THE DAYS PASS BY.
Several days passed and still Lucian Davlin had not found the much
wished for opportunity to converse with Madeline. Neither had he been
able to find Cora alone. Visit her room when he would, there was the
burly waiting-maid. Finally Cora had warned him, with some asperity,
that his "actions looked rather suspicious," and then he obeyed her
gentle hint and remained aloof.
Two days after the bestowal of Strong, the maid, upon the
not-too-grateful Cora, an angular, grenadier-looking female presented
herself at the servants' entrance, announcing that she was "the new
maid;" and she was installed as high priestess of Madeline's
apartments without loss of time.
The servants below stairs made comments, as servants will. Even Miss
Arthur, Percy, and Davlin agreed in calling the two maids,
respectively, "Grenadier" and "Griffin."
But only Cora knew that the two were better learned in the art of
spying than in matters of the toilet. She knew herself to be under
continual surveillance. Above stairs or below, Madeline or Hagar,
Strong or Joliffe were not far away. And yet she had not abandoned her
plan of escaping.
One morning, Cora, looking from the window of her dressing room, saw
two men moving about in the grounds below. Upon commenting upon their
presence there, Strong had answered, readily;
"Yes, madame, Joliffe tells me that they are here to sink a well. Miss
Payne has decided to have a fountain among those cedar trees, and they
are to go to work immediately."
"But a well in winter! They can't dig."
"They don't dig; they bore. It's to be a fountain, madame."
But in spite of the "fountain" explanation, Cora knew that the house
was guarded from without as well as from within.
"It's no use to warn Lucian, or anybody, now," she thought. "It would
only get us all into worse trouble."
But still she did not abandon the thoughts of her own escape.
And now began a time of trial for poor Ellen Arthur. Madeline Payne,
after studiously ignoring the two men for some days, began to unbend.
She commenced by conversing with Percy, listening to his slow and
stately sentences, smiling her approval, and completely captivating
that susceptible gentleman. Then, by degrees, she drew Lucian into the
conversation, and smiled upon and listened to him.
All this Cora observed, wondering what the girl was trying to do;
while the spinster looked on in untold agony, fearful lest this fair
sorceress should avenge herself for some of her childish grievances by
robbing her of her lover.
Meanwhile Lucian Davlin interpreted all this in his own favor. "She
is proud and still resentful," he thought. "And she is using Percy as
a medium of approach to me."
At last Lucian, growing impatient, resorted to an old, old trick. He
watched his opportunity, and one evening, as Madeline was following
Cora from the drawing-room, the door of which he was holding open for
their exit, he pushed into her hand a small scrap of paper.
She would have dropped it; her first impulse was to do so, but Cora
turned as her hand was about to loosen its clasp upon the fragment. So
she passed on, carrying it with her to her own room. There she opened
it and read these pencilled words:
For God's sake do not torture me longer. You have condemned
me without a hearing. Be as merciful as you are strong and
lovely. At least let me see you alone, when I can plead for
myself.
Half an hour later, Hagar tapped at his door. When he opened it, she
put in his hand a bit of paper, on which were these faintly-pencilled
lines:
If you desire my friendship, you must date our acquaintance
from this week. You never knew me in the past.
"And she is right," muttered he; "the Madeline Payne of last summer,
and the Madeline Payne of now, are to each other as the chrysalis to
the butterfly, in beauty; as the kitten to the panther, in spirit; as
the babe to the woman, in mind. That Madeline pleased me; this one, I
love."
So he accepted the position, and did not give up striving to draw from
her some special word, or look, or tone, that he need not feel
belonged as much to Percy as to himself.
Meantime Percy was revolving various things in his learned head.
He had been, as a matter of course, deeply impressed with her beauty,
and he had been much puzzled as well.
Having witnessed her arrival, he had fully expected rebellion from
Cora, for Cora was not the woman to be barred out from a prospective
fortune and make no sign. But there was no war, and no indications of
battle. Cora and the heiress were wonderfully friendly. Mr. Percy
could not understand it.
The manner of Davlin toward him had not changed in the least,
remaining as studiously polite as when he was so cordially invited to
take up his abode under the hospitable roof of Oakley.
That of Cora was decidedly different. While before she addressed him
with a sort of conciliating courtesy, and had seemed desirous of
furthering his plans and hastening on his marriage with Miss Arthur,
she now manifested an almost contemptuous indifference, not only to
himself, but to his _fiance_.
True to her nature, Cora was gathering up what gleams of satisfaction
she could. When she had become assured that it was not Percy who held
possession of her stolen papers, and that the girl in whose hands they
were was more his enemy than hers, she rejoiced in his discomfiture to
come. Seeing that it was no longer necessary to propitiate her enemy,
she indulged in the luxury of acting out her hatred, when she could
without betraying to Davlin this change, which might require an
explanation.
That some sort of understanding existed between Miss Payne and Cora,
Percy instantly surmised, and every day confirmed the belief. That
Miss Payne held the power, he also believed. So believing, he began to
wonder if it were not better to "be off with the old love," and seek
to win the heiress, for the vanity of Mr. Percy inspired him to
believe that it would not be a hopeless task. He had heard, however,
of that person who, "between two stools," fell to the ground, and he
was careful not to reveal to Miss Arthur the laxity of his affections.
And so the days moved on.
Percy dividing his attention between his _fiance_ and Miss Payne;
studying the latter, and closely watching Davlin and Cora.
That last named lady smiling and lounging below stairs, sulking and
smoking above, and always under surveillance.
Davlin, having assured Cora that he was acting from motives politic,
paying open court to Madeline.
That young lady calmly acting her part, thoroughly understanding and
heartily despising them all.
John Arthur alternately raging and sulking, obdurately refusing to
accede to his step-daughter's terms, and vowing to escape and wreak
vengeance upon every one of them.
"Dr. Le Guise," calm as a Summer morning, and taking more real ease
and comfort than all the others combined.
Hagar watchful and anxious.
The two new maids making themselves popular in the kitchen, and
"sleeping with their eyes open."
* * * * *
And still no clue by which Madeline and her efficient _aides de camp_
could unravel the web of doubt that still clung about, and kept a
prisoner, the long-suffering Philip Girard.