian authority. To do
+this, I will avail myself of the precedent established for this case, by
+taking informal evidence upon it. I will therefore ask Count Mellikoff
+to come forward."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+NON-COMMITTAL.
+
+
+As Vladimir Mellikoff stepped out from the group of men surrounding him
+and took the place indicated by Mr. Munger, a low murmur of disapproval
+surged up from the highly wrought crowd of listeners and onlookers, at
+the sound of which his colourless face flushed, for one brief second,
+while the dark eyes in the cavernous sockets gleamed intemperately, and
+the mouth beneath the dark beard and moustache tightened visibly.
+
+He gave his evidence quietly and dispassionately, but with great
+deliberation, his restless eyes glancing now at Miss Hildreth's calm,
+unmoved face, now at John Mainwaring's dark, shapely, outlined
+countenance, and back again to Mr. Munger's beetling brow and heavy
+frown.
+
+Each word he uttered told with distinct force against Patricia, and
+gathering confidence as he went on, Count Vladimir carried the wavering
+opinions of the public with him.
+
+Ably interrogated, he proved the presence of Miss Hildreth in St.
+Petersburg at the time of Count Stevan's murder, her acquaintance with
+him, and her precipitate and mysterious flight from the Russian capital
+the morning after the perpetration of the crime. He next proved that a
+lady, calling herself Adèle Lamien, had taken passage and sailed in a
+steamship of the International Line from London for New York; that, on
+the ship's arrival at the latter port, Miss Hildreth was found to be
+among the passengers, while Adèle Lamien was missing. Miss Hildreth's
+friends were kept in ignorance of her arrival for several days, and when
+questioned regarding her sudden and unexpected return, she displayed the
+greatest reticence.
+
+He, Vladimir Mellikoff, had arrived in New York somewhat later in the
+same month of February, but, owing to various causes of delay, he made
+no progress in his mission for several weeks; and, while waiting the
+further development of events, he had accepted an invitation extended to
+him by Mr. George Newbold, to pay him a visit at his country-house, the
+Folly, on Staten Island. The first evening of his arrival he met Miss
+Hildreth, and from something in her manner, he was led to observe her
+closely; these observations resulted in the conviction that she was
+playing a part, which it was vitally important she should succeed in. An
+unexpected clue to her secret had fallen into his hands that very
+evening; he had found beneath Miss Hildreth's chair, when she and the
+house party had withdrawn for the rehearsal, a fine cambric
+handkerchief, edged with lace and embroidered in a monogram, _A. de L._;
+the very counterpart, in fact, of the one left by the criminal in her
+precipitate flight from the rooms of the murdered Stevan Lallovich, the
+only point of difference being that the one now in his possession did
+not have the written initials _P. H._ upon it.
+
+He next drew attention to the presence at the Folly of a person calling
+herself Adèle Lamien, who filled the position of governess to Mr.
+Newbold's little daughter. He, personally, had not met Mdlle. Lamien
+during his visit; but others had done so who would prove her identity
+with the lady before them. He had, however, been witness to an interview
+between Mdlle. Lamien and Mr. Philip Tremain, during which Mr. Tremain
+made no secret of his knowledge concerning that lady's past life. He had
+also in his possession a note addressed to Miss Darling, one of the
+young lady guests at the Folly, signed Adèle Lamien, written on paper
+bearing the Lallovich crest, and dated the 3rd of May; the very evening
+on which Miss Hildreth was said to have arrived at the Folly.
+
+During all of Count Mellikoff's narration, Patricia never once took her
+eyes from his dark, inscrutable face; she watched him with the same
+expressionless countenance which she had worn from the opening of the
+inquiry. But at the mention of the interview between Adèle Lamien and
+Philip Tremain her face changed perceptibly, a wave of emotion passed
+over it as she turned her troubled eyes appealingly towards John
+Mainwaring. Then the mask of impenetrability settled over it again, and
+she sat immovable, her hands clasped together on her lap, her head
+thrown back in proud defiance.
+
+Count Mellikoff's further statements were purely technical, and related
+chiefly to his position in Russia, his credibility, authority, etc., all
+of which were vouched for by the Russian Ambassador.
+
+As Vladimir resumed his seat, a low murmur of disapproval escaped from
+the crowd, a murmur promptly subdued, but that told of the growing
+excitement. Mr. Munger, on hearing its threatening notes, tossed back
+his head with a snort of defiance, and called up his next witness with
+prompt alacrity.
+
+As the slight, thin figure of Rosalie James appeared in answer to Mr.
+Munger's call, another change passed rapidly across Patricia's face, her
+lips curled slightly, while into her eyes there flashed a look of
+comprehension. Had not Philip hinted at some hidden woman enemy; some
+one to whom she, Patricia, had given cause for anger, for retaliation,
+for revenge? And had not this girl, with the sharply outlined face,
+always held aloof from her? Had she not often found those keen,
+observant eyes fixed upon her with the same scrutiny with which they now
+regarded her? She had put Mr. Tremain's supposition by as not worth
+consideration; she saw now how important had been its bearing, for in
+Rosalie James she recognised, with a woman's quick perception, her most
+pronounced and calculating enemy. And with this certainty came another.
+
+This girl loved Philip, and knowing her passion to be hopeless, she had
+sought out, with the unfailing prescience of slighted love, the woman
+who was her rival, hoping that in striking at her she would also wound
+the man who had rejected her. Love is proverbially cruel, none knew this
+truth better than Miss Hildreth; it was, therefore, with a strange
+illogical sympathy that she listened to Miss James's defamation of her.
+
+Rosalie spoke in her usual high pitched voice, every note of which
+carried her words into the furthest corners of the crowded room. Under
+Mr. Munger's manipulation she gave a condensed and telling account of
+her instrumentality in the arrest of Miss Hildreth. In substance it was
+as follows.
+
+She had been a guest at the Folly at the same time as Patricia, and had
+taken part in the same theatricals, though not in the same play. She had
+often heard Miss Hildreth discussed before she met her, and from what
+had been said had formed no very high opinion of that lady's character.
+Miss Hildreth was always singularly reticent concerning her experiences
+during her residence abroad. She had only once heard her make any
+voluntary allusion to her visit to St. Petersburg, and that was on the
+morning of the 4th of May, when some of the house party were gathered
+together in Mrs. Newbold's boudoir. Miss Hildreth had then related a
+curious tale; she had not actually detailed the murder of Count Stevan
+Lallovich, but she had alluded to it very pertinently and with great
+excitement of manner. She had also distinctly named Adèle Lallovich as
+the victim of a moral crime, and had intimated the form of her revenge.
+
+To her, Miss Hildreth had from the first appeared as a woman with a
+secret, and she had determined to fathom that secret. She had her
+reasons for doing so, they were purely personal reasons. She had, from
+the first day of her arrival at the Folly, heard a great deal about
+Adèle Lamien. She had seen her once or twice, but had paid little
+attention to her, noticing only that she shunned observation and kept as
+much in the background as possible. On the arrival of Mr. Tremain,
+however, Mdlle. Lamien apparently lost her shyness, for she, Miss James,
+had several times seen them together, and had once discovered the
+governess in a state of great agitation.
+
+She had not liked Mdlle. Lamien at any time, and believed her quite
+capable of the most flagrant deception. Mrs. Newbold had been
+remonstrated with for her credulity, and on one such occasion she had
+related to her guests an extraordinary story, which purported to be that
+of her governess, and which was substantially that of Adèle Lallovich,
+as told by Count Mellikoff; the details and make-up differed somewhat,
+and the murder of Count Stevan was not touched upon, but the main
+features were the same. Mr. Tremain was present on the occasion, and it
+had occurred to her at the time that Mrs. Newbold had some covert
+meaning in her recitation; at all events Mr. Tremain seemed much moved
+by it. Mdlle. Lamien was not at the dinner-table when her story was
+discussed.
+
+She had first suspected Miss Hildreth and Mdlle. Lamien of being one and
+the same person, from a hint thrown out by Count Mellikoff. She had
+previously remarked that Mdlle. Lamien and Miss Hildreth were never
+present at the same time, and on the evening of Miss Hildreth's arrival,
+it was given out that Mdlle. Lamien had suddenly been called away. It
+was not long before these suspicions became assurances; she could not
+form an opinion as to the motives for the deception being practised upon
+them all; she had no previous acquaintance with Miss Hildreth,
+consequently she could not vouch absolutely for her identity; but in any
+case it was plain that the lady passing under that name had some
+desperate motive for doing so.
+
+It was not until the last day of Mr. Tremain's visit at the Folly that
+the nature of this intrigue was made plain. The theatricals took place
+on the evening of the 4th of May, Mr. Newbold's birthday; on the
+following morning Mr. Tremain announced his departure for that
+afternoon. About half-past four she and Count Mellikoff were seated on
+the stone terrace beneath the library windows; they did not observe any
+one enter the room until close on to five o'clock, when Mr. Tremain came
+in, walked first up to the book-cases and then passed on into the
+music-room, which was separated by _portières_ only from the library.
+She and the Count remained a few moments longer on the terrace, and then
+entered the library by one of the open French windows; as they did so a
+sudden exclamation from the inner room arrested them, and they thus
+became the listeners to a very remarkable interview between Mr. Tremain
+and Adèle Lamien, during which Mdlle. Lamien played and sang in a manner
+which seemed to greatly affect Mr. Tremain. At the close of the song he
+had offered himself to Mdlle. Lamien, and this had called forth from
+her a confused and rambling statement, in which she hinted at crime and
+shame being not unknown to her. Mr. Tremain's ardour, however, had not
+been daunted by these equivocal innuendoes; he pressed her for an
+answer, and Mdlle. Lamien had at last accepted him conditionally. The
+interview terminated by Mdlle. Lamien exclaiming, excitedly: "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!"
+
+She had thought them remarkable words at the time; but they assumed a
+still greater significance when Mdlle. Lamien pushed back the
+_portières_ and, walking rapidly across the library, turned as she
+reached the open door and looked back. Believing herself to be alone,
+she let the mask of deception fall from her, and, despite all disguise
+of paint and powder, they recognised in the countenance thus turned
+towards them, smiling and triumphant, the face of Patricia Hildreth!
+
+Miss James gave her evidence throughout in so calm and assured a manner,
+and in such cold and concise sentences, as to admit of no interruption
+and impress the seal of unimpeachable truth on all she said. Both her
+face and voice were hard and impassive; but, notwithstanding her
+pronounced, unsympathetic attitude, she carried weight with her, and
+reduced the majority of wavering opinions into affirmative antagonism
+against Patricia.
+
+Looked at through the medium of Count Mellikoff's and Miss James's
+statements, that lady's conduct did indeed appear not only perplexing
+but condemning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A DAMAGING PROMISE.
+
+
+With the close of Miss James's testimony, the noon recess was called,
+and to the relief of every one the mental strain and tension was laid
+aside for an hour.
+
+Miss Hildreth walked out of the court-room with the same firm tread and
+upright bearing with which she had entered it; Judge Anstice disappeared
+through a private door, and his withdrawal was followed by the
+instantaneous appearance, on every side, of sandwich-boxes and
+lunch-baskets. The ladies under George Newbold's escort regaled
+themselves on chickens' wings and "cup;" the humbler crowd making
+audible comments thereon over their humbler fare.
+
+The silence was broken by a Babel of voices all raised to concert pitch,
+all going together, and all discussing volubly the events of the
+morning.
+
+The public pulse stood at fever height, and public opinion, with its
+usual consistency, was veering round in favour of Vladimir Mellikoff.
+Miss Hildreth had been chief favourite when the inquiry opened, but Miss
+Hildreth's chances for keeping that position looked scarcely favourable
+now, judging from public expressions.
+
+The refreshment hour passed all too quickly, and with the prompt return
+of Judge Anstice, the crowd settled itself down, re-nerved and
+fortified, for the long afternoon's work that evidently lay before it.
+
+Once more Miss Hildreth took her place within the railed-off space, and
+those nearest to her were quick to perceive the additional pallor of her
+face, and the troubled look in her dark blue eyes.
+
+Almost imperceptibly the _modus operandi_ of this informal inquiry had
+assumed the proportions and importance of a legal trial; and so
+exceptional and perplexing were the circumstances surrounding the case,
+the usual manner of procedure was tacitly waived, and the investigation
+carried on on broader lines. The dramatic element so predominated, it
+insensibly bore both the Bench and the crowd along with it, breaking
+down all ordinary barriers of legal treatment.
+
+The stipulated point at issue was of course the examination of the
+warrant papers, and if Judge Anstice stretched the cordon in this
+respect it was scarcely to be wondered at. The case virtually had no
+precedent; it was only in deference to that unwritten code of the
+courtesy of common law between nations that any such inquiry took place
+at all, and had the charge been a less grave one than that of murder, no
+proceedings would have been entered upon. But, as has been said,
+exceptional cases demand exceptional remedies, and since an arrest and
+inquiry had been granted, the lines for the carrying out of the latter
+could not be too broad and comprehensive.
+
+Mr. Munger reappeared like a giant refreshed, and immediately called up
+Mrs. Newbold as his next ally. Esther's fair, pretty face, flushed and
+anxious, looked as much out of keeping with its surroundings as did her
+costume of lace and muslin. She glanced appealingly at Miss Hildreth
+before speaking, and that silent appeal called up a ghost of a smile to
+Patricia's lips.
+
+Despite the soft prettiness of her blonde colouring, however, Mrs.
+Newbold could lay claim to plenty of self-possession, and Mr. Munger
+found her not quite so malleable as he had imagined. She answered any
+question put directly to her as briefly as possible, but she would not
+advance any detail or explanation. Notwithstanding the neutrality of her
+replies, however, her evidence was gravely important, for it established
+beyond question the fact that Miss Hildreth and Marianne's governess,
+known at the Folly as Adèle Lamien, were one and the same person. Esther
+did not attempt to deny this, nor did she vouchsafe any explanation
+concerning it. When asked if she had always been cognisant of this fact,
+she answered, simply:
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Had she then assisted Miss Hildreth in the deception?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Had she told the story purporting to be that of Adèle Lamien, as
+recounted by Miss James?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was she present when Miss Hildreth indicated that of Adèle Lallovich?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did she endeavour to stop her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because she thought Miss Hildreth was indiscreet."
+
+"Was she acquainted with Miss Hildreth's reasons for wishing to keep her
+identity with Adèle Lamien secret?"
+
+Mrs. Newbold's face flushed, and she turned another appealing look upon
+Patricia before she replied, slowly:
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Would she state those reasons?"
+
+"No, she could not."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She was under a promise."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"She would rather not say."
+
+"To Miss Hildreth?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Had she agreed with Miss Hildreth's reasons?"
+
+"Not altogether."
+
+"Yet she assisted her to carry them out. Why?"
+
+"She would rather not say."
+
+"Had those reasons anything to do with Mr. Tremain?"
+
+Mrs. Newbold was silent, and, with a snort and a smile, Mr. Munger
+continued:
+
+"Did Mrs. Newbold know Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich, to have committed a
+crime at some period of her life?"
+
+"Yes, she had been told so."
+
+"And Mrs. Newbold was perfectly sure that the lady calling herself Miss
+Hildreth was the same person who, at the Folly, was known as Adèle
+Lamien?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then Mrs. Newbold believed her friend--Miss Hildreth--to be guilty of
+murder?"
+
+Clear and sharp came the answer:
+
+"No, I do not."
+
+"What then did Mrs. Newbold believe?"
+
+And Esther, her face flushing and paling alternately, her blue eyes
+fixed dauntlessly upon her tormenter, replied, that while forced to
+admit that Patricia Hildreth and the person purporting to be Adèle
+Lamien were to her certain knowledge one and the same, to the best of
+her belief this was not the whole truth. Miss Hildreth had reasons,
+grave reasons, for what she had done, and she, Mrs. Newbold, had
+consented to help her, never foreseeing the grave and terrible
+consequences that might ensue. She was not at liberty to state those
+reasons; but she was as certain as she stood before them then, that Miss
+Hildreth was absolutely guiltless of the crime of which she was accused.
+
+"How did Mrs. Newbold account for the two handkerchiefs marked _A. de
+L._?"
+
+"She could not account for them."
+
+"Had Miss Hildreth ever spoken to her concerning her life
+abroad--especially her life at St. Petersburg?"
+
+"No; Miss Hildreth had always been uncommunicative on all such topics."
+
+This closed Mrs. Newbold's statement; and Esther could not but feel, as
+her husband handed her to a seat not far from Patricia, that she had
+done more to injure her friend's cause than to help it.
+
+"Oh, if she would but have let me speak!" she said to her husband, the
+tears dimming the brightness of her blue eyes.
+
+Patricia caught the half whispered exclamation, and saw the glistening
+tear-drops; but she only folded her hands more closely together, and
+waited with a look of quiet endurance on her pale face.
+
+Dick Darling was next interrogated, and her violent partisanship was
+decidedly refreshing to the excited listeners. She indignantly denied
+any possible connection between Miss Hildreth and Adèle Lallovich; but
+when pinned down to say why, she could only shake her brown head and
+declare she was sure of it from a moral point of view.
+
+Yes, she had received the pink note from Mdlle. Lamien, on the evening
+of the 3rd of May. She could not say if the handwriting was that of Miss
+Hildreth, or if it was the same as that on the handkerchief. She was not
+familiar with Miss Hildreth's calligraphy. She had never had the
+smallest suspicion of Miss Hildreth's identity with Mdlle. Lamien; she
+didn't believe it. She was not given to looking for suspicious motives
+in every-day life; thank goodness she was not a sneak, and hoped she
+never might be; this last with a malevolent glance at Miss James. Miss
+Hildreth had told the story of Adèle Lallovich at her special request.
