frenzy of passion. "Hold your peace!" she said fiercely, and strode down
upon Leander until he beat an instinctive retreat. "Fallen as I am, I
will not brook your mean vauntings or insolent pity! Shorn I may be of
my ancient power, but something of my divinity clings to me still.
Vengeance is not wholly denied to me! Why should I not deal with you
even as with those profane wretches who laid impious hands upon this my
effigy? Why? why?"
Leander began to feel uncomfortable again. "If I've said anything you
object to," he said hastily, "I'll apologise. I will--and so will
Matilda--freely and full; in writing, if that will satisfy you!"
"Tremble not for your worthless bodies," she said; "had you been slain,
as I purposed, you would but have escaped me, after all! Now a vengeance
keener and more enduring shall be mine! In your gross blindness, you
have dared to turn from divine Aphrodite to such a thing as this, and
for your impiety you shall suffer! This is your doom, and so much at
least I can still accomplish: Long as you both may live, strong as your
love may endure, never again shall you see her alone, never more shall
she be folded to your breast! For ever, I will stand a barrier between
you: so shall your days consume away in the torturing desire for a
felicity you may never attain!"
"It seems to me, Tillie," said Leander, looking round at her with hollow
eyes, "that we may as well give up keeping company together, after
that!"
Matilda had been weeping quietly. "Oh no, Leander, not that! Don't let
us give each other up: we may--we may get used to it!"
"That is not all," said the revengeful goddess. "I understand but little
of the ways of this degenerate age. But one thing I know: this very
night, guards are on their way to search this abode for the image in
which I have chosen to reveal myself; and, should they find that they
are in search of, you will be dragged to some dungeon, and suffer
deserved ignominy. It pleased me yesternight to shield you: to-night,
be very sure that this marble form shall not escape their vigilance!"
He felt at once that this, at least, was no idle threat. The police
might arrive at any instant; she had only to vacate the marble at the
moment of their entry--and what could he do? How could he explain its
presence? The gates of Portland or Dartmoor were already yawning to
receive him! Was it too late, even then, to retrieve the situation? "If
it wasn't for Tillie, I could see my way to something, even now," he
thought. "I can but try!"
"Lady Venus," he began, clearing his throat, "it's not my desire to be
the architect of any mutual unpleasantness--anything but! I don't see
any use in denying that you've got the best of it. I'm done--reg'lar
bowled over; and if ever there was a poor devil of a toad under a
harrer, I've no hesitation in admitting that toad's me! So the only
point I should like to submit for your consideration is this: Have
things gone too far? Are you quite sure you won't be spiting yourself as
well as me over this business? Can't we come to an amicable arrangement?
Think it over!"
"Leander, you can't mean it!" cried Matilda.
"You leave me alone," he said hoarsely; "I know what I'm saying!"
Whether the goddess had overstated her indifference, or whether she may
have seen a prospect of some still subtler revenge, she certainly did
not receive this proposition of Leander's with the contumely that might
have been expected; on the contrary, she smiled with a triumphant
satisfaction that betrayed a disposition to treat.
"Have my words been fulfilled, then?" she asked. "Is your insolent pride
humbled at last? and do you sue to me for the very favours you so long
have spurned?"
"You can put it that way if you like," he said doggedly. "If you want
me, you'd better say so while there's time, that's all!"
"Little have you merited such leniency," she said; "and yet, it is to
you I owe my return to life and consciousness. Shall I abandon what I
have taken such pains to win? No! I accept your submission. Speak, then,
the words of surrender, and let us depart together!"
"Before I do that," he said firmly, "there's one point I must have
settled to my satisfaction."
"You can bargain still!" she exclaimed haughtily. "Are all barbers like
you? If your point concerns the safety of this maiden, be at ease; she
shall go unharmed, for she is my rival no longer!"
"Well, it wasn't that exactly," he explained; "but I'm doubtful about
that ring being the genuine article, and I want to make sure."
"But a short time since, and you were willing to trust all to me!"
"I was; but, if I may take the liberty of observing so, things were
different then. You were wrong about that thunderbolt--you may be wrong
about the ring!"
"Fool!" she said, "how know you that the quality of the token concerns
my power? Were it even of unworthy metal, has it not brought me hither?"
"Yes," he said, "but it mightn't be strong enough to pass _me_ the whole
distance, and where should I be then? It don't look more to me than 15
carat, and I daren't run any extra risk."
