LIZZIE WHITE.
Clara clutched her uncle's arm convulsively and leaned heavily upon him.
"You have seen Mr. Strobel?" she whispered.
All the color fled from Litizki's face as he realized how woefully he
had put his foot in it. In the intensity of his hate for Poubalov and
his distrust of him, he had forgotten for the moment that the spy was
but a secondary figure in the drama they were enacting. Clara saw in
the little tailor's distressed expression that she had interpreted his
words erroneously. The double shock well nigh unnerved her.
"Let us walk on a little way," she said faintly. Stuyvesant Square was
near by, and Mr. Pembroke led her within the gates and sat with her
upon a bench. Litizki followed humbly, suffering miserably from his
indiscreet zeal, and Clara told her uncle who he was. Mr. Pembroke
asked:
"Well, my man, who is it you have seen?"
"Alexander Poubalov, sir," he replied with his eyes upon the ground.
"Strange!" said Mr. Pembroke, turning to his niece; "did you tell him
you were coming to New York?"
"No; I didn't mean that he should know it. He called at the house
yesterday after I had gone, and Louise writes that she withheld any
definite information about my whereabout."
Mr. Pembroke looked inquiringly at Litizki.
"I came on yesterday by the same train that brought Miss Hilman," he
said, "for I didn't know that there was anybody in New York to watch
out for her. There was nothing for me to do in Boston, and I was
afraid for her. Neither of you know this man Poubalov as I do. I should
say that he had the gift of second sight, but I don't believe in the
supernatural. He is not only a master of deceit, but he has marvelous
powers of discernment. I was certain that he would pursue Miss Hilman,
and I wanted to do what I could to protect her."
"Mr. Litizki has been very kind and faithful, uncle," said Clara; "you
remember that I told you about him."
"Yes," replied Mr. Pembroke, to whom the idea of his beautiful niece
under the watchful eye of such an unprepossessing man was distasteful.
"How did you come to see Poubalov?"
"I went to the hotel very early this morning," was the reply, "and
hung around where I could keep all the doors in view. Poubalov turned
up about half-past seven. He was walking very rapidly. He went first
into the hotel near yours, and I saw him examining the register at the
clerk's desk. Presently, with the same hurried strides, he came out and
went into the Travelers'. There he looked over several pages of the
register, and when he had finished he strolled to the door leisurely.
All his hurry was gone, and after pausing to light a cigarette, he went
slowly down the avenue. I remained to give warning to Miss Hilman.
I didn't know your name, sir, or I would have sent for you, and I
couldn't get a chance to say a word until just now. I am very sorry
that I gave Miss Hilman a wrong impression."
"Don't think of it, Mr. Litizki," said Clara, who was rapidly
recovering her accustomed calmness; "it is all over now. You see,
uncle, how strangely I am beset. There is no doubt, from Poubalov's
actions, that he has followed me here. What is his purpose? To put
Lizzie White on her guard? Then he has circumvented me, for he has had
nearly two hours in which to act since he found from the register that
you were staying at the Travelers', and perhaps my name, too, was on
the book."
"Yes, I put it there myself, last night."
Clara rose and extended her hand to Litizki.
"You are a faithful friend," she said, "and I am very glad you told me
this. I shall be the more satisfied with my talk with Miss White now,
for I shall be able to ask questions that otherwise might not have
occurred to me."
Litizki mumbled some words of acknowledgment of her kindness, and Mr.
Pembroke asked anxiously whether she felt strong enough to proceed with
her programme.
"Oh, yes," she answered bravely; "you won't need to wait longer. I will
take the carriage afterward and Mr. Litizki, I suppose, won't be far
away if I need escort."
"I shall not be far from you at any time," said the tailor.
"I shall be glad when you are through with it," sighed Mr. Pembroke. "I
will accompany you as far as the house as I at first intended."
Litizki hung back as they started and remained within the entrance to
the park until he saw them mount the steps, and until Mr. Pembroke had
gone down again, leaving Clara in the house.
The servant who answered the ring had readily admitted that Miss White
lived there, and had invited the callers to enter. She ushered Clara
into a small reception-room, and, without asking her name, went to find
Lizzie. Clara sat down to wait, feeling more perturbation than she had
experienced at any time since her trouble began. She had not long to
pass in painful speculations, for Lizzie White promptly responded to
the summons.