+Yes, she had used both names in telling it, Lamien and Lallovich.
+
+Miss Darling finished with an open scowl at Mr. Munger, and a smile at
+Patricia, and fluttered off to Esther's side, where she kept up a
+running commentary on all subsequent events.
+
+Once more there was a few moments' interval or breathing space, and then
+Mr. Munger played his trump card by requesting Philip Tremain to step
+forward. It had been, undoubtedly, a disagreeable surprise publicly when
+it transpired that Mr. Tremain was not to appear as Miss Hildreth's
+solicitor; but it created a still greater sensation that he should be
+called in evidence against her; and, for a few moments, as he stood
+there, composed, dignified, and impassive, such a silence fell upon the
+assemblage that even the dropping of the proverbial pin would have
+resounded loudly.
+
+And in that brief interval Philip lost all sight or knowledge of those
+around him; he saw only the pale, proud face of the woman he loved, the
+close-shut curve of her lips, the anxious expectancy of her eyes. Was
+she fearful of him then, and of what he might say? he asked himself a
+little bitterly. She had never rightly estimated his love, why should he
+expect her to do so now?
+
+Perhaps, since she had deceived him, she judged him by her standpoint of
+deception.
+
+Then he lost touch with the more personal elements of the scene, and
+remembered only where he was, and why he stood there. That woman yonder,
+that dark, silent, motionless figure, with the clasped hands and the
+pallid beautiful face, was Patricia Hildreth--the woman of his life-long
+devotion, the love of his youth and his manhood--and she was charged
+with what? Murder!
+
+And he? He could do nothing to exonerate her, nothing; he was helpless,
+powerless. She had refused even to give him an explanation of her
+position, and should Vladimir Mellikoff come off triumphant and she be
+taken from him, taken away to that Russia whose hand is as iron, whose
+vengeance is of blood, whose retribution stern as death, he should never
+know--never, never--how much of truth, how much of falsehood, she had
+kept back from him; or what was the secret that not all his passionate
+pleadings could wrest from her.
+
+Patricia had not lifted her eyes from her folded hands, or apparently
+taken any notice of Philip's appearance; only for one brief moment a
+faint wave of colour tinged her cheeks and faded slowly away.
+
+Mr. Munger's harsh voice broke the silence, and with an audible sigh of
+relief the audience fixed its attention upon Mr. Tremain. In replying to
+the lawyer's questions, Philip made his statement as brief as possible.
+
+He had gone to the Folly by invitation, and had had no expectation of
+meeting Miss Hildreth there; he had not seen Miss Hildreth for ten years
+previous to his meeting her at the Folly. He had not found her
+particularly changed; and had not had much intercourse with her. Yes, he
+acted in the same play with her--_The Ladies' Battle_--on the evening of
+Mr. Newbold's birthday, but as Miss Hildreth did not arrive until the
+afternoon of the day before, they had not rehearsed together. He had
+first met Mdlle. Lamien the evening of his arrival at the Folly; she had
+interested him at once, and increased that interest by her courage on
+the occasion of the carriage accident. He had never for a moment
+suspected Mdlle. Lamien and Miss Hildreth of being the same person; he
+could see no resemblance between them beyond height and certain tones of
+voice. No, he had never seen Mdlle. Lamien in full daylight; at the time
+of the accident she wore a thick black veil drawn closely over her
+face.
+
+Miss Hildreth had never spoken to him of her absence abroad, or
+volunteered any information concerning it. He had known Miss Hildreth
+for ten years; yes, at one time they had been engaged to be married. The
+interview described by Miss James had certainly taken place between him
+and Mdlle. Lamien; he had no wish to repudiate his position; at the end
+of the interview he considered himself engaged to Mdlle. Lamien; nothing
+had since occurred to alter his relations towards her. He had been out
+of town from August to September; his orders were that no letters or
+papers should be forwarded to him. He returned to New York on the
+evening of the 8th of September; he had only just reached his rooms when
+Miss Hildreth's arrest was made known to him; it was Miss Darling who
+told him. He had gone at once to Ludlow Street but was denied
+admittance; he then went to Mrs. Newbold's house in Madison Avenue. It
+was only two days ago that he had learned that Miss Hildreth and Mdlle.
+Lamien were supposed to be one and the same person. Yes, he had asked
+Miss Hildreth either to confirm or negative the charge, but she had
+declined to do so. He had no reason to believe that Miss Hildreth had
+contracted an unhappy alliance while abroad, nor had he any for denying
+the possibility of her having done so. Miss Hildreth was his friend, he
+would not therefore insult her by protesting his belief in her
+innocence. He had never seen Count Vladimir Mellikoff before meeting him
+at the Folly, on the evening of the 2nd of May.
+
+With the termination of Mr. Tremain's statement further inquiry was
+adjourned until the following morning. The long, hot day had run its
+course at last, and as the pent-up crowd surged out into the mellow,
+lambent atmosphere of the summer evening, and melted away in all
+directions, twilight and desertion settled down upon the empty
+court-room.
+
+Patricia, turning for one last look, as she passed out of the private
+door, smiled sadly at the change wrought in so short a time. Would it be
+so when she too had passed out of the lives of those who surrounded her
+now? Would her name--her place--become but an empty memory--a
+recollection to be put aside with all haste? Would he forget her,
+too--he, Philip, for whose love she had played so hazardous a game?
+Would _he_ forget her, as these people forgot her, glad to rush away
+from the excitement of looking at her to the greater excitement of
+condemning her? Must she, too, like Adèle Lallovich, drink to the very
+dregs the bitter cup of humiliation and desertion?
+
+When all this grim comedy--this farce that touched so close on
+tragedy--was over, when Russia's hand had closed upon her, would he
+think of her then? Would he come to know her better when she had passed
+from out his life for ever, and, perchance, give now and then one
+backward look, one sigh, to the days that were no more?
+
+"Ah, Philip," she murmured, "I would rather far you should never know,
+lest in knowing you should come to despise me for my weakness and my
+love!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CONFLICTING IDENTITIES.
+
+
+On the second day of the inquiry public excitement and interest reached
+a higher pitch than ever, when it became known that Mr. Mainwaring would
+occupy the greater part of the morning in refuting the evidence given,
+and in protesting against the legality of the warrant.
+
+Considering how positive had been the evidence, even of Miss Hildreth's
+own friends, it was difficult to see what possible line of argument the
+young lawyer could take, with any surety of success. Mrs. Newbold's
+testimony had disposed effectually of any doubts as to the identity of
+Miss Hildreth with that of the governess at the Folly--Adèle
+Lamien--and with this fact established irrefutably, was not Miss
+Hildreth's complicity in the murder of Stevan Lallovich a foregone
+conclusion?
+
+The suborning of Miss Hildreth's particular friends against her had
+certainly been a master stroke on Mr. Munger's part; how could John
+Mainwaring confute such a mass of convicting testimony? Of course he was
+bound to make a brave fight for his client; but--and here the public
+shrugged its shoulders collectively--they were sorry for him, and sorry
+for the poor figure he must inevitably cut; and then went to work to
+show their sorrow by discussing Patricia's guilt as a proved premise,
+and her probable fate only a question of time.
+
+John Mainwaring had once again sought Miss Hildreth, and, with every
+argument he could bring to bear, every pleading of rhetoric and
+common-sense, entreated her to reconsider her decision, and loose him
+from that promise of reservation respecting one point in her
+confession.
+
+But Patricia was not to be moved one jot or tittle. She heard him to the
+end in silence, sitting, as Philip had last seen her, at the little
+table, her hands clasped upon it, and leaning slightly forward. Her face
+looked worn and sad, her eyes pathetic in their weariness, but the
+beautiful lips were set in firm decision, their expression one of
+dauntless courage and endurance.
+
+The sweet, pungent perfume of the Maréchal Niel roses, grouped together
+in a tall glass vase, filled the heavy atmosphere with overpowering
+sweetness. She waited until John Mainwaring had quite finished speaking,
+and then said, slowly, and with the musical notes of her voice less
+reverberant than usual:
+
+"No, Mr. Mainwaring, I cannot alter my decision; I cannot give you leave
+to drag my poor secret out into the light of day; not, believe me, on my
+own account, but on _his_. To you only have I opened my whole heart--you
+alone know my weakness and my strength. For my own part, I should care
+very little how much was known of my motives; but for him--for Philip
+Tremain--I could not bear the thought and live, that, through me, and my
+love, he should be exposed to public ridicule. Ah, Mr. Mainwaring, was
+it for nothing, do you think, that I sat through those long, terrible
+hours yesterday, and heard the murmurs of the crowd, their open
+comments, their cruel innuendoes, their still more cruel laughter? Do I
+not know how eagerly they would seize upon my poor secret, and, tearing
+it limb from limb, dissect it and discuss it, in their cold, cruel,
+analysing fashion, until even the garment of reverence that clothes all
+love, however poor and mean, was torn from it, and it lay revealed--a
+poor denuded passion in tatters? Do you think he could bear that? Do you
+think Philip Tremain could hold up his head against such disgrace? Would
+he not despise and hate the one who brought it upon him, and would he
+not have reason to cast from him for ever all memory or recollection of
+such an one? Could I plead anything in extenuation to him--then? No;
+better, far better, the worst fate that can befall me than to clear
+myself in the eyes of the world, at the expense of sinking for ever in
+the estimation of him, to gain whose love I have placed myself in so
+terrible a position."
+
+John Mainwaring made no reply; indeed, what answer could he make to such
+passionless reasoning as this? Whenever he was brought face to face with
+Patricia, and listened to her clear, calm voice, he felt himself carried
+away by the very attitude of her pleading. He saw things only from her
+point of view, and was ready to acquiesce and agree with her, however
+over-strained he considered her arguments. But when he was away from
+her, and without the radius of her personal influence, he was apt to
+anathematise himself in unparliamentary language, and to wish Miss
+Hildreth's selection of a lawyer had fallen on some one less susceptible
+to impressions.
+
+"Since you give me no option, Miss Hildreth," he said presently,
+somewhat sullenly, "I must perforce make the best of my material; but, I
+warn you, my reasoning will sound very weak after yesterday's testimony,
+and Munger is sure to pounce upon its weakest point, in substantiation
+of which I have nothing to advance--positively nothing."
+
+"I am very sorry for you, Mr. Mainwaring, believe me," she answered,
+earnestly, "and very grateful; but I cannot change my mind."
+
+Then he had gone away, and for many long minutes Miss Hildreth sat as he
+had left her, her hands outstretched upon the table, her face quiet and
+expressionless, save for the close set curve of the mobile lips.
+
+John Mainwaring, on leaving Miss Hildreth, walked quickly to his office,
+not in the most enviable frame of mind. As he entered the outer room,
+his clerk came forward and whispered a few words to him, then preceding
+him to the inner office, opened the door and held it back for Mainwaring
+to enter. As he did so, a dark figure rose up from the depths of a
+lounging chair, and advanced towards him. The brilliant sunshine from
+the outer room struck full athwart the stranger's face, and revealed the
+features of the Italian, Mattalini; then the door swung to, and the
+clerk returned to his desk in the full glare of the hot sunshine.
+
+By ten o'clock the court-room was again filled to overflowing,
+apparently with the identical crowd of the day before. The battalion of
+fashionable ladies showed an increase of recruits, and the knot of
+lawyers gathered about the Bench was augmented in numbers. Close beside
+the railed off space, sat Mrs. Newbold and Dick Darling, while not far
+off, engaged in earnest conversation, were Mr. Tremain and Mainwaring.
+
+Again there arose the concentrated murmur of many voices as Miss
+Hildreth took her place within the rails, and at the same moment Judge
+Anstice walked quietly to his seat on the Bench; and so began the second
+act in the tragic drama.
+
+Mr. Munger intimated to his honour that his part in the proceedings had
+terminated with yesterday's evidence; which, he repeated, was in itself
+sufficient to incriminate a dozen suspects, and to prove a dozen _primâ
+facie_ cases. Bearing this in mind, it was not necessary for him to
+recapitulate it in detail, or indeed to make any comments upon it. The
+point at issue was the identity of the lady arrested with the person
+named in the warrant as Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich. Yesterday's
+evidence--that of Miss Hildreth's intimate friends, and especially Mrs.
+Newbold's--had conclusively established that point; there could
+therefore be no hesitancy in proclaiming the warrant a valid one, and
+surrendering the lady up to the Russian Government. As to the guilt or
+innocence of Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich, in the affair of Count Stevan's
+murder, they were not called to pronounce upon; she must take her trial
+on that charge in the country where the crime was committed. The only
+point they were called upon to prove, was the legality of the warrant
+papers, and the identity of the person arrested; this point having been
+substantiated beyond question, he could not see any cause for further
+delay in the matter.
+
+And then Mr. Munger sat down with an ugly triumphant frown on his
+rough-hewn face, and out flew a shower of his favourite paper pellets.
+
+The silence that followed was intense. The hot summer sun beating in
+through the bare windows fell across a sea of expectant, excited faces,
+all turned in one direction, towards the slight, dark, upright figure
+seated within the railed off space. She, who, as the rich and beautiful
+Miss Hildreth, had been the object of their covetous envy, and who now,
+as Adèle Lamien, stood charged with so vile a complicity in crime as to
+separate her for ever from the poorest and lowest of that onlooking
+multitude, beside whose poverty and honesty her wealth and beauty fell
+away in torn and soiled fragments.
+
+In the midst of this silence John Mainwaring arose to address the Bench.
+
+Mr. Mainwaring's face was at all times non-committal, it wore now an
+absolutely sphinx-like imperturbability. Tossing back the heavy lock of
+black hair that fell over his forehead, and squaring his shoulders with
+a motion that bespoke both doggedness and obstinacy, Mr. Mainwaring's
+first words fell upon the listening audience with ringing distinctness,
+and with sudden, unexpected surprise.
+
+"His learned friend," he said, "had proved, beyond all shadow of doubt,
+the question of Miss Hildreth's identity with the lady, who, as
+governess to Mrs. Newbold's little daughter, was known as Adèle Lamien.
+It was not a point upon which they could for one moment disagree; he had
+no reason or desire to raise issue upon it; in fact, he not only
+acknowledged the identity, but had been cognizant of it from the outset.
+Miss Hildreth herself had no wish to dispute it; so far, indeed, from
+that being the case, he desired particularly to impress upon his honour
+the absolute truth of the assertion. Miss Hildreth was one and the same
+person as that Adèle Lamien, who became Marianne Newbold's governess. He
+wished to keep this fact distinctly before them; it was a very important
+fact, as he would show them before he had finished."
+
+At this uncalculated-upon acceptance of their theory, both Mr. Munger
+and Count Mellikoff showed signs of perturbation. They had not, at any
+one of their conferences upon the line Mainwaring was likely to take up,
+imagined so bold an expedient as his flitching from them the very
+corner-stone of their plan, and building upon it such an edifice as
+should best suit his requirements. It was a decidedly clever move, and
+sent John Mainwaring up in Mr. Munger's estimation at a bound.
+
+"Well, then," continued Patricia's defender, "that point well
+established, he would go on to the next; and here he must just remind
+them of Mr. Munger's concise recapitulation of the case. They were not
+there on any other business than that of proving, or disproving, the
+legality of the warrant on which Miss Hildreth had been arrested, as
+also of proving the identity of Miss Hildreth with that of Adèle Lamien,
+or Lallovich, named in the warrant, who was charged with complicity in
+the murder of her husband, Count Stevan Lallovich. This was the only
+point at issue; all other points were extraneous, and they need not
+trouble themselves about them. Now, while he acknowledged frankly that
+Mr. Munger had proved the identity of Miss Hildreth with that of the
+person received and known at the Folly as Adèle Lamien, he desired
+humbly to submit one question to his honour. In establishing the
+validity of this identity, how had they proved the identity of the Adèle
+Lamien--Mrs. Newbold's governess--with that of the Adèle Lamien, or
+Lallovich, who had murdered her quasi-husband, Count Stevan? He
+unhesitatingly declared that they had not established such identity in
+any particular.
+
+"They had heard," he said, "a great deal of testimony, all of which had
+been cited only to prove that Miss Hildreth and the governess at the
+Folly were one and the same. That was not at all difficult to prove,
+because Miss Hildreth had never for one moment denied the impeachment;
+but he must say he failed to see how proving that, proved also her
+identity with the cast-off wife of the dissolute young Russian noble,
+Stevan Lallovich; and until such identity was established, he certainly
+should protest against the accused being delivered up to the tender
+mercies of the Russian authorities. He would not call into question the
+truth of the facts and details, concerning the murder, as related to
+them--they could all be verified if necessary; but it was not necessary.
+Undoubtedly the poor deserted woman had committed the crime imputed to
+her--it would be but a savage justice after all. With that he had
+nothing to do; but when it came to the arrest of a lady, an American
+citizen, in her own country, on the charge of so grave a crime, it
+behoved that country to be very careful in its investigations, and to
+leave no stone unturned to come at the actual truth. It was a terrible
+alternative, that of handing over a fellow-countryman to the despotic
+treatment of a foreign Power, and before such a thing was made possible,
+every item of extenuation should be urged in behalf of the accused.
