Every one rose simultaneously, and Mrs. Meredith exclaimed, in a
shocked tone:
"Jewel!"
Mrs. Meredith knew nothing of Azalia Brooke's sad history. She believed
that Jewel's fierce jealousy had driven her mad, hence her startled cry.
But the vindictive girl took no notice of the lady. She turned to Lord
Clive, and said, with a smile of cruel exultation:
"Perhaps I might not have spoken, only for the sake of saving you from
a union with one so wicked and sin-stained. I recognized my sister that
night when I fainted; but I did not intend to betray her, and would not
have done so now only that she might not deceive an honest man into
making her his wife."
Azalia Brooke, drooping in her chair like a broken lily, realized
then that she had made a fatal mistake in admitting her identity and
trusting faithless Jewel with her story.
Her half-sister's cruel aim flashed over her mind like lightning.
She hoped that her hapless victim's lover and relatives would turn
against her when they heard that disgraceful story, and that they would
cast her forth in disgrace, so that she would be thrown friendless and
helpless on the world.
This, indeed, was Jewel's cruel intention, and she said to herself
that if her plan succeeded poor Flower should never live to see Laurie
Meredith again.
Everyone looked at Flower, hoping that she would deny Jewel's dreadful
charge.
Alas! that beautiful bowed head told its own story of bitter shame and
sorrow. There was nothing for her to say. The bitter secret, kept so
long, was dragged to the light of day at last.
"Azalia!" Lady Ivon exclaimed, imploringly.
But the golden head only sunk lower in its terrible despair.
Lord Clive looked from the dark, vindictive face of Jewel Fielding to
that downcast, despairing one of her persecuted half-sister. All his
manhood rose to the surface, the nobility inherited from a long line of
stainless ancestry shone in his clear blue eyes. Looking into Jewel's
face, with scorn in his eyes, he said, distinctly:
"Your solicitude for me was a wasted effort, Miss Fielding, as Miss
Brooke had already taken back her promise to me. I understand her
reasons now, but it only increases my respect for her, as I am sure she
was deceived, else such an angel had not fallen."
At those kindly words Flower's pale face was raised, and she said, in a
faltering voice:
"Lord Clive, I thank you for those kind words in my defense. You
only do me justice in your belief, for I was deceived by a mock
marriage--deceived by one who might have remained true to me only that
she--my sister there--lured him from me."
An exultant laugh came from those beautiful red lips of Jewel.
"I warned you that I would punish you for trying to take him from me,"
she said, in a hissing voice, like a serpent's. "He belonged to me
first, and you came between us. He turned to you for a little while,
but it was a mere fancy, as I told you, and I had my revenge when he
deserted you to your fate."
Every one remained silent, too shocked to speak, and the vindictive
Jewel stood in the center of the room, mistress of the situation,
evilly beautiful in her glowing crimson robe, and with that fire of
hate on her dusky face.
Mrs. Meredith, with an impulse of strong womanly pity, let her gloved
hand fall softly on Flower's, and rest there, clasping it with tender
pity. Her two handsome daughters stood gazing with infinite pity on the
lovely girl thus crushed beneath the weight of a sister's vengeance.
Lord Clive looked at old Lord Ivon who had sunk back into his chair
ghastly pale, and muttering incoherently to himself, dazed by the shock
he had received in learning of the brand of deep disgrace that lay on
his great-granddaughter. The hearers shuddered, for the sound of curses
on those aged lips was something unseemly and unfitting.
Lord Clive saw that the old man, bowed so low beneath age and sorrow,
was in no fit state to defend the outraged honor of the house of Ivon.
His decision was at once taken, and crossing the room with a princely
mien, he took Azalia Brooke's hand in his, and said, bravely:
"Azalia, I lay down the rôle of lover to take up that of a brother. The
honor of one of England's proudest names has been outraged by a dastard
too mean to live, and his life shall pay the forfeit."
"Lord Clive!" she exclaimed, in a startled voice.
"Yes, I take up your quarrel," he said, sternly, and with a deep glow
on his handsome cheek. "I, your brother, will avenge the wrong that has
been done you! I will not let an hour pass ere I seek him, the cowardly
betrayer of innocence! Quick, tell me his name, his home!"
As he held her little hand he felt a quick shudder run through her
frame, and she gasped in horror:
"Oh, my God! you would murder him!"
"Yes, like a dog!" the young earl exclaimed, bitterly. "What, shall
the earth be cumbered longer with such a wretch? His name, my unhappy
sister!"
"No, no!" she answered, with a shudder, and her blue eyes sought
Jewel's, that had suddenly grown wild and terrified.
All at once the vindictive girl had realized that the vengeance she was
taking on unhappy Flower was beginning to recoil upon her own head.
"Revenge is a naked sword--
It hath neither hilt nor guard.
Wouldst thou wield this brand of the Lord?
Is thy grasp, then, firm and hard?
"But the closer thy clutch of the blade.
The deadlier blow thou wouldst deal,
Deeper wound in thy hand is made,
It is _thy_ blood reddens the steel.
"And when thou hast dealt the blow--
When the blade from thy hand has flown--
Instead of the heart of thy foe
Thou mayst find it sheathed in thine own!"
Jewel met the glance of those despairing eyes, and her brain reeled
with horror; she said to herself:
"She will speak presently, she will betray him that she may be revenged
for what she deems his treachery and mine! Oh, God, this is the end of
all my schemes! He will be murdered through my folly, and I shall have
lost him after all I have done for the sake of his love!"
Suddenly Lord Clive flung the hand of Flower from him and strode up to
Jewel.
"Your sister will not speak. She has a mawkish pity for that villain,"
he said, sternly. "But you, Miss Fielding, have no tender scruples.
Pity was left out of your make-up, I think. So you will be glad for
poor Flower's betrayer to pay the penalty of his sin. Speak! Tell me
the dastard's name!"
"Never!" she shrieked, wildly, throwing up her arms and gazing at him
with an appalled face. At the same time Flower plucked timidly at his
sleeve.
"Oh, Lord Clive, let it go. Do not seek to avenge me!" she murmured,
excitedly. "She will not tell you his name! Alas! he is dear to her,
too! We will never speak!"
In her eagerness she forgot that by her own words she was betraying the
secret she sought to guard so jealously.
Who in that room but knew that Jewel's heart was set on handsome Laurie
Meredith?
A dismayed exclamation went up from every throat, and Lord Clive's
voice rang loudest of all:
"Laurie Meredith!"
He sprung toward the door, opened it, and before any one could stay him
passed beyond arrest, though Jewel's voice called wildly, frantically
on his name.
In the room which he had left there ensued a wild, excited scene.
Flower and the younger Meredith girl had fallen fainting on the floor,
Jewel Fielding was raving in the wildest hysterics, Lord and Lady Ivon
lay back in their chairs, incapable of anything but incoherent ravings,
Mrs. Meredith and stately Io had to restrain the agony that ached at
their hearts in order to care for the others. Lady Ivon's maid was
hastily summoned, and then a physician was called in to administer
a sedative to the raving Jewel, who in her while forebodings of her
lover's death was realizing so vividly that revenge is a two-edged
sword.
"Instead of the heart of thy foe
Thou mayst find it sheathed in thine own!"