"How, then, can your doubts be set at rest?" she demanded.
"Easy," he replied: "there are men who understand these things. All I
ask of you is to step over with me, and see one of them, and take his
opinion; and if he says it's gold--why, then I shall know where I am!"
"Aphrodite submit her claims to the judgment of a mortal!" she cried.
"Never will I thus debase myself!"
"Very well," he said, "then we must stay where we are. All I can say is,
I've made you a fair offer."
She paused. "Why not?" she said dreamily, as if thinking aloud. "Have
not I sued ere this for the decision of a shepherd judge--even of Paris?
'Tis but one last indignity, and then--he is mine indeed! Leander," she
added graciously, "it shall be as you will. Lead the way; I follow!"
But Matilda, who had been listening to this compromise with incredulous
horror, clung in desperation to her lover's arm, and sought to impede
his flight. "Leander!" she cried, "oh, Leander! surely you won't be mad
enough to go away with her! You won't be so wicked and sinful as that!
Remember who she is: one of the false gods of the poor benighted
heathens--she owned it herself! She's nothing less than a live idol!
Think of all the times we've been to chapel together; think of your dear
aunt, and how she'll feel your being in such awful company! Let the
police come, and think what they like: we'll tell them the truth, and
make them believe it. Only be brave, and stay here with me; don't let
her ensnare you! Have some pity for me; for, if you leave me, I shall
die!"
"Already the guards are at your gates," said the statue; "choose
quickly--while you may!"
He put Matilda gently from him: "Tillie," he said, with a convulsive
effort to remain calm, "you gave me up of your own free will--you know
that--and now you've come round too late. The other lady spoke first!"
As she still clung to him, he tried to whisper some last words of a
consoling or reassuring nature, and she suddenly relaxed her grasp, and
allowed him to make his escape without further dissuasion--not that his
arguments had reconciled her to his departure, but because she was
mercifully unaware of it.
THE ODD TRICK
XV.
"O heart of stone, are you flesh, and caught
By that you swore to withstand?"
_Maud._
Outside on the stairs Leander suddenly remembered that his purpose
might be as far as ever from being accomplished. The house was being
watched: to be seen leaving it would procure his instant arrest.
Hastily excusing himself to the goddess, he rushed down to his
laboratory, where he knew there was a magnificent beard and moustache
which he had been constructing for some amateur theatricals. With these,
and a soft felt hat, he completed a disguise in which he flattered
himself he was unrecognisable.
The goddess, however, penetrated it as soon as he rejoined her. "Why
have you thus transformed yourself?" she inquired coldly.
"Because," explained Leander, "seeing the police are all on the look-out
for me, I thought it couldn't do any harm."
"It is useless!" she returned.
"To be sure," he agreed blankly, "they'll expect me to go out disguised.
If only they aren't up to the way out by the back! That's our only
chance now."
"Leave all to me," she replied calmly; "with Aphrodite you are safe."
And he never did quite understand how that strange elopement was
effected, or even remember whether they left the house from the front or
rear. The statue glided swiftly on, and, grasping a corner of her robe,
he followed, with only the vaguest sense of obstacles overcome and
passed as in a dream.
By the time he had completely regained his senses he was in a crowded
thoroughfare, which he recognised as the Gray's Inn Road.
A certain scheme from which, desperate as it was, he hoped much, might
be executed as well here as elsewhere, and he looked about him for the
aid on which he counted.
"Where, then, lives the wise man whom you would consult?" said
Aphrodite.
Leander went on until he could see the coloured lights of a chemist's
window, and then he said, "There--right opposite!"
He felt strangely nervous himself, but the goddess seemed even more so.
She hung back all at once, and clutched his arm in her marble grasp.
"Leander," she said, "I will not go! See those liquid fires glowing in
lurid hues, like the eyes of some dread monster! This test of yours is
needless, and I fear it."
"Lady Venus," he said earnestly, "I do assure you they're only big
bottles, and quite harmless too, having water in them, not physic.
You've no call to be alarmed."
She yielded, and they crossed the road. The shop was small and
unpretending. In the window the chief ornaments were speckled plaster
limbs clad in elastic socks, and photographs of hideous complaints
before and after treatment with a celebrated ointment; and there were
certain trophies which indicated that the chemist numbered dentistry
among his accomplishments.