+
+"He had listened to every word of the evidence, and while in every
+instance he could lay his finger on weak links, he would pass them all
+over, and recall only to his honour the substance of Miss James's, and
+Mr. Tremain's, statements. The former had dwelt mostly upon the evidence
+of her own eyes, and upon the nature of an interview which had taken
+place between Mrs. Newbold's governess and Mr. Tremain. Miss James had
+not hesitated to affirm that she recognised in the lady's face, despite
+artistic accessories, the countenance and features of Miss Hildreth. Mr.
+Tremain, on the contrary, assured them positively that he had never at
+any time during his visit at the Folly, entertained the slightest
+suspicion of this identity; it was not until after Miss Hildreth's
+arrest that this complication was made known to him, and Miss Hildreth,
+to whom he appealed for confirmation or reputation, refused to reply.
+Miss Hildreth had her own reasons for thus treating the matter.
+
+"He would next ask them to listen to a very strange chapter in this
+strange story, and if it appeared incredible and beyond possibility, he
+must beg them to remember that truth was often stranger than fiction.
+
+"Early in the autumn of the last year Miss Hildreth had gone to Russia,
+with the intention of travelling from place to place to form her own
+opinions upon the customs and people of that country. While on one of
+her expeditions one of the horses cast a shoe, and while waiting its
+replacement she was invited to rest at a villa some four miles outside
+of St. Petersburg. She did so, and was greatly impressed by the luxury
+and beauty displayed in the interior arrangements of the unpretending
+mansion. It was some little time before the lady of the house came to
+her; but, from the moment she entered the _salon_, Miss Hildreth was
+conscious of a sudden curious sympathy, that sprang to life in her
+heart, combined with a puzzling certainty of having in some past
+situation met and known the beautiful woman, who advanced towards her
+with a smile of welcome. This perplexing enigma was presently solved in
+the most commonplace way; Miss Hildreth and her hostess, rising together
+to examine some object of art, passed a long mirror, and one glance
+towards it was sufficient to explain the familiarity of the stranger's
+countenance and bearing; between the two ladies there existed a marked
+and positive likeness in feature, form, and colouring. So pronounced
+indeed was it that both commented upon it. The impromptu visit lasted
+some hours, and on parting Miss Hildreth carried with her the name and
+rank of her chance acquaintance. She was known to her narrow, outside
+world as Adèle Lamien, but she was in reality secretly married to Count
+Stevan Lallovich, a near relative of the Tsar.
+
+"Being often at Court and mingling in Court society, it was not long
+before Miss Hildreth came in contact with Stevan Lallovich, who was
+accounted the gayest, wealthiest, most fascinating, and most dissolute
+man of his circle. He chose to devote himself conspicuously to Miss
+Hildreth, and though posing as a bachelor, he more than once hinted at
+some special reason for his attentions. Miss Hildreth accounted for them
+as a tacit acknowledgment of the likeness that existed between herself
+and his wife. She more than once drove out to the villa across the
+Troitski Bridge, and each time returned more and more interested in its
+mistress.
+
+"Early in December, all St. Petersburg was thrown into a state of
+consternation by the murder of Count Stevan Lallovich, who was found
+dead in his palace, stabbed through the heart. With one of those
+marvellous intuitions, granted only to women, Miss Hildreth, on first
+hearing the bald details, felt confident as to the hand that had dealt
+the fatal blow. She hurried alone and by night to the villa, and there
+found the poor wife, whom desertion had changed into a demon of revenge,
+and without a moment's reflection changed clothes with her, and by
+morning both were flying across country, making straight for the
+frontier, protected by Miss Hildreth's passport for herself and maid,
+and by her unstinted use of money. In Paris they separated, Miss
+Hildreth continuing her journey to England, and embarking on board the
+_Suisse_, of the International Line, as Adèle Lamien, for the express
+purpose of turning the Russian police off the track. The real Adèle
+Lamien, or Lallovich, remained under the protection of her mother's
+family, well-to-do people in the west of France."
+
+So far, Mainwaring had gone on from point to point with rapid and
+uninterrupted utterance, carrying his audience with him, who, from
+sheer amazement, sat spell-bound and breathlessly attentive. He stopped
+now, and with another upward toss of his head threw back the offending
+lock of hair, turned a quick comprehensive look at his audience, and
+then fixed his eyes for a brief second upon Patricia.
+
+She sat bending forward a little, her hands folded, her face raised, on
+either cheek a streak of vivid crimson staining their wax-like pallor;
+her eyes beneath the dark, straight brows met his with one responsive
+flash of their old quick fire.
+
+With the very slightest smile of encouragement upon his lips, John
+Mainwaring drew a deep breath and took up the thread of his discourse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A GLEAM OF LIGHT.
+
+
+"And now, your honour," his deep voice rang out, "I come, perhaps, to
+the most inconsequent and incomprehensible part of any that Miss
+Hildreth has played in this curious and complicated history of a crime.
+I have shown you how she, actuated by an enthusiastic and Quixotic
+chivalry, imperilled her own life to help and succour a sister-woman,
+who, in a moment of mad passion, had committed such a crime as put her
+life in danger. Miss Hildreth, with a courage few men could emulate, had
+not only planned her flight, but accompanied her in it, and accomplished
+it with safety. It was a daring and hazardous undertaking; but Miss
+Hildreth considered neither the danger nor the hazard, so long as there
+was a chance of escape for that cruelly-wronged woman, who had struck
+down the villain who ruined her.
+
+"The crime committed by Adèle Lamien was an offence against the laws of
+man, and being such, she stood a criminal and fugitive in the eyes of
+men. But what should be said of the false-hearted traitor who had
+committed a far graver moral crime, when he killed for ever the soul and
+heart of the woman he had called his wife? That was a question for a
+higher tribunal than any mere earthly one to answer, and before that
+eternal justice Stevan Lallovich had entered, with the guilt of moral
+murder fresh upon him.
+
+"As he had already told his honour, Miss Hildreth parted from Adèle
+Lamien in Paris, and although she kept up her disguise and name until
+she reached America, it was only to gain time for the poor fugitive, and
+to give a false scent to the police. On reaching New York Miss Hildreth
+landed under her own proper name, and proceeded at once to her country
+place in the White Mountains, where she remained for several weeks
+without acquainting her friends with the fact of her return home. This
+desire on her part to remain quiet and unnoticed did not arise, as Mr.
+Munger would have them believe, from any criminal wish to keep her
+whereabouts unknown, but was the outcome of purely personal
+motives--motives he was not at liberty to divulge; but this much he
+would say, these motives had nothing whatever to do with Adèle Lamien's
+movements; Miss Hildreth had indeed heard nothing from, or of, that lady
+since their parting.
+
+"During this month or six weeks of solitude Miss Hildreth was engaged
+upon a very delicate and purely personal matter, the successful result
+of which she had very deeply at heart, and in the carrying out of which
+she was willing to adopt any measures, no matter how compromising.
+
+"Upon the nature of this work his lips were sealed, but he was willing
+to stake his honour as to the probity and lawfulness of Miss Hildreth's
+intentions. In the furtherance of this object circumstances arose which,
+in Miss Hildreth's opinion, made it necessary for her to adopt another
+character than her own; to enter, in fact, upon a little play-acting, in
+which she personated the sole character. What more natural than that she
+should make use of the name and disguise of the lady she had so lately
+protected? As Adèle Lamien--a foreigner and dependent, with the
+suspicion of a tragic past to give effect to the present--she could
+enter without fear of detection upon the delicate mission she had marked
+out for herself.
+
+"The danger of such a personation never occurred to her; Miss Hildreth
+was not one always on the outlook for danger-signals. She desired to
+borrow Adèle Lamien's name and story, the latter with modifications, for
+a certain length of time, and she did so, without thought of any
+possible evil arising therefrom. But, to carry out her project, Miss
+Hildreth was obliged to take some one person into her confidence, some
+one who, knowing the why and wherefore of this masquerading, would keep
+her secret intact while aiding and abetting her. And this some one she
+found in Mrs. Newbold. They had all heard Mrs. Newbold's statement; she
+acknowledged frankly that Miss Hildreth and her governess, known as
+Adèle Lamien, were one and the same, that she had always known this to
+be the case, and had given her countenance and support to the deception.
+But here he would remind them of Mrs. Newbold's refusal to give any
+reason for her collusion with Miss Hildreth, or any explanation of the
+latter's motives. Like himself, Mrs. Newbold's lips were sealed by a
+promise; she could not reveal her friend's motives, even though that
+revelation were to save her from a graver situation than the present
+one."
+
+Once more John Mainwaring paused, and once more a sympathetic murmur
+ran through the crowd.
+
+He had struck the right chord in his opening sentences, and from the
+moment of that favourable beginning he carried the harmony of his
+audience along with him.
+
+Even Judge Anstice leant forward in his chair and followed him point by
+point with a keen and appreciative interest. Mr. Munger snorted and
+tossed back his leonine head, and Vladimir Mellikoff's dark face grew
+sterner and more set, while both of them acknowledged that the young
+lawyer had hit upon a productive mine, and was working it to good
+advantage.
+
+Patricia Hildreth changed neither her attitude nor expression, only the
+crimson stain upon her cheeks grew deeper as Mr. Mainwaring entered upon
+more delicate ground.
+
+Philip Tremain never took his eyes from her face; gradually, and at
+first in faint gleams only that grew steadier as his memory added the
+one touch needful, the true meaning of John Mainwaring's defence was
+breaking upon him, and with the overwhelming rush of the revelation he
+felt all the old love and tenderness for Patricia spring afresh to life
+within his heart. He longed to snatch her up from out that curious,
+eager crowd, and, carrying her away to some spot of safety and
+seclusion, lay her head upon his heart and bid her be for ever at peace.
+
+Meantime John Mainwaring had begun again.
+
+"Mrs. Newbold, your honour, having consented to sustain Miss Hildreth in
+her adopted character, the two ladies laid their plans and _modus
+operandi_, and when the invited guests assembled at the Folly, in the
+month of April, they found there a foreign lady whose appearance and
+manner were unmistakably suggestive and interesting, to whom they were
+introduced as Mdlle. Lamien, the new governess, and whose strange story
+Mrs. Newbold related one evening during dinner. And so well did Mrs.
+Newbold guard her friend's secret, that not even her husband was
+entrusted with it.
+
+"Mr. Tremain was one of the guests, and his attention was immediately
+attracted to the quiet, retiring foreigner, an attraction which soon
+developed into a stronger sentiment. Mr. Tremain had told them, that he
+found no point of resemblance between Miss Hildreth and Mdlle. Lamien;
+there were similar tones in their voices, but that was no uncommon
+coincidence: he had, however, never seen Mdlle. Lamien in broad
+daylight, though this fact made no impression upon him at the time; how
+positive had been Mdlle. Lamien's influence over him was shown by his
+subsequent proposal of marriage to her. He, Mr. Mainwaring, felt
+convinced that were he but free to speak frankly at this point he could
+show sufficient reason for this proposal; reasons arising from an
+outside source, and which unfortunately he was not at liberty to
+explain.
+
+"Miss James had said that she suspected Miss Hildreth from the first;
+Miss James was certainly a very clever young lady, for she admitted
+entertaining similar doubts of Mdlle. Lamien. She, however, if they
+excepted Count Vladimir Mellikoff, would seem to have been the only one
+who had suspected a play within a play. Miss Hildreth's arrival was
+announced for the 2nd of May, and from the time of her advent, _in
+propriâ personâ_, Mdlle. Lamien disappeared. Miss James had not failed
+to make a note of this coincidence. Mr. Tremain's proposal to Mdlle.
+Lamien, whose reappearance took place after his _adieux_ to Miss
+Hildreth, was made on the afternoon of the 5th of May, and from that day
+he had heard nothing from her, although he considered himself in honour
+bound to her. Nor had he again seen Miss Hildreth up to his return from
+Maine early in September, when he was met with the astounding news of
+her arrest. Here again, unfortunately, he was debarred from frankly
+explaining Miss Hildreth's conduct at this juncture.
+
+"She had carried out her project to a certain limit, and then it would
+seem had capriciously abandoned it; for they must not lose sight of the
+fact, that, though Mr. Tremain believed himself to be addressing his
+proposals to Mdlle. Lamien, it was in reality Miss Hildreth who received
+them. On this point he would make no comment, he was not in a position
+to do so.
+
+"A good deal of stress had been laid upon the two handkerchiefs, the one
+found in the drawing-room at the Folly, the other left in the apartment
+of the murdered Stevan Lallovich, both of which bore the same
+embroidered initials. To his mind there was nothing incriminating in
+this, the coincidence was a strange one, but nothing more. What was more
+likely than that during one of the frequent visits paid by Miss Hildreth
+to the villa outside St. Petersburg, she should have taken in mistake
+one of the unfortunate Adèle Lamien's handkerchiefs, and, on seeing her
+error, have remarked it carelessly with her own initials; or that after
+a time the bit of muslin should have found its way back to its rightful
+owner? As to the second handkerchief, that was a very simple riddle;
+Miss Hildreth had in her possession many articles of dress belonging to
+Adèle Lamien, having required them in her first disguise as that lady.
+The note-paper was easily explained in the same way; he could himself
+prove that the penmanship was Miss Hildreth's, though slightly
+disguised. As to the conversation which took place in Mrs. Newbold's
+boudoir, and the latter lady's evident agitation during it, he would
+only ask his honour to consider the decidedly awkward position in which
+Mrs. Newbold was placed. She knew what the consequences would be were
+Miss Hildreth's Quixotic protection of the real Adèle Lamien to become
+known, and she already had her suspicions regarding Count Mellikoff: she
+alone rightly estimated the danger run by Miss Hildreth in personating
+one who was a fugitive from justice.
+
+"As to the part Miss James had played in the whole matter, he should be
+sorry to call it by its right name; he believed there was no enmity so
+bitter or treacherous as the enmity of a jealous woman. Might not the
+motive power of Miss James's conduct be found in the one word--jealousy?
+However, with that he had nothing to do. He begged again, and finally,
+to submit to his honour's consideration the point at issue; namely, the
+proved identity of Miss Hildreth, not with the governess known as Adèle
+Lamien, but with the real Adèle Lamien, the wife and murderer of Stevan
+Lallovich, which identity he submitted, had in no particular been
+established. The warrant of arrest must therefore fall to the ground."
+
+Up to a certain point Mr. Mainwaring felt that he carried his public
+with him; but beyond that point--when he came to the equivocal position
+held by both Miss Hildreth and Mrs. Newbold--he knew himself to be
+losing touch again. He could calculate his audience's pulse to a
+fraction of a beat, and he was aware of the exact moment when their
+allegiance fell away from him, and veered back again to the opposing
+scale.
+
+It was as he had warned Patricia it would be; the instant he touched
+delicate and doubtful ground and advanced a theory in support of which
+he could produce no proofs, that instant the _entente cordiale_ failed
+him. The public likes to believe in its own strict integrity, and its
+abhorrence of anything not honest and above-board, and to have so
+extravagant a story as this masquerading of Miss Hildreth's thrust down
+its throat, accompanied by such lame excuses as sealed lips and secret
+promises, was not at all to its taste.
+
+Therefore when Mr. Munger sprang to his feet, he but expressed the
+public's opinion when he told his honour "that Mr. Mainwaring must gauge
+them by a fool's measurement, if he expected them to swallow such a
+cock-and-bull story as that he had expounded. If Miss Hildreth had not
+some awkward secret to conceal, why should she bind the tongues of both
+her lawyer and her friend? What possible reason could she have for
+concealment, unless the work she was engaged upon would not bear
+official scrutiny? Mr. Mainwaring had begun boldly enough, and had not
+spared his insinuations as to the good faith of those opposing him; but
+he must say he failed to see how Mr. Mainwaring had established even one
+point in his elaborate theory.
+
+"He had submitted that while Miss Hildreth was Adèle Lamien, still she
+was not Adèle Lamien. Such reasoning sounded to him very like a page out
+of 'Alice in Wonderland,' where everything was not what it seemed, and
+seemed not what it was. Why did not Mr. Mainwaring bring forward proofs
+to establish his theory of there being two Adèle Lamiens? Were they to
+meekly accept this melodramatic story of Miss Hildreth's heroic
+championship of the wretched woman who had killed her lover, and not ask
+for proofs? Both Mr. Mainwaring and Mrs. Newbold had made a great show
+of acknowledging Miss Hildreth as Adèle Lamien, the governess; and then
+they asked his honour to accept the absurd tale of Miss Hildreth's
+personating Adèle Lamien, only to further some foolish plot of her own
+devising, some personal intrigue that would not bear investigation.
+
+"Either Miss Hildreth was or was not Adèle Lamien-Lallovich. She had
+been proved to be the Adèle Lamien of the Folly, and had been
+acknowledged by Mr. Mainwaring as such, and yet now, forsooth, he wanted
+to prove that while she was the one Adèle Lamien, she was not the real
+Adèle Lallovich--not the Simon Pure article. It was about as logical a
+deduction as that of a child, who told you it either rained, or it did
+not rain; it did not rain, therefore it rained! Altogether too much time
+had been spent in such foolish arguments; on his side time was valuable,
+would his honour, therefore, make known his decision; a decision which
+could only be made in one way, and end this farce by declaring in favour
+of the validity of the warrant, and the identity of the Adèle Lamien,
+therein named, with the lady calling herself Miss Hildreth."
