Celine looked cunningly at Golden, as she made her confused explanation.
"You seem to be well acquainted with the character of the negroes," she
said. "Perhaps you have been in the south."
"I have," replied Golden, with sudden, pretty defiance. "It was my
birth-place."
"Where? Glenalvan Hall?" asked Celine, thinking to catch her.
"I did not say that," replied Golden, coolly.
"No? Well, I will tell you what that old woman--Dinah, she was called,
asked me about a young lady."
Golden lifted her eyes and regarded her bravely.
"Well?" she said.
"She asked me," continued Celine, "if I had seen a young girl in New
York of about sixteen, with large, blue eyes, and long, golden curls,
dressed in a blue cashmere dress, and hat and jacket, I told her yes,
for her description of the lady's appearance corresponded exactly with
yours."
Golden remained perfectly silent, her eyes turned resolutely from
Celine.
"She asked me," the maid continued, "if the young girl had found her
mother."
Golden could not repress a sudden, violent start.
"Aha," cried Celine, quickly. "You see I am acquainted with your whole
history!"
"You know nothing about me whatever, Celine," replied Golden, warmly,
"and I cannot see by what right you pry into my affairs."
"Oh, well, if we are so hoity-toity, we can keep our secret," returned
Celine, scornfully, "but somebody will find that it was better to have
made a friend than an enemy of Celine Duval!"
With these ambiguous words, Celine bounced out of the room, leaving
poor little Golden terribly frightened and distressed.
She silently resolved that she would leave Mrs. Desmond the next day,
proceed to New York, and make an effort to find her mother.
Meanwhile the irate maid had gone to Elinor's room. Mrs. Desmond had
kindly promised to allow Celine to superintend her toilet while they
remained at the seaside, and she was waiting now for the Frenchwoman to
arrange her hair.
Celine had become possessed of Golden's secret, and she was determined
to make capital out of it for herself.
Elinor was quite chatty and confidential with the skillful French maid.
In a very few moments while she was braiding the young lady's hair she
had dropped a few artful hints and innuendoes that made Elinor start up
half wild with fear and terror.
"Oh, no, Celine, you must have imagined it. It is too incredible to
believe!"
"I do not ask you to believe _my_ simple word, Miss Glenalvan," replied
Celine. "Look at the girl yourself, ma'am, and then you can tell me if
my suspicions are well founded."
Elinor looked at her blankly for a moment. The maid returned her gaze
with unruffled serenity.
"Only take a good look at her yourself, miss," she repeated.
"How am I to do so without exciting her suspicions?" demanded Elinor.
"Easily enough," replied the wily French maid. "Go back to the room and
pretend to have lost some trifle. Get her to go down on her knees to
find it and you can obtain a good look into her face."
Elinor Glenalvan waited for no more. Clenching her small hands
vindictively, and with an evil look on her handsome face, she hurried
out into the corridor and made her way to Ruby's room.
She turned the handle softly and looked in. The child lay on the bed
sleeping peacefully, and Golden remained at the window peering out
through the half-open blind at the dismal prospect, her red lips
quivering grievously, her sweet blue eyes dim with unshed tears.
She started up nervously as her cousin came in abruptly and closed the
door.
Elinor looked into her face and her heart grave a great, frightened
bound. She recognized the beautiful face instantly in spite of the
disfiguring cap and glasses.
Controlling her rage by a violent effort, she observed with comparative
calmness:
"I have lost a gold cuff-button, Mary, and thought perhaps I had
dropped it in here. Have you seen it?"
Golden answered her with a shrinking negative, and Elinor continued:
"I am almost certain that I dropped it in this room. Perhaps it has
rolled beneath the bed. Will you get down and look under it, Mary?"
Golden complied without a word, and Elinor had the desired opportunity
of looking at the girl's face.
In another moment, half beside herself with jealous rage, she caught
the cap and glasses from Golden's head and face, and cried out in low,
hoarse accents of intense passion:
"Golden Glenalvan, you shameless creature, what are you doing here?"
Golden sprang to her feet and looked at her heartless cousin in
momentary terrified silence.
"What are you doing here?" Elinor repeated, in a voice of raging scorn.
"Did you wish to advertise your disgrace to Bertram Chesleigh's sister?"
"Disgrace?" faltered the poor, heart-broken child.
"Yes, your disgrace. It is plain enough to be seen!" cried Elinor,
pointing a scornful finger at her cousin, who had dropped into a chair
and hid her blushing face in her small hands. "Did you come here that
Mrs. Desmond might learn the full measure of her brother's sin?"
Golden looked up with tear-wet, blue eyes into the blazing orbs of the
angry girl.
"Elinor, I did not know she was his sister until after I came," she
murmured, pleadingly.
"But when you found it out, why did you not go away?" Elinor demanded,
sharply.
"I had nowhere to go--I was friendless and penniless. What could I do
but stay?" moaned Golden.
"You should have drowned yourself. You are not fit to live, you wicked,
deceitful girl. So you were Mr. Chesleigh's mistress after all,
although you swore that you were pure and innocent!" blazed Elinor.
"I am innocent! I was never Bertram Chesleigh's mistress!" Golden
cried. "I am his own true----" she stopped with a moan of anguish. "Go,
I must not tell--I must keep my promise! Oh, Elinor, you are my cousin.
Do not be so hard and cruel!"
"How dare you claim me as your cousin?" cried Elinor, angrily, "Get up
from the floor and stop making a simpleton of yourself. You have got to
go away from here. Do you understand me?"
Golden rose to her feet and looked steadily into Elinor's face with
flashing blue eyes.
A spirit was roused within her that quite equaled her cousin's.
"Elinor," she answered, "I understand you, but let me tell you here
and now, that I defy your commands. You have no authority over me, and
I am the mistress of my own actions. I shall remain in Mrs. Desmond's
service as long as I choose to do so. Your whole treatment of me has
been such as to merit no consideration at my hands, and it shall
receive none."
If angry looks could have killed, little Golden would never have
survived her defiant speech, for Elinor's dark eyes glared upon her
with the deadly fury of an enraged tigress.
"You will not go," she hissed. "Perhaps you think to stay here and
resume your old sinful relations with Bertram Chesleigh."
Before Golden could reply to the cruel taunt, there was an unthought-of
interruption.
Little Ruby, awakened by Elinor's angry tones, sprang upright in the
bed, and cried out in the utmost surprise and resentment.
"What is the matter? Why are you scolding my nurse, Miss Glenalvan?"
Elinor turned to Ruby with an instantaneous change of manner.
"Why, you little darling," she cried, with honeyed sweetness, "what
an absurd idea! You must have dreamed it all. I was only asking Mary
about a gold cuff-button I had dropped on the floor. I am very sorry I
disturbed you in your refreshing sleep."
She left the room before the child could challenge her plausible
excuse, and returned to Celine.
"I was right, ma'am," the maid cried, triumphantly. "I see it in your
face."
Elinor dropped into a chair, and the change in her face was quite
striking enough to have excited the woman's exclamation.
She was as white as death, her black eyes gleamed with vindictive rage,
her thin lips were set in a cruel line.
"Yes, you were right," she said, in a low, intense voice, "Celine, that
girl must go away from here."
"Did you tell her so?" asked the woman.
"Yes, and," helplessly, "she defied me. Oh, what am I to do?"
"She would not go for you?"
"No she is determined to stay. But," passionately, "she must go, and go
this very day. If she remains, and Mr. Chesleigh sees her, all is lost.
He will recognize her instantly."
"I expect you would give a great deal to get the girl out of your way,"
said the maid, artfully.