Inside, the odour of drugs prevailed, in the absence of the subtle
perfume that is part of the fittings of a fashionable apothecary, and on
the very threshold the goddess paused irresolute.
"There is magic in the air," she exclaimed, "and fearful poisons. This
man is some enchanter!"
"Now I put it to you," said Leander, with some impatience, "does he
_look_ it?"
The chemist was a mild little man, with a high forehead, round
spectacles, a little red beak of a nose, and a weak grey beard. As they
entered, he was addressing a small and draggled child from behind his
counter. "Go back and tell your mother," he said, "that she must come
herself. I never sell paregoric to children."
There was so little of the wizard in his manner that the goddess, who
possibly had some reason to mistrust a mortal magician, was reassured.
As the child retired, the chemist turned to them with a look of bland
and dignified inquiry (something, perhaps the consciousness of having
once passed an examination, sustains the meekest chemist in an inward
superiority). He did not speak.
Leander took it upon himself to explain. "This lady would be glad to be
told whether a ring she's got on is the real article or only imitation,"
he said, "so she thought you could decide it for her."
"Not so," corrected the goddess, austerely. "For myself I care not!"
"Have it your own way!" said Leander. "_I_ should like to be told, then.
I suppose, mister, you've some way of testing these things?"
"Oh yes," said the chemist; "I can treat it for you with what we call
_aquafortis_, a combination of nitric and hydrochloric acid, which would
tell us at once. I ought to mention, perhaps, that so extremely powerful
an agent may injure the appearance of the metal if it is of inferior
quality. Will the lady oblige me with the ring?"
Aphrodite extended her hand with haughty indifference. The chemist
examined the ring as it circled her finger, and Leander held his breath
in tortures of anxiety. A horrible fear came over him that his deep-laid
scheme was about to end in failure.
But the chemist remarked at last: "Exactly; thank you, madam. The gold
is antique, certainly; but I should be inclined to pronounce it, at
first sight, genuine. I will ascertain how this is, if you will take the
trouble to remove the ring and pass it over!"
"Why?" demanded Aphrodite, obstinately.
"I could not undertake to treat it while it remains upon your hand," he
protested. "The acid might do some injury!"
"It matters not!" she said calmly; and Leander recollected with horror
that, as any injury to her statue would have no physical effect upon the
goddess herself, she could not be much influenced by the chemist's
reason.
"Do what the gentleman tells you," he said, in an eager whisper, as he
drew her aside.
"I know your wiles, O perfidious one," she said. "Having induced me to
remove this token, you would seize it yourself, and take to flight! I
will not remove this ring!"
"There's a thing to say!" said Leander; "there's a suspicion to throw
against a man! If you think I'm likely to do that, I'll go right over
here, where I can't even see it, and I won't stir out till it's all
over. Will that satisfy you? You know why I'm so anxious about that
ring; and now, when the gentleman tells you he's almost sure it's
gold----"
"It _is_ gold!" said the goddess.
"If you're so sure about it," he retaliated, "why are you afraid to have
it proved?"
"I am not afraid," she said; "but I require no proof!"
"I do," he retorted, "and what I told you before I stand to. If that
ring is proved--in the only way it can be proved, I mean, by this
gentleman testing it as he tells you he can--then there's no more to be
said, and I'll go away with you like a lamb. But without that proof I
won't stir a step, and so I tell you. It won't take a moment. You can
see for yourself that I couldn't possibly catch up the ring from here!"
"Swear to me," she said, "that you will remain where you now stand; and
remember," she added, with an accent of triumph, "our compact is that,
should yonder man pronounce that the ring has passed through the test
with honour, you will follow me whithersoever I bid you!"
"You have only to lead the way," he said, "and I promise you faithfully
I'll follow."
Goddesses may be credited with some knowledge of the precious metals,
and Aphrodite had no doubt of the result of the chemist's
investigations. So it was with an air of serene anticipation that she
left Leander upon this, and advanced to the chemist's counter.
"Prove it now," she said, "quickly, that I may go!"
The chemist, who had been waiting in considerable bewilderment, prepared
himself to receive the ring, and Leander, keeping his distance, felt his
heart beating fast as Aphrodite slowly drew the token from her finger,
and placed it in the chemist's outstretched hand.
