THE MANIAC'S TOILET.
Rose Mason caught her breath. It was her mother. She knew the face, and
that proud, sweeping walk. Wild as the face was--rapid as the walk had
become--she could not mistake them.
The woman saw her standing in the hall, and came eagerly forward.
"I have found them--I have found them," she cried, breathlessly. "What
is an empress without her jewels? They don't understand these
things--but you, my maid of honor, know better. They told me that you
and all the court would keep away. That was to persuade me from wearing
these; but I have got them safe--come, come, we must make haste, or
force the people to wait, which should never be. My hair is to be
braided yet--come this way--this way."
Rose followed her, pale as death, heart-stricken from that moment. The
woman entered the little breakfast room, where we have seen her before.
It was not much changed; the sumptuous appointments had faded somewhat
by time, but they retained all their elegance. In spite of her
agitation, Rose remarked that behind the rich window draperies were
immovable blinds of iron, deceptive, but firm as prison bars. Through
the lattices of these blinds, sufficient light came to fill the room,
and now Rose saw her mother clearly. Alas! the change! That beautiful
face was worn and troubled; the splendid eyes were full of eager fire;
the mouth was always in motion; and the whole aspect vigilant, as if her
fears were eternally upon the watch.
"Come," she said, throwing herself into an easy chair, and arranging the
folds of a purple brocade dress, with an exaggeration of her old,
queenly grace, after she had placed the heavy bronze box, which she had
carried, on an ottoman by her side, "come, put them on quick, before
they break up my toilet--go to work--go to work."
With eager wildness, she snatched the comb from her hair and shook its
long tresses over her shoulders. Rose saw that there was scarcely a dark
thread in the mass, and her eyes filled with tears.
"What are you crying for?" asked her mother, sharply. "It is only
powdered pearls that my people dust over my hair morning and night!
Cleopatra, she was queen of Egypt, you know, and beautiful as I am--she
drank her pearls in vinegar; I grind mine! Now braid away! braid away!"
Rose took the heavy tresses which the woman tossed into her hands, and,
for a moment, her trembling fingers wandered among them, in vague
efforts at obedience, but all at once her strength gave way, and
dropping into a chair, she burst into a passion of tears.
Her mother started up fiercely, coiled the hair around her head in a
rude crown, and dashed the lid of the bronze box open. Rose knew the
gleam of those jewels, and shuddered. The woman tore the diamonds from
their satin cushions, and began to huddle them in masses upon her arms
and bosom. She then proceeded to tangle them in her gray hair, looking
at her daughter with fierce reproach all the time.
Rose made a motion to arise--her mother saw it, and shut the box
suddenly.
"Don't touch them! don't dare to touch them! Do you know how much they
cost?"
The young girl retreated, pale and trembling.
"I bought them," cried the mother, in a hoarse whisper, "with my soul
and body--soul and body! Understand that! But the fiend cheated me, and
kept back the price!--treasures! gold! gold! gold! He hid it! but I kept
these! They were the first price! It was putting them here where my
little Rose used to sleep! and here where they burn like hot coals--that
brought Mason back with those eyes----"
The woman laid a hand upon her bosom, and swept it across her forehead
as she spoke, while poor Rose began to weep bitterly, as she heard her
own sweet name uttered, for the first time in years, by those insane
lips.
"No wonder you cry," said the woman. "It's enough to break one's heart!
Loads and loads of money hid away, and no finding it! I've searched, and
searched, and searched; but it's of no use! They lock the door and chain
the windows; but there is a place!"
She paused, drew close to Rose, and bending down, whispered in her ear:
"The south wing; he was always there; always brooding over something in
that room with one door and iron shutters. Once I saw a hole in the
floor--an open half-moon--just under my feet. It closed up, and I forgot
it till Mason came, and they began to lock the doors; then I thought and
thought, such fiery hot thoughts, and up came that open half-moon from
the marble floor! Oh, if I could but get there! Say, couldn't you draw
the bolts? They hurt my hands! they hurt my hands!"
The poor creature shook her head, and wrung her hands, with tears and
moans, piteous to hear.
Rose took the poor struggling hands in hers.
"Oh, mother! mother!" she cried out.
The woman stopped wringing her hands, and bent her wild eyes on the
young girl's face.
"Rose had sweet eyes--my little Rose. She was so pretty--handsome almost
as her mother. But what is the use of beauty if it cannot bring gold
from its hiding-places? I like that face; there are emeralds and
sapphires in the box. Besides, I have lovely pink coral that the queen
of Naples gave me on my coronation. You shall wear them sometimes, for I
love you for looking like little Rose. There, you may kiss my hand."
Rose took the hand, on which she pressed her quivering lips.
"Don't be afraid of me--imperial women are always gracious. You shall
stay at the court. Only one thing I must tell you. That woman, Brown,
shall be exiled to Siberia--that is where I get the ermine for my
mantles, you know; but cold, oh, so cold! Good enough for her, though.
Come close and I will tell you something. She ties my arms--she straps
me down in bed--the false traitoress! But she shall go, and I will give
you her place. Only don't speak loud, she might hear us.
Hush--hush--hist!"
A slight noise broke the stillness of the house, and hushed the maniac's
whispers. Putting a finger to her lips she moved into the hall on
tiptoe. The door leading to the south wing was open. With a cry that
brought an echo of affright from her child, she darted through and
rushed toward the room where Thrasher had been confined that night--her
garments fluttering wildly, and the jewels with their innumerable
pendants tinkling against each other in her hair and on her bosom.
Rose followed, striving to cry out, but terror deprived her of the
power.
The room was dark, for the bolts of those shutters had rusted in their
sockets--dark, except a circle of red light that lay like a fiery wheel
in the centre of the room. Ellen Mason rushed toward this opening, and
swooping down upon her knees, like an evil-omened bird greedy for prey,
looked down into the vault beneath. She saw the glitter of gold heaped
on the stone floor, with a blaze of lamp light pouring over it. Heard
the clink as it was drawn from the inner vault. She saw several persons
busy with the gold piling it in heaps. The most prominent figure was a
young man with jet black hair and eyes full of trouble, examining a
block of gold which lay on the top of that glittering heap.
With a shriek from which the words, "It is mine--mine--all mine!" broke
fiercely out, the woman half rose, flung out her arms, and made a
plunge. Rose Mason came up that instant and grasped desperately at her
dress. A fragment of the old brocade was left in her hand--a low, dull
sound, a simultaneous shriek of dismay from the people in the vault, and
all was still as death.
Rose had fallen with her face to the floor, white as the marble on which
she lay, and almost as lifeless.
Paul, disturbed by the noise overhead, had retreated from the treasures,
dropped the brick, and was looking up when that unhappy woman plunged
downward upon the gold. Her hands were extended, and made one grasp into
the heap. The old coins rattled down to the pavement--her temple struck
a corner of the Gold Brick, and a cluster of diamonds which she had
fastened there was driven through deep into the brain. She struggled a
little, gasped once or twice, stretched her limbs out upon the treasure,
and died there.