She went away at last, having utterly failed in all her efforts to
cajole Flower into a solemn promise to marry Lord Clive.
"I could not deceive him so, and I am too proud to confess my bitter
secret to him; so, in a short while I shall break my engagement," the
girl said, with sorrowful firmness.
Jewel repressed all expression of her hate for her half-sister as
much as possible. She wanted to be on good terms with her in order to
further her own nefarious designs.
But it was very hard to keep her temper when the poor girl, meekly
dismissing her own grievances, asked, eagerly:
"Jewel, do you ever go to see mam--I mean your mother?"
"No, never! I stood her ravings at home until I became almost as mad as
she was, and I have no fancy for a second experience! The doctor keeps
me posted as to her condition."
"But, Jewel, will you not go and see her once? I do not believe she
is mad now, for even so long ago as that day in the grave-yard she
seemed to me almost sane. And, with kind treatment, she ought to have
been cured by this time. Poor soul! I feel so sorry for her. I can not
forget that she gave me a mother's love for seventeen years."
"The doctor never told me of her escape that time," Jewel said, angrily.
"He looked like a bad man," Flower said. "Perhaps she is in her right
mind now, and you ought to take her away into a pleasant home and make
her life endurable."
An angry frown drew Jewel's brows together.
"Oh, stop your preaching!" she exclaimed, impatiently. "Mamma is
incurably insane, and will never come out of that asylum alive!" and
with that she took her leave, smiling wickedly as she went along the
broad corridors of the large hotel.
Flower began to pace quickly up and down the room, but was arrested by
Marie, who caught her arm and held her back.
"Look there upon the floor, Miss Brooke," she said. "Ah, she was vair
cunning. She thought we did not see her place the little box under the
chair, when she stooped to arrange her skirts! Ugh, it is no doubt a
dynamite bomb!"
"Ah, no, no, Marie, she could not do _that_, and she my half-sister!"
shuddered Flower.
"And your rival," added the French maid, knowingly. "See, mademoiselle,
you will come into the anteroom. I will open the back window which
looks down on a brick-paved yard. There is no one near. Wait, I will
bring the little box very careful, afraid of my life. I toss it from
the window. See!"
The box, only half as long as her hand, a simple, innocent-looking
thing, was hurled quickly from the window. There was the swift sound of
a crash on the pavement, followed by a loud explosion. Marie shut down
the window with a bang, and caught the trembling figure in her arms.
"You understand, ma'amselle, that your rival is fully determined to
sweep you from her path," she said, warningly. "If you had struck your
little foot sharply against that box in walking, or drawn forward the
chair over it, there must have been an explosion that would have ended
both your life and mine!"
Flower shuddered and hid her pallid face in her hands, wondering at the
wickedness of her half-sister.
"But I was watching very close," Maria continued, complacently. "This
is twice I've foiled that wicked woman. You must look to yourself, my
gentle-hearted lady, for terrible danger lurks near you. She fears and
hates you, and she will keep on trying to kill you. If you take my
advice you will deliver her up to the authorities."
"Oh, how can I do that? She is my sister! Besides, _he_ loves her,
Marie!" Flower sighed.
"And shows vair bad taste, in my opinion, ma'amselle," the maid
replied, candidly, and added, "and you show vair poor judgment in
letting her go free."