"Well, take care," he said in a serious tone. "If I were you I'd find
out who and what she is. She might be some adventuress or other."
"Do you suspect her to be an adventuress?" I inquired quickly.
"My dear fellow, how can I tell? There seems to me something rather
shady about her, that's all."
I pondered. Yes, he spoke the truth. There was something shady about
her. She would tell me absolutely nothing of herself.
We smoked together for half an hour, then parted, for he was compelled
to go down to the House, as a dutiful legislator should.
A week passed yet I saw not Aline, nor had any word from her. From day
to day I existed in all anxiety to once again look upon that face so
angelic in its beauty and so pure in expression. Indeed, more than once
I felt inclined to break the promise I had made her and call at
Ellerdale Road, but I refrained, fearing lest such a course might annoy
her.
One evening, a fortnight after she had visited me, I was walking along
the Bayswater Road towards Oxford Street, skirting the railings of Hyde
Park, when suddenly I noticed before me two figures, a man and a woman.
They were walking slowly, deep in conversation.
In an instant I recognised the slim, perfect figure in the black jacket
and black hat as that of Aline, and drew back to escape observation.
Her companion was tall, thin, and rather ill-dressed. As they passed
beneath a street-lamp I discerned that he was about forty, with lank
black hair, a long black moustache, and a sallow, bony face--a
countenance the reverse of prepossessing. His silk hat had seen better
days, his frock-coat was tightly buttoned for warmth, as he had no
overcoat, and his boots were sadly run down at heel. As this seedy
individual walked beside her she was speaking rapidly, while he, bonding
to her, was listening intently.
The meeting was such an unexpected one that at first I was at a loss
what to do. Next moment, however, with the fire of jealousy aroused
within me, I resolved to follow them and watch. They strolled slowly
along until they came to Victoria Gate, and then turned into the Park,
at that hour dark and deserted. I noticed that as they entered she took
his arm, and it appeared as if they were going in the direction of
Grosvenor Gate, which leads out into Park Lane; for they crossed the
Ring, and continued straight ahead along the tree-lined avenue. But few
lights were there, so following at a respectable distance, I managed to
keep them in sight.
Soon, however, they rested upon a seat at foot of a great old beech, and
continued their conversation. I had, of course, a keen desire to learn
the nature of this exchange of confidences, but the problem was how to
approach sufficiently near and yet escape observation. At first I was
inclined to relinquish my endeavours, but suddenly it occurred to me
that I might get over the railing on to the grass, and in the darkness
approach noiselessly behind the tree where they were seated.
Therefore, turning back some distance to a bend in the path, where they
could not detect me, I sprang over the iron fencing, and treading
softly, cautiously made my way up behind them, until I actually stood
behind the tree within three yards of them, but with the railing between
us.
Then, scarce daring to breathe, I waited to catch their words. Of this
shabby-genteel fellow, evidently her lover, I was madly jealous; but my
anger was instantly changed to surprise when I heard the nature of their
conversation.
"But you must!" he was saying earnestly.
"I tell you, I won't!" she answered decisively. "The risk is too
great--far too great."
"But as I've already told you, it's absolutely imperative."
He spoke roughly, but with a refinement which showed him to be educated.
He bore outward evidence of having come down in the world.
"I wouldn't act like that if I were offered a thousand pounds," she
declared.
"But it must be done," he urged.
"Not by me."
"Do you intend to back out, then?" he inquired roughly.
"I merely tell you plainly that you and your ruffianly associates have
gone quite far enough. That's all," she answered calmly. Her words
were not those which a woman usually uses towards her lover.
He gave vent to a short, brutal laugh, as if enjoying her indignation.
"It's all very well to talk like this, Aline," he said; "but you know
quite well that argument is useless. You must do it."
"I will not, I tell you!" she cried fiercely.
"Well, we shall see," he answered. "Recollect that you are one of us,
and as such, to break away is impossible."
"I know that, only too well," she answered bitterly. "But it is
terrible--horrible! As each day passes I am more and more convinced
that the truth must soon be discovered."
"And if it is?"
"I will never live to bear the exposure," she said, in the hoarse, low
voice of one desperate.
"My dear girl," he exclaimed, "you who have beauty and a plausible
tongue have the world before you; yet you always refuse to seize your
opportunity. You who possess the power of the King of Evil, whose touch
is deadly and whose caress is venomous, could rule an empire if you
wished; yet you are inert, lethargic, and refuse to assist us, even in
this."
