the other her friend, Miss Glover. The former, perhaps, secretly
wondered. The latter--but I dared not look long enough or closely enough
in her direction to judge just what her emotions were. Presently these,
too, stepped forward into the excited circle of young people, and were
met by the two maids who were bringing in their wraps. Amid the bustle
which now ensued, I caught sight of Mr. Deane's face peering from an
open doorway. It was all alive with hope. I also perceived a lady
looking down from the second story, who, I felt sure, was Mrs. Burton
herself. Evidently my confident tone had produced more effect than the
words themselves. Every one looked upon the jewel as already recovered
and regarded my invitation to the stable as a ruse by which I hoped to
restore universal good feeling by giving them all a share in my triumph.
All but one! Nothing could make Miss Glover look otherwise than anxious,
restless and unsettled, and though she followed in the wake of the
rest, it was with hidden face and lagging step, as if she recognized the
whole thing as a farce and doubted her own power to go through it
calmly.
"Ah, ha! my lady," thought I, "only be patient and you will see what I
shall do for you." And indeed I thought her eye brightened as we all
drew up around the huge caldron standing full of water over the stable
stove. As pains had already been taken to put out the fire in this
stove, the ladies were not afraid of injuring their dresses and
consequently crowded as close as their numbers would permit. Miss Glover
especially stood within reach of the brim, and as soon as I noted this,
I gave the signal which had been agreed upon between Mr. Ashley and
myself. Instantly the electric lights went out, leaving the place in
total darkness.
A scream from the girls, a burst of hilarious laughter from their
escorts, mingled with loud apologies from their seemingly mischievous
host, filled up the interval of darkness which I had insisted should not
be too soon curtailed; then the lights glowed as suddenly as they had
gone out, and while the glare was fresh on every face, I stole a glance
at Miss Glover to see if she had made good use of the opportunity just
accorded for ridding herself of the jewel by dropping it into the
caldron. If she had, both her troubles and mine were at an end; if she
had not, then I need feel no further scruple in approaching her with the
direct question I had hitherto found it so difficult to put.
She stood with both hands grasping her cloak which she had drawn tightly
about the rich folds of her new and expensive dress; but her eyes were
fixed straight before her with a soft light in their depths which made
her positively beautiful.
The jewel is in the pot, I inwardly decided, and ordered the two waiting
stablemen to step forward with their ladles. Quickly those ladles went
in, but before they could be lifted out dripping, half the ladies had
scurried back, afraid of injury to their pretty dresses. But they soon
sidled forward again, and watched with beaming eyes the slow but sure
emptying of the great caldron at whose bottom they anticipated finding
the lost jewel.
As the ladles were plunged deeper and deeper, the heads drew closer and
so great was the interest shown, that the busiest lips forgot to
chatter, and eyes, whose only business up till now had been to follow
with shy curiosity every motion made by their handsome young host, now
settled on the murky depths of the great pot whose bottom was almost in
sight.
As I heard the ladles strike this bottom, I instinctively withdrew a
step in anticipation of the loud hurrah which would naturally hail the
first sight of the lost ruby. Conceive, then, my chagrin, my bitter and
mortified disappointment, when, after one look at the broad surface of
the now exposed bottom, the one shout which rose was:
"_Nothing!_"
* * * * *
I was so thoroughly put out that I did not wait to hear the loud
complaints which burst from every lip. Drawing Mr. Ashley aside (who,
by the way, seemed as much affected as myself by the turn affairs had
taken) I remarked to him that there was only one course left open to us.
"And what is that?"
"To ask Miss Glover to show me what she picked up from your driveway."
"And if she refuses?"
"To take her quietly with me to the station, where we have women who can
make sure that the ruby is not on her person."
Mr. Ashley made an involuntary gesture of strong repugnance.
"Let us pray that it will not come to that," he objected hoarsely. "Such
a fine figure of a girl! Did you notice how bright and happy she looked
when the lights sprang up? I declare she struck me as lovely."
"So she did me, and caused me to draw some erroneous conclusions. I
shall have to ask you to procure me an interview with her as soon as we
return to the house."