Scarcely had she done so, as the chemist was retiring with the ring to
one of his lamps, before the goddess seemed suddenly aware that she had
committed a fatal error.
She made a stride forward to follow and recover it; but, as if some
unseen force was restraining her, she stopped short, and a rush of
whirling words, in some tongue unknown both to Leander and the chemist,
forced its way through lips that smiled still, though they were freezing
fast.
Then, with a strange hoarse cry of baffled desire and revenge, she
succeeded, by a violent effort, in turning, and bore down with
tremendous force upon the cowering hairdresser, who gave himself up at
once for lost.
But the marble was already incapable of obeying her will. Within a few
paces from him the statue stopped for the last time, with an abruptness
that left it quivering and rocking. A greyish hue came over the face,
causing the borrowed tints to stand forth, crude and glaring; the arms
waved wildly and impotently once or twice, and then grew still for ever,
in the attitude conceived long since by the Grecian sculptor!
Leander was free! His hazardous experiment had succeeded. As it was the
ring which had brought the passionate, imperious goddess into her marble
counterfeit, so--the ring once withdrawn--her power was instantly at an
end, and the spell which had enabled her to assume a form of stone was
broken.
He had hoped for this, had counted upon it, but even yet hardly dared to
believe in his deliverance.
He had not done with it yet, however; for he would have to get the
statue out of that shop, and abandon it in some manner which would not
compromise himself, and it is by no means an easy matter to mislay a
life-size and invaluable antique without attracting an inconvenient
amount of attention.
The chemist, who had been staring meanwhile in blank astonishment, now
looked inquiringly at Leander, who looked helplessly at him.
At last the latter, unable to be silent any longer, said, "The lady
seems unwell, sir."
"Why," Leander admitted, "she does appear a little out of sorts."
"Has she had these attacks before, do you happen to know?"
"She's more often like this than not," said Leander.
"Dear me, sir; but that's very serious. Is there nothing that gives
relief?--a little sal volatile, now? Does the lady carry smelling salts?
If not, I could----" And the chemist made an offer to come from behind
his counter to examine the strange patient.
"No," said Leander, hastily. "Don't you trouble--you leave her to me. I
know how to manage her. When she's rigid like this, she can't bear to be
taken notice of."
He was wondering all the time how he was to get away with her, until the
chemist, who seemed at least as anxious for her departure, suggested the
answer: "I should imagine the poor lady would be best at home. Shall I
send out for a cab?" he asked.
"Yes," said Leander, gratefully; "bring a hansom. She'll come round
better in the open air;" for he had his doubts whether the statue could
be stowed inside a four-wheeler.
"I'll go myself," said the obliging man; "my assistant's out. Perhaps
the lady will sit down till the cab comes?"
"Thanks," said Leander; "but when she's like this, she's been
recommended to stand."
The chemist ran out bare-headed, to return presently with a cab and a
small train of interested observers. He offered the statue his arm to
the cab-door, an attention which was naturally ignored.
"We shall have to carry her there," said Leander.
"Why, bless me, sir," said the chemist, as he helped to lift her,
"she--she's surprisingly heavy!"
"Yes," gasped Leander, over her unconscious shoulder; "when she goes off
in one of these sleeps, she does sleep very heavy"--an explanation
which, if obscure, was accepted by the other as part of the general
strangeness of the case.
On the threshold the chemist stopped again. "I'd almost forgotten the
ring," he said.
"_I'll_ take that!" said Leander.
"Excuse me," was the objection, "but I was to give it back to the lady
herself. Had I not better put it on her finger, don't you think?"
"Are you a married man?" asked Leander, grimly.
"Yes," said the chemist.
"Then, if you'll take my advice, I wouldn't if I was you--if you're at
all anxious to keep out of trouble. You'd better give the ring to me,
and I give you my word of honour as a gentleman that I'll give it back
to her as soon as ever she's well enough to ask for it."
The other adopted the advice, and, amidst the sympathy of the
bystanders, they got the statue into the cab.
"Where to?" asked the man through the trap.
"Charing Cross," said Leander, at random; he ought the drive would give
him time for reflection.
"The 'orspital, eh?" said the cabman, and drove off, leaving the mild
chemist to stare open-mouthed on the pavement for a moment, and go back
to his shop with a growing sense that he had had a very unusual
experience.