+
+Mr. Munger's harsh voice threw out his words energetically, while he
+clenched each sentence by a single hammer-like beat of one hand upon the
+other. He had sprung up so suddenly, and poured out his rough eloquence
+in such a stream, no one had an opportunity of interrupting; he finished
+with another contemptuous snort and settled himself down in conspicuous
+defiance.
+
+With the calling of the noon recess, the case against Patricia Hildreth
+had assumed a more ugly and threatening aspect than ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+CHECKMATE.
+
+
+When the Court re-assembled, however, a change in the moral temperature
+had evidently taken place.
+
+John Mainwaring entered with a certain assured step, and with almost a
+smile upon his sombre countenance.
+
+The audience, quick to notice the bent of any straw in this stream of
+sensationalism, became at once aware of the slight increase of definite
+self-possession in Mr. Mainwaring's bearing, and whispered amongst
+themselves that the young lawyer had "caught on" to something new since
+his speech of the morning, and was looking mighty pleased and smiling
+over it.
+
+So soon as the room was reduced to order, Mr. Mainwaring arose, and,
+addressing Judge Anstice, begged to be permitted to substantiate his
+statements of the morning through one witness only.
+
+"He had," he said, "been jumped upon so summarily by his learned friend,
+Mr. Munger, almost before he had finished his few remarks--he could not
+dignify them by calling them a speech--that he had had neither time nor
+opportunity in which to introduce this _vivâ voce_ evidence. He might be
+somewhat out of order in wishing to do so now; but, as to that, the
+entire examination had been conducted on purely informal lines. They had
+all understood why it had been so conducted, for, where such grave
+issues were at stake, it was not to be cavilled at if a few exceptions
+were given and taken."
+
+As he understood, the present position of affairs stood in this wise.
+Could he prove that there were two Adèle Lamiens, or rather that Miss
+Hildreth, in personating Adèle Lamien, had in truth portrayed the only
+Adèle Lamien, and that the whereabouts of that lady were known to him
+and could be substantiated? Should he establish this, he supposed the
+charge against Miss Hildreth would be withdrawn. Doubtless the story he
+had related to them, did sound incredible and marvellous; but they must
+bear in mind that it was not given to every one to understand and
+appreciate the higher gifts of heroism and courage. Mr. Munger had
+clearly pointed out that what was required were proofs, proofs and
+nothing but proofs. As he had said, truly, either Miss Hildreth was, or
+was not, the woman, Adèle Lamien, wanted by the Russian police. If she
+was proved not to be Adèle Lamien, then she would be released from her
+present painful position, and would go out from this examination without
+a stain upon her character. On the other hand, if this point was not
+established, but remained doubtful, or if she was proved
+circumstantially to be Adèle Lamien, then her fate was a hard one
+indeed; she had only the tender mercies of the Russian law to look to.
+
+Mr. Munger had seen fit to taunt him with his frank acknowledgment of
+Miss Hildreth's personation of Adèle Lamien; he had, indeed, made very
+merry over his childish logic. He could not hope to emulate Mr. Munger's
+flow of rhetoric, still he could and would meet Mr. Munger's demand for
+proofs, by introducing certain conclusive testimony. He would put aside
+all extraneous matter, whether personal or otherwise, and stick to one
+or two points only. Was there another Adèle Lamien, beside Miss
+Hildreth, who was the real criminal, and if so, where was she to be
+found? If he established these two points he should consider the
+question of identity definitely disposed of. He would now produce his
+sole and only witness.
+
+At the sound of his name the Italian, Mattalini, stepped forward, and
+with the slightest shrug of his shoulders, gave a meaning smile, as his
+eye caught and held that of his master Vladimir Mellikoff.
+
+At the sight of this paid servant of the Imperial Chancellerie appearing
+against him, Vladimir Mellikoff gave a perceptible start, and for the
+first time his belief in the ultimate success of his mission wavered. He
+was, however, too seasoned a diplomatist to show any outward signs of
+his inward disquietude, and, save for that momentary impulsive change of
+expression, his dark, cold face remained as inscrutable as ever.
+
+Following Mr. Mainwaring's lead, the Italian began by telling how and
+why he had first become attached to the service of Count Mellikoff. He
+had been sent by the Imperial Chancellerie about a month ago to wait
+upon Count Mellikoff as valet. He had not been told in so many words
+that he was also to act as a spy upon his master, but he knew this was
+what was expected of him. It was the system employed by the
+Chancellerie; each one of their agents had a double, whose business it
+was to report to headquarters the other's every action, movement, or
+word: it was a fine system, because it distributed power irrespective of
+rank.
+
+From something he heard at Petersburg, before joining Count Mellikoff,
+he had reason to believe that the Chancellerie were not altogether
+pleased with the Count's manner of procedure; he was, therefore,
+despatched to look after Count Vladimir, and report upon his progress.
+He had not been long in New York before he made up his mind that Count
+Mellikoff was working on a wrong scent; he knew the nature of the
+Count's mission, and he very soon discovered that the Count was not
+showing his usual discretion in this case; he was, in fact, taken in by
+a lay of circumstances, and by the assurances of the young lady, Miss
+James. He had endeavoured, on one occasion, to speak to the Count upon
+the subject; but he had been told to hold his tongue; a piece of advice
+he strictly adhered to, until such a time when his not holding it would
+most injure the Count. No one told him to hold his tongue twice, for
+nothing.
+
+Yes, he was ready solemnly to swear that the young lady, Miss Hildreth,
+was in no way identical with the fugitive, Adèle Lamien, the murderer of
+Stevan Lallovich. He had at one time often seen Adèle Lamien; there was
+a strong resemblance between her and Miss Hildreth; but he knew for a
+certainty that Miss Hildreth was not Adèle Lamien, and that Adèle Lamien
+was, at the time he quitted Russia, in Petersburg, where she still
+remained. He did not know this when he first came to Count Mellikoff;
+but he did know it for a fact now, and he was quite ready to bear out
+this statement; and, what was more, he could prove that Count Mellikoff
+was not unaware of this fact; that he had indeed been warned by the
+Chancellerie of Adèle Lamien's presence in Petersburg, which had been
+sworn to by a member of the council, though, so far, they had not been
+able to verify the report. He could not say why Count Mellikoff had paid
+no heed to the warning and discredited it; it had come straight enough
+to him--Mattalini--and from an unimpeachable source.
+
+Miss James had several times visited Count Mellikoff at his hotel; he
+had overheard one of their conversations, he had listened purposely; it
+was the conversation in which the manner of Miss Hildreth's arrest had
+been planned; it was arranged to take place during the absence of Miss
+Hildreth's friends. Miss James had urged Count Mellikoff to greater
+haste in the matter; she had seemed consumed with hatred of Miss
+Hildreth. Oh, yes, he knew quite well what it meant to hate any one; he
+hated Count Mellikoff, and was glad to pay him back for some of his
+haughty insolence. He had known from the beginning of the inquiry that
+Miss Hildreth was not Adèle Lamien, but he had had no absolute proof of
+it until that morning. He had gone to Mr. Mainwaring and told him what
+he was now telling his Excellency. Mr. Mainwaring had asked him for
+proofs, but he had none then, only the proof of his inward convictions.
+Mr. Mainwaring told him that they were no good; but within the last hour
+he had got proof, and that proof he wanted to give up now.
+
+Within the last hour a sea-telegram had come for Count Mellikoff; it was
+his--Mattalini's--business to receive all telegrams and bring them to
+the Count; it was not his habit to open and read them first; but of this
+one the yellow envelope was not stuck down--when an envelope was not
+stuck down it was no crime to look at the contents. He had done so, and
+the first words he saw made him glad he had not been a stupid fool of an
+innocent and stuck down the envelope flap, as for a moment he had
+thought of doing. The telegram was in cipher, but he knew enough of the
+Chancellerie cipher to make it out. It was sent by one Paul Patouchki,
+who was the chief of the Chancellerie Council, and it ran to this
+effect:
+
+"The woman, Adèle Lamien, arrested this evening in the Nevski. She
+attempts no defence. Your presence before the Council peremptory. Return
+immediately."
+
+As the Italian finished he drew out of his pocket a thin, crackling,
+yellow envelope, indicative of a telegraphic message. He looked at it
+fondly for a moment.
+
+"_Eccelo!_" he exclaimed, "'tis a little thing with which to save one
+woman's life, and yet big enough to kill another!"
+
+Then he handed the missive up to the Judge, and stood waiting further
+developments.
+
+The sensation caused by the Italian's statement was beyond all
+precedent; the excitement of the crowd burst all restraints; it seemed
+as though, having once doubted Patricia Hildreth, they could not now be
+loud enough in vociferating her innocence.
+
+The clamour lasted but a few seconds; but in that short interval
+Vladimir Mellikoff caught sight of such a sea of angry, menacing faces,
+and heard the echo of such violent threats as to shake even his trained
+courage, and warn him of the perilous position he should occupy if once
+that public Nemesis was set loose.
+
+The rage and anger of his own heart knew no bounds. To be duped and done
+in such a fashion by his own paid assistant; to find out all too late
+that a spy had been dogging his actions at every step of the way, and
+that that spy had been sent by the Chancellerie--by Patouchki, his
+chief, on whose honour he would have staked his own!
+
+This then was his reward, this was Russia's gratitude! A thrust in the
+dark, a blow from behind, and he was laid low, unable to defend himself
+or fight for his life. He realised all too well what this failure meant
+for him--disgrace utter and complete; the Chancellerie never forgot or
+forgave a false move in the game, any more than it ever remembered the
+many successes and triumphs achieved for it. To fail once was
+sufficient, when one had reached so high an altitude as his, and with
+failure came a downfall more disastrous and engulfing even than that of
+death.
+
+And Olga? But no, he must not think of her now, or he should go mad. He
+must forget her, put her by, believe in her, trust her; he must pull
+himself together, he must not succumb like the veriest novice before
+this blow. Were not all those cruel faces turned upon him, those
+hundreds of eyes peering with wonder and delight at him? He must not let
+them see any fear upon his face, they must not hear a word of cowardice
+from his lips.
+
+Then he became aware of a single voice addressing him, and the sounds
+slowly resolved themselves into Judge Anstice's familiar tones, asking
+him to examine the cablegram, and state if the Italian's translation of
+the cipher was a correct one.
+
+He took the slip of flimsy paper with a hand that never trembled, and
+scanned the few bald lines. Mattalini had read them only too correctly,
+they were confirmation positive of the utter breakdown of all his
+elaborate structure.
+
+He could have leapt upon the Italian then and there in his blind rage,
+and struck him to the ground; he could have beaten him senseless and
+felt a savage joy in each blow he dealt him. Had he not ruined him for
+ever, not only in the eyes of the Chancellerie, but in those of Olga
+Naundorff? That was where the lash cut deepest, that was the agony
+impossible to bear.
+
+And yet, despite all this mad tumult going on within him, he still was
+conscious of standing up and answering Judge Anstice in his usual
+controlled voice. The Italian Mattalini had perfectly translated the
+cipher, the message ran as he had said. A person called Adèle Lamien had
+been arrested in Petersburg; he should immediately demand further
+confirmation of the matter; in the meantime he left the custody of Miss
+Hildreth in the hands of the Bench. He had no statement to make; he had
+acted throughout in good faith and according to instructions; he would
+at once communicate what further particulars he received to Judge
+Anstice; without doubt his Government's Ambassador would stand surety
+for the integrity of his future movements. He begged to return the
+cablegram to the keeping of the Bench.
+
+Then he sat down, and after a few moments' whispered conversation with
+Mr. Munger and Mr. Mainwaring, Judge Anstice rose and withdrew, and the
+crowd were free to force their way out into the streets, flooded with
+the golden sunshine, and there to discuss this last change in the day's
+excitements. And so ended the second day of what, in after years, came
+to be known as Patricia Hildreth's trial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OUR LADY OF KAZAN.
+
+
+When Ivor Tolskoi quitted the presence of Patouchki, he carried with him
+the remembrance of the chief's troubled face, and almost imperative
+appeal:
+
+"Find me the woman, here, in Petersburg, and I shall know how to act."
+
+"I will find her," he had replied, and it needed no strong oath or
+asseveration to convince Patouchki that Ivor would grudge nothing in the
+fulfilment of this promise.
+
+It was early afternoon when Tolskoi left the Chancellerie; it was long
+past sundown ere the chief aroused himself from the anxious reverie into
+which the young man's suspicions and insinuations had plunged him.
+
+Despite the hardness and impregnability of Patouchki's nature, there
+existed somewhere, deep down in the inner recesses of his rugged heart,
+a softer spot than he was ever given credit for, and in that remote and
+hidden nook he had set up the fidelity and friendship of Vladimir
+Mellikoff, as the one bright sentiment in which to believe and trust. He
+had watched his career from the outset, and had spared neither influence
+nor interest to advance the abilities and talents he believed him to
+possess. He entertained for him a feeling as nearly approaching love as
+his temperament was capable of experiencing. And he had beheld with
+concealed delight the increasing regard manifested by his august master
+towards his favourite. It was owing entirely to his exertions that this
+last delicate mission had been entrusted to Mellikoff's skill and
+courage, and he had for once spoken almost with enthusiasm, at the
+council, of Vladimir's peculiar fitness for the undertaking. He had said
+to himself that with his success in this Mellikoff's name might be
+fearlessly put forward for some signal mark of Imperial favour.
+
+It may be imagined then with what proportionate anger and disappointment
+he listened to Tolskoi's plausible insinuations. They did not lose one
+feather's weight of value in Ivor's manner of expressing them; the very
+candour of his words, the collectedness of his bearing, but increased
+their reasonability; and Patouchki, with his quick perception, realised
+this, and gave it more weight, perhaps, because of that weakness which
+he knew existed in his heart for the absent Vladimir.
+
+There is no judge so cruel and relentless as a human heart that owns but
+one outlet for its affections. Unlike those happier natures who
+sympathise, and in a manner love all fellow mortals, because of their
+common humanity and common redemption, this poor starved soul sets all
+its store on one poor fallible object, and then, when the floods of
+doubt and mistrust are let loose and sweep away the idol, marring its
+beauty and exposing its blemishes, it owns no larger creed to fall back
+upon, and so drifts into the opposite extreme, and welcomes with
+sardonic pleasure the mocking devils of resentment and retaliation.
+
+It was so with Patouchki. Out of the very affection he had borne
+Vladimir, sprang now the hydra-headed demon of doubt; and since he could
+doubt him in one particular, he could doubt him in all. Ivor had set
+alight such a train of implacability as even he would have hesitated to
+fire, could he have foreseen its consequences; for with the downfall of
+Patouchki's perspicuity came his resolve, to punish the one who had thus
+dared to set at naught his judgment, and who by playing the rôle of
+deceiver had inflicted on his self-love so dire a wound.
+
+It was well for Vladimir Mellikoff that he could not see the chief's
+face at that moment, for, as the evening shadows closed around the
+motionless, lonely figure, sitting so still and rigid, they paused, half
+afraid to creep about the stern hard countenance, whose eyes gleamed
+with such passionate fire, whose lips were locked in so firm and cruel a
+line. And so he sat for hours, his busy fingers idle, his active brain
+absorbed in bitter contemplation of broken trust and ruined faith.
+
+It had appeared to Ivor an easy and simple task to track and find the
+poor fugitive, Adèle Lallovich. Petersburg and its environs covered a
+considerable area, it was true; but these, when compared with Paris or
+London, sank into insignificance, and yet every day fugitives from
+justice were hunted down and trapped in those great cities, whose
+mileage so far exceeded the Muscovite capital.
+
+"It needed but system," so he told himself, with a smile and a shrug of
+his shoulders at the tactics of the Chancellerie old women. "System and
+perseverance, and a judicious use of gold," he would back these three
+against the craft and _finesse_ of any woman. He therefore set about
+laying the plan of his operations, being careful, however, to keep
+himself out of the actual work, and to be recognised in it only as the
+agent of the Chancellerie.
+
+But day succeeded day, and week followed on week, without the least
+success attending his efforts. Either he had mistaken a chance likeness
+in some transient worshipper at St. Isaac's for the fugitive, or else
+Adèle Lallovich had again made good her escape across the frontier. Each
+day Patouchki looked at him with the same strange, hard expression, as
+he asked:
+
+"Have you found her?"
+
+And each day Ivor, with a frown, was obliged to reply:
+
+"Not yet! but I shall do so."
+
+Then the chief would turn away with a grim smile, and Tolskoi would vow
+with hot intemperance that he would be successful, even if his life were
+to be the penalty.
+
+And so the summer drew on apace, and Petersburg became a desolate
+wilderness; empty, save for the thousands of poor souls who toiled on
+and on, irrespective of the seasons' changes, and whose sole recreation
+was a walk across the Troitski, or Nicholas bridges, stopping for an
+instant's prayer before the shrine of the good name-saint, or leaning
+against the granite parapet, drinking in the languid breeze that came,
+touched with a suspicion of coolness, from off the grey Neva; or an
+hour's stroll in the Boulevard-park, shorn now of its aristocratic
+idlers, but gay enough with the brilliant colours in the costumes of the
+less favoured _mondaines_.
+
+The Court had long since flown westward; and after a few weeks' halt at
+Gatschina, the gentle Tsarina had taken a favoured few of her
+_personnel_, among whom was Olga Naundorff, and departed for her native
+Denmark; where, in the dear old home of her childhood, she dropped the
+restrictions of royalty even as she put off her state robes and jewels,
+and in a cotton frock and straw hat became a girl again, outvieing even
+her daughter, the Grand Duchess Xenia, in her happiness and delight.