"I supposed it was you," she said with a hard, resentful tone as she
entered the room.
Lizzie would have been a comely girl if her rather sharp features had
been softened by a pleasant expression. On the contrary, disappointment
and bitterness dwelt in her eyes and drew down the corners of her
mouth. She was dressed as a domestic servant, wearing a white cap and
apron. She held an open letter in her hand, and sat down in the nearest
chair without making the slightest advance to the kindly greeting
that was upon Clara's lips as she rose. It was as if she expected a
disagreeable scene, and was determined not only to see it through, but
to contribute her full share to its unpleasantness.
Clara's greeting was unuttered.
"Why did you think it was I?" she asked.
"This," said Lizzie, indicating the letter; "it's from mother."
"Did she tell you I was coming?"
"No, but she tells me how you've hunted for Mr. Strobel, and how people
say he went away with me. I knew well enough you'd come on here to find
him."
"It is hardly correct," said Clara, gently, "to say that I came on to
find him, though I would go anywhere to do so."
"Yes, I guess you would."
Lizzie was relentless. Her tone spoke determination to make Miss Hilman
suffer to the utmost. Clara conquered the emotions that Lizzie stirred
within her, and added:
"From the start, Lizzie, I have steadfastly denied that Mr. Strobel
went away with you, or that your departure had to do with his
disappearance. Please understand me: I did not expect to find Mr.
Strobel with you. If I had thought differently, I should not have come."
Lizzie laughed scornfully.
"No," she said, "you would have known that you were too late. You are
very brilliant, Miss Hilman, but I guess you're finding that it takes
more than that to hold a man."
This was as bad as anything that Clara had anticipated as among the
possibilities of the conversation; but, holding her great purpose
firmly in mind, she persisted in continuing the interview. Suffer
insult she must, but she would not give up without obtaining some
manner of information.
"For your own good name, Lizzie----" began Clara, but the girl
interrupted hotly:
"My good name! what have you to do with it, I should like to know? I
hadn't seen any Boston papers, and I didn't know until I got this
letter that the whole city had talked about me. They have said that I
eloped with Mr. Strobel, and that settles it, I suppose. Why didn't you
let mother write to me the day she received my letter?"
"I didn't ask her not to write," replied Clara, feeling a little
guilty at the thrust; perhaps she had gone too far in influencing the
communication between mother and daughter, setting her own anxieties
and griefs above theirs. "I asked her not to mention Mr. Strobel's
disappearance, and she chose herself not to write at all. I did so
because I confidently expected to obtain proofs in the evening that he
could not have gone with you."
"Then you did think so!" cried Lizzie triumphantly; "you did fear, at
least, that all your education and money and high society ways were not
enough to keep him from falling in love with a poor girl who has no
position!"
"I had no such thought," returned Clara, greatly distressed; "I did
think that you would be happier to know that such a thought could not
occur to me, as you would know if the circumstances were such as to
prove that Mr. Strobel could not have come to New York."
"Me, happy!" exclaimed Lizzie, bitterly, and then in the same
breath--"You found it quite possible that he could have come, didn't
you?"
Ignoring the last part of her remark, Clara quickly took her cue from
the first, and said very gently:
"Your mother showed me your letter in which you said you could be
almost happy."
The color rushed to Lizzie's cheeks as she replied:
"Mother ought to have known better."
Then she shut her lips hard together, and it was plain that she was
obstinately determined to say no more on that subject.
"I have sincerely tried," said Clara, "to think and act in a friendly
way, Lizzie."
"Friendly with a rival!" and again Lizzie laughed with bitter scorn.
"I should not need the evidence of your words," responded Clara, "to
convince me that there never was any rivalry between us."
She rose to go, and Lizzie looked at her with startled eyes. Was
this to be the end of the conversation? Clara was the picture of
haughty pride, unmoved apparently by any of the thrusts that Lizzie
had tried to make so cruel. Jealously insensible to Clara's kindly
advances, Lizzie was completely overcome by her manifestation of calm
superiority. She bit her lip and crumpled her mother's letter in her
hand.
"Mr. Strobel is not here," she said, and her voice broke as if the
words choked her.
"I know it," remarked Clara, coolly, with her hand upon the door.
"Miss Hilman! don't go yet!"
There was the sign of coming tears in Lizzie's eyes, and Clara looked
down upon her pityingly.
