A lady! In the narrow space
Between the husband and the wife!
... She showed a face
With dangers rife.
A subtle smile, that dimpling fled
As night-black lashes rose and fell.
_The Letter L._
"You are an excessively foolish boy," said Ottilie, angrily. "It is
idiotic of you, Osmond. Leave the place by express train because of the
Percivales! Why, they will probably leave themselves the day after
to-morrow, at further. They are making no stay."
"It is of no use to argue," said Osmond, turning his haggard face away
from the window, where the twilight was growing obscure. "I am off, Mrs.
Orton. I seem an ungrateful brute, I know, but I can't help it. It's my
lot, I think, to disappoint everybody who expects anything of me. I
have, the feeling upon me that I must go; but, before I go, I want to
say one thing."
He stopped short. From the depths of an easy chair, Ottilie made an
impatient exclamation.
"Well, then, say it, do," said she, "if it's worth hearing."
"I want to say that the bet's off, as far as I am concerned."
She laughed loudly.
"O ho, that is it, is it? No, no, my friend, you don't get off in that
way. When you betted so valiantly, you thought you were putting your
money on a certainty; but, since the specimen of my ability I gave you
up on the terrace, you begin to tremble. You find that I am not such a
fool as you took me for! Excellent! But you shan't beat such a cowardly
retreat as that."
"You mistake, partly," said the young man, hurriedly. "I admit that,
when I dared you to try a reconciliation, I thought the whole thing was
out of the question; and now I see I was mistaken. But don't think I
withdraw for fear of loss. You shall have your gloves without the
trouble of winning them; sooner than that----"
"Dear me! Then what is all the fuss about?" she asked, sneeringly.
He came up to her chair, laying a clenched hand on the back of it.
"Don't try to do harm--to make mischief," he said, in a low voice. "It's
devil's work."
"O--oh! Are we there? It is a sudden attack of virtue you are laboring
under, is it? My good friend, don't attempt the part. It doesn't suit
you nearly as well as the one you have lately appeared in."
"And what is the part I have lately appeared in?"
"Well, something very nice and fascinating, and easy to get on with. If
you are going to be all over prickles, and object to everything on high
moral grounds, you will make yourself an emphatic nuisance, as Artemus
Ward observed."
"Much better that I should take my departure, then. We shall never
agree. But, Mrs. Orton, you have been very kind to me----"
"Oh! don't allude to your gratitude. It is so patent."
"You are bitter. I am glad, perhaps, to think that you will regret me a
little bit. But won't you promise me this one thing--the only favor I
ever asked you, I believe. Let Percivale's wife alone."
"Osmond, you are a poor, chicken-hearted coward. I am ashamed of you.
Why your reasons for hating those two ought to be even stronger than
mine. Here lies revenge ready to your hand. Yet you drop it and sneak
away. You are worse than Macbeth."
"And you," he rejoined, excitedly, "are worse than Lady Macbeth--a woman
who hounded a man on to crime. Thank God I am not so completely under
your influence as that, Mrs. Orton."
"You are too complimentary, Mr. Allonby. One would think that I was
anxious to murder the Percivales in their beds."
"You are anxious to do them all the harm you can."
"Now listen to me, if your generous rage will allow you to be impartial
for a moment. What is all this rhodomontade about? If Percivale is an
adventurer, he deserves to be exposed--it is a kindness to his wife to
accomplish it. If he is not, my shaft will recoil harmless. I shall do
no injury in either case."
"Pardon me. She is his wife. If he is unworthy, for Heaven's sake spare
her the pain of knowing it. If he is not, you will most probably achieve
the wreck of his married happiness by making her suspect him. Either way
you cannot fail to do infinite harm."
"Dear me! You ought to have been a lawyer, not an artist. You have such
a logical mind. One would think you cherished no grudge against that
empty little jilt for her treatment of you."
"You would think right. I love Elsa. I always shall. Mine is the kind of
love that is immortal; I wish it could die. But it cannot. Like
Prometheus, it must live for ever, though a vulture gnaw at its very
heart. Her treatment of me makes no difference at all. I would die to
save her from pain."
"You are a contemptible fool, then!"
"Possibly. My folly may make me happier than your revenge will make
you." He walked once or twice through the room, then stopped again at
her side. "Won't you give me a promise?" he said, wistfully. "I am going
away, and you won't see me again for some time. Won't you promise?"
"I decline to speak to you at all. I am disgusted with you; sorry I ever
troubled myself to be kind to such a poor-spirited----"
She rose with passion, flung past him, and left the room. Osmond put
his hand over his brow and stood silent for several minutes. Ought he to
warn Percivale that Mrs. Orton's pretence of friendship was only
specious? Perhaps he ought. And yet----He could not control his jealous
dislike so far as that. No, it was impossible. If he washed his own
hands of the whole affair, surely that was enough. It was the husband's
duty to protect his wife; it was certainly not Osmond's place to
interfere. Percivale had obtained possession of the treasure. Let him
keep it. So said he vindictively to his own heart.
The sound of the opening door made him start. It was so dark that he
could hardly see Frederick Orton as he walked in.
"Is Ottilie here?" he asked, lazily.
"She has just gone out," returned Osmond. "I'll wish you good-bye,
Orton; my train goes in half-an-hour."
"Your train? Where the deuce are you off to?"
"England. I have played long enough. I am going back to work."
Frederick stuck his hands in his pockets and whistled.
"Oho! I see daylight. Mr. and Mrs. Percivale are in the hotel," he
drawled. "Pooh! what does that matter? Stay and cut him out. Easily
done. He's too virtuous to keep any woman's affection for long."