+
+Neither Patouchki nor Ivor left Petersburg. The former because no place
+possessed half the charm for him as did the frowning Chancellerie, and
+his own office within its walls; no music sounded so sweet to his ears
+as the triumphant clang of the _jubilate_ chimes, or the mournful
+cadences of the _miserere_ bells; no recreation so well pleased him as
+an hour passed in reviewing the Chancellerie's past achievements, or in
+building up vast schemes for its future greatness.
+
+And Ivor stayed because his self-imposed task was not yet accomplished,
+and because he felt the time growing daily shorter, when, unless he
+could redeem his word and find the woman Adèle Lallovich, his rival
+would return and snatch his prize from out his very arms.
+
+Therefore he waited and he watched with a dogged patience and
+perseverance. The July days passed into August, and August became
+September, and still he made no further progress in the path of victory;
+while on the other hand, according to private despatches from the
+Italian, Mattalini, Vladimir Mellikoff was apparently succeeding in his
+undertaking beyond his most sanguine hopes, and spoke confidently of his
+speedy return to Petersburg.
+
+Ivor felt the situation to be critical, and yet was unable to force the
+march of events. So far his every effort had miscarried; each well-laid
+plan, each secret scheme had but resulted in failure. Adèle Lallovich
+seemed to have as completely vanished from out the orbit of his
+machinations, as though she had never come within that of his vision.
+
+And so the 15th of September dawned, and Tolskoi, with the sense of
+defeat pressing heavily upon him, failed for the first time to report
+himself at the Chancellerie. He felt he could not bear with equanimity
+Patouchki's piercing glance, or the harsh tones of his voice as he put
+the invariable question--"Have you found her?" and still less could he
+meet the slow, cold smile that curled the chief's lips at the monotony
+of his negative reply. He knew, too, that this was the day appointed in
+America for the examination of the warrant papers, under which Count
+Mellikoff had effected the arrest of a certain person calling herself
+Adèle Lamien, and should this inquiry terminate in the establishment of
+the woman's identity with the murderer of Stevan Lallovich, Mellikoff
+would lose no time in starting for Russia; and, when once on the ground,
+and his influence over Patouchki restored, what would become of his,
+Ivor's, charges against him? The deepest laid schemes must fall to
+pieces under the pressure of bald fact. It had never been a part of
+Ivor's design that Vladimir should return triumphant; his defeat and
+disgrace, while absent, were necessary factors in the carrying out of
+his project. It was on that very defeat and disgrace that he depended
+most for his success with Olga; like her royal ancestress, she could
+not tolerate or forgive the sin of failure.
+
+The day had been very close and hot; what breeze there was came laden
+with a fiery touch, the great gilded dome of Isaac's Church blazed with
+blinding intensity, the tall, lance-like spire of the great
+Petropavlovsk fortress quivered in the palpitating atmosphere; there was
+no retreat, however secluded, that was not laid bare and permeated by
+the searching, cruel sunshine.
+
+Ivor had remained a voluntary prisoner all day; but as evening drew on,
+and the garish sun sank gradually down to rest in a panoply of royal
+crimson and gold, he roused himself, and passed out into the rapidly
+filling streets. Walking idly along the Boulevard de Cavalerio, he made
+his way to the Nevski--the Rue Rivoli of Petersburg--stopping now and
+then to look in the shop windows, and to wonder aimlessly which one of
+all the pretty baubles displayed in the Circassian Bazaar would best
+please Olga's fancy.
+
+After half an hour's wandering through the arcades he turned in the
+direction of the church of Our Lady of Kazan. The great doors stood
+open, and on either side the semi-circular colonnades, like those of St.
+Peter's at Rome, made deep and shadowy resting-places for the weary.
+
+Pushing past the kneeling beggars gathered about the entrance, Ivor
+passed in to the deep stillness and tranquillity of the grand interior.
+No service was going on, and the hushed silence was unbroken save for
+the occasional footsteps of coming or retreating worshippers. The rich
+glory of colour and ornament, for which Our Lady of Kazan is famous,
+were half hidden by the gathering on of night; here and there, where a
+taper gleamed, the sparkle of gems, the reflection of gold, the green of
+malachite, or the blue of lapis-lazuli would flash out, lost again in
+the feeble, flickering rays.
+
+Half hidden by one of the great columns, Ivor watched the ever-changing
+stream of visitors, as they came and went, and fell to speculating upon
+the nature of the petitions they pleaded so earnestly, throwing
+themselves on their knees, bowing their heads, beating their breasts,
+and making unceasingly the sacred symbol upon brow and heart. He did not
+kneel himself; he would have told you that he had out-grown all such
+old-world superstitions, but he watched with half-amused,
+half-sympathetic toleration the rapt devotion of those about him.
+
+Presently a woman, some little distance away, got up from her knees,
+and, after a moment's hesitation, turned and walked swiftly down the dim
+aisle. Ivor looked at her without much thought beyond the half-formed
+one that her long cloak of black serge and closely-veiled bonnet were
+ill fitted for the heat of that summer evening. As she drew near to him
+his attention wandered, caught by the trifling incident of a baby's cry,
+and when his thoughts returned to the heavily-draped figure it had
+vanished out of sight.
+
+In another moment Ivor also quitted the now dark church and retraced his
+steps to the Nevski, where fascinated again by the frivolities in the
+Circassian shop he halted, and returned to the vexed question of Olga's
+taste in the matter of a gift.
+
+Next door to the Bazaar was a small, rather bare-looking shop, whose
+only sign of business was the significant one of St. Nicholas' three
+golden balls. The entrance door was low, and as it opened or shut a tiny
+bell above the transbeam gave out a warning jangle. It was this bell
+that aroused Tolskoi's attention and caused him to look up suddenly. As
+he did so, a tall figure dressed in a thick black serge cloak and close
+bonnet came out of the low door; the nature of the woman's errand was
+painfully apparent, for in her hand were two or three coins, over which
+her head was bent down.
+
+Ivor at once recognised her to be the same woman he had seen in the
+church of Our Lady of Kazan, not half an hour before, and his interest
+thus reawakened, he watched her not unkindly.
+
+As she passed him the light wind caught at her long black veil, floating
+out one end of it; she put up her hand to catch it, turning a little as
+she did so, and there, in the half lights, partially concealed by the
+black folds surrounding it, Ivor saw again the face that had haunted him
+for so many months; the face he had seen wild and haggard and imploring
+at the great door of St. Isaac's--the face of Adèle Lallovich!
+
+His first impulse in his excitement was to cry out, to speak to her, to
+stop her further progress, to make her his prisoner by violence if
+necessary, to force her to accompany him to the Chancellerie. Then as
+swiftly reason reasserted itself, and he determined to do nothing rash;
+he had no power to arrest, he would but give her another chance of
+escape if he raised a street _émeute_ against her. He understood too
+well the organised power of the Nihilists; at one cry from this woman a
+dozen defenders would spring to her assistance; she would be rescued
+before his very eyes, and he should get but a fool's recompense for his
+pains.
+
+No, what he must do was this. He must follow her adroitly, without
+arousing her suspicions; he must track her to her place of abode, and
+when sure of her refuge, send for Patouchki and deliver her into his
+hands.
+
+The woman walked on swiftly, threading her way deftly between the
+droschkies and heavier vehicles that thronged the Nevski, and as
+stealthily as a sleuth-hound, Ivor kept pace behind her. At the door of
+a good-sized, respectable house she stopped, raised her hand and knocked
+twice; in an instant the door opened on a cord, and she passed into a
+narrow passage. The pent-up shadows rushed forward to greet her, and
+swallowed her up in their dark embrace. Then the door swung to
+noiselessly, and Ivor was left without, staring vacantly at the
+non-committal walls and casements.
+
+An hour later and night had thrown her sombre mantle over the gay city.
+One by one as the hours crept on, the noise of returning revellers grew
+fainter and less frequent; gradually the peace of midnight settled down
+upon the myriads of human souls who make up the sum of Petersburg's
+life. The heavens were dark and formless, save for the millions of
+shining stars; Isaac's golden dome loomed up in giant outline against
+the sombre sky; only the glittering lance-like spire of Peter's fortress
+caught and held a transitory gleam upon its slender shaft.
+
+And then presently a noise of wheels broke the stillness, wheels that
+came ever nearer and nearer; down the Boulevard first, and then into the
+Nevski, where the pace slackened, and a covered droschky drew up in
+front of the commodious and respectable house, before which Ivor had
+stood baffled.
+
+Three persons got out of the carriage, two of whom were easily
+recognisable, despite the disguise of mufflers and low hats, as
+Patouchki and Tolskoi. Not a word passed between them, while Ivor,
+stepping a little in advance, knocked twice distinctly. Instantly the
+door swung back on its cord, and the three men entering shut it quietly
+behind them.
+
+A light gleamed at the head of the stairs, and a woman's figure detached
+itself from the surrounding gloom. She held a lamp high up above her
+head, from which the close black bonnet had been removed. And thus
+looking down upon them, calm and unsuspecting, they saw the beautiful
+face of the fugitive Adèle Lallovich.
+
+For, indeed, she was still very beautiful, despite the lines passion and
+pain had graven on her forehead, and about her eyes. The eyes themselves
+were deep blue beneath black pencilled brows; the dusky hair, wherein a
+thousand golden tints played at hide and seek, fell loosely about her
+throat; the curve of the lips was proud, with a touch of suffering in
+its downward droop.
+
+This, then, was the woman they sought! This was the defenceless being
+against whom they came armed with Russia's law! This was Stevan
+Lallovich's wife--this was his murderer!
+
+For a moment they hesitated, stayed by the fearlessness and dependence
+of her position; then Patouchki stepped forward and ascended the
+staircase. She watched him as he came, step by step, and she knew that
+her days were numbered.
+
+She was alone in the house, save only for a little serving-maid; any
+resistance would be but vain. She did not mean to resist. She had prayed
+night and day for months that some release might come to her. Had she
+not that very evening begged Our Lady of Kazan to have a little pity
+upon her; to give her some little respite from the horrible dreams and
+spectres that haunted her; to let her forget for only one small fraction
+of time, the horror and reproach that had settled on her lover's face
+when she dealt him his death-wound?
+
+Our Lady of Kazan never turns a deaf ear, it is said. Was not this her
+answer to that wild, imploring cry?
+
+Patouchki reached her at last. She faced him boldly and with eyes that
+never flinched; the lamp in her upraised hand burnt on steadily, no
+tremble of weakness made its flame flicker, or grow dim.
+
+And now Patouchki laid his hand upon her shoulder.
+
+"You are Adèle Lamien," he said, in his harsh, bullet-like tones, "and
+as such I arrest you, for the murder of Count Stevan Lallovich."
+
+She made no gesture either of assent or dissent, she only looked at him,
+with all her soul in her wonderful eyes. Then she spoke slowly and with
+deliberation.
+
+"I am Adèle Lallovich," she said, "I recognise no other name."
+
+"That makes small difference," replied Patouchki. "I must trouble you,
+madam, to accompany me."
+
+Again she raised her beautiful eyes to his, and spoke, this time a
+little wildly.
+
+"I am Adèle Lallovich--and I killed him--my husband--with my own hand."
+
+Then she turned, and walked with quick steps across a narrow hall, where
+on a peg hung her black cloak and bonnet. She set down the lamp, and
+with dexterous fingers put on her outside garments. When this was
+accomplished she took some money from her pocket--the few silver pieces
+Ivor had seen her counting over in her palm--and, wrapping them in a bit
+of paper, wrote across it.
+
+"It is for Paulina," she said in explanation, "my little maid."
+
+Then she turned, and motioning Patouchki to precede her, followed him
+down the stairs and along the passage. The door opened as noiselessly as
+before, and was closed with equal caution. There was a moment's
+whispered consultation, the slight dark figure stepped into the waiting
+droschky without assistance, followed by Ivor and Patouchki; the door
+was shut, and the vehicle moved quickly away down the deserted Nevski in
+the direction of the Chancellerie, whose frowning portals were watched
+over by Petropavlovsk's grim fortress.
+
+As the noise of the wheels grew fainter, the sad _miserere_ bells rang
+out the quarter past midnight.
+
+On the following morning Patouchki, with an unusual light in his eyes,
+and a cruel smile on his lips, wrote out the telegraphic cable, that
+sounded the death-knell to Vladimir Mellikoff's love and hope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NO EXPLANATION.
+
+
+Not many hours passed after that dramatic scene in the court-room, in
+which the Italian, Mattalini, played so conspicuous a part, before ample
+confirmation of his statement came over the ocean telegraph,
+establishing beyond all question of doubt the arrest of the real Adèle
+Lamien, and the innocence of Patricia Hildreth.
+
+As John Mainwaring had said, his theory once confirmed, all shred of
+suspicion must, as a matter of course, fall from her, and she would
+re-enter society's world stainless in character and reputation. At the
+end of the second day's examination, however, she returned voluntarily
+to Ludlow Street Jail, refusing with decision the conditional liberty
+bestowed upon her.
+
+"I had much rather wait," she said to John Mainwaring. "Please, Mr.
+Mainwaring, do not urge me to go against my conscience. You can surely
+understand my feeling in this matter. I will not leave what has been my
+prison, until my innocence is unqualifiedly established, and until those
+who forced me into this position are convinced of its falsity. After a
+week's experience of the delights of Ludlow Street, what can a few
+additional hours matter?"
+
+She finished with one of her rare smiles, which made John Mainwaring
+again realise the utter futility of his eloquence, when pitted against
+the charm of her loveliness.
+
+So Patricia returned to her house of detention, and John Mainwaring left
+her at the entrance thereto, with a more cheerful look upon his dark
+countenance than had visited it for many a day.
+
+It was still early in the afternoon when the inquiry terminated, and the
+sunshine lay upon all things external with so lavish a touch and so
+tropical a force, that the dark corridors and dim halls of the gloomy
+building appeared most grateful to Miss Hildreth's tired brain and eyes.
+
+She entered her room, the scene of so many conflicts between her love
+and pride, and sank wearily down upon the chair before the table, on
+which the yellow roses in their tall glass vase made a single spot of
+golden colour. Resting her elbows on the open portfolio, she buried her
+face in her hands and remained motionless, wrapt in a long desultory
+retrospect of the week's events.
+
+She was too weary even to remove her bonnet, or the light scarf of lace
+about her shoulders.
+
+Now that the long strain was ended, the tension slackened, she felt her
+strength lapse from her, and an overpowering weakness take its place.
+
+It was true she stood cleared in the eyes of the public, who now
+regarded her in the light of a heroine, concerning whose courage and
+chivalry they could not say enough. But was she cleared in her own eyes?
+It was well for her that the secret of her disguise had not been dragged
+ruthlessly out of its hiding-place. Had that been the case, would not
+this same public be gloating over it now; mouthing it and discussing it,
+with even greater avidity than they had displayed in the discussion of
+her late situation? She was spared such an humiliation; but was she
+spared the humiliation of her own thoughts, the scorn of her own
+accusing conscience? Must not the knowledge of her motives, in thus
+playing with the misery of another woman's crime, separate her for ever
+from the very one for whose sake she had entered on the path of
+deception? Could good ever come out of evil? Did the end ever justify
+the means?
+
+All the suffering and anguish of those last seven days would seem as
+nothing, she told herself, could she but face Philip Tremain with
+unfaltering integrity; could she but look into his eyes and not feel her
+own fall beneath the honesty of his. Woman-like, she forgot his doubt of
+her, his half belief in her criminality, a criminality which, if proved,
+would have swept away all lesser indiscretions in its magnitude.
+
+No; she gave no thought to the part he had borne. A woman is never so
+happy as when she forgives, with all her heart, some wrong-doing on the
+part of the man she loves. But with Patricia this active magnanimity was
+not called into requisition, for the simple reason that Philip's
+attitude during the past week was clean forgotten by her--swept away as
+were all lesser matters in the contemplation of her own moral obliquity.
+
+How long she sat thus absorbed and motionless she could not have told;
+but it was long enough for the light in the room to wane, and for the
+dying rays of the sun to gleam aslant through the narrow window, casting
+long tremulous bars of tinted light upon the bare unlovely walls.
+Presently a slight noise aroused her, and, the chain of reflection thus
+broken, she raised her head and saw, standing some little way from her,
+with the tinted sun-rays resting on his stern face, the man of whom she
+thought.
+
+For a moment she gazed at him without realising the actuality of his
+presence; and then, as her sad beautiful eyes sought his they faltered,
+while a rush of sudden colour dyed the pallor of her face.
+
+"Philip!" she exclaimed, drawing in her breath with a half sob,
+"Philip!"
+
+Her voice broke the spell, and, while its trembling cadences still
+lingered on the air, Mr. Tremain came nearer and stood beside her,
+looking down upon the troubled face and anxious eyes that dared not meet
+his own.
+
+"Patricia," he said, "I have come to you now, because I must know the
+truth. Because, notwithstanding the speciousness of John Mainwaring's
+pleading, there still remains a little matter between you and me that
+needs some explanation. I have come, Patricia, to hear that explanation
+from your own lips."
+
+His voice was harsh despite the tender supplication of his eyes; and
+Miss Hildreth, looking down, missed this contradictory tenderness, and
+realised only the commanding ring of his tones.
