THE COUNTESS AT BAY
The Countess Lavinia sat alone by the light of a solitary candle in the
great drawing-room of Lyndwood House; it was four in the morning, and
she had been an hour back from the masquerade; over her chair hung the
brilliant domino, and her dress, even in this light, glimmered with the
sheen of a jewel.
She leant back in the heavily brocaded chair, her small hands resting
on the arms, her head turned towards the open long windows where the
dark silk curtains slightly stirred in the night breeze. On the gilt
table beside her rested an open letter.
It was perfectly still in the high shadowed room; the sense of night,
mystery, and loneliness was complete; the small heart-shaped flame of
the candle revealed dimly the face and figure of my lady, the table,
and the letter; for the rest shadows and fluttering glooms obscured the
handsome furniture, the massive ceiling, the carved walls.
Suddenly the Countess moved her head and looked towards the door. A
light footstep sounded without; she moistened her lips and her hands
tightened on the chair, then, as my lord softly entered, she turned her
face away again.
"I was waiting for you," she said, as he closed the door. "I could stay
no longer at the masquerade. I found this letter when I reached home,
and I thought I would wait up and speak to you."
The Earl wore his domino and carried his mask.
"I saw a light in here," he answered. "Why must you speak to me
to-night? It is late."
There was no expression on her painted face.
"We do not see each other often, do we, my lord? And to-night I am in
the mood----"
He flung cloak and vizard on to a chair.
"For what?" he asked.
She looked at him for the first time, and sat up, shrugging her
shoulders.
"For anything," she said. She pulled her handkerchief out and pressed
it to her brilliant lips; the roses, ribbons, and pearls in her
high-piled grey curls shone in the flickering flame.
My lord drew off his gloves.
"What is the letter, madam?" He gave her a sideways look out of weary,
reckless eyes.
"From my father." She took the handkerchief from her mouth and there
was a stain of carmine on it. "He is just back from Holland, where he
hath been to take up some monies due to him."
"I know," said the Earl. "I think this news can wait."
"It is no news, my lord; you are aware that my father's fortunes----"
"Will not bear the strain of my extravagance?" He placed his tasselled
gauntlets down beside the silver candle-stick and the letter. "Well, he
has said so."
Her eyes narrowed.
"You are very cool; what do you propose to do?"
The Earl gave her a slow smile.
"How often people ask that," he remarked. "I propose, madam, nothing."
"I suppose you have said that before," answered the Countess, "but you
have saved yourself nevertheless; that way is closed now, however, you
cannot marry an heiress again."
He crossed to the mantelshelf and rested his elbow there, taking his
cheek in his hand; the little pale light was yet enough to disclose the
languid reckless beauty of his face.
"Why waste your bitterness on these obvious comments, madam?" he
asked. "Whatever my affairs may be, you and I cannot better them by
discussion."
"Your affairs!" she echoed. "Do they not also concern me? My father
crippled himself to pay your debts a year ago, and hath spent a
swinging fortune since."
"Doth he think me too dear?" smiled the Earl. "Well, it was his
bargain."
"I am not talking of him, but of myself."
Her husband fixed his scornful grey eyes on the contained malice of her
delicate face.
"You knew you were not marrying a prudent man, madam, my reputation was
easy to come at; if we made a mistake it was an irrevocable one. Till
now we have at least avoided the folly of telling each other so."
She returned his glance, straightly and keenly; her fine nostrils were
distended, and against the pallor of her hollow cheeks the patches of
rouge looked vivid and unnatural.
"It has been very easy for you," she said. "I have not touched your
life at all, I merely stand for that vulgarity--money; but money is
something that cannot always be ignored, and you must face it now, it
and me, my lord."
The Earl spoke in a low voice.
"What does your father say?"
"He writes like a man possessed"--her slight hand touched the open
letter. "The Dutch bank has failed, the East Indian ships are lost, he
thinks his liabilities will be more than he can meet, unless he can
negotiate some loan; but," she lifted her thin shoulders out of the
glittering gown, "I have no doubt we are ruined. He curses me," she
added, "and talks of Bedlam; he hath always dwelt on that matter of
madness in our family."
Her brilliant wrathful eyes turned to the Earl's colourless face.
"What are our assets?" she asked. "Your post in the Ministry and Pelham
on the verge of impeachment! Your impoverished estates, half entailed,
the furniture, jewels, horses--worth a few thousands--not enough to
satisfy a quarter of the creditors; what is before us?"
