THE PLOT AGAINST CLAUDIA.
Alas! a thought of saddest weight
Presses and will have vent:
Had she not scorned his love, her fate
Had been so different!
Had her heart bent its haughty will
To take him for its lord,
She had been proudly happy still;
Still honored, still adored.
--_Monckton Milnes_
Indignation rooted Claudia to the spot.
Instinct had already warned her that she was insulted and degraded
by the presence of this strange woman in the house.
Reason now confirmed instinct.
And Claudia was entirely too self-willed and high-spirited to submit
to either insult or degradation.
She instantly resolved to demand of Lord Vincent the immediate
dismissal of this woman, and to keep her own rooms until her demand
was complied with.
This, in fact, was the only truly dignified course of conduct that,
under the circumstances, Claudia could have pursued.
With this resolution she withdrew from the drawing rooms, and went
upstairs to seek her own apartment.
Here the very accident happened that we mentioned as being so likely
to happen to any newcomer to the castle.
As she reached the great hall on the second floor she looked around
upon the many doors that opened from its four walls into the many
suites of apartments that radiated from it, as from a common center,
to the outer walls of the castle keep.
But which was her own door she was puzzled for a moment to decide.
The chandelier that hung from the ceiling gave but a subdued light
that helped her but little.
At last she thought she had found her own door; she judged it to be
her own because it was partly open and she saw, through the vista of
the three rooms, the little coal fire that burned dimly in the last
one.
So she silently crossed the hall, walking on the soft deep drugget,
into which her footsteps sank noiselessly, as she entered what she
supposed to be her own boudoir.
The room was dark, except from the gleam of light that stole in from
the chandelier in the hall, and the dull glow of the coal fire that
might be dimly seen in the distant dressing room, at the end of the
suite.
Claudia, however, had no sooner entered the room and looked around
than she discovered that it was not hers. This suite of apartments
was arranged upon the same plan as her own--first the boudoir, then
the bed chamber, and last the dressing room with the little coal
fire; but--the hangings were different; for, where hers had been
golden brown, these were rosy red.
And she was about to retire and close the door softly when the sound
of voices in the adjoining room arrested her steps.
The first that spoke was the voice of Faustina, in tones of
passionate grief and remonstrance. She was saying:
"But to bring her here! here, of all the places in the world! here,
under my own very eyes! Ah!"
"My angel, I had a design in bringing her here, a design in which
your future honor and happiness is involved," said the voice of Lord
Vincent, in such tones of persuasive tenderness as he had never used
in speaking to his betrayed and miserable wife.
"My honor and happiness! Ah!" cried the woman with a half-suppressed
shriek.
"Faustina, my beloved, listen to me!" entreated the viscount.
"Do not love her! Do not, Malcolm! If you do I warn you that I shall
kill her!" wildly exclaimed the woman, interrupting him.
"My angel, I love only you. How can you doubt it?"
"How can I doubt it? Because you have deceived me. Not once, nor
twice, nor thrice; but always and in everything, from first to
last!"
"Deceived you, Faustina! How can you say so? In what have I ever
deceived you? Not in vowing that I love you; for I do! You must know
it. How, then, have I deceived you?"
"You promised to make me your viscountess."
"And I will do so. I swear it to you, Faustina."
"Ah, you have sworn so many oaths to me."
"I will keep them all--trust me! I would die for you; would go to
perdition for you, Faustina!"
"You will keep all your oaths to me, you say?"
"All of them, Faustina!"
"One of them is, that you will make me your viscountess!"
"Yes, and I will do it, my angel. Who but yourself should share my
rank with me? I will make you my viscountess, Faustina."
"How can you do that, even if you wished to do so? She is your
viscountess."
"Yes, for a little while; and for a little while only. Until she has
served the purpose for which I married her--and no longer," said the
viscount.
"Ah! what do you mean?" There was breathless eagerness and ruthless
cruelty in the tone and manner in which the woman put this question.
The viscount did not immediately reply.
And Claudia, her blood curdling with horror at what seemed plainly a
design against her life, left her position near the door of the
boudoir and concealed herself behind the crimson satin hangings;
feeling fully justified in becoming an eavesdropper upon
conversation that concerned her safety.
"What do you mean?" again whispered the woman, with restrained
vehemence.
"'Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 'till you approve the
deed,'" quoted Lord Vincent.
"But trust me; I am ready to aid you in the deed, and to share with
you the danger it must bring, for I love you, Malcolm, I love you!
Confide in me! Tell me what you mean," she whispered in low, deep,
vehement tones.
"I mean--not what you imagine, Faustina. Turn your face away. Those
eyes of yours make my blood run cold. No! We English are not quite
so ready with bowl and dagger as you Italians seem to be. We like to
keep within bounds."
"I do not understand you, then."
"No, you do not. And you will not understand me any better when I
say to you, that I shall get rid of my Indian Princess, not by
breaking the law, but by appealing to the law."
"No; it is true; I do not understand you. You seem to be playing
with me."