Lizzie made one last effort to recall her determination to be bitter,
and compel her visitor to suffer as she suffered, but hers was not the
strength of character to meet emergencies, overcome difficulties, and
play a part unswayed by her deeper, genuine devotions. She extended her
arms upon the table before her, and, laying her head upon them, burst
into passionate crying. Clara laid her hand caressingly on Lizzie's
head and waited until the first storm of sobs had begun to subside.
Then she said in a quiet but not unkind voice:
"Lizzie, have you seen Alexander Poubalov this morning?"
The girl half raised her head, choked back the sobs and replied, "Who?"
Clara repeated the name distinctly.
"I don't know who he is," answered Lizzie, wearily.
"Do you remember," asked Clara, "the gentleman who called on Mr.
Strobel the morning he was to be married?"
"I remember somebody called," said Lizzie, absently, "mother showed him
up. I didn't see him. What has he got to do with it?"
Clara felt that she must believe the girl, but she made one further
move to discover whether in any way she might be allied with Poubalov.
"Has anybody been to see you this morning?" she asked.
"No," replied Lizzie; "what has this man you mention got to do with it?"
"Everything, I think," said Clara. "It looks as if he had caused Mr.
Strobel's disappearance, abducted him in fact, and I know that he
followed me to New York."
Lizzie was not keen enough to see that Clara had inferred a possible
collusion between herself and Poubalov.
"Then," she said, "Mr. Strobel did not desert you at all!" and the
tears welled from her eyes afresh. Clara knew that she would speak
further, and after a moment, with her face in her hand, Lizzie moaned:
"I am very unhappy, Miss Hilman."
"You must be, Lizzie," returned Clara, caressing her, "and I don't ask
you to tell me anything. I am sorry I had to break in on you; but if
you understood how I have been more than puzzled by the strange conduct
of Mr. Strobel's enemy, you would forgive me."
"Forgive? Why, Miss Hilman, it is my place to ask for forgiveness. I
was so brutal when you first came in. Don't you see, I," her voice
faltered pitiably but she continued desperately, "I loved Mr. Strobel
before he ever met you, I think. He never mentioned love to me, but
he was so good and kind that I foolishly thought he was fond of me. I
suffered horribly when he told us of his engagement, and I couldn't get
over it. I thought of running away many times, but I couldn't bring
myself to do so while he was still with us. I thought perhaps I would
feel differently after he was gone, but on that morning when he was
getting ready for the church, I simply couldn't endure the thought
of staying in the house any longer. So I came away. I hadn't made
any preparation. I took the first train I could get, and while I was
waiting I wrote a note to mother. Did you see it? No? I started to tell
her why I went, but I couldn't, and I scratched the words out. I knew
one friend in New York, and she got me employment here, where I thought
I could work hard and forget. I hadn't heard a word of Mr. Strobel's
disappearance until I got mother's letter. Then--then I felt somehow
as if it was my revenge, and I think I hated you as much for your
suffering as I did because you won his love."
Clara heard this painful confession with an aching heart. Her
sympathies were deeply touched by the artlessness with which this
unhappy girl had developed bitterness and discontent from her love that
it might take a lifetime of toil to soften.
"We both suffer, Lizzie," she said gravely; "I am glad now that I came.
Shall I tell your mother anything?"
"No! no! I will write what's necessary. You can say that I am in a good
family, and that some day I shall visit her."
Lizzie looked appealingly at Clara as if she would have her remain
longer, but no good end was to be accomplished by prolonging the
interview, and Clara withdrew.
As she stepped into the waiting carriage, she beckoned to Litizki who
stood near the next corner.
"I am going to the hotel," she said, "and as soon as I can I shall take
the train for Boston. Will you get in?"
"No, thank you, Miss Hilman," replied Litizki, abashed. "I will return
by street-car. If you could let me know what train you intend to take,
I should like it."
"There's a train at noon. If I can see my uncle I will take that."
She was driven away, and Litizki, head down, gloomy, more and more
impressed with the conviction that Poubalov was not only responsible
for Strobel's disappearance, but that he also plotted evil to Clara,
slowly left the vicinity. When he was well out of the way, Alexander
Poubalov left the window of a room he had hired two hours earlier,
directly across the street from the house where Lizzie White lived,
and came out upon the sidewalk. After a quick glance up and down the
avenue, he went over the way, rang the bell, and asked to see Miss
White.