"You know as well as I," he answered. "And do not blame me wholly,
madam; you have not lived like an anchorite."
"What you have lost on one night would furnish my needs for months; and
there is your mother, your cousin."
A swift colour flew into my lord's face.
"Miss Chressham is in an independent position, madam."
"Is your brother, Captain Lyndwood?"
She tossed the name at him with an indescribable air of insolence and
insult; he drew a deep breath.
"I think we will not speak of him."
"Why not? He has cost you somewhat, your marriage did him good service."
"The best service I ever rendered Marius," interrupted my lord, "was
when I prevented him from making you his wife, madam."
The Countess quivered.
"That was an unconscious favour," she cried. "You married me for my
money, for nothing else."
"For nothing else," he repeated, his attitude unchanged, his voice
unaltered. "What other reason, madam, should I have had?"
She pressed her hands to her tight bodice.
"You glossed it with self-sacrifice, it was to save your brother, your
mother, the estates--anything but for yourself, because you could not
face life without money."
Again the uncontrollable colour betrayed my lord, suffusing his face
painfully.
"Why are you saying this?"
"Oh, I have been longing to say it ever since we were married; I think
I have my chance now"--her voice trembled with passion--"ever since you
ordered me from the room. Do you remember--that night you brought me
home, and your brother turned his back on me?"
"By God," cried the Earl, "this is intolerable; are we to exchange
recriminations?" He moved towards her. "I have that on my mind makes
you and your father and his damned money of no moment to me."
The Countess rose, sweeping the flame-coloured domino to the floor.
"Ah, Miss Boyle!" she said through her teeth. "She was at the ball
to-night."
"I will not endure this from you, madam."
"That is monstrous amusing," cried the Countess, and her eyes flew
wide. "Do you imagine that I do not know----"
"And I also--I know, who wrote the paragraph in the _Gazette_."
She was obviously startled, taken with a quick utter surprise; she
stared at him as if she hoped to read some explanation of his words in
his pale face.
"Did you imagine," continued my lord, "that I could live a year in
the same house with you and not be aware that you read my letters and
set your servant to spy on me?" He smiled in a fashion that made her
colour with fury. "What other was there with both the knowledge and the
vulgarity to send what you sent to the paper? You deceive yourself,
madam, if you think I do not know you."
The Countess Lavinia stood silent; she had no words to meet the
occasion. Only once before had she spoken directly with her husband,
when he had brought her home to Lyndwood Holt, and then, as now, he
had silenced her. Her dumb hatred of him rose and swelled in her heart
to agony; she made a motion of her hand to her throat and then clutched
at the pearls on her tight bodice.
The Earl glanced away from her as if he found her not worth his
attention.
"It hath been too mean a thing to mention," he said; "but it was patent
to me from the moment Sir Francis showed me the _Gazette_. It hath not
done much mischief, madam, or caused any trouble I cannot right; Miss
Boyle stands too high for malice to touch. Well, there is no more to
say."
She found voice enough to ask harshly:
"Is this how you take it?"
Of all things she had never expected this. The contemplation of his
certain fury had made a point to her days; again and again she had said
to herself, "I shall have stung him beyond bearing at last," and she
had nerved herself to bear the outburst of his rage for the pleasure of
seeing him brought by her means to bitter wrath; she had not supposed
that he would discover of himself that she was the author of the
paragraph, but she had intended at the climax, when he was on the eve
of a duel with Sir Francis and Miss Boyle had fled from London, to say
to him, "I did this--I!"
The Earl moved again to the mantelshelf.
"How did you imagine I would take it?" he asked quietly. "I reap what I
sowed when I married Mr. Hilton's daughter."
She gave a little gasp, and the string of pearls broke and came away in
her hot hand.
"A noble way you vindicate your gentle blood, my lord," she said in a
voice faltering with passion. "I have been your convenience and your
scorn."
"And my wife," he interrupted, "before the world, my wife; which is
what you, I think, desired, madam."
"Your wife!" she echoed wildly.
He answered her coldly.
"Your life has been as you have made it."
"My life hath been Hell," answered the Countess vehemently; she cast
the pearls down on the table beside the flaring unsnuffed candle. "Ever
since I met you I have lived in bitter unhappiness." She looked at the
Earl with dangerous eyes. "Had I married your brother I might have been
a contented woman, he is an honourable man."
Rose Lyndwood laughed.
"Cannot that rouse you!" she cried. "What are you become, my lord?"