"Listen, then, you bewitching sprite. You reproached me just now
with bringing her here, here under your very eyes, you said.
Faustina, I brought her here, to this remote hold, that she might be
the more completely in my power. That I might, at leisure and in
safety, mature my plans for getting entirely rid of her."
"But, Malcolm, why did you marry her at all? Ah, I fear, I fear, it
was after all a real passion, though a transient one, that moved
you!"
"No; I swear to you it was not! I have never loved woman but you!"
"But why then did you marry her at all?"
"My angel, I told you why. You should have believed me! My marriage
was a financial necessity. The earl, my father, chose to take
umbrage at what he called my disreputable--"
"Bah!" exclaimed the woman, in contempt.
"Well, let the phrase pass. The Earl of Hurstmonceux chose to take
offense at my friendship with your lovely self. And he--did not
threaten to stop my allowance unless I would break with you; but he
actually and promptly did stop it until I should do so."
"Beast!"
"Certainly; but then what was to be done? I had no income; nothing
to support myself; much less you, with your elegant tastes."
"I could have gone on the boards again! I did not love you for your
money; you know it, Malcolm."
"I do know it, my angel; and in that respect, as in all others, you
were immeasurably above your fancied rival, who certainly loved me
only for my rank."
"But why then did you not rather let me return to the boards?"
"Where your beauty brought you so many admirers and me so many
rivals?"
"But I preferred you to them all."
"I know it, Faustina."
"Why then not let me go?"
"I could not bear the thought of it, my precious treasure. I
preferred to sacrifice myself. The opportunity occurred in this way.
You know that I left England as the bearer of dispatches to our
minister in the United States."
"Yes."
"The very day after I reached Washington I met at the evening
reception at the President's house this Indian Princess, as she was
called. I was no sooner presented to her than she began to exercise
all her arts of fascination upon me. But my heart was steeled by its
love for you against the charms of all others."
"Ah! don't stop to pay compliments; go on."
"Well, but I was good-natured, and I flattered her vanity by
flirting with her a little."
"A little!" repeated the woman, curling her beautiful lip.
"Yes, only a little; for I had no idea of seriously addressing her
until I discovered that she possessed in her own right one of the
largest fortunes in the--world, I was going to say--and I should not
have been far wrong, for she had in fact inherited three immense
fortunes. This was the way of it. Her mother was the only child of a
millionaire, and of course inherited the whole of her father's
estate. She had also two bachelor uncles who had made immense
fortunes in trade, and who left the whole to their niece, in her own
right. She, dying young, bequeathed the whole unconditionally to her
daughter."
"Ciel! what good luck! How much is it all put together?"
"About three millions of pounds sterling."
"Ma foi! In what does it consist?"
"It did consist in bank stock, railway shares, lead mines, city
houses, iron foundries, tobacco plantations, country seats,
gorillas, etc. It now consists in money."
"But what good, if you get rid of her, will it do you? Is it not
settled on the lady?"
"No! I took very good care of that. When I saw that she was doing
all she could to entrap--not me, for for me she did not care, but--a
title, I humored her by falling into the snare. I addressed her. We
were engaged. Then her governor talked of settlements. I took a high
tone, and expressed astonishment and disgust that any lady who was
afraid to trust me with her money should be so willing to confide to
me the custody of her person. And the negotiations might have come
to an end then and there, had not the lady herself intervened and
scornfully waived the question of settlements. She had always ruled
her father and everyone else around her in every particular, and she
ruled in this matter also. The fact is, that she was determined to
be a viscountess at any price, and she is one--for a little while!"
"What a fool!"
"Yes, she was a poor gambler; for it was a game between us. She was
playing for a title, I for a fortune; well, she won the title and I
won the fortune. Or rather you may call it purchase and sale. She
bought a title and paid a fortune for it. For the moment the
marriage ring encircled her finger she became the Viscountess
Vincent and I became the possessor of her three millions of pounds
sterling."
"Ah, that marriage ring! There is another broken oath! You swore to
me, once, that no living woman should ever wear a marriage ring of
your putting on, except myself!" complained Faustina.
"And I have kept that oath, my angel. If ever you see Lady Vincent
without her gloves, look on the third finger of her left hand and
see if there is any wedding ring to be found there."
"But you yourself, just now, spoke of the ring on her finger, saying
that as soon as it was placed there, you became the possessor of her
three millions of pounds sterling."
"I will explain. Listen! I remembered my vow to you. I got the ring
purposely too large for her finger; consequently, soon after it was
placed on, it dropped off and rolled away. When the ceremony was
over the gentlemen searched for it. I found it and concealed it. She
never saw it again. Here it is. I give it to you."
Claudia from her hiding place stooped forward until she got a
glimpse of the two traitors.
She saw the viscount open his pocketbook and take from an inner
compartment her own wedding ring, and place it upon the finger of
his companion, saying:
"There, my angel, wear it; it will fit your fat finger, though it
was too large for her slender one."
"What will she say when she sees it?" inquired the woman,
contemplating the golden circle with a triumphant smile.