+
+Her face hardened, and the old look of mocking defiance settled down
+upon it. She gave a little laugh; the artificiality of its ring jarred
+on Philip's sensibilities, and caused the tenderness in his eyes to give
+place to quick anger.
+
+"Ah!" said Miss Hildreth, "how could I forget that you, Philip, would
+require even stronger proof than any afforded by Mr. Mainwaring's
+eloquence, to convince you of my inability to commit a murder? I failed,
+you see, to take into account the incredulity of a legal mind."
+
+If her words were insolent, the smile and laugh accompanying them were
+more so, but Mr. Tremain would not let his hasty temper get the better
+of his discretion. He had come to her with the unformed theory, evoked
+by John Mainwaring's ambiguous words, still at work within him, and he
+determined, if it lay in his power, to force confirmation of it from
+her.
+
+"You know that is not what I mean," he said gently; "no one can ever
+again entertain so vile a suspicion against you."
+
+"Yet _you_ doubted me, Philip," she interrupted; "you doubted me
+throughout."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "if you like to classify a feeling, that scarce had
+formation in my mind, under so grave an emotion as doubt--why, then--I
+did doubt you, Patricia."
+
+She made no reply to this, and after a short pause he began again:
+
+"That, as you know, is not the subject to which I referred just now. You
+may put me by with subterfuge and raillery, Patricia, but I shall
+always come back to my point, again and again. Patty, what was your
+reason for personating that most miserable woman, Adèle Lamien? What was
+your inducement for imposing upon all at the Folly? What was your motive
+in wishing to deceive me?"
+
+Still she made him no answer. She had turned her head away as he spoke,
+and taken one of the yellow roses from the vase. She raised this now,
+and drew it once or twice across her lips. She felt his eyes upon her,
+but she would not meet them. She knew this to be the crucial moment; and
+she must meet and overcome it as best she might.
+
+"Patricia," he said again, and his voice grew sterner, "you force me to
+impute to you motives that are unworthy of you, unworthy of any woman.
+But how can I think otherwise, if you will not help me to do so? How can
+I put any other construction upon your conduct, save that of wilful and
+wanton cruelty, when I remember, that twice as Miss Hildreth, you
+refused me, scorning my love; and then, that only a few short hours
+afterwards, as Adèle Lamien you accepted me, and all I had to
+offer--accepted me, with a lie upon your lips, and deceit in your smile.
+Have you no explanation to give me, Patricia? Oh, my dear, I will accept
+any pretext you may offer; only make some little excuse, no matter how
+trivial, for the duplicity of your conduct."
+
+His voice grew pleading as he finished. Looking at her, as she sat
+there, so near to him, and yet so far; a beautiful, lovely woman, whose
+very beauty had brought suspicion and distrust upon her, and remembering
+how first he had loved her in the full tide of her girlish fairness and
+innocence, and how through all these years he had cherished her memory,
+and could not put her from out his heart, all the old tenderness and
+longing surged up within him, and he knew he could forgive her
+everything, if only she would give him one little opportunity for such
+forgiveness.
+
+Had Miss Hildreth but looked up at that moment, while the light of love
+still lingered in his eyes, and trembled on his lips, surely her foolish
+pride would have broken down, and all the misery of those last few weeks
+slipped from her, in the peace of a confession made with his arms about
+her, her head upon his breast.
+
+But Miss Hildreth, like many a woman before her, let slip the golden
+chance, and passed by the propitious moment. She still played with the
+yellow rose and avoided his eyes as she replied, slowly:
+
+"I can explain nothing, Philip; I have no excuse to offer. You must form
+your own opinion, and I must be judged and sentenced according to it."
+
+"But, Patricia," urged Mr. Tremain, "I ask for so little. Will you not
+at least assure me, that it was no more wanton motive than love of
+conquest and power of coquetry, that led you to deceive me, and draw
+from me that mad proposal, which you, as Adèle Lamien, were pleased to
+triumph in against your own proper self? My dear, give me but one such
+assurance, I will be content, I will ask for nothing more."
+
+"No," she replied in a dull, quiet voice, "I cannot. I have nothing to
+add to my former words. You had better leave me, Philip, and--forget
+me."
+
+"That I can never do," he said, "I have never for one moment forgotten
+you in all the ten years of our separation. I am not likely to do so
+now, when I have again looked so often and so longingly, upon your
+beauty."
+
+Her lips trembled a little at his words, but she made no response.
+
+"Good-bye," he said sadly, and turned from her.
+
+She listened to his firm footsteps as they traversed the floor; then
+came the click of the lock in the catch, the sound of the opening and
+shutting door, and then again the echo of his footsteps down the long
+stone passage.
+
+Then all was still. The tinted sun-rays paled and faded, then vanished
+altogether; and Miss Hildreth, bowing her head upon her clasped hands,
+burst into a passionate storm of tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+"FORGIVE HER."
+
+
+A week later the daily papers chronicled two events.
+
+The first was contained in a short paragraph, supplemented by a long
+leader, stating that evidence having been received from Russia,
+confirming the arrest of the real criminal, Adèle Lamien, or Lallovich,
+the conspiracy against Miss Hildreth had fallen to the ground, and she
+had been released from her very unpleasant and unjust position. Miss
+Hildreth, on leaving Ludlow Street Jail, had immediately retired to her
+country place in the White Mountains.
+
+The second item was even more briefly worded, though commented on
+exhaustively in a still longer leader, and ran to the following effect.
+That Count Vladimir Mellikoff, having failed signally in his efforts to
+traduce and incriminate a certain young lady, prominent in New York
+circles for her wealth, beauty, and amiable qualities, had sailed on the
+previous Saturday for Havre, _en route_ for St. Petersburg.
+
+And so the "comity sensation," as it was called by _Town Optics_, died a
+natural death, and the next social scandal, hurrying close upon its
+heels, crowded it out of general consideration and recollection.
+
+But those whom it had concerned so nearly could not forget it thus
+easily; to them it always remained a very vivid and terrible experience,
+out of which it seemed they had escaped almost by a miracle.
+
+Mrs. Newbold returned at once to her island home, taking Dick Darling
+with her; and there, after several weeks had elapsed, Mr. Tremain sought
+her.
+
+He took an early afternoon boat from the city, and walked up from New
+Brighton to the Folly; where not finding his faithful friend within that
+Palace of Idleness, and being informed vaguely by Perkins that his
+mistress was "somewhere about the gardings," Philip, declining his aid,
+set forth in search of her.
+
+And so it came about that unconsciously his feet followed his memory,
+for very soon he found himself at the opening of the little hazel copse,
+where he and Patricia had so nearly touched on reconciliation.
+
+The marble boy Narcissus was still there, and still holding aloft the
+vase from which the water trickled in a gaily tinkling stream. There,
+too, was the rustic bench, and seated on it, doing nothing very
+gracefully, was Esther Newbold.
+
+She jumped up at sight of him and ran forward, dragging her scarlet
+parasol behind her. Her face was bright with welcome, her smile
+affectionate and a little patronising.
+
+"My dear Philip, what a pleasure!" she exclaimed, putting out her small
+hand in a loose gardening glove. "We began to think you had given us up
+altogether for 'a bad lot,' as my slang-loving Dick would say. Why have
+you not come before, sir?"
+
+And holding that frank little hand in his, and looking into the
+sincerity of her blue eyes, Mr. Tremain asked himself the same question,
+and answered it truly, as he replied:
+
+"Esther, my dear, I did not come, because--I was afraid."
+
+"Ah," she said quickly. "Afraid! That is not like you. Of what, or of
+whom, were you afraid?"
+
+"Of you, and of your powers of persuasion," he answered; at which Esther
+shook her head, and laughed a little.
+
+"It is as well you should acknowledge it," she said, "and with your
+first breath. For, of course, you know, I don't mean to speak with you
+upon any but one subject. Philip, why are you here; why are you not
+already at the feet of Patricia?"
+
+"Yes, I knew you would ask that," he answered; "but, my dear Esther, how
+can I go to Miss Hildreth, when she herself has raised an impassable
+barrier between us?"
+
+But Esther failed to follow his reasoning.
+
+"Nonsense," she said, a little brusquely. "Nothing should be impossible
+to a man who loves; and all things should be forgiven to the woman who
+loves him. I have no patience with either of you; but least of all with
+you, Philip. Were I a man, no fantastical barrier should keep me from
+the woman of my heart. Do you always intend to go on like this? To live
+and to die, or, worse, grow old and grey, waiting for the barrier to
+tumble down of itself, and never put out a hand to help its overthrow?"
+
+Mr. Tremain could not but smile at her vehemence; he felt his spirits
+rise under the energy of her assault.
+
+"It is for Patricia to make the first overture," he said. "I went to
+her, as you know, at once, and begged of her to give me ever so trivial
+and light an excuse for the ambiguity of her conduct towards me, but she
+would not. She had no explanation to offer, she said, and she let me go
+from her without any word of resistance, any sign of relenting."
+
+"Then she was a little fool," cried Esther, "and I wish I had her here
+to scold, and pet, and tease, and kiss. But you, Philip, are not much
+wiser. I dare say you went at her hammer and tongs, with your gravest
+face, and in your longest words! Of course Patricia could not bear that
+sort of argument. I wonder, for my part, that she listened to you at
+all."
+
+"But, surely, my dear Esther, you must admit I had a little show of
+reason on my side," said Mr. Tremain, more quickly. "You must
+acknowledge that Patricia's conduct in refusing me repeatedly, as Miss
+Hildreth, and then accepting me, as Adèle Lamien, requires a little
+explanation. It is not over pleasant to one's _amour propre_ to feel
+that one has been duped; but to have been duped wantonly, is more than
+unpleasant--it approaches insult."
+
+Mrs. Newbold looked at him earnestly for several moments before
+replying; when she spoke it was in a far graver and more serious manner.
+
+"And have you no idea, Philip, why Patricia played this somewhat ignoble
+rôle? Cannot you form some theory concerning it?"
+
+Mr. Tremain shook his head.
+
+"I have formed a dozen theories, my dear Esther, and dismissed them all;
+each seemed less tenable than the other."
+
+"And yet, you are very sure you love her?"
+
+"Yes, I am very sure of that. I wish I was as sure that she cared
+one-fifth part as much for me."
+
+"Ah!" said Esther, a satisfied smile creeping in and out of her dimples.
+"Then, Philip, I think I must read the riddle for you. _Patricia
+deceived you--because she loved you._"
+
+But if Mrs. Newbold expected Mr. Tremain to indulge in heroics at this
+declaration, she was destined to be disappointed. Instead of rhapsodies
+of delight, he replied with an echo of scorn in his voice.
+
+"Are you aware what a paradoxical sentiment you are promulgating,
+Esther? Love is not commonly supposed to take pleasure in deception."
+
+"Ah," she interrupted, "but Patricia is not a common woman; perhaps she
+is as paradoxical as my sentiment. However that may be, I assure you,
+Philip, she deceived you because she loved you. Do you remember
+receiving a letter from her, early in the spring?"
+
+"I do indeed."
+
+"Very well. I don't absolutely know what was in that letter, but I have
+my shrewd suspicions, and I do know that your answer, when it arrived,
+was not what she had looked for. She came to me soon after she received
+it, and I was positively frightened by the look of pain and
+determination on her face. She told me that she had written to you, that
+she had humbled her pride sufficiently to do so, because she loved you,
+and had never loved any one else but you. Then she told me of your
+answer to her letter. She should never forgive you, she said, never,
+until she had made you suffer, through a woman, some portion of the pain
+and humiliation you had brought upon her. And then she told me her
+plan."
+
+Here Mrs. Newbold paused and stole a look at her auditor. He was
+standing with his arms folded, his eyes fixed upon the sparkling drops
+of water as they fell from the uplifted vase, in the marble-boy
+Narcissus' hand. With a quickly-repressed shrug of her shoulders, Mrs.
+Newbold opened her scarlet umbrella, and continued, watching Philip
+meanwhile from under its friendly shade.
+
+"And this was Patricia's plan. She would come down to the Folly,
+ostensibly as Mimi's governess, and as such she was to be introduced to
+you. I was to tell the story of Adèle Lallovich, more or less modified,
+as if it were her own, and she was to strive to win your interest and
+regard, despite the damaging evidences of so black a past. 'I will
+conquer him yet,' she said, 'he shall not escape me always; and then,
+when he has acknowledged himself vanquished, when he has laid down his
+pride and his superiority for the sake of Adèle Lamien, why then, it
+will be my turn to scorn and reject him, and he shall understand what it
+is to make advances and be repulsed.' She was very angry, Philip, and
+hard and desperate; and I was obliged to yield to her wishes for fear of
+something worse. So we arranged it all between us, and I comforted
+myself with the thought that perhaps, after all, good might come out of
+it, if even under a disguise, Patricia could win you back again to her."
+
+Again Mrs. Newbold paused, but Philip neither changed his attitude nor
+raised his eyes. So intent was his gaze, he might have been counting the
+drops as they fell, with rhythmic measure, into the marble basin.
+
+Mrs. Newbold continued.
+
+"And then at last you came, Philip; and the rest was easy work, because
+from the very first, you were apparently strangely attracted to Adèle
+Lamien, and I felt almost righteous when I saw how well all was working
+as we had planned. Patricia came to me the evening of the day you left
+the Folly, and falling on her knees beside me, told me of her interview
+with you, as Adèle Lamien. She cried and laughed and was girlishly happy
+over it, because, as she said, she could see all the time, even when you
+were urging your suit most impetuously, she could see that it was not
+Adèle Lamien you really loved, but she--in her own proper
+person--Patricia Hildreth. 'Oh, Esther,' she cried, 'I know, I know he
+loves me! And now, oh, how shall I ever face him; how shall I ever tell
+him by what subterfuge and deceit I have won him from--myself? Oh,
+Philip, it was unworthy of me, unworthy of my love; and yet I did it
+because of my love.'"
+
+Once more Mrs. Newbold stopped, and looked at him, but Philip was
+oblivious of her gaze. She smiled, and closing her scarlet umbrella
+moved a step or two nearer to him.
+
+"And then you know," she went on, "our party broke up, and Patricia left
+me. She promised me she would lose no time, she would write and tell you
+all; she would keep nothing back, she would restore your pledge to you,
+which she held as Adèle Lamien, and she would ask nothing from you but
+your forgiveness. You who know Patricia's proud nature, can realise how
+difficult such a confession would be for her; and indeed, Philip, she
+would have carried out her purpose had I been able to keep near her.
+Away from me, and alone, she grew fearful and lost courage. 'I cannot do
+it,' she wrote me, 'Esther, I cannot do it. I could not bear the scorn
+of his eyes, the lash of his words. I cannot tell him that I deceived
+him, wantonly and cruelly, and of set purpose. My dear, I love him, and
+yet see what my love has brought me to. Do you think he could ever
+believe in it, or me, or trust to it, or me, again? No, let me say
+nothing; let me drift out of his life. As Adèle Lamien I can easier bear
+the certainty of his contempt, since I mean never to claim his promise,
+but as Patricia Hildreth I should die beneath the scorn of his just
+anger. I have been rightly punished for my wilfulness. Do not urge me
+any further. I cannot tell him, Esther, I cannot.' Then you know,
+Philip, came the terrible blow of her arrest, and the first thing she
+demanded of me, when I went to see her, was that I should swear to keep
+silent regarding the motive of her disguise. 'He must never know,' she
+said, 'more than ever, he must never know; and Esther, of this be very
+sure, I will face anything, Russia, condemnation, exile, rather than
+that my weakness and folly shall be dragged out as my excuse, and he be
+made the object of public derision. I have harmed him enough, Heaven
+knows, but he shall suffer no more through my pride and weak revenge. I
+would rather he believed me guilty of this horrible crime, Esther, than
+that I should make him ridiculous, as the dupe of a selfish woman, in
+the eyes of the world.' That is why John Mainwaring had so poor a
+defence to work upon, and that is why both my lips and his were sealed."
+
+Mrs. Newbold came still closer to him, she put her hand on his arm, her
+eyes forced his to look at her; there were tears in their blue depths,
+her voice was tremulous and she spoke impetuously.
+
+"You know the rest, Philip; I have kept nothing back, and I think when
+you remember the severity of her punishment, the bitterness of her
+suffering, the humiliation of her spirit, you will forgive her. She
+loves you, Philip; it is from her very love that all this misery has
+fallen upon her. Will you leave her to bear it alone, or will you go to
+her? Ah, Philip, no one has ever had a braver opportunity for carrying
+out the old, old precept; the legacy left to us by One whose mercy and
+forbearance knew no bounds, and who said, forgive, even if it be until
+'seventy times seven.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+VLADIMIR'S WELCOME.
+
+
+It was winter once more, and the gay Russian capital had returned to its
+round of festivities and merry-makings.
+
+The Imperial family were in residence at the Winter Palace, and the long
+_salon_ resounded nightly to the laughter and jests of the Court circle.
+Not a cloud apparently marred the harmony and well-being of Petersburg.
+
+All without was bright and brilliant; the sun shone on the dazzling
+snow, the merry sleigh-bells rang out on the frosty air, and the Nevski
+arcades were thronged with richly-dressed _mondaines_, who laughed and
+chatted, and tossed over the costly trifles in the Circassian shop with
+careless fingers. Within were ease and comfort and luxury; huge fires of
+keen-scented woods, heavy draperies to shut out the shrewd air, and
+respectful attendants to minister to the most wilful caprice.