Osmond laughed bitterly.
"Which means that I am not?"
Orton laughed too.
"Look at Ottilie, she is hand and glove with them; sharp girl!" he said.
"Thinks they are rich enough to be useful acquaintances, I suppose. Bury
the hatchet, old man, and get the happy bridegroom to give you a
commission."
"Might manage it seven years hence, but it's no good to try yet," said
Osmond, with an effort to copy his tone. "I am afraid Mrs. Orton doesn't
like my defection, but she will soon get over it. Remember me to her. I
must not wait now, or I shall miss my train."
After all, he had to wait for the next train. Firm in his purpose,
however, he declined to go in to the _table-d'hote_, but walked out into
the gardens of the hotel, and sat down in the spring starlight,
meditating. He recalled the gush of feeling with which the castle had
inspired him, and the meeting, so laden with emotion of the most
poignant kind.
Meanwhile, Elsa had asked in surprise what had become of Mr. Allonby.
She was excessively disappointed not to see him again. She had decked
herself in one of her most radiant _trousseau_ gowns, in order to
inspire him with fresh despair at sight of what he had lost. In point of
fact, she had never regretted her treatment of him until that day. He
was greatly altered, and, in her opinion, much for the better. His
world-worn air and cold cynicism were just the very things to attract
her. How much more interesting he would have been if he had always had
that air! He was her timid slave no longer. A desire to subjugate him
afresh fired her bosom. He was far better worth thinking about than she
had previously imagined. And now, just when she wanted him, he had
disappeared.
He was not far off, had she known it. He slowly paced the walk under the
trees in the shadow until the dinner was over, and the ladies came out
on the balcony. He saw Elsa, in the shimmer of her pale dress, with the
moon on her golden hair. She leaned over the balcony and laughed at
Ottilie, who was down in the fragrant garden below. Osmond heard Mrs.
Orton ask her to come down--it was so cool and fresh among the flowers;
and, after a few minutes' hesitation, the girl disappeared within doors,
fetched a wrap, and came gliding like a silver moonbeam down the
staircase to the lawn.
The young man held his breath as he saw the two walk away together into
the gloom of the garden. He was tempted for a moment to emerge from his
concealment, join them, and defy Ottilie.
At the moment a clock struck. He started. He must not lose his sole
chance of escaping from Heidelberg that night.
Slowly he turned and moved away, his eyes still on the two ladies, the
dark and the fair, as they strolled in the picturesque setting of the
purple night together; and the sound of Elsa's joyous laugh was the last
memory he took with him from the enchanted spot.
It was in this wise that Osmond returned to his duty and his senses.
Hilda and Wynifred had just left Edge Combe, and returned to Mansfield
Road in preparation for the wedding-day of the latter, which was to be
on the first of June, when, to their delighted astonishment, arrived a
letter from Cologne, from Osmond, warm, loving, and penitent,
announcing that he was travelling back to them as fast as train would
carry him. It is needless to describe the joy with which the sisters and
Sally prepared the little house for the wanderer's reception, carefully
hiding away out of the studio any picture or study which might bring
unpleasant memories in its train.
When he experienced the delight of their welcome, and the sweet
surrounding atmosphere of home, he was more ready than ever to marvel at
the folly which had led him, in his dark hour, to fly from such a
prodigal wealth of sympathy. It seemed, after all, as if trouble had
strengthened him. His total failure to bear up like a man against
disappointment had taught him a lesson. The ease with which he had
lapsed into a "lower range of feeling" was also serviceable in showing
him his inherent weakness. Only for the next few months his heart was
overshadowed by a deep misgiving. He could not banish from his
conscience the idea that he ought to have warned Percivale against Mrs.
Orton. His quitting the field, as he had done, washing his hands, like
Pilate, free from the guilt of destroying a just man, seemed a
despicable piece of pusillanimity. Every day he feared to hear ill
tidings of some sort--to learn from the Wynch-Freres, or Henry Fowler,
that some unpleasantness had arisen between Elsa and her husband.
But time went on. Wynifred's wedding-day came and went, the Percivales
were in town, Elsa's name figured at all the best receptions. She and
her husband were seen everywhere together, and though, certainly, there
were those who said that he looked very ill, still, the world is always
prone to calumny. They were leaving the old house by the river, and
moving into an enormous mansion in one of the fashionable squares. The
decorating and furnishing of this abode was the delight of the bride's
life. Society said that she grew every day more gay and entrancing, her
husband more pale and silent. He was not used to the confined life of
London--to being up all night in heated rooms, in noise, glare, and
crowd. Physically, it told upon him. Lady Mabel Wynch-Frere saw it, and
told Elsa, she must take her husband away as soon as possible,
"Yes, poor fellow, it is unfortunate we cannot manage to get away yet,
is it not?" said Elsa, brightly. "But you know what upholsterers and
decorators are unless one is personally there to superintend them? It is
impossible to leave town until things are rather more finished. It is
that hateful house in St. James' Place that makes Leon ill, I am sure of
it. He will be a different creature when we move."
Certainly no results had as yet followed from Mrs. Orton's enmity.
Osmond grew at last to believe that all her talk had been at random,
that no mystery existed, that she had done nothing, and that he was a
fool to have distressed himself over an angry woman's idle threats.
Yet there were moments,--times of deep thought and solitude, when, on
pondering over what he knew of Ottilie's character, this explanation
hardly satisfied him. There was a power for evil about this woman which
was undeniable--a keenness, a mental activity which were at times
formidable. Was it possible that she had obtained the knowledge she
sought for, and as yet held it in her bosom like a concealed weapon,
waiting a favorable opportunity to strike?