Now that Leander was alone in the cab with the statue, whose attitude
required space, and cramped him uncomfortably, he wondered more and more
what he was to do with it. He could not afford to drive about London for
ever with her; he dared not take her home; and he was afraid of being
seen with her!
All at once he seemed to see a way out of his difficulty. His first step
was to do what he could, in the constantly varying light, to reduce the
statue to its normal state. He removed the curls which had disfigured
her classical brow, and, with his pocket-handkerchief, rubbed most of
the colour from her face; then the cloak had only to be torn off, and
all that could betray him was gone.
Near Charing Cross, Leander told the driver to take him down Parliament
Street, and stop at the entrance to Scotland Yard; there the cabman, at
Leander's request, descended, and stared to find him huddled up under
the gleaming pale arms of a statue.
"Guv'nor," he remarked, "that warn't the fare I took up, I'll take my
dying oath!"
"It's all right," said Leander. "Now, I tell you what I want you to do:
go straight in through the archway, find a policeman, and say there's a
gentleman in your cab that's found a valuable article that's been
missing, and wants assistance in bringing it in. I'll take care of the
cab, and here's double fare for your trouble."
"And wuth it, too," was the cabman's comment, as he departed on his
mission. "I thought it was the devil I was a drivin', we was that down
on the orfside!"
It was no part of Leander's programme to wait for his return; he threw
the cloak over his arm, pocketed his beard, and slipped out of the cab
and across the road to a spot whence he could watch unseen. And when he
had seen the cabman come with two constables, he felt assured that his
burden was in safe hands at last, and returned to Southampton Row as
quickly as the next hansom he hailed could take him.
He entered his house by the back entrance: it was unguarded; and
although he listened long at the foot of the stairs, he heard nothing.
Had the Inspector not come yet, or was there a trap? As he went on, he
fancied there were sounds in his sitting-room, and went up to the door
and listened nervously before entering in.
"Oh, Miss Collum, my poor dear!" a tremulous voice, which he recognised
as his aunt's, was saying, "for Mercy's sake, don't lie there like that!
She's dying!--and it's my fault for letting her come here!--and what am
I to say to her ma?"
Leander had heard enough; he burst in, with a white, horror-stricken
face. Yes, it was too true! Matilda was lying back in his crazy
armchair, her eyes fast closed, her lips parted.
"Aunt," he said with difficulty, "she's not--not _dead_?"
"If she is not," returned his aunt, "it's no thanks to you, Leandy
Tweddle! Go away; you can do no good to her now!"
"Not till I've heard her speak," cried Tweddle. "Tillie, don't you
hear?--it's me!"
To his immense relief, she opened her eyes at the sound of his voice,
and turned away with a feeble gesture of fear and avoidance. "You have
come back!" she moaned, "and with her! Oh, keep her away!... I can't
bear it all over again!... I can't!"
He threw himself down by her chair, and drew down the hands in which she
had hidden her face. "Matilda, my poor, hardly-used darling!" he said,
"I've come back _alone_! I've got rid of her, Tillie! I'm free; and
there's no one to stand between us any more!"
[Illustration: HE THREW HIMSELF DOWN BY HER CHAIR, AND DREW DOWN THE
HANDS IN WHICH SHE HAD HIDDEN HER FACE.]
She pushed back her disordered fair hair, and looked at him with sweet,
troubled eyes. "But you went away with her--for ever?" she said. "You
said you didn't love me any longer. I heard you ... it was just
before----" and she shuddered at the recollection.
"I know," said Leander, soothingly. "I was obligated to speak harsh, to
deceive the--the other party, Tillie. I tried to tell you, quiet-like,
that you wasn't to mind; but you wouldn't take no notice. But there, we
won't talk about it any more, so long as you forgive me; and you do,
don't you?"
She hid her face against his shoulder, in answer, from which he drew a
favourable conclusion; but Miss Tweddle was not so easily pacified.
"And is this all the explanation you're going to give," she demanded,
"for treating this poor child the way you've done, and neglecting her
shameful like this? If she's satisfied, Leandy, I'm not."
"I can't help it, aunt," he said. "I've been true to Tillie all the way
through, in spite of all appearances to the contrary--as she knows now.
And the more I explained, the less you'd understand about it; so we'll
leave things where they are. But I've got back the ring, and now you
shall see me put it on her finger."
* * * * *