+
+But beyond and below all this brave assumption of security, there lay
+hidden a terrible passionate hate. Slowly, slowly, the patient masses of
+that under world had wakened to the consciousness of their wrongs, and
+with the bitter knowledge of contrast came the thirst for compensation;
+the burning desire to throw off the hand that had so long oppressed
+them, the yoke that had galled for centuries.
+
+"What maketh us to differ?" was the cry of thousands; and, with the
+wording of the dumb misery that had held them silent so long, there
+awoke also the craving for vengeance. "How long," went up the cry to
+heaven, "how long, O Lord, shall the wicked oppress us?" And in the
+pause that ensued between petition and answer, pleasure was stalked by
+blood-red fear, and distrust kept pace with merriment.
+
+The Countess Vera had opened the season by a grand _bal costumé_, in the
+huge palace of her name. It was the maddest of all the little Countess's
+mad freaks, for her guests were to come attired as beasts of the forest,
+the chase, and the field. Grizzlies from the Rockies elbowed white
+lambs, elephants and camelopards hob-nobbed with pussy-cats and fawns,
+while tigers and wolves flirted tentatively with rabbits and red
+squirrels.
+
+The Countess, in a delightful white-cat costume, with diamond eyes and
+jewelled paws, was the life and soul of the revels; flying hither and
+thither, her little feet in their white fur boots treading as lightly as
+her namesake, and startling more than one king of the forest by the
+sharp tap of a little fur paw, and the merry smile beneath the
+pussy-head that covered her giddy little brain.
+
+It was during one of these frolicsome onslaughts that she caught sight
+of Ivor Tolskoi's fresh face and yellow locks, looking ridiculously out
+of keeping under the heavy disguise of a polar bear. She ran up to him
+lightly, and stood before him laughing, a tiny figure set against his
+feet and inches.
+
+"Oh, my brave Ursa Major!" she exclaimed, "what a beautiful fierce
+creature you are, to be sure! I am quite frightened to look at you."
+
+Ivor glanced down at her smiling, but he failed to toss back her jesting
+words with an equally quick repartee.
+
+The little Countess laughed and shook her head, until the diamond eyes
+in the pussy-cat mask danced with a thousand reflections.
+
+"Oh, what a cross Ursa Major it is!" she cried, "and all because of
+_some one_ who is not here, and who will not come." Then she came a step
+nearer, and, dropping her bantering tone, said quickly: "I am sorry for
+your disappointment, _mon cher_, but it is one of the prerogatives of
+beauty, to be fickle. She would, and she would not, and the latter, you
+see, won the day. Olga Naundorff has declined to honour my ball with her
+presence. But is that a matter of such grave importance to you? Ah, I
+see, it is the old story; he who has most, always craves more. You are
+not satisfied with having won the Court favourite, even to the naming of
+the wedding day, but you must be miserable because she is not always
+present to swell your triumph! Be content, my dear boy, you _have_ won
+her, and broken Vladimir Mellikoff's heart, that ought to suffice; and
+after you are married, you can force her to attend any and all kinds of
+festivities."
+
+Ivor did not respond to this pleasant outlook, and Vera, with a mutinous
+grimace, continued, banteringly:
+
+"For my part, my sympathies all go out to that most unfortunate Count
+Mellikoff. Only to think of what he has come to! So established as he
+was in the Emperor's regard, so esteemed by the Chancellerie; such a
+diplomatist and courtier, so distinguished and beyond reproach. And now,
+behold, where is he? Poof! he is but a feather, blown about by each
+contrary wind of prejudice. A failure, a fallen idol, a suspect. Bah, I
+would rather die than be a failure! Be content, _mon cher_, be content;
+you are on the crest of the wave, don't spoil your success by a fit of
+the sulks."
+
+Then she laughed again, and shook her fan of soft white feathers at him,
+and fluttered off to a sedate elephant, whose thin cheeks and eagle eyes
+beneath the grotesque head-gear, betrayed him to be a certain State
+minister, whose word was law, whose smile power.
+
+"Such a foolish boy I never saw," cooed the Countess Vera in the
+statesman's ear, "as that Ivor Tolskoi. Not contented with ruining
+Vladimir Mellikoff, and winning the lady of his affections, he mopes
+because, forsooth, she is not here to illustrate his triumph. Youth is
+very hard and illogical, monsieur; it takes older heads and hearts to
+be merciful." And the little Countess sighed profoundly.
+
+"Ah," she said, suddenly, "my heart is all in tune with the fallen
+Mellikoff. I wonder, monsieur, what is to be the nature of his
+punishment, and what his--destination?"
+
+But the wary minister was not to be caught even by Vera's casuistry.
+
+"Punishment is so entirely a relative matter," he replied. "I, for
+instance, can imagine no severer sentence, no more desolate outlook than
+to be shut away for ever from the light and sweetness of the Countess
+Vera's presence."
+
+"A thousand thanks," she answered quickly. "I appreciate your chivalry,
+monsieur; but when one adds the mines, or a casemate in Petropavlovsk,
+to the lesser evil--what then?"
+
+"Neither are to be desired, madame," he replied, gravely, "and neither
+can ever come within the experience of the Countess Vera. The mines,
+and Petropavlovsk, are for those who betray, or mock at, Russia; not for
+loyal subjects of his Majesty."
+
+"Loyalty is such a very big word," sighed the Countess flippantly; and
+then she flew away with a laughing gesture. But to herself she said:
+
+"I know your destination now, my poor friend. I back a woman's wits
+against a statesman's imperturbability. Alas! poor Vladimir!"
+
+It was as the Countess Vera had said. Ivor Tolskoi had triumphed beyond
+his most sanguine hopes. Olga was now his formally betrothed bride, and
+the marriage day was in the immediate future.
+
+With the arrest of Adèle Lallovich in Petersburg, came the downfall of
+Mellikoff's mission, and the ruin of all his cleverly-laid schemes. He
+would reach Russia only to find his disgrace had preceded him, and only
+to find distrust and displeasure on every side. He too well knew the
+nature of Russia's resentment, to strive to stem the current that set so
+steadily against him.
+
+It was worse than useless to expect such a thing as justice, at the
+hands of the Chancellerie, or to look for condonement from the Council.
+
+He had not only failed, but he had bungled, and in so doing had opened
+the flood-gates of public opinion upon the Imperial policy. Russia never
+forgave inefficiency, still less inefficiency that brought ridicule in
+its wake. He knew this, and he knew also that his disgrace was imminent.
+Still he clung to Patouchki, to his belief in the chief's calm equipoise
+of judgment. He could endure a public expression of disgrace, if only
+Patouchki absolved him from intentional failure.
+
+And then, too, was not Olga awaiting him? He had done nothing to
+alienate her love; she stood far above and beyond the lesser prejudices
+of political intrigue and jealousy. He was still her lover. What
+mattered anything so long as he had Olga to cling to; Olga's love and
+trust for his haven of refuge? He would marry her at once, and take her
+away, out of the foetid artificial air of Petersburg, out of the
+network of personal envy and political stratagem, to those wide,
+far-reaching estates on the Balkan frontier, and there they would be
+free and untrammelled, removed from the narrow suspicions and cruel
+dogmatism of the Court.
+
+And so planning, hoping, believing, Vladimir Mellikoff turned his face
+towards Petersburg. He lingered on his homeward journey, hoping against
+hope at each halt to receive more pacific communications from the
+Chancellerie; and thus when at last he reached the Russian capital, the
+first month of the long Muscovite winter was already on the wane. He
+drove to his lonely palace on the Neva, where the dark windows and
+barred doors afforded but a sorry welcome.
+
+It was a dreary home-coming, and Vladimir, as he crossed the threshold
+and met the cold, damp atmosphere of long-closed and disused rooms,
+shrank back shuddering. Unsuperstitious though he was, he could not
+throw off the chill of apprehension which seized him, as he entered the
+echoing corridor and passed on to a small drawing-room, that served as
+study and office.
+
+A fire smouldered in the stove, and the curtains were closely drawn,
+giving a less cheerless aspect to the apartment. A couple of candles in
+tall silver sticks were lighted on the chimney shelf, and beneath them
+were arranged the numerous notes and cards of invitation that had
+accumulated during his absence. Somewhat apart from these lay a small
+sealed envelope, addressed in a clear, flowing hand.
+
+Vladimir glanced over the notes and cards, holding in his hand the while
+the huge ticket, covered with a Noah's Ark gallery, by which the
+Countess Vera had invited her friends to her unique _bal costumé_. With
+a half smile on his lips, called out by the little Countess's vagaries,
+Vladimir caught sight of the note lying apart by itself, and in a moment
+his heart told him who was the sender.
+
+"It is from Olga," he murmured passionately, as he took it up and
+touched it with his lips. "It is from Olga; it is my welcome home."
+
+Then he broke the seal and drew forth the thick, creamy paper; as he did
+so a slight, subtle perfume floated across the air.
+
+It was a short letter; brief almost to cruelty. But when one deals a
+death-blow, it is as well to strike swift and sure.
+
+Vladimir read the words through, again and again, without comprehension,
+without understanding; and then, suddenly, as their meaning struck him,
+one low and terrible cry burst from him; he flung himself down on his
+knees, burying his face in his hands. The letter floated slowly from his
+grasp and fell noiselessly upon the carpet, the distinct careful
+penmanship plainly visible in the candlelight.
+
+     "Vladimir," the lines ran, "I never forgive or forget treachery or
+     failure. You have failed, and you are a traitor. Knowing this, you
+     must also realise that all is over for ever between you and
+
+     "OLGA NAUNDORFF."
+
+That was all. No word of regret, no expression of sorrow, no hint of
+personal grief and pain.
+
+Simply he had failed: failure was a sin never to be condoned by Mdlle.
+Naundorff. It was shipwreck utter and entire--shipwreck without a chance
+or hope of rescue. He knew it, he realised it, as perfectly as though
+Olga had stood before him in her proud beauty, and spoken the cruel
+words in her sweet, cold voice.
+
+What was death compared to this agony of loss that overwhelmed him?
+What was life--oh, God! what could life be without Olga?
+
+How long he knelt there he never knew. The hours crept on long past
+midnight, the great house was silent as a tomb. Outside, the stars shone
+in myriad numbers, lighting the cold, dark heavens with thousands of
+fairy lamps. The snow lay dense and white, stretching miles away, in
+unbroken masses along the Neva's banks.
+
+Presently the cathedral chimes struck the quarter, and the _miserere_
+bells followed with their minor chant, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, have
+mercy upon me."
+
+As the last note died away Vladimir arose; and with the change of
+attitude he became aware of a stealthy, muffled sound--a sound that came
+ever nearer and nearer; and that was neither the sweeping up of the
+wind, nor the jangle of bells, but a sliding, creaking noise, as of two
+smooth surfaces in friction.
+
+A low exclamation escaped him, a look of horror crept over his dark
+face. For a moment he stood as if paralysed, then he moved suddenly,
+with soft, quick steps, towards one of the heavily-draped windows.
+
+The stealthy, creaking noise had ceased.
+
+He cautiously drew back a corner of the heavy curtain and peered out.
+All was still and silent; a great field of glistening snow, with the
+dull swish of the Neva against its banks. Was he mistaken? Had he not
+heard aright? For a moment the wild beating of his heart threatened to
+overpower him, then as suddenly it grew still.
+
+Drawn up within the shadow of the deep _porte-cochère_, standing out
+black and distinct against the white background, stood a covered
+droschky; the horses' flanks steaming in the chill air, the lamps
+carefully shaded. A figure stood beside the vehicle, wrapped in a heavy
+coat and peaked fur cap; where the folds of the coat opened a gleam of
+steel was visible.
+
+Vladimir dropped the curtain and came back to the centre of the room.
+
+"It has come," he said in a half whisper. "It is my turn at last. I, who
+have gloried in Russia's stern vengeance, am I to feel her power now?"
+
+Then his eye caught the open letter on the carpet.
+
+He picked it up, touching it half-tenderly.
+
+"How little it matters to me, now!" he said. "But you, Olga, shall be
+freed from all reproach, and no one shall ever know that it is through
+you the heaviest disgrace of all has come upon me. That much I can still
+spare you."
+
+He looked at the signature she had written with so firm a hand--Olga
+Naundorff--"Good-bye," he said again, "good-bye."
+
+He pressed his lips to her name, then held the paper in the candle-flame
+with a steady hand, and watched it burn slowly, slowly.
+
+As the last bit fell from his fingers and fluttered down to the little
+heap of ashes on the velvet mantel-shelf, the door opened without
+noise, and two men stepped within the room.
+
+Vladimir turned and faced them. The foremost spoke quietly, and without
+menace or threat.
+
+"Count Vladimir Mellikoff, you are arrested in the name of the Emperor.
+Long live the Tsar."
+
+Vladimir bowed, and a smile for one moment passed over his dark face.
+
+"I am ready, gentlemen," he said, and turning, took up his heavy coat
+and cap of sables.
+
+In the meantime the second intruder had crossed the room, attracted by
+the faint odour of burnt paper. He fingered the little pile of ashes
+suspiciously. Again Vladimir smiled.
+
+"A burnt-out passion, monsieur," he said, "a discarded love-letter. That
+is all; nothing in any way interesting to the Chancellerie--or, its
+agents."
+
+Then he put on the heavy furred coat and signified his readiness to
+depart.
+
+A moment later the three dark figures were lost in the shadowy interior
+of the waiting droschky, and the curious scraping noise of steel runners
+upon frozen snow began again.
+
+As one of his captors leant forward to give a last instruction to the
+officer without, a gleam from the shaded lamp fell across the face
+beneath the high-peaked hat; in it Vladimir recognised the boyish
+contour and innocent blue eyes of Ivor Tolskoi.
+
+The heavy equipage moved on, and as the hour of dawn struck from the
+great cathedral clock, and the chimes clashed out triumphantly the
+liturgical chant, "How glorious is our Lord in Zion," Vladimir Mellikoff
+stood a prisoner, within a nameless casemate of the impregnable fortress
+of Petropavlovsk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AN ETERNAL FAREWELL.
+
+
+It was the 4th of January--the New Year's Day of Russia.
+
+All the morning, from the earliest peep of dawn, the bells had rung
+clamorously and joyfully; from every public building the blue, red, and
+white standard floated in the keen breeze; the streets were full of
+merry-makers, the Boulevard de Cavaliero and the Nevski, were thronged
+with sight-seers, the little shrine and chapel of St. Nichola, on the
+Nicholas Bridge, were buried in lights, evergreen wreaths, and votive
+offerings; an air of festivity and joyousness pervaded the atmosphere,
+and even the grim Chancellerie, and Peter's Fortress, crept out of
+their habitual gloom, under the lavish caresses of the brilliant
+sunshine.
+
+The old year was dead--dead and buried--with all its weight of sin and
+failure; of wrongs unrighted, of crimes unavenged, of evils unremedied.
+Let it go, let it go! "Ring out the false, ring in the true!" Welcome
+this jocund New Year, this youngster, with the rosy cheeks and sturdy
+limbs, this herald of a new _régime_, this hopeful progeny of a decrepit
+past!
+
+It wanted but half an hour to mid-day, and already the approaches to St.
+Isaac's Church were thronged by a numerous and ever increasing crowd.
+The eight grand entrances were all thrown open; down the wide central
+granite steps a rich carpet was spread, and up this crimson pathway
+passed a continuous stream of guests, the bright costumes of the ladies
+mingling with the uniforms, Court dress, and plainer citizen habiliments
+of the sterner sex, until one and all became submerged and impersonal
+in the greater glory of the grand cathedral's gorgeous interior.
+
+A line of the Petersburg Grenadiers, in their sombre green uniform, were
+drawn up on either side of the central approach, while behind them were
+grouped a guard of honour of the Caucasus Cossacks, their long scarlet
+tunics adding picturesque vividness to the scene. All that was best and
+brightest, most distinguished and most renowned, of the great Tsar's
+Court was represented within St. Isaac's, on that winter morning, and
+nothing could exceed the brilliancy and vivacity of the scene.
+
+For not only was it the festa of the gay New Year, but it was also the
+marriage day of Olga Naundorff, and the religious function was to be
+celebrated with Royal splendour and pomp, honoured by the presence of
+the Tsar and Tsarina, who took this occasion to testify their friendship
+for the beautiful orphan, whose father had laid down his life in the
+service of Russia.
+
+And now excitement reached the highest pitch, for the Imperial _cortège_
+was in sight, each equipage drawn by four black horses, mounted by
+postillions, and accompanied by outriders. The Tsarina, looking fair and
+fresh and young, bowed her acknowledgments to right and left, smiling as
+she did so, while the Grand Duchess Xenia laughed girlishly at the
+sparkling pageant. And now Alexander himself appeared, the great Tsar of
+all the Russias, wearing his favourite crimson kaftan, and saluting
+courteously in response to the old patriotic cry, as it echoed again and
+again: "Health we wish your Imperial Majesty! Long live the Tsar!"
+
+But the greatest and final burst of enthusiasm was reserved for Olga.
+When she appeared--stepping down from the royal equipage, her white
+draperies sweeping behind her, a cloak of regal ermine wrapped about her
+neck and shoulders, from which her proud, beautiful face arose as cold
+and white as the surrounding snow, crowned by the shining masses of her
+golden-tinted hair, in which the Imperial gift of diamonds shone
+resplendent--a hush of admiration held the onlookers for one brief
+second; then, as she passed up the crimson foot-path, a deep low murmur
+burst forth, growing in strength and enthusiasm, until, as the great
+portal received her, it broke all bounds and ended in a prolonged and
+hearty cheer.