"She shall meet you in the library."
But when, a few minutes later, she joined me in the room just designated
and I had full opportunity for reading her countenance, I own that my
task became suddenly hateful to me. She was not far from my own
daughter's age and, had it not been for her furtive look of care,
appeared almost as blooming and bright. Would it ever come to pass that
a harsh man of the law would feel it his duty to speak to my Flora as I
must now speak to the young girl before me? The thought made me inwardly
recoil and it was in as gentle a manner as possible that I made my bow
and began with the following remark:
"I hope you will pardon me, Miss Glover--I am told that is your name. I
hate to disturb your pleasure--" (this with the tears of alarm and grief
rising in her eyes) "but you can tell me something which will greatly
simplify my task and possibly put matters in such shape that you and
your friends can be released to your homes."
"I?"
She stood before me with amazed eyes, the color rising in her cheeks. I
had to force my next words, which, out of consideration for her, I made
as direct as possible.
"Yes, miss. What was the article you were seen to pick up from the
driveway soon after leaving your carriage?"
She started, then stumbled backward, tripping in her long train.
"I pick up?" she murmured. Then with a blush, whether of anger or pride
I could not tell, she coldly answered: "Oh, that was something of my
own,--something I had just dropped. I had rather not tell you what it
was."
I scrutinized her closely. She met my eyes squarely, yet not with just
the clear light I should, remembering Flora, have been glad to see
there.
"I think it would be better for you to be entirely frank," said I. "It
was the only article known to have been picked up from the driveway
after Mr. Deane's loss of the ruby; and though we do not presume to say
that it was the ruby, yet the matter would look clearer to us all if
you would frankly state what this object was."
Her whole body seemed to collapse and she looked as if about to sink.
"Oh, where is Minnie? Where is Mr. Deane?" she moaned, turning and
staring at the door, as if she hoped they would fly to her aid. Then, in
a burst of indignation which I was fain to believe real, she turned on
me with the cry: "It was a bit of paper which I had thrust into the
bosom of my gown. It fell out--"
"Your dressmaker's bill?" I intimated.
She stared, laughed hysterically for a moment, then sank upon a near-by
sofa, sobbing spasmodically.
"Yes," she cried, after a moment; "my dressmaker's bill. You seem to
know all my affairs." Then suddenly, and with a startling impetuosity,
which drew her to her feet: "Are you going to tell everybody that? Are
you going to state publicly that Miss Glover brought an unpaid bill to
the party and that because Mr. Deane was unfortunate enough or careless
enough to drop and lose the jewel he was bringing to Mrs. Burton, she is
to be looked upon as a thief, because she stooped to pick up this bill
which had slipped inadvertently from its hiding-place? I shall die if
you do," she cried. "I shall die if it is already known," she pursued,
with increasing emotion. "Is it? Is it?"
Her passion was so great, so much greater than any likely to rise in a
breast wholly innocent, that I began to feel very sober.
"No one but Mrs. Ashley and possibly her son know about the bill," said
I, "and no one shall, if you will go with that lady to her room, and
make plain to her, in the only way you can, that the extremely valuable
article which has been lost to-night is not in your possession."
She threw up her arms with a scream. "Oh, what a horror! I can not! I
can not! Oh, I shall die of shame! My father! My mother!" And she burst
from the room like one distraught.
But in another moment she came cringing back. "I can not face them,"
she said. "They all believe it; they will always believe it unless I
submit-- Oh, why did I ever come to this dreadful place? Why did I order
this hateful dress which I can never pay for and which, in spite of the
misery it has caused me, has failed to bring me the--" She did not
continue. She had caught my eye and seen there, perhaps, some evidence
of the pity I could not but experience for her. With a sudden change of
tone she advanced upon me with the appeal: "Save me from this
humiliation. I have not seen the ruby. I am as ignorant of its
whereabouts as--as Mr. Ashley himself. Won't you believe me? Won't they
be satisfied if I swear--"
I was really sorry for her. I began to think too that some dreadful
mistake had been made. Her manner seemed too ingenuous for guilt. Yet
where could that ruby be, if not with this young girl? Certainly, all
other possibilities had been exhausted, and her story of the bill, even
if accepted, would never quite exonerate her from secret suspicion
while that elusive jewel remained unfound.
