"Traitor? What do you mean?" stammered Julius Revington.
"You know well enough what I mean," flashed Mrs. Stuart angrily. "You
are going to marry that girl, and of course her welfare will be yours.
It will be to your interest to betray me. Do you intend to reveal the
secret and drive me and Lilia out into the world nameless and
disgraced---- through no fault of mine, remember, but through the sin of
that old dotard who should have carried his miserable secret to the
grave with him?"
A pause. It seemed to Guy Kenmore that they must hear his heart beating
so near them in the stillness. He was thoroughly aroused now, but he
could not believe that it was wrong to listen. On the contrary he
blessed the fancy that had led him out into the cool night air.
Julius Revington made no reply to Mrs. Stuart's half-piteous appeal.
"Cannot you speak?" she cried out, sharply. "Are you too cowardly to own
your vile intentions?"
"You use strong terms, Mrs. Stuart," he said, sullenly. "Is it a vile
act to carry out the sacred commands of a dying man? To restore to
Clarence Stuart the last love of his youth? To give honor and happiness
to a wronged woman? To restore her unhappy child to her father's name
and love?"
"Then you do intend to do so! Wretch!" cried the lady, bitterly; then
she broke down, sobbing in an abandonment of despair: "Oh, Lilia, Lilia,
my poor, fragile darling! This will kill you!"
Julius Revington sat sullenly silent, ashamed of being found out in his
designs, yet by no means ready to forego them.
"And you promised to keep the secret for me. You took my bribes, and
swore you would never tell the truth to Clarence! You are a perjured
villain!" upbraided the lady, violently.
"And you are a----". He bent and whispered the last word in her ear in a
tone of threatening. "Beware how you call names, my lady! I am not to be
abused and bullied, remember that!"
A wail of pain broke from her lips.
"It was for Lilia's sake," she moaned. "My proud, beautiful child, how
could she bear shame and disgrace? Oh, Julius Revington, I would go down
on my knees to you, I would bless you forever, I would deem you the
noblest man on earth, if you would spare me and my Lilia this shame and
ignominy!"
"Irene has lived under the shadow of shame and ignominy all her life. It
is her turn now," he retorted, sullenly.
"Does she suspect the truth?" she asked, anxiously.
"No," he replied, ashamed of the bribe he had held out as the means of
winning his lovely betrothed.
"She need not ever know. Oh, Julius, why cannot you marry her, and take
her away, far away, and leave us in peace?" she cried, miserably.
"You forget that she is the legal heir to her father's fortune," he
retorted, with coarse significance.
"Ah! that is the object," she cried. "You are poor, and you cannot
forego your grip on the Stuart fortune. Oh, Julius, I bought your
silence once; let me do so again."
"It would be at a costly price," he said, in a hard, snappish voice.
"At any price!" she cried, desperately. "Listen, Julius. My own private
fortune is as large as Mr. Stuart's. I have complete control of it. I
will portion you off handsomely, if you will keep the secret and take
Irene away from here--far away--where she can never trouble my peace
again. Oh, for pity's sake, Julius, grant my prayer!" She threw herself
desperately on the ground and clasped his knees despairingly. "It can
matter little to you. You will have the woman you love; and I swear that
you shall receive from me as much money as Mr. Stuart would leave her.
Will you do this, Julius, for Lilia's sake? If you refuse, it will be
the death-warrant of my child!"
"Since you put it like that, I suppose I must yield the point. I do not
want to kill the child," he muttered. "But it is hard on Irene, and if a
large slice of your fortune isn't handed out, you needn't count on my
silence!"
"As much as you wish," she cried, eagerly; "and, oh, Julius, you will
marry her as quick as possible--to-morrow--next week--the earliest
moment she will consent! And let your wedding tour be to the other end
of the world!" she added, feverishly.
"I do not care how far it be so that I have beautiful Irene for my
companion, and a large bank account to draw on," Julius Revington
answered, with a coarse laugh.
"And this contemptible creature is the man Irene loves, the man she
would wed," Guy Kenmore said to himself in bitter disgust.