"She will not recognize it. All wedding rings are alike. This one
has no mark to distinguish it from all other wedding rings."
"And so I have got it!" said the woman, clapping her hands
gleefully.
"Yes, my sweet, and you shall have everything else; the three
millions of pounds sterling and the title of viscountess included."
"Ah! but how got you all the fortune in money so easily?"
"I sold everything, bank stock, railway shares, city houses, tobacco
plantations, lead mines, foundries, gorillas, and all! And I have
transferred the whole in simple cash to this country."
"And it is three millions?"
"Three millions."
"Ciel! Now, then, I can have my villa at Torquay, and my yacht, and
my--"
"You can have everything you want now, and the rank and position of
viscountess as soon as I can get rid of her."
"Ah, yes! but when will that be?"
"Very, very soon, I hope. Just as soon as I can mature my plans."
"But what are they?"
"Scarcely to be breathed even here. The very walls have ears, you
know."
"Tell me; what does the earl think of this marriage of yours?"
"So, so; he wrote me a cool letter, saying that he would have
preferred that I should have married an Englishwoman of my own rank;
but that since the lady was of respectable family and large fortune,
he should welcome her as a daughter. And finally, that any sort of a
decent marriage was better than--but let that pass!"
"Yes, let it pass. Beast!"
"Never mind, my angel. Your turn will come."
"Ah, surely, yes! But is he not expecting to welcome his wealthy
daughter-in-law?"
"Not yet. No, we have come over a full month before we were looked
for. The earl is traveling on the Continent. His daughter-in-law
will be disposed of before he returns to England."
"Ha, ha, good! But is not miladie amusing herself with the
anticipation of being introduced to her noble father-in-law?"
"Ha, ha, ha! yes! You would have been diverted, 'Tina, if you could
have heard her talk of her plans when coming over. Ah! but that was
good. I laughed in my sleeve."
"Tell me! and I will laugh now."
"Well, she expected to land on the shores of England like any royal
bride; to find the Earl of Hurstmonceux waiting to welcome her; to
be introduced to my family; to be presented to her majesty; to be
feted by the nobility; lionized by the gentry; and idolized by our
own tenantry. In short, she dreamed of a grand royal progress
through England, of which every stage was to be a glorious triumph!
Ha, ha, ha!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" echoed Faustina.
"But instead of entering England like a royal bride, she was
smuggled into England like a transported felon, who had returned
before her time of penal service in the colonies had expired.
Instead of a triumphal entry and progress along the highways, she
was dragged ignominiously through the byways! Instead of halting at
the palatial Adelphia, we halted at the obscure Crown and Miter."
"Ha, ha, ha! Good! that was very good! But why did you do this? Not
that I care for her. I care not. But my curiosity. And it must have
inconvenienced you, this squalor."
"Well, it did. But I was resolved she should meet no countrymen;
form no acquaintances; contract no friendships; in fine, have no
party here in England. The Adelphia was full of American travelers;
the Queen's was full of my friends. In either she would have got
into some social circles that might have proved detrimental to my
purposes. As it was managed by me, no one except the passengers that
came over with us, and dispersed from Liverpool all over the
Continent, knew anything about her arrival. At the Crown and Miter
she was half a mile in distance and half a thousand miles in degree
from anyone connected with our circle. No one, therefore, knows her
whereabouts; no inquiries will be made for her; we may do with her
as we like."
"Oh, ciel! and we will quickly make way with her."
"Quickly."
"But how?"
"Another time I will tell you, 'Tina. Now I must be gone. I must not
linger here. It becomes us to be very wary."
"Go, then. But ah! you go to her. Misery! Do not love her! If you
do--remember I will kill her! I have sworn it. You say that you will
make way with her by the help of the law. Do it soon; or be sure I
will make way with her in spite of the law."
"Hush! be tranquil. Trust in me. You shall know all in a few days.
Good-night!"
"Ah! you are leaving me. You, that I have not seen for so many
months until now--and now have seen but a few minutes alone. And you
go to her--her, with whom you have been in company all the time you
have been away from me! Ah, I hate her! I will kill her!" exclaimed
the woman, in low, vehement tones.
"Faustina, be quiet, or all is lost! You must be my sister-in-law
only until you can be my wife. To accomplish this purpose of ours,
you must be very, very discreet, as I shall be. Be on your guard
always. Treat Lady Vincent with outward respect, as I must do, in
the presence of the servants. They must be our future witnesses.
Surely you will be enabled to do what I require of you in this
respect, when I assure you that I hate my viscountess as deeply as
you hate your rival."
"Ha! you?"
"Yes; for in her heart she despises me and adores another. She is
unfaithful to me in thought. And it shall go hard, but I will make
it appear that she is unfaithful in deed, too, and so send her,
dishonored and impoverished, from the castle," said the viscount
vindictively.
"Ciel! Is that your plan? I understand now. I trust you, my
Malcolm."
"Good-night, then; and don't be jealous."
"Never! I trust you. I shall triumph."