Toward daylight, weariness overcame even excited imagination, and
Aimée fell asleep. When she awoke it was from a dream in which she
fancied herself on board the Ariel, and that Fanny had come to take
her away. “Aimée, Aimée!” said the familiar voice; and when she
woke, it was to find Fanny’s voice indeed sounding in her ears, and
Fanny’s eyes anxiously gazing at her.
“What is the matter?” she cried, rousing herself at once. “Have I
slept very late? Is breakfast ready?”
“Breakfast is over long ago,” Fanny answered. “I would not disturb
you, for I thought you had certainly earned the right to sleep as
late as you pleased; and fortunately mamma never comes down to
breakfast, you know. But I have come to rouse you now, because
something dreadful has happened. O Aimée, what do you think?--Mr.
Meredith saw you last night!”
“Mr. Meredith!” cried Aimée. She sat up in bed, a picture of
consternation. “It is impossible!” she gasped. “I saw no one. He
could not have seen me.”
“There is no doubt about it,” said Fanny. “He certainly saw
you--saw you talking to Lennox, and he thought it was me.”
“You?”
“Yes. And I could not make him believe otherwise except by telling
him that it was you. Even then he seemed to doubt; so I said I
would bring you to tell him yourself. O Aimée, it is mean beyond
words to ask such a thing of you; and yet there will be no good in
what you did last night, if you refuse to do this!”
“But--I do not understand,” said Aimée. “How will it make any
difference? I went for _you_.”
“But he does not know that,” said Fanny. “He thinks--oh, my dear,
you must forgive me!--that you went for yourself.”
“You told him so?” said Aimée, in a voice that did not sound like
her own.
“How could I help it?” answered Fanny. “He had been nursing his
anger and jealousy all night, and when he came this morning I
hardly knew him. He was ready to leave me at a word, and I should
never have seen him again. So what _could_ I do but tell him that
the person he saw was you?”
“You could have told him the truth,” said Aimée. “I am sure he
ought to have been satisfied to hear that you sent Mr. Kyrle away.”
Fanny shook her head. “You don’t know men,” she said. “And I did
not know Mr. Meredith before this morning. He was so angry, that
I saw at once he would never forgive me if he knew the truth; so
there was nothing to do but deny the whole thing. I suppose it was
cowardly; but I _am_ a coward. There is no doubt of that.”
Aimée agreed that there could be no doubt of it; but the frankly
admitted fact did not make her own position better. As far as
she could understand, Fanny had boldly transferred the whole
matter--intended elopement, broken promise, midnight tryst--to
her shoulders, and asked her to acknowledge it. She could hardly
realize all that was demanded of her.
“Do you mean to say,” she asked, “that you told Mr. Meredith that
_I_ had promised to go away with Mr. Kyrle?”
“What else could I tell him?” replied Fanny, desperately. “O Aimée,
don’t you see: what is the good of what was done last night, if I
acknowledge it this morning? I should lose Mr. Meredith just as
much as if I had gone with Lennox. So I thought I might trust you.
I thought you would help me. It is only to say it was you last
night; the rest will be understood.”
“The rest--that is, the falsehood!” cried Aimée, indignantly. “O
Fanny, how can you ask it--how _can_ you? I did not mind what I did
last night, though it was hard enough. I would do that, or anything
else of the kind, over again. But this I can not, I will not, do!”
“Then,” said Fanny, sitting down with a gesture of despair, “there
is simply no hope, and I wish I had gone with Lennox. It is useless
for me to face Mr. Meredith again. If I told him that you refused
to come, he would never believe that it was not me last night.
Well,” with a long-drawn sigh, “I suppose it serves me right. But I
am sorry for poor mamma.”
Sobs followed, while Aimée sat staring at the wall before her.
Fanny’s grief did not touch her as much as it should have done,
perhaps, for she understood exactly the degree and quality of the
regard which that young lady entertained for Mr. Meredith, and she
did not yet realize that disappointment over the loss of possible
diamonds might be as acute as that over the loss of a lover. But
the allusion to Mrs. Berrien had more effect. Aimée knew that her
aunt’s heart was set upon Fanny’s marrying Mr. Meredith, and for
her aunt Aimée felt that she was bound to do much--for was she not
the only person in the world who had ever given a thought to her
sad girlhood, or attempted to throw a little sunshine upon it?
There was not much in common between Mrs. Berrien and her niece;
but on the side of the latter there was a deep sense of gratitude.
“Should I hesitate to do _anything_ for Aunt Alice, who has done
so much for me?” she asked herself. It was this she was thinking
while Fanny sobbed.
Presently she said abruptly, “Is Mr. Meredith downstairs yet?”
“I don’t know,” replied Miss Berrien. “I told him to wait for me,
but he may have gone. I hope he has. I can never face him again.”
“I am sure,” said Aimée, tremulously, “if you would only make up
your mind to tell him the truth--”
Fanny interrupted her by a petulant motion. “Pray talk of something
that you understand,” she said. “If you will not help me, of course
I can not force you to do so, but allow me to be the best judge of
my own conduct.”