"The utter folly of our discussing these matters!" he answered,
smiling. "We waste our breath, madam, and I, for one, am weary of it."
The Countess caught up her father's letter.
"What have you to say to this?" she demanded.
"Nothing." He looked at his reflection in the mirror above the
mantelshelf and yawned.
"What will you do to avert this ruin?" she asked, trembling.
"Still nothing." He looked at her now, over his shoulder, and the
extreme handsomeness of his face was impressed on her suddenly, like an
added insult.
"And about Selina Boyle, poor shadow of sentiment, you will do
nothing?" she sneered. "And you will face the laughter, the comment,
and still do nothing. Ah! you have no fire nor life left in you, Lord
Lyndwood, you are become a worthless rake indeed."
Still she could not move him; he yawned again and thrust his hands into
the embroidered pockets of his white velvet waistcoat.
"Do you think you care for her?" cried the Countess, furious. "It is a
paltry pretence; if I died to-morrow you would marry another woman with
money and whistle Selina Boyle down the wind."
"The candle requires snuffing," said Rose Lyndwood; "but I do not wish
to burn my fingers nor can I see the snuffers." He smiled with his pale
lips and his fickle grey eyes. "Good-night, madam."
The Countess took a step forward as he moved towards the door; it
seemed she would have struck him, but he made a motion with his hand as
if he brushed her aside, laughed in her face and left the room.
He did not close the door. The Countess, looking after him, saw in the
dimly lit hall the figure of Honoria Pryse in a dark wrapper, moving
back secretively as she was surprised by my lord's sudden appearance.
"I was coming for her ladyship," she said in a tone of covert defiance.
Rose Lyndwood glanced from maid to mistress, and both winced; then he
passed slowly up the dark stairs.
Honoria Pryse came into the drawing-room and closed the door; her first
action was to snuff the candle and set it further on the table.
The Countess sank down upon the sofa, and with a groan hid her face in
the bend of her arm.
"He knows," said the maid, thrusting the loose gold hair back under her
mob.
"He has always known," the Countess raised her face, "and it doth not
touch him; he brushes it from him as a fly off his sleeve. I told him
of my father's letter; what did he care?" She clenched her fragile
hands in the dove-coloured cushions. "My God, I am sick with hate, or
love."
Honoria Pryse observed her curiously. Lady Lyndwood's passionate
loathing of her lord had always been beyond her understanding; to her
own nature strong feeling was impossible.
"Did you see Captain Lyndwood to-night?" she asked.
"Yes, he is a fool and a virtuous fool, but I swear I think I love him.
Oh, Honoria!" her eyes gleamed with an expression akin to insanity.
"Do you not think I love him?"
"No," answered the maid, "not yet at least, but I think you hate my
lord, and I wonder why; if ye had not felt this frenzy against him ye
had been able to better hold your own."
The Countess did not seem to hear.
"How may one touch a man like that--hath he no soul beyond his easy
pleasures?" she cried vehemently. "He will not cross swords for Selina
Boyle, and he thinks he loves her. I cannot move him to any fury by
talk of ruin, always his face hath one expression for me, and no way
can I alter it; is there nothing in the world he cares for?"
Honoria shrugged her shoulders.
"His name, his dignity, I suppose; we have never affected that. You
have been very discreet, my lady, and he knows you cannot be otherwise
and keep the position you paid so highly for."
A curious look passed over the Countess's face.
"His name!" she repeated; then she laughed stupidly and shivered.
"Well, we are ruined; what is before me?"
"You are far enough from ruin," answered the maid calmly. "Mr. Hilton
stands firm enough, and my lord's position is not so easily overturned."
The Countess rose with sudden energy.
"Get to bed, Honoria, I am tired to-night, and meant not what I said,"
but her passionate face and heated eyes belied her words.
"Will you not come also, my lady?"
"In a while, yes."
The maid had the policy sometimes to submit to the mistress she ruled;
with the faintest of sneering smiles she left the room.
With quick steps the Countess hurried across the floor, picked up her
father's letter and dashed out the candle.
Through the heavy curtains fell the first glimmer of the London dawn,
but where my lady stood all was dark; she tore the letter to shreds,
breathing heavily.
"His name," she muttered to herself; "my name also. An insignificant
thing like me, my lord, might make you the laughing stock of the town."
She paused and peered round the dark mistrustfully. She moved
unerringly to where the Earl had left his domino, found it, flung it on
the ground and set her high-heeled shoe on it; then laughing and crying
together hurried from the room.