"I will not sin deeper than I have already sinned," she answered. "I
will have no hand in it."
"Why not?"
"It is horrible!" she protested. "And I tell you, once and for all,
that I will have nothing to do with the affair."
"You're a fool!" he cried roughly.
"True! I am, or I would never have fallen thus into the trap you and
your friends baited so cunningly."
"You are beautiful!" he answered, with a harsh laugh. "A beautiful
woman is always a safe trap for fools."
"If men admire me I cannot help it; if they love me then it is against
my wish, for since that day long ago, when the Spirit of Evil entered
into me, love has known no place in my heart."
"Well spoken!" he exclaimed. "If you have no love for him the rest is
quite easy."
"Though all love within me is dead, I yet have a woman's heart, and
womanly feeling," she said. "I know that my beauty is only a curse; I
am well aware that men who have admired me have been drawn irresistibly
to their doom. Ah!" and she shuddered in shame, "it is terrible--
terrible!"
"Yet why should you regret?" he queried. "You are not of their world;
you have nothing in common with them. You have been given beauty, the
most marvellous, perhaps, in all the world; diabolic beauty, which
causes you to be remarked wherever you go; which has caused the downfall
of the upright, and has wrecked the lives of those who trust in the
guardian Spirit of Good."
"Yes, I know," she answered quickly. "Yet I am tired of it all. I am
aware that my power for the working of evil among my fellow-creatures is
greater than that of any other person of flesh and blood; that at my
touch objects held sacred are defiled and consumed, that sight of my
face may cause a veritable saint to turn from his asceticism and become
an evil-doer. All this I know, alas! All this is due to the influence
of evil, which once I might have striven against, had I wished."
"You possess the _beaute du Diable_," he said. "Are you not the
daughter of Satan?"
"If I am I decline to commit any further crime at your bidding," she
answered, with indignation. "You have held me enthralled until now, but
I tell you that you have strained the bond until it will ere long break.
Then I shall be free."
"I'm pleased that you have such pleasant anticipations," he replied. "A
woman who once gives herself over to the Evil One can never regain her
freedom."
"But she can refuse to increase the enormity of her sin by committing
crime at the bidding of the man who holds her beneath his thrall," she
answered.
"You know what such refusal means?" he said in a threatening tone.
"Yes--death. Well, I do not fear it. Within me a new love has been
awakened. I now love for the first time in all my life."
"Yet you have already said that in your heart love knows no place."
"I tell you I love him!" she cried. "He shall not suffer!"
She was evidently referring to me. I held my breath, eager to catch
every syllable. Perhaps this man was urging her to kill me!
"The power you possess to work evil is irresistible," he said briefly.
"Alas! I know it," she answered. "Those with whom I am in daily
contact little dream of who or what I really am, or they would shun me
as they would shun a leper."
"Why should they?" her bony-faced companion asked. "Evil has been
dominant in the world for all ages, and the Prince of Darkness has still
the ascendency!"
"But is not mine the blackest--the foulest of all crimes?" she
shuddered.
"Only one touch," he urged. "Your hand is fatal."
"Ah! why do you taunt me thus?" she cried. "Is it not enough that I
should be degraded and outcast, overburdened by sin for which I cannot
hope for forgiveness, and that my position should be irretrievably lost?
Is it not enough that in me all the evils of the world are
concentrated, and that I am shut out from happiness for ever?"
"You had your choice," the man answered. "It is true that you are one
unique among the millions of your fellow-creatures. The blackness of
your heart is concealed by the purity of your face, and your real being
so disguised that none suspect. If your real identity were discovered
some prophets would declare that the end of the world was near." And he
laughed coarsely.
"Yes, yes," she cried quickly. "But do not taunt me. I know too well
the far-reaching influence which emanates from me, and the fatal effect
of my touch upon all that is held sacred by those who believe in the
Supreme. I have striven to do good, and have only wrought evil; I have
been charitable, and my efforts have only resulted in bringing disaster
upon the needy. Those whom I thought to benefit have rewarded me by
curses, because all that I do is the work of the wicked. I have
struggled to lead a double life, and have failed. I have tried to
counterbalance the evil I am compelled to achieve by doing good works
such as might endear me in the eyes of those who believe in the Supreme;
but all, alas, has been in vain--all futile. I am now convinced that in
my heart there can remain no good feeling, no womanly love, no
charitableness towards my fellows."