+
+Within St. Isaac's all was hushed and reverent, though gorgeous and
+magnificent in its adornments. The lights from the eight great
+candelabra threw their beams on the golds and purples, the reds and
+blues of the mosaic decorations, and flashed forth in myriad reflections
+from the jewels that gleamed and sparkled in the costumes of the Court
+ladies.
+
+The ceremonial was of the grandest; the Metropolitan, vested in cloth of
+gold, entered by the central door and was met by a procession of
+priests, who walked before him to the great altar, where the eight
+massive malachite columns, and priceless lapis-lazuli shafts, separated
+"the holy of holies" from the body of the cathedral. The trained voices
+of the Imperial choir rose and fell in regular cadences, unsupported by
+instruments of any kind, but perfect in harmony and unison. The bells
+chimed at intervals, while the worshippers, as they fell upon their
+knees, repeated again and again the symbol of the cross on forehead and
+breast.
+
+And so it was that Olga Naundorff became the wife of Ivor Tolskoi.
+
+Sanctioned by the most solemn ritual of her faith, surrounded by the
+highest nobility of her land; loved, admired, feared, and envied, Olga,
+the beloved of Vladimir Mellikoff, pledged her vows to Ivor Tolskoi; and
+shuddered even as she did so, at the light of triumph that flashed in
+his bold blue eyes, when, as her husband, he bent his head, and for the
+first time pressed a kiss upon her proud lips.
+
+She had made her choice. But, after all, was it a wise one? Could she be
+sure of ruling this lover, who had now become her husband? Despite the
+_insouciance_ of his boyish face, despite the frank boldness of his blue
+eyes and innocent smile, was he not destined to be the master, she the
+slave? Already she could feel the iron hand beneath the velvet glove,
+already she descried the touch of cruelty beneath his gayest smile, the
+echo of tyranny beneath his fondest caress.
+
+Alas, poor Olga! If the dawn of her marriage morning was marred by such
+fore-bodings, what were its noontide and evening likely to prove?
+
+We may not follow her so far into the future; and even if we dared, it
+were wisest to draw the curtain close about that ruined life, and not
+seek to pry into its wretchedness. A woman scorned is of all beings the
+most desolate, so Vladimir Mellikoff had said, little thinking that his
+prophecy was one day to come true of his passionately-loved Olga. Let us
+refrain from gazing on her in her hour of despair.
+
+There is no fairer woman to-day, in all Russia, than Olga Tolskoi; one
+more envied and feared, nor one more hopeless and beyond hope. Like her
+Imperial ancestress, she has forsaken the good for the evil; and, in
+giving rein to the lower passions of her nature, has lost for ever the
+power of repentance and contrition. She who once ruled supreme, is now
+the neglected wife of a husband who is one in name only, and whose
+indignities have long since reached the climax of insult.
+
+Ivor has risen higher and higher on the wave of success. He holds a
+foremost place in the Imperial Councils, he is esteemed and feared in
+the Chancellerie, bowed down to and fawned upon at Court. Only within
+the privacy of his own household is his true character known; only there
+does he lay aside the mask of hypocrisy, and let loose the passions of
+cruelty and oppression; only there does he give rein to the bitter joke
+and cutting mockery, which are all that remain of the once humble wooing
+and suppliant entreaty.
+
+And Olga, knowing how he has deceived her, finding out too late by what
+cunning subterfuge he turned suspicion upon Vladimir Mellikoff, and thus
+won from her the only free gift a woman has to bestow--herself--hates
+him, with an ever increasing hatred and loathing, that drives her to the
+wildest deeds of imprudent folly.
+
+And so the baser nature within her triumphs, and the better nature dies;
+crushed out by passions too consuming to bear contradiction. Alas, poor
+Olga! So to her has come the lesson, that not even the fairest charms of
+woman's beauty and purity can bind the constancy of one, who, knowing
+his legal rights secure, scorns to keep them intact, and throws fidelity
+to the winds in the indulgence of the moment.
+
+Well may the old despairing cry break from her in her splendour and
+loneliness, as she thinks of the time when Vladimir loved her, and her
+faith and trust in him were still unbroken:
+
+"_Eheu fugaces! Postume, Postume!_ Oh, for the days that are lost to me,
+lost to me!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Brilliant indeed was the scene within the Onyx Hall, of the Winter
+Palace, on that New Year's night, the morning of which had seen the
+completion of Ivor Tolskoi's highest hopes. The bride and her husband
+were already far on their way towards those vast possessions on the Ural
+frontier, of which Ivor was so justly proud; but the time-honoured
+ceremonies of the festa were no less gay and joyous because shorn of
+Olga's fair presence.
+
+The great Onyx Hall was filled with guests, awaiting the magic signal,
+gathered together in groups, chatting, laughing, intriguing, while ever
+nearer and nearer the hands on the dial of the large gold incrusted
+clock, standing at one end of the apartment, crept on to the hour of
+midnight. Suddenly a single stroke from the great bells of Isaac's
+Church, rang out, and a hush fell upon the waiting assembly; the clock
+chimed deep and full--twelve slow notes, whose dying echoes were caught
+up and thundered back by twelve salutes from the guns of Petropavlovsk,
+broken here and there by the triumphant strains, "How glorious is our
+Lord in Zion!" And as these died away the cathedral chimes broke forth
+in resonant glad music.
+
+Simultaneously the folding doors at the top of the great hall were
+thrown open, and the Tsar entered, with the Empress leaning on his arm,
+and followed by the Imperial family. Passing down between the double
+lines of the Preobrashensky Grenadiers, and the Semenoffskoie Guards,
+drawn up on either side, his Majesty walked up to the chief actor in
+this brilliant pageant, and, halting before the tiny figure of the
+smallest cadet in the Russian army, dressed in the historical uniform of
+the Emperor Paul's Grenadiers, bent down over the mimic warrior and
+bestowed upon him the kiss of peace.
+
+At this mark of kindly condescension the trumpets burst forth in a grand
+flourish, the bands struck up the spirited national air, and all the
+guests cried out with one accord:
+
+"Many years to the Tsar! Health we wish your Imperial Majesty!"
+
+And thus the first day of the New Year sinks to rest, crowned by the old
+but ever fresh benison, "Peace on earth, to men of good will."
+
+With the departure of their Majesties the tongues of the guests were
+once more let loose, and the little Countess Vera, flitting across the
+wide hall, stops long enough beside the grave keen-eyed State minister,
+who in the guise of an elephant had graced her costume ball, to say, in
+a half whisper, and with a mocking smile:
+
+"Well, monsieur, and were you present at the famous marriage function
+this morning? Was ever man so lucky as _ce cher_ Ivor?--if it be luck to
+win so cold and cheerless a bride as Olga Naundorff. For my part, I
+could think of no one save that unfortunate Vladimir, whose shrift I
+hear is to be short enough. No trial for him, poor soul! He has played
+his game but ill, and we know, monsieur, you and I, what fate awaits one
+who has played to win for the Chancellerie and--lost. It's a dreary
+march to Siberia, even in the best of company; what must it be then when
+one's companion is a murderer by confession? _Hélas_, poor Vladimir, you
+should not have failed; for to failure Patouchki is implacable, and for
+failure Russia can punish silently and surely. And so ends the farce,
+monsieur, or was it tragedy? But let me whisper one word--let him laugh
+loudest who wins last. There are evil days in store for Ivor, or I am no
+true prophet; and for his bride? Bah! she will get but what she
+deserves; I will leave her fate in the hands of the gods, whose mills,
+we are told, 'grind slowly, but with justice grind they all.' And, after
+all, her beauty will not last. _Sans adieu, monsieur, à tantôt._"
+
+Then with another laugh the little Countess flew away, and was lost in
+the undulations of the crowd.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A second day's journey had begun for Ivor and his bride; the afternoon
+was already closing down upon them, as they halted at a small post-house
+where a relay of fresh horses awaited them. Ivor sprang out, glad to
+exercise his cramped limbs and light a cigarette; but Olga remained
+within the sleigh, buried in her costly wraps of fur.
+
+There was some little delay, and as she sat alone, half lost in a
+retrospective dream, she was suddenly aroused by the dull clank of arms
+and the regular tread of marching feet. Leaning forward she looked out,
+and saw coming towards her a party of men and women, who trod wearily,
+with downcast heads, and hopeless hanging hands, and whose every step
+was accompanied by the monotonous clank of steel chains. As she gazed
+upon them she realised their situation and their destiny. They were
+Russian criminals, arrested by Russian law, on their way to Siberia and
+the mines.
+
+Instinctively she drew back, shivering; as she did so the foremost
+detachment of prisoners came into line with her sleigh. At that moment a
+halt was called, to enable the officers in charge to refresh themselves
+at the bar of the post-house.
+
+Once more Olga leant forward; her heart beat rapidly, her breath came
+quick and short, she clasped her hands together passionately, and as her
+white face gleamed out from the heavy sables surrounding it, one of the
+prisoners, he who was nearest to her, lifted his head, and thrust back
+as well as he could with his manacled hand, the peaked hat that shaded
+his forehead.
+
+As he did so he turned his head slowly towards her, and in the dark
+haggard face, the burning feverish eyes, Olga beheld the countenance of
+Vladimir Mellikoff!
+
+Fascinated, she gazed upon it, her own face blanched, her eyes wild with
+horror. She tried to speak, to call out, to break the cruel band of
+silence that held her as in a vice. It was useless. No words would come,
+no sound, no cry.
+
+And as she thus looked upon him, a sudden light of recognition sprang to
+life within his eyes. He bent forward, holding her gaze with his;
+studying each curve and line of that fair, beautiful countenance, noting
+each golden curl where the hair lay about her neck and upon her brow,
+reading each fleeting expression of the proud lips, and deep blue eyes.
+And as he thus held her spell-bound, a smile passed over his worn face,
+a smile so pitying and accusing that Olga shuddered and drew closer her
+rich wraps, as if to ward off the cruelty of its tenderness.
+
+For full a moment they looked thus upon one another, without word or
+gesture of recognition. Then the order came for the march to recommence,
+and Vladimir, with a single upward movement of his manacled hand, bade
+her an immutable farewell.
+
+As he did so the figure next to him was drawn forward by the heavy
+chain that linked them together, and thus turned upon her companion in
+exile a face so beautiful, despite the marks passion and suffering had
+stamped upon it, that again Olga started, and drew back instinctively.
+
+It was the face of Adèle Lamien, the murderer of Count Stevan Lallovich.
+
+In another moment the exiles were in full march, and Olga, straining her
+eyes to the utmost, could see nothing save an indistinct moving mass
+against the miles of far-stretching snow; which even as she watched was
+lost in the evening shadows that crept up with silent but resistless
+steps.
+
+It was a farewell from out eternity.
+
+Truly Ivor Tolskoi's vengeance was complete, when Patouchki's cruel
+sentence was carried out to the letter, and Vladimir Mellikoff, linked
+to Adèle Lallovich, passed onward to that desolate Gehenna--Siberian
+exile.
+
+For Russia never forgets, and Russia never forgives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+AFTER TEN YEARS.
+
+
+It was a golden day in the golden month of October, when Philip Tremain
+stepped down from the railway train, and stood, a solitary traveller,
+upon the platform of the open station at Beetons, high up among the
+rolling "white hills" of New Hampshire.
+
+An open waggon, drawn by four sturdy mountain ponies, was in waiting
+beside the rustic platform, and into this he sprang; the driver cracked
+his long whip, accompanying it by a shrill whistle, and off the willing
+little creatures started.
+
+Up the steep winding roads and down again they went at a swift, even
+gallop, while Mr. Tremain, with a sudden recollection of Mrs. Newbold's
+park ponies and irreproachable basket phaeton, laughed aloud at the
+dissimilarity between them and his present primitive conveyance, and at
+the contrast of the solemn hills, and long wooded slopes, with the
+suburban and ornamental prettiness that environed the Folly.
+
+All before him stretched the grand White Mountain range, from
+Jefferson's and Madison's verdure-tipped sides, to Washington's rocky
+cliffs and snow-crowned peak. On every side the richest glory prevailed;
+scarlet and crimson of the sugar maple, gold and amber of beech and
+birch, russet brown of oak, and sombre green of hemlock. A keen
+pine-scented breeze swept past him, swaying the tall golden-rod and blue
+asters, and shaking out the bitter-sweet perfume from the purple gentian
+where it grew far up the mountain side.
+
+The road wound on, up and up, growing steeper and steeper with each
+mile, fringed on either side by tall ferns, grasses, and brown bracken,
+and starred with late yellow-and-white ox-eyed daisies. To his right the
+steep mountains rose far above his head, to his left the beautiful "wild
+Ammonoouc" leapt from stone to stone, and dashed into rivulets against
+the lichen-covered boulders, breaking over them in creamy foam.
+
+Once Philip bade his charioteer stop, and climbing down over the
+high-sided vehicle, he gathered a nosegay of the wild, white daisies,
+adding a maple and beech leaf as a set-off to the pure petals. Then,
+with a smile upon his lips, he took his place beside the taciturn Jehu,
+and on they went again, with the same long swinging gallop.
+
+As the last roseate glow of sunshine was lighting up the western
+heavens, and the great Phoebus was sinking to rest in the arms of grey
+and violet clouds, they came upon a long low house, built far out on a
+projecting spur of rock, which seemed to hang 'twixt earth and sky, and
+looked as if a stiff north-easter would make short work of its walls
+and foundations. This house was painted a dull venetian red, and was
+covered with creepers and wild vines, and brilliant with rows of scarlet
+geraniums marking each casement.
+
+It glowed like some bird of tropical plumage, alighted suddenly upon the
+cooler neutral tints of this northern land.
+
+And this was the home of Patricia Hildreth.
+
+Door and window stood open wide, and Philip's impatient feet carried him
+over the threshold into the dainty atmosphere of Patricia's
+drawing-room. And what a paradise it was to his hungry eyes! And how
+redolent of her!
+
+Flowers, birds, books, an open piano, and through the windows such a
+view of mountain towering above mountain, all transfigured and
+etherealised by the magic touch of the dying sun-god. Ah, it was good to
+be here, it was good to breathe this free, keen air; it was good to
+stand within her home, to think how soon, how very soon, he should look
+upon her face, and read within her deep blue eyes the secret hidden
+there for ten long years.
+
+The sunlight blinded him, the birds' song dulled his hearing, the
+perfume of the flowers steeped his senses; he was lost in a day-dream of
+ecstatic bliss.
+
+And did he still dream, or was this reality? This graceful, bending
+figure, whose hands flashed in and out among the piano's ivory keys,
+awaking the music of a plaintive strain, that, as it grew into melody,
+became so strangely familiar?
+
+It was no surprise to hear it, and still less was it a surprise to find
+the melody take shape in words, falling across the refrain, half
+chanted, half spoken as they were.
+
+    "I am a woman,
+      Therefore I may not
+    Call to him, cry to him,
+      Bid him delay not.
+    Showing no sign to him,
+      By look of mine to him,
+    What he has been to me.
+      Pity me, lean to me,
+        Philip, my king!"
+
+"Patty, my little Patty! Oh, my darling, I have found you at last, I
+shall never let you go from me again."
+
+"And have you forgiven me, Philip?" she asked, some long minutes after.
+"Have you forgiven me my selfishness, and wilfulness, and deception? I
+sometimes think I can never forgive myself."
+
+He framed the beautiful face in both his hands, and feasted his eyes
+upon it.
+
+"Forgive you, my darling! Forgiveness is not necessary between us now.
+We have found our love, Patty, after ten long years of loss; thank God,
+my darling, we have not found it too late."
+
+And to them both it seemed, that a little of the joy and beatitude of
+heaven had come down to them on the golden sunset clouds.
+
+"And so it was you, Patty," Philip says again, "who sang that very song
+that evening--how long ago it seems, dear--at the Folly; and it was your
+presence and your personality that influenced me so strongly, that drew
+me to you as Adèle Lamien, and yet that perplexed and troubled and
+almost frightened me?"
+
+"Yes, Philip, it was I," she answered. "And, do you know, through all my
+trickery and deceiving, it gave me keen delight to see how truly you did
+love me; for, after all, Philip, even as Adèle Lamien, when I won your
+half avowal of love, I was scarcely treacherous, because it could be no
+treachery for Patty, to win you from--Patricia Hildreth."
+
+It was specious reasoning mayhap, but it served.
+
+It was Miss Hildreth's old mocking laugh that next broke the silence,
+and Miss Hildreth's most tantalising voice that said:
+
+"Ah, but Philip, there is one thing more that lies between us. Do you
+remember a certain evening ten years ago, when an angry lover parted
+from his fickle sweetheart? And do you remember his words when she
+begged for one little good-bye token? 'When I can think of you, look at
+you, speak of you as other men do; when all my love is dead; ask me
+then, Patricia.'"
+
+"And do you ask me?" he cried, a little of the old masterful ring in his
+voice. "Nay, Patty, do not ask me, for that supposes it possible for me
+to refuse you. My dearest, let me rather plead from you."
+
+And there was that within her eyes that gave him leave to gather her
+close into his arms, and bending down to lay his lips on hers.
+
+And so, after ten years, the kiss was given and taken.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Hildreth, Volume 3 of 3, by 
+Augusta de Grasse Stevens
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40433 ***