Poor Aimée! Her own eyes filled with tears--tears far more genuine
than Fanny’s. How, after all, could she refuse this service which
was asked of her? It was hard, infinitely harder than the one of
the night before, but it seemed to her that she was bound to do
it--to immolate herself and the truthfulness which was one of the
strongest instincts of her nature--in order that her aunt’s desire
might be accomplished. With an effort she said, at length:
“And if I were to do what you ask--if I told Mr. Meredith that it
was I last night--should I have to tell him anything else?”
“No, no,” cried Fanny, with eyes sparkling through her tears. “That
is all. Leave the rest to me. I don’t ask you to _say_ a thing
which is untrue.”
“It is all the same if I let it be understood,” said Aimée,
dejectedly. “But I suppose I must do it--if Mr. Meredith has not
gone.”
“Oh, I don’t think he has gone,” said Fanny, forgetting her
contrary statement of a moment back. “I told him that you had not
risen this morning because you were awake nearly all night. So, if
you will dress quickly, he will not think we have been long.”
Thus animated, Aimée rose, dressed as quickly as her trembling
hands would permit, and followed Fanny--who dried her tears with
wonderful celerity--down-stairs. When they reached the parlor door
Miss Berrien took her companion’s hand in an encouraging pressure.
“Don’t be afraid,” she whispered. “I will not let him annoy you.”
At a more auspicious moment Aimée might have resented this offer
of protection from the person who was dragging her into the lion’s
jaws; but she had no opportunity to do so, for the next instant
they were in Mr. Meredith’s presence.
It had never occurred to Aimée before that this was at all an
awe-inspiring presence; but now she felt herself trembling from
head to foot before the rotund, genial gentleman, who looked
unusually pale and grave, and whom she was going to aid in
deceiving. It was this last consideration which made a coward of
her, and fastened her eyes to the floor as she entered the room.
“Here is my cousin, Mr. Meredith,” said Fanny, whose conscience
did not apparently make a coward of her. “She has kindly come to
satisfy you as to who it was that you saw leave this house, go to
the sea wall, and return last night.”
Aimée lifted her glance and looked at Mr. Meredith then--who, in
turn, looked at her. More than ever her eyes were at this moment
the eyes of a startled fawn, and as they gazed at him full of
wistful appeal and fright and pain, he said to himself that with
such eyes deception was not possible. He had thought only of Fanny
before, but now he felt a sudden thrill of pity and compunction for
this girl whom his suspicions had placed in such a position.
“I am very sorry,” he stammered. “I had no desire to interfere in
anything which did not concern me; but I thought--I believed--It
was you, then, whom I saw last night?”
“Yes, it was I,” answered Aimée. She spoke with a clear
distinctness for which Fanny blessed her, and met his steady
gaze unflinchingly. As long as it was the truth--so she said to
herself--she did not mind.
Mr. Meredith, on his part, was staggered by her self-possession.
Shrinking as she looked, there was no faltering in her speech, no
shame in her manner. From her calm and ready answer, it might have
been the most natural thing in the world for a young girl to leave
her home at midnight to hold a tryst on the sea wall.
“I beg your pardon,” said the amazed man, who began to think
that a girl capable of this coolness was capable of anything
else--although up to this time he had looked upon her as an
insignificant child, fit rather for dolls than love affairs--“but
it was so strange to see a lady go out at such a time that--one
could not help drawing certain conclusions. And the thought of
_you_ never occurred to me, for I should have said you were much
too young for anything of the kind. And--by Jove! you _are_
too young!” he added, with honest warmth. “Your aunt should be
informed.--It is not right,” addressing Fanny, “that such an affair
should be allowed to go on.”
“I thought I told you that it was at an end,” said that young lady,
coolly. “Aimée sent Mr. Kyrle away; and I promised her that if she
came down to satisfy your doubt, she should not be annoyed further.”
“I have no desire to annoy her,” said Mr. Meredith, “but she is so
young that really--This Mr. Kyrle can not be a man of honor, to
try to make such a child elope!”
“Aimée looks more of a child than she is,” said Fanny, hurriedly;
“and--and I have told you that it is all over. Mr. Kyrle is
gone.--And now, Aimée, that you have satisfied Mr. Meredith, I
think you may be allowed to go also.”
Perhaps it was something in her tone which roused renewed suspicion
in Mr. Meredith’s breast. He looked from one to the other; his brow
lowered, and he said, stiffly:
“If you have no objection, I should like to ask Miss”--he found he
did not know her name--“Miss Aimée a question or two.”
“You have no right to question her about her own affairs,” said
Fanny, who feared what Aimée might reply to those questions. “I
promised that she should not be annoyed.--Come, Aimée!”
But Aimée read rightly the lowering cloud on the suitor’s brow and
held her ground, resisting Fanny’s attempt to draw her away, and
looking up with her clear glance into the suspicious eyes bent on
her.
“You think, perhaps,” she said, meeting his suspicions boldly,
“that I am saying this to shield Fanny; that it was not I who met
Mr. Kyrle last night. But you are mistaken. It was I. I will swear
it, if you like.”
“There is no need of that,” said Mr. Meredith, still somewhat
suspicious, but again disarmed by those candid eyes. “I should be
satisfied by your word. Only, it is strange--”
He paused--for at that moment the door opened, and a servant
appeared, saying:
“If you please, Miss Berrien, Mr. Kyrle asks to see you.”