"It is only what might be expected," he said in a dry tone. "Your great
beauty is given you to cover your heart. You are soulless."
"Yes," she cried. "That is true--only too true. I have no soul, no
conscience, no regret!"
She spoke in a hard tone, as though utterly wearied of life. Her voice
had lost its music, and her speech was of one in blank despair.
"If you are without regret, then what I have suggested is the more easy
of accomplishment," he said, in a low intense voice. "Remember that no
power on earth can withstand your influence."
"I will not!" she cried, starting up in fierce determination. "Through
your evil counsel I have already wrought that which I shall ever
regret," she went on. "I have placed myself beneath the thraldom
irrevocably, and have brought upon those who admired me a doom which has
destroyed their happiness and wrecked their lives. I have now a lover--
a man who, because of my good looks, is infatuated, as others have
been."
"It has been decided!" her companion said, with a calmness that was
appalling.
"But I love him!" she declared. "I myself will be his protector!"
"You intend to defy the resolution which has been arrived at?"
"I have no intention of committing further sin," she said. "I may be an
evil-doer and one of the accursed, but none shall say that I
deliberately acted in such manner towards one who became fascinated by
my beauty. Rather would I disfigure my face by burns or acid in order
to render myself ugly and unattractive."
"No woman would do that of her own free will," he laughed.
"No ordinary woman could," she said. "But recollect who I am. Reflect
upon my far-reaching influence for evil--an influence which is felt
throughout this kingdom. I tell you that rather than continue I would
kill myself."
The man laughed aloud.
"I admit all that," he said. "If the people of London knew the truth
they would, I believe, tear you limb from limb. But they are ignorant;
therefore you are but an ordinary girl of more than extraordinary
beauty."
"Which means that my beauty will always ruin those upon whom I may
bestow a glance. As my touch is fatal to certain objects of adoration,
so is my love-look fatal to those who admire me. No," she added, after
a brief pause, "I have determined to act as this man's protector,
instead of his destroyer."
"You are relenting," he observed with sarcasm. "Soon you will proclaim
your repentance."
"No!" she cried fiercely. "I shall never repent, because of you. To
you I owe the major part of this evil of which I am possessed, and to
you--"
"It was your choice," he interrupted, with a brutal laugh. "You
accepted the challenge, and gave your soul to the Evil One. Why blame
me?"
"At your instigation," she went on in fierce anger. "To the world I am
a pure, ingenuous girl; yet beneath this veil of virtue and purity I
work these veritable miracles of evil, possessing a power which ofttimes
appals me, an irresistible influence that nothing can withstand. I am
unique in the world as possessing this superhuman faculty of being able
to impart evil to those with whom I come into contact, be they pure as
angels. You taunt me," she added. "But some day you will crave mercy
of me, and then I will show you none--none! I will be hard-hearted as
flint--as relentless as you are to-night!"
"You wish to break away from the compact, but you shall not," the man
said firmly, between his teeth. "If you prefer defiance, well and good.
But I merely point out that obedience is best."
She paused. She was, I surmised, deep in reflection.
"Very well," at last she answered, in a hoarse, unnatural voice. "Now
that I have sunk so low I suppose it is impossible to sink further. But
recollect that this same influence that I will exert over this, my
latest victim, I will one day exert over you. I warn you. One day ere
long you will crave pity at my feet."
"Never from you," the man said, with a short defiant laugh.
"I have only prophesied once before," she answered meaningly. "Whether
or no that came true you are well aware. In this world of London I am,
as yet, unknown, but when the true facts are known this great metropolis
will stand aghast in terror. Our positions will then be reversed. You
will be the victim, and I triumphant."
"Proceed," he laughed. "All this is intensely interesting."
There was a pause, longer than before.
"Then you declare that I must do this thing?" she asked, in a strange,
hollow voice, the voice of one dismayed.
"Yes," her companion answered; "you must--swiftly and secretly. It is
imperative."
Without further word she rose slowly to her feet, and staggered away
down the gravelled path, while her companion, hesitating for a few
seconds, rose with a muttered imprecation and strode along after her. A
moment later they were out of hearing.
The remainder of their extraordinary conversation was lost to me.
One suspicion alone possessed me. That thin, shabby man had sentenced
me to death.