Julius Revington went away from the presence of the girl he adored, cast
down but not destroyed.
He had set his mind doggedly on winning her and he was by no means
despondent of winning her yet.
His grosser, weaker nature could not comprehend the higher, loftier
nature of Irene. Her gentle intimation of how he fell short of her ideal
had not greatly impressed him except to fill him with a certain amount
of sullen jealousy toward some unknown person or other whom it was
evident existed in her mind, and possibly in flesh and blood upon the
earth.
"Perhaps she has already given her heart away," he thought to himself.
"But, no, she is too young. That cannot be."
As he walked slowly along the path toward the villa something bright and
shining on the ground attracted his attention. He stooped and picked it
up.
A cry of eager surprise broke from his lips.
It was the pretty, blue-enamelled locket that Irene usually wore around
her white throat.
It had become detached from the slender gold chain and fallen on the
ground without her knowledge.
Julius Revington had endured many pangs of baffled curiosity over this
locket, of whose contents he had heard much from the ladies but which he
had never had the good fortune to behold.
Pausing now in the quiet, secluded path, he deliberately touched the
spring of the pretty bauble.
The lid flew open, and there before him under the soft light of the
Italian sky that sifted down through the glistening leaves of the orange
trees, were revealed the handsome faces of old Ronald Brooke and his
daughter.
A hoarse cry broke from Julius Revington's lips, his face whitened, a
cold dew started out upon his brow.
"My God," he said, and sank down upon a bed of flowers as if totally
overcome.
With starting eyes he looked at the kind, genial, manly face of the old
man, and then at the fair, almost angelic face of Elaine. An
uncontrollable shudder shook his form.
"Father and daughter!" he said, under his breath.
Sitting there in the balmy air with the soft murmur of the waves in his
ears, he relapsed into thought. Minutes went silently by, bringing a
subtle change into the man's face. His cheeks glowed, his downcast eyes
sparkled.
"A master rather than a slave," he muttered at last with an evil triumph
in his tone; "so be it."
Slowly rising, he retraced his steps to Irene.
He met her coming along the path toward him, her fair face anxious and
troubled.
"Oh, Mr. Revington," she cried, "I have lost the locket off my chain!
Have you seen it anywhere?"
He held it up to the light, and her sweet face glowed with joy.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, Mr. Revington," she cried, "I am so glad! I
feared I had lost it forever!"
"I am very glad to have the good fortune to restore it to you," he said;
"it lay directly in my path as I was returning to the villa."
"I am so glad," she repeated, kissing it as if it had been some sentient
thing. "You see, Mr. Revington, it was a gift to me from one who is now
dead--one whom I loved--dearly," she concluded, with a falter in her
voice and a mist of tears in her eyes.
"Miss Berlin, will you pardon me if I ask you what may seem an
impertinent question?" he asked.
She brushed the soft dew from her eyes with her lace handkerchief, and
looked up at him with her soft, wondering glance.
"Well?" she said.
He did not look at her in return; his shifting eyes fell to the ground,
as was their wonted habit.
"When I found the locket lying on the ground the lid was open. I saw the
two faces it held," he said, in a strange, hesitating voice.
"Well?" she repeated, gravely, while a flush rose over her fair face.
"They--were not strange to me," he replied; "I was startled when I saw
whose were the faces you wore always over your heart. Miss Berlin, will
you tell me what that man and woman are to you?"
He saw her start and shiver--saw the warm crimson flash into her face,
then recede again, leaving it deathly pale and cold. She clasped her
hands over the locket, pressing it tightly to her beating heart, while
she answered hoarsely and with downcast eyes:
"I cannot tell you, Mr. Revington; it is a secret, and that secret
belongs to another. I have no right to reveal it."