"You give me no hope," she moaned. "I must go out before them all and
ask to have it proved that I am no thief. Oh, if God would have pity--"
"Or some one would find-- Halloo! What's that?"
A shout had risen from the hall beyond.
She gasped and we both plunged forward. Mr. Ashley, still in his
overcoat, stood at the other end of the hall, and facing him were ranged
the whole line of young people whom I had left scattered about in the
various parlors. I thought he looked peculiar; certainly his appearance
differed from that of a quarter of an hour before, and when he glanced
our way and saw who was standing with me in the library doorway, his
voice took on a tone which made me doubt whether he was about to
announce good news or bad.
But his first word settled that question.
"Rejoice with me!" he cried. "_The ruby has been found!_ Do you want to
see the culprit?--for there is a culprit. We have him at the door;
shall we bring him in?"
"Yes, yes," cried several voices, among them that of Mr. Deane, who now
strode forward with beaming eyes and instinctively lifted hand. But some
of the ladies looked frightened, and Mr. Ashley, noting this, glanced
for encouragement toward us.
He seemed to find it in Miss Glover's eyes. She had quivered and nearly
fallen at that word _found_, but had drawn herself up by this time and
was awaiting his further action in a fever of relief and hope which
perhaps no one but myself could fully appreciate.
"A vile thief! A most unconscionable rascal!" vociferated Mr. Ashley.
"You must see him, mother; you must see him, ladies, else you will not
realize our good fortune. Open the door there and bring in the robber!"
At this command, uttered in ringing tones, the huge leaves of the great
front door swung slowly forward, revealing the sturdy forms of the two
stablemen holding down by main force the towering figure of--_a horse_!
The scream of astonishment which went up from all sides, united to Mr.
Ashley's shout of hilarity, caused the animal, unused, no doubt, to
drawing-rooms, to rear to the length of his bridle. At which Mr. Ashley
laughed again and gaily cried:
"Confound the fellow! Look at him, mother; look at him, ladies! Do you
not see guilt written on his brow? It is he who has made us all this
trouble. First, he must needs take umbrage at the two lights with which
we presumed to illuminate our porch; then, envying Mrs. Burton her ruby
and Mr. Deane his reward, seek to rob them both by grinding his hoofs
all over the snow of the driveway till he came upon the jewel which Mr.
Deane had dropped from his pocket, and taking it up in a ball of snow,
secrete it in his left hind shoe,--where it might be yet, if Mr.
Spencer--" here he bowed to a strange gentleman who at that moment
entered--"had not come himself for his daughters, and, going first to
the stable, found his horse so restless and seemingly lame--(there,
boys, you may take the wretch away now and harness him, but first hold
up that guilty left hind hoof for the ladies to see)--that he stooped to
examine him, and so came upon _this_."
Here the young gentleman brought forward his hand. In it was a
nondescript little wad, well soaked and shapeless; but, once he had
untied the kid, such a ray of rosy light burst from his outstretched
palm that I doubt if a single woman there noted the clatter of the
retiring beast or the heavy clang made by the two front doors as they
shut upon the _robber_. Eyes and tongues were too busy, and Mr. Ashley,
realizing, probably, that the interest of all present would remain, for
a few minutes at least, with this marvelous jewel so astonishingly
recovered, laid it, with many expressions of thankfulness, in Mrs.
Burton's now eagerly outstretched palm, and advancing toward us, paused
in front of Miss Glover and eagerly held out his hand.
"Congratulate me," he prayed. "All our troubles are over-- Oh, what
now!"
The poor young thing, in trying to smile, had turned as white as a
sheet. Before either of us could interpose an arm, she had slipped to
the floor in a dead faint. With a murmur of pity and possibly of inward
contrition, he stooped over her and together we carried her into the
library, where I left her in his care, confident, from certain
indications, that my presence would not be greatly missed by either of
them.
Whatever hope I may have had of reaping the reward offered by Mrs.
Ashley was now lost, but, in the satisfaction I experienced at finding
this young girl as innocent as my Flora, I did not greatly care.
Well, it all ended even more happily than may here appear. The horse not
putting in his claim to the reward, and Mr. Spencer repudiating all
right to it, it was paid in full to Mr. Deane, who went home in as
buoyant a state of mind as was possible to him after the great anxieties
of the preceding two hours. Miss Glover was sent back by the Ashleys in
their own carriage and I was told that Mr. Ashley declined to close the
carriage door upon her till she had promised to come again the
following night.
Anxious to make such amends as I personally could for my share in the
mortification to which she had been subjected, I visited her in the
morning, with the intention of offering a suggestion or two in regard to
that little bill. But she met my first advance with a radiant smile and
the glad exclamation:
"Oh, I have settled all that! I have just come from Madame Dupre's. I
told her that I had never imagined the dress could possibly cost more
than a hundred dollars, and I offered her that sum if she would take the
garment back. And she did, she did, and I shall never have to wear that
dreadful satin again."
I made a note of this dressmaker's name. She and I may have a bone to
pick some day. But I said nothing to Miss Glover. I merely exclaimed:
"And to-night?"
"Oh, I have an old spotted muslin which, with a few natural flowers,
will make me look festive enough. One does not need fine clothes when
one is--happy."
The dreamy far-off smile with which she finished the sentence was more
eloquent than words, and I was not surprised when some time later I read
of her engagement to Mr. Ashley.
But it was not till she could sign herself with his name that she told
me just what underlay the misery of that night. She had met Harrison
Ashley more than once before, and, though she did not say so, had
evidently conceived an admiration for him which made her especially
desirous of attracting and pleasing him. Not understanding the world
very well, certainly having very little knowledge of the tastes and
feelings of wealthy people, she conceived that the more brilliantly she
was attired the more likely she would be to please this rich young man.
So in a moment of weakness she decided to devote all her small savings
(a hundred dollars, as we know) to buying a gown such as she felt she
could appear in at his house without shame.
It came home, as dresses from French dressmakers are very apt to do,
just in time for her to put it on for the party. The bill came with it
and when she saw the amount--it was all itemized and she could find no
fault with anything but the summing up--she was so overwhelmed that she
nearly fainted. But she could not give up her ball; so she dressed
herself, and, being urged all the time to hurry, hardly stopped to give
one look at the new and splendid gown which had cost so much. The
bill--the incredible, the enormous bill--was all she could think of, and
the figures, which represented nearly her whole year's earnings, danced
constantly before her eyes. How to pay it--but she could not pay it, nor
could she ask her father to do so. She was ruined; but the ball, and Mr.
Ashley--these still awaited her; so presently she worked herself up to
some anticipation of enjoyment, and, having thrown on her cloak, was
turning down her light preparatory to departure, when her eye fell on
the bill lying open on her dresser.
It would never do to leave it there--never do to leave it anywhere in
her room. There were prying eyes in the house, and she was as ashamed of
that bill as she might have been of a contemplated theft. So she tucked
it in her corsage and went down to join her friends in the carriage.
The rest we know, all but one small detail which turned to gall whatever
enjoyment she was able to get out of the early evening. There was a
young girl present, dressed in a simple muslin gown. While looking at it
and inwardly contrasting it with her own splendor, Mr. Ashley passed by
with another gentleman and she heard him say:
"How much better young girls look in simple white than in the elaborate
silks only suitable for their mothers!"
Thoughtless words, possibly forgotten as soon as uttered, but they
sharply pierced this already sufficiently stricken and uneasy breast and
were the cause of the tears which had aroused my suspicion when I came
upon her in the library, standing with her face to the night.
But who can say whether, if the evening had been devoid of these
occurrences and no emotions of contrition and pity had been awakened in
her behalf in the breast of her chivalrous host, she would ever have
become Mrs. Ashley?
End of Project Gutenberg's The House in the Mist, by Anna Katharine Green